Maladaptive Beliefs

How unhelpful beliefs fuel OCD and anxiety, and evidence-based ways to change them.

6 articles

Watercolor illustration of a person with a mug standing calmly at a misty crossroads, looping lines above them unwinding into one calm line
Featured

Intolerance of Uncertainty: Why OCD Craves 100% Certainty

OCD rarely asks "is this dangerous?" It asks "can you be 100% sure it isn't?" That demand for certainty has a name - intolerance of uncertainty - and research shows it is one of…

Oct 19, 2026 · 10 min read Read the article →

More on Maladaptive Beliefs

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Moral OCD Without Religion: Why Scientists Built a New Test

You don't have to be religious to be tormented by the fear that you're a bad person. Scrupulosity…

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Checking OCD: Why You Recheck the Stove (and How to Stop)

You checked the stove. You saw it was off. So why do you have to go back? Experiments…

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Inflated Responsibility in OCD: Why It Feels Like Your Fault

Inflated responsibility is the belief that you alone hold the power to cause or prevent harm, and that…

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“Will I Act On It?” The Fear of Acting on Intrusive Thoughts

Every harm thought hides the same question: what if I act on it? Here's why the thought feels…

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Thought-Action Fusion: Why Thinking It Feels Like Doing It

Thought-action fusion is the belief that thinking something is morally equal to doing it, or makes it more…

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Practice · exercises from the ocd.app app

Try an exercise from the app

These are real statements from the ocd.app app. For each one, decide: is it OCD thinking that keeps the cycle going, or a helpful thought to practise?

  • I can't tolerate not knowing
  • Uncertainty is unmanageable
  • I need to know everything
  • I have to know everything
  • I tolerate ambiguity in life
  • I tolerate uncertainty
  • Me and 'unsure' can be friends
  • I can endure not knowing

Educational practice, not therapy or a diagnosis. More exercises from the app · Practise daily in the ocd.app app →

Practise what you read, a few minutes a day

The ocd.app app turns these ideas into short daily exercises, built with clinical psychologists and backed by 22 peer-reviewed studies.

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Practising with the ocd.app app