Let’s look at the role of uncertainty

Paul Jeffery,
Director and Senior Clinical Psychologist

Why do I worry so much? It’s one of the most common questions people ask when they find their mind constantly returning to the same worries, despite searching for answers and reassurance.

A curious thing has happened over the past two decades.

We have access to more information than any generation in human history. If you’re worried about a symptom, you can Google or AI it within seconds. If you’re unsure about a decision, there are articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, discussion forums, expert opinions, and now multiple AI tools ready to weigh in. If you’re choosing a new appliance, you can spend hours reading reviews written by complete strangers who appear to have dedicated a significant portion of their lives to testing vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, or air fryers.

By any reasonable measure, we should be feeling more informed and more confident than ever before.

Yet many people report the opposite. Despite having unprecedented access to information and reassurance, they often find themselves feeling less certain and more anxious. They spend longer researching decisions, second-guessing themselves more frequently, and seeking reassurance from multiple sources.

It is not uncommon for someone to Google a symptom, consult a health website, ask their partner what they think, speak to a friend, and then ask two different AI chatbots exactly the same question, hoping one of them will finally provide the certainty they have been searching for. If you’ve ever done something similar, you’re certainly not alone.

From a psychological perspective, this raises an interesting question. If information is more accessible than ever before, and answers are only a few clicks away, why are so many people struggling with worry and generalised anxiety?

Why more information isn’t making us feel better

One answer may lie in something psychologists call intolerance of uncertainty.

Research has consistently shown that people who worry excessively often have difficulty tolerating situations in which the outcome is unknown. Rather than uncertainty being merely inconvenient, it feels uncomfortable, threatening, or difficult to cope with. As a result, there is a strong urge to reduce uncertainty whenever possible.

Indeed, most people would prefer certainty, me included. We like knowing what’s going to happen, and whether our efforts will pay off. We like predictable outcomes, and the reassuring feeling that we have things under control.

However, whether it is our health, our relationships, our children, our finances, our careers, or simply what lies ahead next week, much of life is uncertain. While most people find uncertainty uncomfortable at times, some people find it particularly difficult to tolerate. In psychology, this intolerance of uncertainty, plays an important role in chronic worry and clinical presentations such as generalised anxiety disorder (GAD).

What we often see in therapy is that people are not necessarily seeking information. They are actually seeking certainty. This distinction matters because information and certainty are not the same thing. Information can help us make better decisions, but it cannot eliminate uncertainty when the answer simply does not exist yet.

“The problem is that searching for certainty often provides only temporary relief.”

When information becomes reassurance

Consider someone who is worried about their health. They may search for information online, consult their doctor, read further articles, and seek reassurance from family members. Each new source of information provides some temporary relief. Anxiety settles for a while and they feel reassured. Then a new doubt appears and the cycle beings again. Perhaps there was a symptom that wasn’t discussed. Perhaps another article mentions something concerning. Perhaps a friend had a different experience. Before long, the urge to search again returns.

The same pattern can emerge in many areas of life. People seek repeated reassurance from partners about their relationship, ask colleagues whether they handled a situation correctly, revisit important decisions again and again, or spend hours researching options in an attempt to ensure they are making the perfect choice.

The hope is understandable: perhaps one more source of information will finally provide the certainty that has remained elusive. Unfortunately, it rarely works that way.

The certainty trap

What we often see in therapy is that reassurance works a little too well in the short term. Because anxiety decreases after checking or seeking reassurance, this temporary reduction in anxiety teaches you and your brain that these behaviours are necessary to feel “better”. Over time, people can become increasingly dependent on them and less confident in their ability to cope with uncertainty.

Ironically, the more we try to eliminate uncertainty, the more important uncertainty seems to become. This creates what might be called the certainty trap.

One of the less obvious consequences is that life can gradually become smaller.

Without realising it, people begin spending a lot of time trying to reduce doubt. They spend more time planning, checking, researching, and preparing. They may avoid making decisions until they feel completely confident. They may postpone opportunities until they feel certain they will succeed.

The result is that more time is spent living inside your head. Life can gradually become smaller and more restricted.

“The goal is safety.”

The cost is freedom.

This does not mean that planning, researching, or seeking advice are inherently problematic. These are often sensible and useful things to do. The difficulty arises when they become attempts to achieve complete certainty in situations where certainty is simply not available.

Learning to live with uncertainty

Rather than helping people eliminate uncertainty, therapy frequently focuses on helping them increase their capacity to tolerate it. The goal is not to convince people that everything will be fine, because no one can honestly make that promise. Instead, the goal is to help people discover that they are often far more capable of coping than they realise. This shift can be surprisingly powerful.

“the goal shifts from preventing discomfort to living well”

When clients begin resisting the urge to seek reassurance or certainty, they often discover that the discomfort they feared is manageable. More importantly, they learn that they can cope with unexpected outcomes better than they predicted.

In many ways, this is what confidence really is. Confidence is trusting that you will be able to cope if things do not go according to plan.

Life will always contain uncertainty. No search engine, expert, algorithm, or AI tool can completely remove it. The people who seem most resilient are not necessarily those who have found certainty, they are often the people who have learned that uncertainty is an unavoidable part of being human and that a meaningful life can still be built in its presence.

“The challenge, then, may not be finding one more answer. It may be learning to live more comfortably with the questions that cannot yet be answered.”