How To Address Excessive Reassurance Seeking

Children and teens look to parents, teachers, and trusted adults for information about the world around them. With the help of adults, they reach milestones and mature into adulthood. But some children and teens become reliant on reassurance and comfort from adults; they fear that expected outcomes will not occur for them and need more than simple reassurances, like “You’ve studied enough. You’ll do fine.”

Excessive reassurance seeking occurs when young people show dissatisfaction or frustration when you attempt to comfort them and/or seem to need unending examples, promises, and guarantees.

Giving reassurance over and over again is not only exhausting but also doesn’t work. Use this resource to learn more about what anxiety experts recommend. There are methods that can work for many families, including the “all-at-once method” and “the gradual method.”