Reassurance Loop Exit Card

Fill in the bottom half now, on a calm day, before you need it.

Crisis Note

This card is not for crisis situations. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or someone else, stop and contact local emergency services now, or use the International Association for Suicide Prevention’s crisis-resource finder to find a service in your country. Do not ask a chatbot to talk you through a crisis.

Warning Signs Checklist

Check any that describe your last hour with a chatbot:

• The question repeats with cosmetic changes — same worry, reworded, several times.
• Relief is brief and shrinking — each round buys less calm than the last.
• You feel worse afterward, not better, but the instinct is to ask again.
• The conversation is displacing a person you would normally talk to about this.

These are observation prompts, not a score or diagnosis. Repetition without new evidence, increasing distress, shrinking relief, or displacement of human support can each be a reason to stop and use the plan below. If you are receiving care for anxiety or OCD, agree the stopping plan with your clinician.

Pre-Committed Stopping Condition

• Stop when: the same underlying question repeats without new evidence / distress increases / the chat replaces a person I intended to contact / my clinician-agreed condition: ____________________
• Fixed stopping phrase (write your own): ”____________________________”
• After typing it: close the app and take the pre-committed human or offline action below. This card does not prescribe a universal number of questions or a day-long ban.

Pre-Committed Exit — Choose Before You Need It

Fill in now, while calm:

• Named person to contact: ______________ Message template: “I’m stuck on [topic] and would like human support. When can we talk?”
• Physical action with a clear end: ______________ (walk, shower, making tea)
• Written, no-further-action option: write the worry on paper, dated, close the notebook
• If genuinely actionable, convert to one task with a deadline: ______________

What Not to Ask the Chatbot

• Do not ask it to assess whether you are “in a reassurance loop.”
• Do not ask it to diagnose the underlying anxiety.
• Do not ask it to design an exposure exercise.

If this pattern is frequent or intense, raise it with a therapist or doctor — this card is for noticing the pattern, not treating it.