How Internet Culture Is Making OCD Worse and What We Can Do About It

We’re more connected than ever, but for people with OCD, that connection can come at a steep cost. The internet has evolved into a space that fuels compulsions, rewards black-and-white thinking, and reinforces a need for certainty and moral perfectionism, all things that OCD thrives on.

In my work with clients (and with myself), I’m seeing a growing pattern: the internet is making OCD symptoms more persistent, more reactive, and harder to disengage from. This isn’t just about screen time; it’s about how the digital world is designed to hook into the very fears and thought patterns that people with OCD are trying to recover from.

Let’s unpack how internet culture is making OCD worse, and what we can do about it.

How the Internet Is Fueling the OCD Cycle

1. Compulsions Are Faster, Easier, and Always Available

OCD is a disorder of doubt and urgency. And when distress shows up, compulsions are the brain’s attempt to make it go away. In the past, it might have taken effort to carry out a compulsion, but now? It’s one tap away.

• You feel anxious → open a search tab.

• You have a thought you hate → post in a forum.

• You feel guilt → reread texts, check if someone’s mad.

• You fear being bad → confess online, ask for reassurance, scroll for proof you’re "okay."

Online compulsions are especially sneaky because they can look like problem-solving or curiosity, when in fact, they’re attempts to escape discomfort. But every time you engage in a digital compulsion, you send your brain the message that the intrusive thought was a real threat, and that you need to keep checking to stay safe.

2. Performative Morality and Cancel Culture Intensify Scrupulosity

For people with moral scrupulosity (a subtype of OCD focused on morality, ethics, and being a “good person”), the internet is a minefield. Public callouts, moral outrage, and viral accountability can easily be misinterpreted by the OCD brain as personal danger.

• A viral post says “Only toxic people do X” → and suddenly your brain spirals: “What if I’ve done that?”

• A comment section debates right and wrong → and you find yourself endlessly self-auditing.

• A creator is “cancelled” for something they said years ago → and you feel a crushing fear that you’re unknowingly harmful.

The digital world doesn’t always leave room for context, intent, or growth, which makes it hard for those with OCD to tolerate uncertainty, make mistakes, or trust themselves.

3. Black-and-White Thinking Gets Rewarded

Social media favors extremes. Hot takes, clear-cut opinions, and binary positions are easier to digest and easier to share. But for someone with OCD, who already tends toward dichotomous thinking, this only reinforces patterns like:

• “If I’m not certain I’m good, I must be bad.”

• “If there’s even a chance I offended someone, I should apologize again.”

• “If I feel anxious, I must have done something wrong.”

Grey areas don’t trend. But recovery lives in the grey.

4. Certainty Looks Like It’s Just One Click Away

OCD’s biggest lie is that you need to be 100% sure before you can move on. And the internet reinforces that lie beautifully.

There’s always one more article, one more YouTube video, one more Reddit thread. It feels like if you just find the right information, the right comment, the right reassurance, you’ll finally feel better. But certainty is always out of reach. It’s a moving target. And every search just pulls you further into the loop.

What You Can Do About It

Recovery means breaking the cycle, not feeding it. Here are evidence-based steps I use in therapy that can help take back control:

1. Disconnect On Purpose

Take regular breaks from the internet. This is not a punishment; it’s a boundary.
Your nervous system was not built to process nonstop input, moral judgment, and emotional urgency from hundreds of strangers.

Try this:

• Set internet “fasting” hours: No searching, scrolling, or confessing during set times.

• Delete or pause apps that fuel compulsions.

• Create a list of grounding activities you can turn to instead of checking online.

When you remove the easy access to compulsions, you create space for response prevention and real healing.

2. Name the Online Compulsions for What They Are

Labeling is powerful. When you recognize that your urge to search, reread, confess, or scroll is actually a compulsion, not problem-solving, you give yourself the chance to step off the track.

Try saying to yourself:

“This is OCD trying to find certainty. I don’t need to follow this urge.”

3. Use CBT to Challenge Black-and-White Thinking

Cognitive distortions thrive online. Use CBT strategies to gently challenge them:

• Am I catastrophizing?

• Am I using all-or-nothing thinking?

• What’s a more flexible, balanced interpretation of this situation?

Remind yourself that the most accurate view of yourself and others is rarely found in absolutes.

4. Practice ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention)

ERP is about facing the fear without doing the compulsion. If your fear is “What if I’m a bad person?” and your compulsion is checking online to be reassured, you’ll need to stop checking.

It’s hard. It’s uncomfortable. But that’s where the healing happens.

Practice:

• Reading something online that spikes anxiety and not googling after.

• Letting an intrusive thought be there without confessing or asking someone to fix it.

• Accepting the “what if” and moving forward anyway.

 5. Ground Yourself in Values, Not Validation

Ask: What kind of person do I want to be?
Not What will get me the most likes or validation?

Values-based living is about integrity and direction, not certainty or perfection. The internet may reward performance, but your real life, your relationships, your healing, your peace, responds to honesty, compassion, and presence.

6. Build Tolerance for Ambiguity

This one is a muscle. The more you practice living in the grey, without answers, without perfect clarity, the more freedom you’ll feel.

Use mantras like:

• “I can’t be certain and I don’t need to be.”

• “Not knowing is not dangerous.”

• “My job is to live, not to solve every thought.”

OCD loves certainty, control, and reassurance. The internet offers all three, but only for a moment. Then it pulls you back into doubt, harder than before. If you’re struggling with OCD in a hyper-connected world, it’s not because you’re failing; it’s because the system is designed to keep you looping.

The good news? You can step out of the loop. You can choose disconnection, discomfort, and values-driven action over compulsions. You can unhook from online urgency and reconnect to yourself.

And when you do, the noise fades, and the clarity that comes isn’t from outside of you. It’s from within.