12 Activities to Reduce Intolerance of Uncertainty
Assess your distress and then practice these activities to lower your anxiety.
Posted May 18, 2026 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
A low tolerance for uncertainty is common for individuals of all ages who suffer from anxiety problems. If you have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a simple phobia , social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or another form of anxiety, you may have a difficult time in uncertain situations. For example, that situation could be as simple as not knowing what food you will be served at a restaurant. Or you may become anxious when faced with something such as the following:
These situations might sound like minor inconveniences to some people, but if you have this tendency, facing them can cause you significant distress. In fact, research has shown that intolerance of uncertainty is associated with poorer emotional health and a worse prognosis for chronic health conditions (Drakes et al., 2026).
Behaviors That Feed Intolerance of Uncertainty
If your tolerance for uncertainty is low, you might find yourself engaging in behaviors aimed at increasing certainty. For example, faced with a medical uncertainty, you start to research excessively online or repeatedly seek reassurance from experts. If you are unsure about the outcome of a job application, you think through every possible outcome or try to convince yourself it wasn’t a good job anyway. While traveling, you continually check airline schedules or weather reports. In other uncertain situations, you may avoid making even minor decisions, perform various rituals, or devise plans that reduce the possibility of negative outcomes.
Although these kinds of behaviors quell distress in the short run, they actually feed and maintain anxiety over the long run, keeping you trapped in the anxiety cycle.
Assessing Your Intolerance of Uncertainty
I suggest you start by viewing intolerance of uncertainty on a continuum. Everyone has some degree of it. It only becomes a problem when it creates a lot of distress, takes excessive amounts of time away from other endeavors, and/or interferes with our normal activities.
It is, of course, impossible to have certainty about anything that has not yet happened, and it’s impossible to know why things we don’t like do happen. Think about what life would be like if we could accurately predict all outcomes; it would be strange and boring , wouldn’t it? Sports competitions would be pointless. There would be no need to explore or conduct research. Nevertheless, anxious individuals expend tremendous time and energy to “gain certainty” that whatever they fear will not happen.
Anxiety waxes and wanes over days, weeks, months, or years. It tends to come on abruptly in spikes that correspond with the activation of parts of our brains. As a result, you may fall on different points of the continuum at different times and in different situations.
Reducing Your Intolerance of Uncertainty
Cognitive behavioral therapy has been found to be an effective way to reduce anxiety associated with intolerance of uncertainty (CBT-IU; Wilson et al., 2026). Even without formal therapy, you can put some of these strategies to work for yourself.
To do this, you will need to practice being in situations that trigger your intolerance. In addition, you will do this while refraining from doing anything to protect yourself from experiencing anxiety that arises in that situation. In CBT, this is called an exposure .
I have created a simple list of activities for you to practice. Please commit to doing at least one activity per day.
Before you start, review the list and rate the level of distress (on a scale of 1–10) you anticipate experiencing for each activity. Reorder the list, with the lowest (easiest) level at the top. Then start practicing the activity with the lowest level.
Stick with the same activity for as long as it takes you to feel more comfortable doing it. That might be marked by a 3-point decrease in your distress level. Then proceed to the next activity.
12 Activities to Reduce Your Intolerance of Uncertainty
Drakes, D. H., Rochon, E., & Ouimet, A. J. (2026). Can intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety impact the lives we lead? Understanding lived experiences of people with chronic physical health and pain conditions. International Journal of Clinical Health Psychology, 26 (1),100683. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2026.100683
Wilson, E. J., Abbott, M. J., Norton, A. R., Berle, D., & Rapee, R. M. (2026). Exploring pathways from intolerance of uncertainty to worry in adults with generalised anxiety disorder. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy , 55 (1), 96–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2025.2478246
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Bridget Flynn Walker, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and author specializing in the treatment of individuals with anxiety and related disorders.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.