Going round in circles over a decision: uncertainty, review and delay

Choosing and returning to the beginning

Somebody compares two courses, treatments or purchases. They write advantages and disadvantages, ask for opinions and make a decision. Soon afterwards they remember one disadvantage and begin again. Each review changes the weight of the evidence, although the evidence is unchanged.

Fear is not confined to choosing the less suitable option. It may concern regret, responsibility for a consequence, loss of another possibility or later discovery that a perfect choice existed.

Uncertainty is part of deciding

Many decisions are made before the outcome is known. Anxiety makes that missing information appear dangerous and delay appear safer. Delay also has consequences: a deadline passes, other people decide or the situation continues unchanged.

Research links anxiety with differences in decision-making under uncertainty. A 2025 experiment also found a causal effect of intolerance of uncertainty on chronic indecisiveness. This does not mean that every indecisive person has an anxiety disorder.

Useful deliberation and repetitive review

• Useful deliberation defines the question, gathers relevant evidence and ends in an action or a date for deciding.
• Repetitive review changes the criterion, rereads the same material, asks for another opinion and restarts when discomfort returns.
• A justified wait concerns missing evidence with an expected date.
• Anxious delay waits for every doubt to disappear before action.

Other people’s opinions

Requesting technical experience or missing information is reasonable. Asking many people to choose may temporarily distribute responsibility, but cannot remove future regret. Conflicting answers increase uncertainty.

It helps to clarify what is being requested: a fact, a professional recommendation or an emotional guarantee. Only the first two can receive a concrete answer.

A bounded procedure

For a non-urgent decision, a small number of criteria can be set, essentials separated from preferences and a date established. The person then chooses an option that is sufficiently suitable. Recording the reasons permits later review without pretending that the future was known at the time.

Some medical, legal or financial decisions require specialist advice and should not be reduced to an arbitrary time limit. The procedure must reflect risk and how reversible the choice is.

When indecision needs treatment

Therapy may address intolerance of uncertainty, threat estimates, reassurance seeking and fear of regret. Assessment also considers OCD, depression, ADHD, perfectionism and other problems that change the approach.

Advice is warranted when ordinary decisions take hours, deadlines are missed, almost every choice is delegated, opportunities are avoided or conflict is frequent. The clinical aim is not to make every choice quick, but to reduce review that no longer improves it.