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People with obsessive-compulsive personalities tend to demand clarity and coherence to manage their moods.

Coherence meaningfully supports mental health, but learning to tolerate ambiguity may be just as important.

Disavowing the belief that one's life has some anticipated, grand narrative opens up new possibilities.

We chalk up idealism to youth, but it’s fair to say that most of us, even if we consider ourselves to be adults, struggle with tolerating uncertainty. Personally, my obsessive-compulsive mind detests it. I want my life to appear as a clear narrative, where everything I do and everything that happens to me is part of some grander play, with me at its center, of course. A recent meta-analysis of meaning and depression (Ouyang et al. 2026) concluded that coherence—the ability to make sense of one’s experiences and fit them neatly into a worldview—had the strongest negative correlation with depression, as opposed to other forms of meaning.

While this is a hopeful perspective, it hides the reality of rigidity. The caveat is that coherence must be possible for it to matter. So, what happens if it isn’t? What if the data don’t fit one’s worldview or challenge it altogether? Arguably, from the obsessive-compulsive perspective, where coherence is a necessity, its lack can and likely will be destabilizing. In treatment, a patient may tell us they wish someone else could make a meaningful life choice for them, especially a more controversial one. For example, if an individual was dissuaded by their parents from making an unconventional career decision, like, let’s say, pursuing a career in stand-up comedy,........

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