...Throughout my life I have been worried about infection with HIV. Most worries are "multi-step" worries wereas a number of events must occur in order for the infection to happen. For instance, I will worry that if I don't wash my hands before I eat, I may become infected because I had HIV on my fingers, which would then come into contact with my food, which would then be injested, which would then cause HIV. My fear would then extend to the family, as I would be afraid of infecting my wife, who would then pass it on to my son, via breastfeeding. This just shows, how one simple worry can develope a life of its own and consume a victim with fear, regardless of how remote the possibility that the scenerio may occur.
Unfortunately, there really is no logical way out of these fears. In fact, trying to reason ones way out of OCD only brings one deeper into its clutches. You see, inevitably, as you have illustrated yourself, when you try to apply logic and reason to escape an anxiety, your brain will always find a new variable to further confound you. The more you spend doing this, the more your brain sees this threat as important and worth spending resources combating. In other words, the more you fight the beast, the stronger it becomes.
The only way I have ever had any luck fighting this, is by not fighting at all, which is the most difficult thing to do.
http://www.psychlinks.ca/phpbb/viewt...ghlight=#12236
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