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OCD 3d
How do you deal with a severe fear of co2 poisoning?? I’ll keep my window open even in negative degree weather bc I’m terrified of it, but it’s not like I can do exposure therapy for it…
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Anonymous 2d

Why can’t you do exposure for it?

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Anonymous 2d

It’s totally possible to do exposures for this. Exposures can be imaginal (imagining your feared situation), interoceptive (exposing yourself to physical sensations like being dizzy), and actually doing the things you are afraid of. So you would build a hierarchy of situations that create the fear of poisoning and work your way through them

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Anonymous 2d

i’d put it like this based on similar experience i had concerning an extreme fear of bugs: normal people would buy an alarm and go about their life. imo avoiding reassurance shouldn’t come at the cost of taking normal measures against things, but you have to treat it normally from there. for me it was: sure, i can put bug traps, but no, i can’t be checking them every single day multiple times a day. sure, keep the house tidy, but no, my body doesn’t need to be disinfected if i walk into my room.

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Anonymous replying to -> #1 2d

If the answer is just “co2 is deadly” I’ll raise you “closing the window isn’t”

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Anonymous replying to -> #4 2d

Would we say “go do a thing that would cause real harm as measured by a person without OCD”? No. But opening windows, or imagining opening windows is definitely fair game!

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Anonymous replying to -> #4 2d

*closing the window

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Anonymous replying to -> #4 2d

I know this is like totally against the whole concept of exposure, but I think I need to work on the fear that I’ll be so desensitized to it that one day it’ll actually happen and I won’t know it and I’ll end up seriously ill as well. It’s super illogical, but when is OCD ever logical?

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Anonymous replying to -> OP 1d

That’s part of the OCD fear. OCD is trying to convince you that it’s not safe to do exposures!

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