OCD - running people over or rabies exposure

[rysio]

Hi, everyone:

Being afraid of running people over on the road or being afraid of contracting rabies are nightmares. The first does not let you freely move around in your car, and the other freely move around out of your car because of dogs or bats for example. And both make you keep on checking again and again and again by driving around the same roads like some kind of freak or looking around like some kind of a guard. Misery is the closest description. What is the solution to such a dilemma? Who wants to share?

Thanks.

[william wallace]

First, drive carefully and you're much less likely to hit a pedestrian. Carry some beef jerky or dog biscuits and use it to make friends with any dog that's likely to attack/bite you.
You live in a country that's high risk for rabies so get the shot:welcome:

[StupidBrain]

I agree - drive carefully so you don't hit anyone! If you're worried - definitely go get vaccinated against rabies. Don't stroke strange/stray dogs and if you get bitten go and seek medical attention straight away. Rabid dogs aren't quite like the films show - they are more aggressive but don't actively hunt you down! So just keep your distance. If you get bitten by a rabid dog go straight to hospital and get treatment - being bitten by a rabid dog is only fatal if you dont go and get treatment fast enough but otherwise the outlook is good! It's really not worth worrying about - I spent a month in Goa (where a UK lady recently contracted rabies) and was working with stray dogs every day. The lady who died did so because it was a week before she managed to get treated.

[rysio]

Hi,
Important question: From your personal experience, do you think it is possible to run someone over with your car or hit badly and not knowing about it (of course never driving intoxicated, distracted, not talking on the cell phone and always being careful)? Or it is just a dark fear that creates that possibility in person’s mind to the point of being obsessed with it? - please share honest opinions!

On the other hand, being forced by my nature, I have been privately studding on my own in the area of anxiety and OCD process for a long time now, and I could probably write and defend a good "Ph.D. dissertation" in the area of rabies, HIV or fear of flying risk by now as based on it if anyone wants to exchange some information on particular point of interest.

*And by the way I live in the USA (mistakenly placed Mexico’s flag at first).

Thanks for sharing your opinion, and kind regards to all!

[PanchoGoz]

You are programmed well, you would not hit someone without knowing. You always hear a bump. Remember you hear every bit of gravel that hit's the car body, you would definately hear a body. People never get hit by cars unless they fall into the road or step out without looking, and then you would see it. People don't sort of crawl under...

[rysio]

Thanks PanchoGoz:

Do you think a bump on the road somehow could be mistaken for a person under described here circumstances, or it is just a fear talking?

Thanks.

[PanchoGoz]

You would see a person. You wouls simply feel a bump. Usually you would see the bump too. There are no circumstances where you would run over a person without knowing, it just isn't possible. I this is bugging you, re enact it with a family member or something, get them to stand in places where you think you could run them over without seeing. The person would literally have to leap out of a hedge and slide under your car.
You can also look at the consequences; if you hit a person you are under the impression you can't cope. But you could. You will find that the fear you have may lie in the fear of, actually, what would happen if they died, if the public branded you as a murderer, if you went to jail, it's your fear of how you would cope with the given circumstances. So work out what it is exactly about this that you fear that is causing it. Listen to your mind, ask it questions, have a conversation and work out which the frightening part is for you and work out rationally how you would deal with the consequences. If you find you can't bear to think of it without panic then you need to do some exposure.

[rysio]

Hi,
Yes, definitely beyond our actual fears there are often some other fears not being quite realized, some unresolved emotions relating to experiences from the childhood or later (being it a guilt, anger, disappointment, loss or intimidation, etc.), smashed, suppressed as recognized to be too difficult to cope with at the time. Finally, unresolved they accumulate to the level of “too much” and later on they are mistakenly lurking through to our conscious mind and by the form of oppression asking us to be resolved once and for good - if we have a courage, strength, discipline, proper approach and technical tool. If we able, if you know how, we gradually gain control over it, if not (which is often the case) – we are in mental conflict. Absolutely, confrontation with them may be absolute at some point in time. Sensitive persons, so called predisposed (I consider myself to be sensitive) are especially vulnerable to be hurt by such emotions rooted on their subconscious since they deeply digest on them and often code some strong negative messages on their subconscious mind. Negatively learned pattern of thinking, over analyzing, perfectionism, wrong judgment, irritations - often based on unresolved emotions also leads to overactive and over reactive thinking contributing to the whole problem. We, our brains, become like a radio which has been out of adjustment and does not give any clear sound anymore and needs to be readjusted to the proper wave. It is like a chain reaction. It is never easy to dismantle those obstacles after years of building upon it, but I am sure it is possible with the power of will and discipline. Now I believe that practice and strengthening on forgiveness, acceptance, and faith is the key.

I just start the program myself which I put together over many years of study, research and self analysis into the area, which should include the best and proven approaches such as balancing the whole body on a physical level to confront the problem: (proper healthy diet, proper supplementation, exercise, enough sleep, cleansing the whole body to get rid of accumulation of toxins in the body preventing healthy [mental] response) – these create homeostasis in the body!
Mental level: (self hypnosis, relaxation, massage, NLP, meditation, positive suggestion, practicing laughter and reducing criticism, controlled avoidance of repeated behavior in feared situations and some gradual exposure, sensible self talk, gaining some healthy knowledge about particular issue through talking with others and observing other persons proper reactions under the same circumstances to build a strong positive affirmations) – these in turn should create emotional balance!
Spiritual level: – to be in peace with God the Creator and yourself. - These create spiritual unity with the nature and the Creator!

The problem of today’s increase in variety of emotional problems in society is not a simple one. It is more complex and therefore requires more complex approaches for success. Poisoned environment, unhealthy food, being surrounded by constant stress, harsh news and stimuli, detaching from nature, following unhealthy fashions, lock of morals leading to hurt emotions, brain wash, separation from spirituality, unhealthy style of living – all these create constant negative stimuli and negative self suggestions to subconscious mind leading to mental disturbance and loss of proper, delicate balance, - and hence the program needed to fix it including those corrections.

Then and only then one can accomplish success! I realize that in this fast paced world of ours we tend to look for a quick fix, right?! Pills or one kind of therapy and over. No, not so fast. Where did it come from in the first place? From all of the above disturbances being built on someone’s sensitive nature and plus. Therefore, it requires all those complex corrections for full success. One way approach often fails which is why so many people struggle over many years without much success despite some singular or small narrowed approach therapy. Often brings big loss of money followe on unachieved promises. Statistics can be the answer and the proof of it here, right?
On the other hand it is a big job! However, I am sure it is worth the struggle than living in misery, isn’t it? After all, what is worth more than our life? You have to go for it yourself and all the way!

Kind regards to all,
One struggling soul.

[PanchoGoz]

Hang on how did this go from a thread asking about the possibility of running people over and something to do with rabies to a whole proposed mind/body/soul program?!
It's all good stuff, based on Jungian psychology as so much alternative therapies are, and it is all a great way of life, but it will be rather in vain if you don't confront your fears head on and address negetive thought patterns that create anxiety. These are rooted in childhood, genes, but they can be changed with cognitive restructuring, and why not. Fears and phobias don't simply disappear with a balanced lifestyle I'm afraid. A very intelligent post, lots of philosphies I agree with, if we forget about your first question for a while. Remember that society does make it harder to enjoy life, but we have the choice to enjoy life in spite of modern day difficulties. Life has always had it's hard parts, work and raising a family. A good mother will raise her 3 children and be happy with them, a bad mother will raise them hating every moment of it. Same children, different attitude to circumstance.

Anyway, your sudden change in attitude confuses me a little. If you are staying on the forum with us, tell us about you, your anxieties, what your issues are and what you have tried regarding medication or therapy and self help and enlighten me!
Take care

[rysio]

Hi,
As you probably noticed I do not make any personal claims of resolving my problem/s yet, although I make some claim of what seems to be the proper approach towards such a problem as based on complexity of cumulative segments which seem to be contributing to the whole picture. If those are more complex, therefore they truly require some complex approach by definition and logics, don’t they?
After all, sometimes we have to ask the question why by official, professional reports there is only a little over 30% of success in psychoanalysis therapy after an average of as many as a few hundred sessions (many years of suffering) or only closer to 70% success in cognitive-behavioral therapy usually after a good number of sessions? Long time, lots of money, suffering and no guarantee! What’s missing here? What’s blocking here? On the other hand, we have to strive to seek the answer what in reality could be contributing to such a problem somehow being rooted in childhood or genes as predisposed to certain pattern of negative thinking in some individuals and only expanding during the lifetime. And why so significant number of people in so called civilized countries who suffer from these emotional disturbances has been rapidly growing over years? Is it predisposition to over sensitivity, bad luck, bad life experiences with exceptionally enormous stimuli during certain period of life, poisoned environment, stressful living conditions, unhealthy style of living, gradual detachment from the nature, limited spirituality, poisoned food/ water/ air and self intoxication, wrongly learned negative pattern/s of thinking or what? Or perhaps a bit of everything??!! If it may be a bit of everything, so we also need a bit of everything to dismantle it! Why classical approaches work for some and don’t work for many others? Of course, confronting our fears and cognitive restructuring is an integral part of tuning up, however if it was as simple as only these, my friend, than we shell see a complete number of rapid cures among those that truly strive through such highly recognized approaches for years. Again, if genetic predisposition was the only reason behind it (being just predisposition if conditions are right and not a must); - we certainly wouldn’t see so large increase of emotional disturbances among members of just one generation in recent years.

Hence my thinking now of such a complex as well as alternative approach!

And since you mentioned it, perhaps we do have lots of individual choices when living in our society that does make it harder to enjoy life, and which way too often we don’t even bother to take? Perhaps it is all about that?? And perhaps we have to tackle the problem as a whole, and not only attack our symptoms through a “temporary fix” medications with quite often miserable side effects contributing to the pain or only through a classical approach quite badly reflected through official statistics? It is my firm belief that any community as this is also to share such ideas and to listen to other experiences and opinions like yours, my friend, to grove confidence and knowledge. “To (as nicely said) boldly go where no man has gone before”!, instead of limiting oneself to a narrowly appointed by some notorious practice that still makes way to many fine and sensitive people keep searching here over and over again for the ever wished solution and comfort.
As far as myself, my problems, I have already stated in my first post and as far as my therapy approach so far I have also tried those classics, the same as majority of guys who still keep searching on this forum and other!
Honestly, I personally benefited more from talking to you and your simple assurance to build my affirmation than from some fancy medication. Well, as they say: “different strokes for different folks”!

Thanks for all PanchoGoz and I look forward to hearing from you or others. I trust this will receive your consideration.

P.S. And by the way I never said I am 100% right. It is the place like this that I come to grow and heal and share.

[PanchoGoz]

Well you've written some very interesting stuff. Good luck.

[rysio]

Hi, PanchoGoz and other folks:

Please don’t take me wrong, perhaps. All of the above is just my hypothesis, and my proposal to search into some definite solutions out of desperation. I am not sure if this is a golden key, and I am only striving out of the bottom of my heart to find some ways. I have not solved any of my problems yet, and I do struggle with it.
For example: - yesterday when driving near my home I noticed some small family of raccoons trying to cross the road. Even though I was in my car I got restless. Since I try now to safely confront such situations to expose myself a little, I decided to park my car and walk up to the spot within some safe distance (about 100 yards). I stood there for only 15 second to see if raccoons were there, but they were already gone. However, despite that safe distance and being cautious and only standing there for 15 seconds, now I feel very anxious and obsess if somehow they could come up to me from the back when I stood there to have a contact with me that I would not see or feel, leave some saliva on my legs (I was wearing short pants) and possibly give me even remote possibility of exposure to rabies.
I know, it seems like nonsense, but I can not help and block my fearful thoughts. I ask myself this question over and over if there is any kind of bases to be afraid here at all or it is only my delusional and purely fearful anxiety working here, and nothing else? Are there any kinds of bases to be concerned here, please?

What do you think? If you can share your thoughts, ideas or conclusions from your knowledge, please share.

Thanks for all.

Kind regards.