Rabies- Need Help with Decision

[KK77]

Kids all over the world would be dropping like flies if your line of reasoning was true!

You're being duped and led straight into the dragon's den, Nervus

[MyNameIsTerry]

I would say I need to follow up on both. You are right about the need for mental health help!

But is following up on the puppy a logical thing a non sufferer would be saying?

Your obsession will want definate answers. It's one of the Cognitive Distortions known as all-or-nothing thinking (or dichotomous reasoning). You end up investigating to obsessive levels and probing way to far into problems.

So, you can apply rationlisation to weigh up evidence for and evidence against. Write it down. Then reframe a conclusion based on what you see in this evidence. The anxiety will keep going because it's about retraining the subconscious to stop playing up but you have to remain firm from a conscious point of view to stop it galloping away with itself.

Think about probability. What is the probability of a client's puppy having rabies in a country where rabies is uncommon. Out of all the dogs in your country, look how few cases occur. If the probability is tiny, why go further?

You have a theme about rabies. Look at your previous thread and how you told yourself you are not getting the injections for your child. You can do the same here. Look how your anxiety was at fever pitch there but you came back to the thread later saying it subsided and you felt more in control. That will come again here of you wait it out.

[Annaboodle]

Oh nooo, do not follow up on that puppy. This is your work. Your anxiety has probably already taken you to thinking, "but it'll look ok if I just innocently ask after that dog that was brought in". It won't. It'll seem really odd and weird.

[NervUs]

KK- I have been duped many many times, and yes I do things that prolong my own suffering. The thing I CAN'T move on from is that the lick was directly on my lips, which I have since found is considered high risk exposure b/c even the exterior lips are mucous membrane. I know the pup is REALLY unlikely, like really really unlikely, almost impossibly unlikely to have rabies...but...I still can't get past having read about the lip issue.

Evidence isn't really helping me, Terry, b/c there is rabies in our area. Not in many dogs. I have to imagine most people guard their little puppies, but I am able to imagine all the scenarios by which a young mutt puppy could get the disease, and I am still hung up!!

Thx Anna....You are right that there are consequences to acting on OCD fears publicly. I need to figure out how to weigh not letting the crazy spill out into the world with my craving to know with certainty that the pup is okay. GUess I have several days to ruminate on that.

[AntsyVee]

It's very hard to get rabies. I was scratched up by a feral cat that they thought may have been exposed to rabies, and I still didn't get the shots. (I used to help rescue strays) That's how hard it is to get. You need to work on letting this go.

[NervUs]

I am trying Antsy....actually had a long respite earlier today. But, the thoughts are back.

---------- Post added at 21:45 ---------- Previous post was at 21:43 ----------

Oh...and why didn't you get the shots, if I may ask?

[AntsyVee]

She (the feral cat) didn’t show any signs of rabies. The shots should be a worst case scenario. They have a lot of side effects and are an ordeal in and of themselves. Most vets and other feral handlers only get the shots if they know for sure that they’ve been exposed. In the wild, in the US, rabies is very rare and had been eradicated in domestic animals.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I am trying Antsy....actually had a long respite earlier today. But, the thoughts are back.

I'm glad to hear you had some respite. It must have come as some relief?!!!

Sadly, anxiety can come & go like this. When I was into my recovery I found I cycled between bad, terrible, not so terrible...and over time I started having some good too which became more & more. Earlier on when the good ended (or the "just ok" as it often was back then) the bad would hit me like a train. I would then start to go downhill and no matter how much I reminded myself it will pass as it always does, it felt unbearable.

But the more you keep working on things and the more you get used to this, the less it hits you. I still hate the down periods now but I can handle them with acceptance, my Mindfulness learning and just getting on with things.

So, try to accept the good periods when they come or you will influence the down periods coming back earlier than they could do. If you do it, try to accept the bad periods are just the position you are in with your mental health right now and not reflective of the future. That's really hard to do though but if you can do it even a little bit, it helps stop catastrophising anf low mood.

---------- Post added at 07:05 ---------- Previous post was at 07:00 ----------

Evidence isn't really helping me, Terry, b/c there is rabies in our area. Not in many dogs. I have to imagine most people guard their little puppies, but I am able to imagine all the scenarios by which a young mutt puppy could get the disease, and I am still hung up!!

That's a mistake we often make until our therapist explains to us that counter evidence isn't just about countering with facts against the focus within our current theme (we get too literal at times with our thoughts) - you can counter using past experience of your overall anxiety e.g. you had similiar concerns over your daughter but there was no evidence of anything wrong, that she was bitten, etc so why is there now? Weren't your thought processes the same then and look how you wanted to get her help initially but later come to accept it was just anxiety. Therefore, so can this be.

You have evidence you had contact. However, you had no concrete evidence your daughter wasn't bitten, you came to accept the shades of grey that it was extremely unlikely due to various factors. So, you can do it with this scenario too.

Another way to examine your thoughts is to not bother with yours and examine someone else's. Take someone else's scenario and work though it to dispute it and reframe it. Then look at your own and see the similarities.

[Annaboodle]

I have a puppy. You're right in that we guard them like our babies! The kind of person who brings their puppy proudly along to a work appointment, probably because they're worried about things like "separation anxiety" is guarding their puppy like a bub. I know that there's just no way you (or that puppy) have rabies in the scenario you've described, but I know how hard it is for you to believe that there is no possibility there. You need to work at it in the ways Terry is suggesting in my opinion - dispute it and reframe it.

[NervUs]

I'm doing much better today...been able to stop the googling!

I have been able to convince myself that a person bringing the dog to work is a pretty gaga dog person and that rabies discovered in a puppy will make the local news, but I still want to check on the dog in 10 days, lol!