Rabies- Need Help with Decision

[MyNameIsTerry]

That's a very good point by Anna. And I'm glad your are getting behind rationalising this.

OCD thrives on higher levels of overall anxiety. Obsessive-compulsive cycles intensify, as do intrusive thoughts, and we feel less able to break free from them. We get stuck on autopilot deep in the mire. I'm sure you seen others like this on here and some struggling to even try to deal with it who can seem in denial. I remember being like that and it was gruelling, a total hell each day.

So, indirect work like relaxation can help too.

I'm glad you are feeling better. So, now you have another piece of evidence for future reference as to how your cycles work and why things are not as your anxiety is telling you when it's acting up. Yours seems to fade after a period of intensity due to a trigger if the last two episodes are common.

[NervUs]

I'm glad you are feeling better. So, now you have another piece of evidence for future reference as to how your cycles work and why things are not as your anxiety is telling you when it's acting up. Yours seems to fade after a period of intensity due to a trigger if the last two episodes are common.

Good point. That is how my cycles work- very intense for a few days after a trigger. I am very thankful that they don't come on without a trigger, ie. like just walking outside and being afraid I've been contaminated by rabies or the other zoonotic diseases I fear (yes, there are a couple more than rabies )

I also get cancer panics and my cycle with those are different, in that they also come on b/c of a trigger like a lump (not just vague sensations) or going through the diagnostic process. I get benign lumps all the time for some unknown reason!

I also get a very strong compulsion to google when I am triggered, and that definitely fuels the fire. At times, I am able to limit myself. This is actually a relapse of another period of hypochondria that I was able to "conquer" or so I thought by very deliberate behavioral changes (not just a google moratorium but other things too). I have not had the willpower to work my previous program for some reason. I was able to come up with deep dark psychological reasons for the first season of HA that I experienced about 5-6 years ago. Those reasons and my "story" for why I had HA actually helped me get over it in the moment, but that story no longer applies and I am finding it hard to identify what deeper issue brought this on this time. I am the kind of person who "needs" a deeper issue to understand myself and change myself and I am coming up short this time.

I am working on it, though. IN the meantime, I am going to avoid cute puppies, yes sir