How would you apply ERP to this situation?

[canigetawitness]

I'm walking down the street and get intrusive/obsessive thought "What if money fell out of your pocket & you just dropped a moderate amount of money on the ground?" Then, my compulsion is to go back and check to make sure I didn't drop any money.

What would doing therapy correctly look like for this specific scenario? How would ACT, ERP & mindfulness address it?

I'm having a hard time identifying my trigger, obsession & compulsion.

Thanks in advance!

[MothFir]

I'm no therapist, but I am currently battling an anxiety that causes me to retrace my steps and check things.

It would seem that "What if I dropped money" is your obsession and checking the ground is your compulsion. The trigger may be some physical sensation (muscle twitch, crease in your clothing) that your brain interprets as money falling out of your pocket, or maybe you just get the obsession spontaneously, like some people have obsessions about harm, blasphemy, etc. that pop up for no reason. Can you identify anything that starts the obsession?

ERP would be going out and walking around, getting the obsession, and then resisting the urge to go back and check the ground for missing money.

Since you know that money falling out of your pocket is something that could actually happen (which you want to avoid), you might establish some kind of threshold for what warrants performing a check. Something like seeing money hanging out of your pocket after removing something else, or knowing you had money in your pocket and now it's gone, could qualify as real concerns that warrant a search. A vague sense that something is missing, or a funny feeling or awareness about your pockets, would not meet the threshold and checking should be resisted.

Again, not an expert opinion, just my thoughts!

[canigetawitness in reply to MothFir]

Thank you! This helped. Sometimes I worry I'm not doing ERP right or something, like I need to add additional work besides just facing my original obsession and not doing the compulsion. But I like the goal of going for a walk and resisting checking.

[NWOntario]

Keep right on walking.

You can also try saying, "Maybe I dropped the money, maybe I didn't!" And, eventually, you can say, "I totally dropped the money - I'm such an irresponsible person." That'll come later. For now, though, keeping on going is huge exposure - give it a shot!