How would you do overcorrection for an obsession worrying you've lost something?

[canigetawitness]

For example, one of my obsessions is "What if I've dropped my wallet and didn't know it?" And my compulsion is to check to see if I did. How would overcorrection work here? I've heard that it's not enough to just let your obsession be there without doing the compulsion, but that you should go beyond that & exaggerate/amplify the fear.

[Hidden]

So, if it's difficult to not check whether you still have your wallet, I think a good start would be to delay checking. Just tell yourself something like, "I may have lost my wallet; I'll check in 15 minutes" or whatever would be stressful yet tolerable. My therapist said every time you can delay acting on a compulsion, you're making your mind stronger.

[MothFir]

If the fear includes losing cash and not just identification, credit cards, etc., I wonder if you could intentionally drop some money on the street occasionally and leave it there (just enough to trigger anxiety). That might help teach your brain that losing some money is not the end of the world (and it would make someone else's day ).

Just a thought. Do you have a therapist you could ask? They seem to be pretty creative with this kind of thing.

[socratesanne]

Have done both but find if the time I spend it ruining the day or the moment, becoming fruitless. I now find if I just make the mind stop the ruminating, suddenly the answer or the thing I lost pops up where I least expect it. I do take extra time if I get an obsessive idea to act on the idea rather than ruminating about it, just to appease my curiosity, then go about my day. That often helps if not doing something makes the brain obsess. That is the worst and so annoying to my sabatoging self as if it were paramount to my survival, which, as we all know, is rarely all that important that a good nights sleep might cure.