Is exposure making you better or worse? I am a bit confused. Like when I am at a high floor and my obsession is rushing towards the window and jumping off. How is the response prevention message helping by saying “yes, you may jump off the building?”

If the message was “don’t worry, you are not going to jump off the building”. Then you would probably deal with it at that time. By saying you might, it is harder and you face the fears and the uncertainty. You don’t shut the emotions down, you challenge them. I don’t know if this helps?

Is this a exposure that you are doing? If you find it too hard, start with something smaller like just walking up to a high level and back down again... or are giving this as just a example of how exposure works?

@Benica. Thank you for reply. I am trying to overcome my obsession of jumping off a high floor (of course I don’t want to). It’s that my mind can’t figure it out and keeps sending me questions like what if I lose control? When I am at a high floor, I don’t know what to do with this thought, and I feel like I can do it next minute and it scares the hell out of me. I am trying to do exposure on my own, but just don’t know how to. Some theories make me feel confused.

Also... you won’t ever jump off, you just are afraid you will....so challenging your fears will eventually allow you to see that for yourself.

Yes I am scared and I cannot stay near an open window for years. Although I kinda of overcame some fears like holding a knife. Sometimes my mind automatically wonders why I am afraid of this but not afraid of that. You know, analyzing and comparing thoughts in an attempt to figure out. Of course, this attempt fails.

Hi Serena. A good example of an exposure for you would be standing on a balcony, feeling the anxiety come, feeling those “what if” questions come, yet remaining on the balcony despite your anxiety. It will be difficult at first, but after repeated exposure, your fear should start to subside gradually.

It is also important that you don’t try to reassure yourself that you won’t do it while you’re standing on the balcony. This is a mental compulsion that will make you feel better temporarily, but will lessen the effectiveness of the exposure overall

@Francis yup. This is the part which confuses me most. Of course, when I have the thought of jumping a building, I would say no of course I don’t want to do that. And ERP asks me to say that I probably want? That’s weird.

I have ups and downs. I felt quite better in the past 2 years. But I guess I never really recovered cuz I am always afraid of painful moments I experienced before, and now am kinda in a relapse and it’s even harder than before. Lots of new themes combined together. Gosh, I know I need to do the hard work. I just don’t know how to do ERP on my own and want to find a therapist via Skype. Hope I can afford that.