The thing about “what if” questions is that the nature of our disorder is to always be prepared for the very worst thing to happen. It’s not pessimism, but rather but an overwhelming need to not be caught off guard. The feeling of hope seems terrifying because if something bad happens that we could have prevented, we feel like we won’t survive it. For me, I struggle to let myself have positive “what if” thoughts because bad outcomes I haven’t prepared for or tried to prevent would crush me.

I disagree. The nature is to EXPECT the very worst to happen. The simple truth is we don't have the power to stop bad things from happening. Its our OCD that convinces us we do. It simply is not possible to prepare for everything. For example, how do you prepare for a natural disaster, a car accident or a plane crash? How do you prepare for a devastating diagnosis like cancer? There are precautions we can take such as a searltbelt, but there are a lot of things in life that are simply out of our control. No matter how much OCD tries to convince you otherwise.