Let’s Talk About It: The Difference Between Real Risk and Imagined Possibility
It’s 10pm (or whatever time you are winding down to go to bed). You switch off the lights in your living area and make sure the doors are locked before you go to bed. And as you’re walking to your bedroom, you think “…. did I turn off the lights and lock the doors?”
So you walk back out to the living area. Yep, the lights are off and the doors are locked, so you walk back to your room.
After about 20 minutes of your evening routine, you once again think “I need to double check that all the lights are off and the doors are locked”.
And this cycle repeats. Over and over and over. It keeps you up all night, making you doubt your own memory of both switching off the lights/locking the doors as well as all of the times that you have checked.
If this experience sounds familiar, you’re probably familiar with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD. While most people might briefly consider whether or not they completed these important tasks and move on, people with OCD can experience these same thoughts as a building snowball creating hours of doubt, checking, or mental reviewing. So what’s the difference between making sure that you did what you were supposed to and obsessing over it to the point that it interferes with your daily life?
Real Risk versus Imagined Possibility
Responding to a real risk is adaptive and healthy. A real risk is something that is actually happening in that moment, has been reasonably evaluated, and is supported by the immediate environment. A great example here is your TPMS system turning on while you’re driving; you might pull over your car and check your tire pressure to prevent a flat tire, and then carry on your way.
The difference between an adaptive response and an imagined possibility is just that- it’s a possibility that likely won’t happen. If we use that same TPMS example, you might keep pulling over or flat out refuse to drive out of a deeply routed fear or doubt about your safety.
Imagined possibilities often begin with the question “what if….?”. While they may start with a reasonable fear (i.e. a flat tire), they can turn into a whole other realm of thinking (i.e. my tire will pop and cause a huge wreck, and I will be responsible). There is an emotional tie to how we feel about ourselves if the fear were to become true, and so we do everything we can to prevent our fear from occurring.
But possibility isn’t the same as probability.
Many things in life are possible. It’s possible to forget your keys, to make a mistake, or become ill.
But we can’t put our lives on hold just because something *might* happen. You will just end up reinforcing the story that the OCD is telling you.
I hate feeling like this. What are my options?
OCD is treatable (thank god). There are two main ways we treat OCD in therapy:
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and/or
Inference-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT).
Each has their own set of reasons why they work, but that’s a blog post for another day.
The most important thing to remember is this:
If you find yourself spending hours trying to determine whether a “what if” is true, you’re not alone. OCD can make imagined possibilities feel urgent and convincing, but effective, evidence-based treatments are available. Whichever treatment you choose, therapy can help you break free from the cycle of doubt and reconnect with the reality that’s already in front of you.
If this sounds like you and you want support, please reach out via my contact form! I would be happy to connect you with appropriate resources and/or schedule a consultation to get started in therapy. Talk soon!! xx