Hmm, I think my plate is too full

So I've been working on regular old ERP, plus CBT, plus ACT. That is too many acronyms, for sure.

Today I went for a walk, and I was going to do the mindfulness practice of really noticing everything around me. But then I was feeling really anxious, so I thought instead I should re-run through the CBT approach that looks at alternatives to my assumed worst case scenarios.

Then my brain got overwhelmed by the choice, and I did neither. So that was really productive. I think this weekend I need to spend some time thinking about how to focus some of these ideas.

On the plus side, one of the harder exposures for me at work is the darned communal birthday card. There are about 30 people in my department, and for every birthday, we pass around a card. Even without OCD I would hate the card, because almost everyone writes something totally generic. But on the OCD side, I'm in the corner and almost always one of the last to sign, after everyone else has touched it. So I've been working hard to not immediately wash my hands after I sign a work birthday card. Today I literally walked toward the sink (thinking of the guy who's been sneezing all week), stopped, walked back to my desk, and repeated this two or three times. But I didn't wash. Stupid birthday cards.