Exposure Idea Builder
Exposure work is what changes OCD. The hard part is figuring out what to practice — what fear to face, what step to start with, and what to resist. This tool generates a personalized exposure hierarchy based on your thoughts, fears, triggers, and compulsions.
This is not a treatment plan. It works best alongside an ERP-trained therapist.
What thoughts, fears, or obsessions are showing up?
Write them as they sound in your head. Include the doubt, uncertainty, images, or feared outcome.
Harm OCD
What if I lose control and hurt someone I love?
What if I'm capable of violence and hiding it from myself?
What if I hurt my baby or child?
POCD
What if I had a sexual thought about a child and it means I'm a pedophile?
What if I'm in denial about who I really am?
Contamination
What if I touched something contaminated and spread it to my family?
What if I make someone sick because I didn't clean enough?
Checking / Responsibility
What if I left the stove on and the house burns down?
What if I hit someone while driving and didn't realize it?
Scrupulosity
What if I sinned and God is angry with me?
What if I didn't pray correctly and it doesn't count?
Relationship OCD
What if I don't really love my partner?
What if my partner isn't the right person?
What do you feel pulled to do to reduce the fear, doubt, or discomfort? Required
Select all that apply. This is required because exposures only work when response prevention is clear.
Please select at least one compulsion or describe what you feel pulled to do.
What situations, places, people, objects, or activities do you avoid? optional
The more specific you are, the more targeted the in-vivo exposures will be.
How distressing does this feel at its worst? optional
1 = barely noticeable · 10 = worst it can get
Building your ladder…
Generating personalized exposures. This takes about 10–15 seconds.
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Your Exposure Ladder
How to use this ladder
- Start 2–3 rungs below your peak distress — even 30 seconds of real exposure matters.
- Repeat each rung until distress drops noticeably, then move up.
- The exposure only works if response prevention is followed. Mental rituals count as compulsions.
- The goal is not to eliminate the fear — it is to learn you can tolerate it without ritualizing.
- If a rung feels impossible, build a smaller step between it and the one below.