• Module 3: Mapping Your Monster
  • The Mission: Build a structured, step-by-step roadmap for your exposures so you never have to guess what to do next.
  • Your Tool: Worksheet 2.7 – The Anxiety Hierarchy

The Core Shift

Recovery does not mean jumping straight into your absolute worst nightmare on day one. If you try to face your biggest trigger immediately, you will get completely overwhelmed, panic, run to a compulsion, and inadvertently teach your brain that exposures are dangerous.

Instead, we treat recovery like a ladder. We map out your triggers, obsessions, and compulsions into a master list and rank them systematically. The secret is finding the “sweet spot”—picking a step that is challenging enough to create real change and improvement but small enough that you can successfully resist the compulsion.

Key Takeaways

The Anatomy of the Hierarchy

Your roadmap requires you to connect the dots between the three components we’ve mapped out so far:

  1. The Trigger: The external scenario, place, time, or sensory cue (e.g., Using a public restroom at 3:00 PM).
  2. The Obsession: The intrusive thought, image, or urge Dee throws at you (e.g., “What if I contract a disease?”).
  3. The Compulsion: The behavior Dee wants you to do to escape (e.g., Washing hands for 3 minutes, checking skin).

Ranking with SUDS

To build the ladder, you will score each scenario using the SUDS scale (Subjective Units of Distress Scale). It is a simple thermometer for your anxiety running from 0 to 10:

  • 9–10: Absolute panic, terror, or overwhelming urge to run.
  • 6–8: High anxiety, very uncomfortable.
  • 3–5: Moderate anxiety, noticeable distress, but fully manageable.
  • 1–2: Mild background noise, slight unease.
  • 0: Total peace, indifference, or calm.

Finding the Sweet Spot

Look at your ranked list. We are looking for items sitting squarely in the 4 to 6 SUDS range.

  • Why not a 2? It’s too easy. It won’t push your brain to learn anything new.
  • Why not a 9? It will blow your fuse and trigger an immediate compulsion rescue mission.
  • The Goal: A 5 or 6 gives you enough resistance to practice saying “I don’t care,” allowing your brain to naturally habituate and realize the danger isn’t real. As you repeatedly practice the 5s, the 8s and 9s naturally drop down the scale.

What Dee will say to freak you out right now:

Dee will try to disrupt your strategy by pushing you to extremes:

  • “If you don’t face your biggest fear right now, you’re just being a coward and delaying your recovery.”
  • “Even the level 3 items feel too scary. We shouldn’t do any of this.”
  • “This hierarchy is just paperwork. It won’t change the panic when it hits.”

The Trap: Constantly rewriting your SUDS scores because your anxiety fluctuates. Your numbers don’t need to be perfectly scientifically accurate. A 6 yesterday might feel like a 7 today, and that’s completely fine. Trust your baseline estimate and stick to the plan.

Your Homework for Today

Today, you are building the actual battlefield map for the rest of this course.

  1. Open Worksheet 2.7 (The Anxiety Hierarchy).
  2. Fill in the rows: Pair your specific triggers with the obsessions they cause and the compulsions they try to force. Aim to list at least 5 to 10 distinct scenarios.
  3. Assign your SUDS: Be honest about how distressing each scenario feels when you don’t perform the compulsion. Rank them from lowest to highest.
  4. Circle your target: Identify one specific item in that 4-to-6 sweet spot. This is your starting point. Do not touch it yet—just highlight it so your brain knows exactly where we are stepping onto the ladder tomorrow.

PreviousNext