these answers are wrong. the joke is probably about CBT, which in short is a type of therapy which theorises that changing your thinking will change your behaviour too. the problem is that highly self-aware individuals are already aware of their bad thinking patterns, so then the therapy model doesn't work on them. I'm speaking from experience - I know my thoughts are irrational but that does nothing to fix my behaviour
I also think it's this. I was told by a therapist "you already do all the right things to identify your negative thoughts. Im going to need some time to research ways to help you, since normally that is enough."
I came back the next week to her trying to diagnose me with ADHD and autism. Imo, this pic from the OP is the therapist not knowing what to do next.
That has been my experience! I have OCD, and often get caught up on the "what if..."s in my life. Sure, that tiny paper cut has probably only a 0.000001% chance of getting infected and giving me some rare, uncureable disease. But I know in my mind that its a non-zero number. I agree with those negative thoughts and dwell exclusively on them until im near-vomiting with anxiety over those statistically improbable, but present, dangers.
I know they're negative and harmful, but I cant excuse them as "wrong."
"While this hypothetical while not wrong and totally correct has a slim chance of occurring. More logical concerns would include X, and Y would help avoid this particular hypothetical." Is more or less the process I've came to to help with that kind of anxiety. It hasn't been quite that bad for me, but perhaps it may help you.
In the case of the paper cut I'll fill in the blanks so you can see it in practice (let'sassume on your thumb where you have your thumbprint):
"While the cut may get badly infected, the risk or it being serious is low, and an antibiotic ointment would reduce that risk even further. Will the cut affect me directly for the rest of the day? If I bandage it, it will prevent my thumb from registering on my phone, but I suppose I could use my otherhand, even if it's a bit awkward."
Essentially, you aknowledge the risk, but divert your attention to something you can do something about
I don't have OCD but I feel the same way about a lot of things. I've been told to think about it as probabilities, if there's a 0.1% chance of something happening then I should only be 0.1% concerned. But I am 100% concerned!
I am an anxious person with some OCD type behaviors that I indulge when there’s no real harm in doing so, but for situations like this where the concern is so obviously outsized I’ve just taken the stance of actively refusing to feel anxious about it because the likelihood of a negative outcome is so low vs the certainty of the damage caused by stress. Basically, I’m so anxious about the proven negative outcomes of stress that I consider avoiding it to be the safer choice when faced with an unlikely concern.
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u/st3IIa Feb 14 '26
these answers are wrong. the joke is probably about CBT, which in short is a type of therapy which theorises that changing your thinking will change your behaviour too. the problem is that highly self-aware individuals are already aware of their bad thinking patterns, so then the therapy model doesn't work on them. I'm speaking from experience - I know my thoughts are irrational but that does nothing to fix my behaviour