The man suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder. He constantly felt a buildup of anxiety in his body as he worried about the door being locked. He would walk to the door and check the lock. The moment he checked the lock, his body relaxed and the anxiety disappeared. The decrease in anxiety was a physiological reinforcement.

After a minute, the anxiety in the man built up again. He worried about the door being locked. He walked to the door and checked the lock. His body relaxed, the anxiety disappeared, his body was physiologically reinforced by the lack of anxiety. The process of anxiety building up and then decreasing in response to lock checking continued over and over again.

One day the man decided to break the reinforcement. The anxiety inside his body built up. He thought about checking the lock. The man then took his mind off the lock and focused his mind on something that demanded his attention. He took a minute to relax his body. After his body relaxed, he decided if he still needed to check the lock. It was easier for his mind to make that decision, when it was making the decision for safety’s sake and not for the sake of decreasing anxiety. If he did check the lock, his body was already calm when he checked it, so checking the lock did not act as a physiological reinforcer. The lock was no longer a reinforcer, so he did not feel the need to check the lock when he felt anxiety. His anxiety about the lock decreased.

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The woman was feeling very insecure and anxious. Her husband had confessed last month about cheating on her. The anxiety inside built up. She walked to his phone and checked his messages. She felt secure. Her anxiety decreased. The decrease in anxiety acted as a physiological reinforcer.

A few minutes later the woman was feeling very insecure and anxious. She called her husband on the phone. He responded well and comforted her. Her anxiety decreased. The decrease in the anxiety acted as a physiological reinforcer.

The anxiety did not decrease over time. The woman constantly suffered from the same pattern. First, she would feel anxiety. Second, she would check her husband’s phone, look at his location, call him for reassurance, or check his social media. She would feel a sense of calm after checking. The sudden lack of anxiety would result in a reinforcer.

The woman tried to get the anxiety to stop by reasoning with herself that he wouldn’t cheat on her again. No matter how she reasoned with herself, her anxiety always found a way to explain why she could not trust her husband. Looking for ways to learn to trust her husband, in order to decrease the anxiety, didn’t work.

The woman decided to break the reinforcer. When she felt insecure and anxious, she took her mind off the fear. She did this by finding something that demanded her attention. Next, she relaxed her body. After she relaxed her body, she made a decision about checking up on her husband. This time, she was making the decision based on logic and not out of a desire to make her emotional pain stop. If she did check up on her husband, there was no physiological reinforcer because she was already relaxed before she checked. Her anxiety about him cheating decreased. She still didn’t trust him, but she didn’t need to use trust to decrease her emotional turmoil.