I do that with my current thoughts on moving to another house or any other change I want to make, I get paralyzed with fear even if I'm miserable where I'm at. I know I'll be OK if I move, I have all the pros and cons, but mow over scenarios over and over them for that slight risk and then obsess about the possibilities until I am exhausted and talk myself out of it. I won't want to go to work or talk to anyone, I'll be extremely irritable and want to disappear. I always used to kind of chuckle inside about ocd thinking of the outward behaviors. In the past I had 42 blood tests done, i was convinced i had a thyroid issue, an ulcer, camcer, brain tumor, als, etc, and started different antidepressants, and self medicated with alcohol. I experienced peace on zoloft for the first time since I was a child the thoughts shut off. I was terrified of things happening to my kids and then I worked as a hospice nurse which terrified me even more. I wanted to DIE! I learned about mindfulness and learned to shut the thoughts down. I was unable to focus on anything but rumination.

Unimportant, but the ineffectual rubber-band thought-stopping was operant, not classical (Pavlovian), conditioning. I did the same thing with the helplines in the US (CDC).