An exposure hierarchy is a ranked list of the situations, thoughts, and doubts you avoid or neutralise, ordered from mildly uncomfortable to genuinely hard. It is the map for your practice. Built well, it makes recovery a staircase. Built badly, it is either a cliff you refuse to climb or a ramp so gentle nothing changes.
Step 1: Catch the loop in the wild
For a few days, notice and note three things every time the loop fires: the trigger (locking the door, a body sensation, an email), the feared meaning ("it will be my fault", "I am a terrible person"), and the ritual (check, replay, confess, search, avoid). The feared meaning is the important one. That is what you will practise facing.
Step 2: Score honestly
Rate each situation 0 to 10 for how distressing it would be to face without the ritual. Not how bad the situation is. How bad it is with your hands off the relief lever. Most people discover their list clusters at the top. Ask what smaller versions exist: locking the door and walking away for one minute is a different number than leaving for the day.
Step 3: Start at 3 or 4, not 8
The first items should make you uncomfortable and confident at the same time. Early wins are not a warm-up. They are the mechanism: each completed wave teaches the skill the next rung requires.
Step 4: One rule per rung
For every item, write the response-prevention rule in one sentence. "I lock the door once and do not go back." "I notice the thought and do not review the memory." Vague rules leak. The loop is a lawyer and will find the gap.
Step 5: Let the ladder live
Ratings change as you practise. Yesterday's 7 becomes a 4, and something you never listed shows up. Re-rank without ceremony. The hierarchy is a living document, not a contract.
Doing it by voice
This is exactly the mapping process Steady runs with you, spoken instead of spreadsheeted. You talk through your loops, Steady asks the next question, and the hierarchy assembles itself from your own words. Nothing lands on the ladder without your approval, and no exposure ever starts without your consent and a spoken "start."
If your top rungs involve trauma, self-harm themes, or feel unsafe to approach alone, build the ladder with a clinician. That is not a failure. That is the ladder working as designed.
