I know you didn't ask for a response but I wanted to tell you that you are not alone and that I also used to count to alleviate my fears. As a child, I used to count to 10 whenever something painful was done to me and I used to tell myself that by the time I had reached 10, whatever was happening would have stopped. I would reach 10, and then start all over again, all in my head. As children we did what we had to to keep alive, not only physically but emotionally.

Thank you for having the courage to share this story; it helped me want to talk about mine with my therapist on my next session.