I’ve been really bad at doing ERP the past few days, and I can feel OCD starting to sink it’s claws back into me. It’s almost bedtime, and I’m scared to do ERP so close to when I should be winding down to sleep, but I’m going to do it anyway. Time to go look at some artistic nudes until I stop feeling anxious, I guess! Wish me luck.

I’m not an expert on ERP, nor am I an expert in treating OCD, but I think that could potentially be a good option for you if you think that the feelings have when you look at the photos are linked with your OCD. One of the goals of ERP is to help build distress tolerance, and it might be useful for you to sit with the distressing photo(s) and look at them until your distress goes down. This doesn’t mean analyzing the photo, and it doesn’t mean trying to problem solve anything about the photo. Just sit with the photo, sit with whatever feelings come up, and wait until the distress goes down. It’s impossible for our bodies to maintain a high level of distress for long periods, so eventually your level of distress WILL decrease. Are you familiar with ERP?

@ECM17 This is so strange, but I have just started ERP and I have the same issue. I was heavier than my OCD wanted on my wedding day and I habitually look at the pictures and analyze whether I looked heavy in a bunch of different ways. I’m wondering if you tried the ERP talked about in this thread and how it worked for you. I know it was more than a year ago!

That sounds like it could be a good option for you, then! ERP sounds really scary, but when you go through it it’s important to make sure that you build a hierarchy of steps to make it manageable. You don’t want to throw yourself into an incredible level of distress off the bat, but it’s important that you do feel a level of discomfort. My psych has suggested a 5/10 discomfort level is a good goal for ERP, though I don’t know how standard this is. When you go through the lower rungs, you build your ability to tolerate discomfort, and it makes it easier to face some of the higher rungs. It’s about taking those baby steps, challenging some of the barriers that OCD builds around your life

ERP stands for “exposure and response prevention”, by the way, if you’re interested in doing your own reading. It’s the standard, best practice treatment for OCD

First of all, I think this would be really good to talk to your therapist about tomorrow. They’ll be able to work this through with you, and provide some more informed help than I can. What I’d say here, though, is this: try and sit with the feelings, as awful as they are. This is a lot easier said than done, but unfortunately it’s the best way to face them. Maybe the photos truly are awful (I don’t know!), maybe you’re overthinking, either way, the problem here isn’t the photos but rather how upset they make you feel. The photos being bad isn’t a threat to you, and it doesn’t put you in any danger. When you sit with the distress you’re showing your worry that it’s not the boss of you, and that you’re not going to bow to it’s whims. If you’re feeling cheeky you can an even agree with the thoughts, and say “wow, I really do look awful! Everyone who sees this photo will think I look awful too,” and by doing so you’re taking away the power of the thoughts. You’re basically training your brain to say “this worry isn’t as important as you’ve been making me think it is”