- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
I started treatment in August. I actually did ERP on my own before my counselor had a chance to teach me. I did a couple of exposures with my therapist. I have found that I usually have to do the exposure 3 or 4 times in a row before my anxiety got low enough. When I first started treatment, I had a lot of intrusive thoughts involving knives. As a result, it got to the point where I was afraid to hold a knife for more than a few seconds. So my counselor had me wash and dry some knives. Starting with a small knife then working my way up. The smallest one didn't give me hardly any anxiety. The medium one made me nervous. The biggest one sent my anxiety through the roof. The hardest part is when your anxiety is going crazy. It feels like an eternity. But it lasts at most a few minutes. I can now handle large knives with no problem. The next exposure I did (again with my counselor) I watched a slasher movie in 5 minute increments. I watched Scream because the killer attacks people with a knife. I did a total of 5 five minute segments The first two were brutal. I almost had a massive panic attack after the second one. I don't scare easily, but I was trembling. My counselor could see what was going on and gave me a couple minutes before going on to the next segment. With the next 3, my anxiety got less. My homework was to watch the rest of the movie. I watched the rest of the movie with almost no anxiety. My counselor told me the point of planned exposures is to learn ERP so you can use it in real life situations as they come up. So I no longer do planned exposures. ERP has become also automatic. I don't have to think about it as much anymore. I have made so much progress. The great thing about ERP is that it works for any OCD theme.
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! That’s helpful to hear
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi! I am someone who went through the NOCD program, and I found that doing real life exposures were the most helpful for my journey. Anytime that I would start to get anxious from my thoughts, instead of actively searching for answers, I would sit and allow myself to be anxious. I often used to worry that if I sat with my anxiety, I would end up dying, because the symptoms were very scary! I always thought I had to get out of the sensations. Instead, I learned to sit with them when they start happening. I take a big deep breath and say "ok, here we go" and sit through the anxiety. It is for sure not always fun, but it is the best exposure because I am teaching myself that the anxiety will pass. Sometimes reading articles or writing out worst case scenarios help me out too. I also try not to avoid things that scare me as much.
- User type
- NOCD Alumni
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi Oth, I try to practice ERP whenever a real life opportunity comes up much like @Jesse Miller, which is usually at least few times a day thanks to my OCD bully. The length of time of the actual ERP exercise varies depending on whether it is a major or minor obsession and whether this is a new subject of ERP or something I’ve repeatedly faced before. Anxiety is going to go through the roof as you first start a new ERP as the OCD starts fighting back, but the more you repeat that ERP (or something similar) overtime the less the anxiety tends to peak. Try to always start with one of your minor themes/obsessions first so you can ease into the anxiety spikes from doing ERP. I typically try to sit with the uncomfortableness/anxiety as long as I can, but not so long as to forcing myself to have an anxiety attack or anything. Each time aiming to go a little further into the sitting with it zone, until eventually I almost seem to do it on autopilot. I still will sometimes have slip-ups or fall back on old ways, but the key is to remember that I’m not losing all my progress up that point and slip-ups will happen. Even if you go just a little bit further sitting with it each time, you should treat it as a victory and tell yourself “great job” and do not be hard on yourself if it takes longer than you like or if you have a slip. Sometimes depending on the particular theme I do have to give myself a pep talk and say “ c’mon you got this…” before I get started. It will be hard in the beginning, but ERP will get easier overtime. Stay strong in your recovery and best wishes.
- Date posted
- 3y
I agree with all of this.
- Date posted
- 3y
Comment deleted by user
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you so much for replying! When you mention sitting with a trigger for longer, what are you actually doing during that time? When I’ve done ERP before I’ve done it in very small chunks, where I’ve literally sat down and looked at a stimulus until anxiety goes down, and during that time I will do nothing else except look at the trigger. Obviously this doesn’t feel practical to do for hours on end, so what are you actually doing during that time?
- Date posted
- 3y
@Dial Up That makes sense, thank you for clarifying :)
Related posts
- Date posted
- 17w
I had just posted a summary of ERP for a group member, and I thought it might be useful for everybody. Here it is below (with a little extra added)…. ERP therapy is researched-based. Most other therapies don’t work. There have been people who have been literally stuck in their houses (from their OCD) who gained their lives back through ERP therapy. NOCD does ERP therapy exclusively. You can find it in other places too, but you have to ask around. There are two tenants of ERP therapy: The first one has to do with the repetitive thoughts inside our heads. These thoughts are actually defined as “obsessions”. You are not supposed to do anything with the obsessions. You are supposed to let them run through your head freely, without trying to fix them or stop them. Imagine a tree planted by a river. The leaves fall off and float down the river. You can see the leaves falling, but you don’t try to stop them or pick them up. You don’t try to fix them. You just let them float away. This is really important to do with your obsessive thoughts. The more you try to fight them off, the worse they get. I used to have blasphemous sentences running in my head 24/7. I felt like I had to put a “not” next to each sentence in order to “fix” it. But this just took hours of my time every day, and it was very scary, because I was worried that if I messed up, that I would go to hell. It was very freeing to learn later that I could just let those sentences run freely through my head without trying to fix them. The second part of ERP therapy is all about “denying your compulsions.” Every time OCD tells you that if you don’t do things a certain way that something really bad will happen, that is a compulsion. Once you recognize what your compulsions are, ERP therapy will have you practice stopping doing all of those things. For some people, that will mean stopping washing their hands or touching lights switches or, in my case, putting “fixing” words in their head. Compulsions are safety behaviors. During ERP therapy, you will practice stopping engaging with safety behaviors. All this is very hard to do and scary, so during therapy you will be given tools to help you deal with the fear. Often ERP therapy will take people from being non-functional to functional. I highly recommend it. ————————————————- PITFALL #1: After you have been doing ERP for a while and become somewhat successful, the OCD will try subtle little tricks to bring you down again. The first one is to tell you that your thoughts are REAL and not OCD, and therefore you can’t apply ERP therapy. Don’t fall for this trick! All thoughts are just thoughts. They are all meaningless. Don’t try to figure out what is real and what is OCD. Just treat all thoughts with ERP therapy. PITFALL #2: The second pitfall is that OCD will tell you that you can’t move forward unless you have absolute certainty that you will be safe. Hate to tell you this, folks, but there is no certainty in life. You will never know for SURE that you or your loved ones will be “safe” from the OCD rules. Therefore, you have to move forward in the uncertainty. It’s hard, but it gets easier with time and practice. We got this, guys !!!!!!
- Date posted
- 15w
One problem - Various themes This is my first post. I had a relapse a few months ago. Life was amazing and then boom, I got triggered by something and started spiralling about my sexuality (having finally been at peace for two years, entered a healthy new relationship and come out of the closet as an older women). How do you, when you're not triggered practice ERP? I'm able to try and accept the thoughts every time I see a man. What should I be doing when I don't encounter these triggers. I was to say as well that I also am starting to get real event OCD about some of the sexual things I did in the past when I was married and in an unhealthy toxic relationship with my ex husband. I am shamed and disgusted and I'm working on it but there's a certain subsection of the LGBTQ community that trigger these thoughts, groinals and thing for me... I feel like I'm beginning to realise I need to maybe be a little more active in my recovery instead of waiting for triggers... But I don't know how
- Date posted
- 13w
A few hours ago I had my first ERP session and I am currently feeling nauseous and nervous at the same time. Right after my first exposure I wanted to quit right then and there, but I know I cannot. Does anyone have any tips for sitting with this level of discomfort? Anything is appreciated. Thanks! :-)
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