- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
Think about erp like training for the big game even though it isn't here yet. That way you're prepared for when it does come. I've come to believe that good patches and healing are not the same thing. Consistency is the only way to get ahead of this shit.
- Date posted
- 3y
Try to look at ERP as the new way of living with OCD. When you say it isn’t there for long periods, it is, you just successfully normalised it. The ocd isn’t coming back, your just questioning yourself again. Turn the volume back up with the ERP, resist the urges just like you did before and because you have managed to get a grip Of things the ERP technique won’t be obviously for long, you will normalise it again. It’s like loosing weight and gaining a pound, you just cut out crap For a week again, and go back to feeling ok again. X
- Date posted
- 3y
My theme switched to health for a lying time but was a lot easier to deal with than the harm
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous Thanks for your comment! Mine switch too. But tbh I always find whatever theme I am in in that moment harder than the one before 😅
- Date posted
- 3y
@k-low Mine have only been health and harm.... And some smaller ones mixed in
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous Ohhh that sounds really annoying :( I've got rocd, but it switches between friends and my boyfriend. Had intrusive thoughts about my parents as a kid. Don't have that anymore 😊
- Date posted
- 3y
I struggle with this as well,when I’m well I just want to enjoy life instead of remembering the thoughts but I think keeping a journal is a good idea so you can look back and see you had long periods of peace as well as hard times x
- Date posted
- 3y
AGREED.
- Date posted
- 3y
I was in remission for 7 years .... Totally forgot everything... And am now climbing out of a hole so I'd make sure not to let it catch you off guard.
- Date posted
- 3y
Ohhh I'm sorry to hear that!! But really happy you were okay for so long! If you did it once, you can do it again ;)
- Date posted
- 3y
Precisely.
- Date posted
- 3y
Maybe keep a journal for you to look back on in the future... I know my ocd repeats a lot of the same thoughts.
- Date posted
- 3y
Good advice! But I've done that in the past and for me it turned into a compulsion unfortunately 😅
- Date posted
- 3y
@k-low Lol I could see that just helps to know you beat it before...
- Date posted
- 3y
I am done with treatment and in recovery. I asked my counselor this question. She said that the purpose of doing planned exposures is to teach you ERP so you can do it in real life situations as they come up. So its kind of like riding a bike with training wheels. Eventually they need to come off. Also, don't get too hung up on theme. OCD is OCD regardless of what disguise it is currently wearing. ERP works regardless of theme.
- Date posted
- 3y
That makes a lot of sense! Thanks 😊 Maybe I'll do that then
- Date posted
- 3y
Thanks for your advise guys! I totally get that and you're probably right. But when I don't think about it I'd rather keep it that way, bc when I do ERP again is comes back a bit.. But yes, consistency is key 🗝️😊
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w
Hi! I've been on my OCD healing journey for about half a year and I have seen a lot of success. I'm reaching out for advice, I am very willing to do exposures because I know the more I do them, the more I get better, but I struggle with the response prevention part. I don't know how to control my brain when it comes to facing the fears especially since most of my compulsions are mental. I can tell myself the typical things "I am okay with the uncertainty of this happening", etc. but its like my brain doesn't believe them. I've been stuck in this disconnect for a while and would love advice you have heard from a therapist or learned that has really help you.
- Date posted
- 15w
I’ve been stuck in this cycle for the last month or two and am not sure how to get out of it. Basically, I will work on ignoring the thoughts and not responding or engaging plus limiting/completely eliminating compulsions. After a week or two of constant work, the amount of intrusive thoughts in a day goes down. The anxiety each thought causes also goes down with some, but not all, thoughts passing without notice like they would for a normal person. The thoughts that do stick cause anxiety and make me want to ruminate or do other compulsions but I make sure to limit them. After a bit, I’m in a pretty good head space. This is usually when it goes down hill. I’ll start to question if I even have ocd because some of the thoughts (once again not all) pass without notice. The difficulty resisting compulsions goes down and so does the anxiety, only increasing the questioning. I spend a while questioning if I’ve ever had ocd in the first place and then something sets me off or the questioning itself becomes a trigger and I get stuck back into the same ocd cycle with constant rumination, anxiety, and other compulsions. This lasts for a week or two before I know I need to stop and try and work hard to get back to ignoring the thoughts. And the cycle just restarts over and over again. Does anyone have any tips to stop this from happening? It’s really harming my recovery as every few weeks I dive back into the same negative place I was.
- Date posted
- 13w
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 !!!!!!
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