- Date posted
- 3y
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 3y
I feel like recovery is less of a north star or a final destination and much more of a big picture kind of experience. I like to tell my members that we will never really get rid of the intrusive experiences (obsessions), we will probably never totally and entirely get rid of safety behaviors/compulsions (we all avoid from time to time) - but we can get rid of the disorder part. The part where it distresses you, impairs your life, takes up more than an hour per day, etc. These are all things that we can work with and that I would encourage you to focus on. Speaking from experience since I also have lived experience with OCD, I feel like I am leaps and bounds where I was from years ago but it also is something (ERP) that I have to practice on a daily basis and adopt as a lifestyle, not just something I do every once in a while. Good luck to you!
- Date posted
- 3y
Yes, I have 😙 It took a few years of intense therapy (not just ERP for OCD, but also trauma therapy too) for me to recover after 6 years of giving into my mental illnesses. It’s a lot of hard work but I didn’t want to live that way anymore, so I dedicated myself of getting better and staying better. I’ve been better since 2018.
- Date posted
- 3y
do you still get compulsions? do you still feel urges and just manage it better ?
- Date posted
- 3y
@anon818 You’ll always have intrusive thoughts but I don’t have compulsions and obsessions because I don’t give into my OCD.
- Date posted
- 3y
@Nica thank you 🙏🏽
- Date posted
- 3y
I just read the book Being Me with OCD and it gave a lot of good info about what recovery can look and feel like. The writer is now living a very happy life!
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w
How long did it take to make this? And is it actually possible?
- Date posted
- 22w
People who went from a really bad time with OCD to a better time now. Is it really possible? What was your theme? Did you take medication?
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 20w
December 14, 2024, marked two years since my first ERP therapy session with my NOCD therapist, Mixi. And October 2024 marked a year of being free from OCD. It was not an easy journey, confronting my fears face to face. Exposing myself to the images and thoughts my brain kept throwing at me, accepting that I might be the worst mother, that my daughter wouldn’t love me, and that I deserved to be considered a bad person. It was challenging having to say, “Yes, I am those things,” feeling the desire to run, but realizing the thoughts followed me. At the start of my therapy, I remember feeling like I couldn’t do this anymore. Life felt unbearable, and I felt so weak. I longed for a time before the OCD, before the flare-ups, before the anxiety, the daily panic attacks. I thought I’d never be myself again. But I now know that ERP saved my life. The first couple of sessions were tough. I wasn’t fully present. I lied to my therapist about what my actual thoughts were, fearing judgment. I pretended that the exposures were working, but when the sessions ended, I went back to not sleeping, constantly overwhelmed by fear and anxiety. But my therapist never judged me. She made me feel safe to be honest with her. She understood OCD and never faltered in supporting me, even when I admitted I had been lying and still continued my compulsions. My biggest milestone in therapy was being 100% transparent with my therapist. That was when real change began. At first, I started small—simply reading the words that terrified me: "bad mom," "hated," "unloved." Then, I worked on listening to those words while doing dishes—not completely stopping my rumination, but noticing it. Just 15 minutes, my therapist said. It wasn’t easy. At one point, I found myself thinking, “Will I ever feel like myself again?” But I kept pushing through. Slowly, I built tolerance and moved to face-to-face exposures—sitting alone with my daughter, leaning into the thought that my siblings might die, reading articles about my worst fears, and calling myself the things I feared. Each session was challenging, but with time, the thoughts started to lose their grip. By my eleventh session, I started to realize: OCD was here, and it wasn’t going away, but I could keep living my life despite it. I didn’t need to wait for it to be quiet or go away to move on. Slowly, it began to quiet down, and I started to feel like myself again. In fact, I am not my old self anymore—I’m a better version. OCD hasn’t completely disappeared, but it’s quieter now. Most of the time, it doesn’t speak, and when it does, I know how to handle it. The last session with my therapist was emotional. I cried because I was finishing therapy. I remember how, in the beginning, I cried because I thought it was just starting—because I was overwhelmed and terrified. But at the end, I cried because I was sad it was ending. It felt like I had come so far, and part of me wasn’t ready to say goodbye, even though I had already learned so much. It was a bittersweet moment, but I knew I was walking away stronger, equipped with the tools to handle OCD on my own. If I could change anything about my journey, it would be being open and honest from the beginning. It was the key to finding true healing. The transparency, the honesty—it opened the door to lasting change. I’m no longer that person who was stuck in constant panic. I’m someone who has fought and survived, and while OCD still appears from time to time, I know it doesn’t define me. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. Have you started therapy, is something holding you back? Is there something you want to know about ERP therapy? I'll be live in the app answering each and every one today from 6-7pm EST. Please drop them below!
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