Anony
- Date posted
- 3y
titaniumonetwotitaniumonetwo
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
It's very challenging. I'm doing it with a therapist and it's still incredibly hard so expect things to be difficult but it is supposed to work and many on here will testify to its success. When you have ocd, effectively your brain is misfiring on some topic. The actual thought or topic isn't really important but your brain is saying 'Danger! Danger!' even though there probably isn't any. In order to try to stop the brain from sending the danger signals we perform compulsions. Anything at all we're doing with the purpose of lowering the anxiety or put another way escaping the danger. So in a sense OCD is your brain trying to be helpful just on the wrong things. If you were being chased by a serial killer for example the danger signals would make sense! The problem here then is by reacting to the thoughts, performing compulsions, you are sort of saying 'thanks for warning me of that danger brain!' and so you get warned again and again and so on because you're telling your brain there is danger when there isn't. Now you probably know all of the above but it's important for ERP because then in ERP the point is to re-train your brain that the warning signals it is sending aren't necessary. You do this by putting yourself in to situations that feel dangerous (that's the exposures) and then not performing the things you do to lower the anxiety (that's the response prevention). Gradually over time, you get used to the thoughts and effectively bored of them. The anxiety comes down on its own and you've begun teaching your brain that it doesn't need to send the danger signals. The problem of course is it is really, really hard and your OCD brain will try really hard to alert you to the danger (it's trying to help remember!) so usually people expose gradually, starting with something that will make them somewhat anxious and focusing on that until it no longer causes anxiety and then moving up to another more challenging exposure. This is sometimes called the exposure heirarchy. A key thing to look out for here are more difficult to spot compulsions. Telling yourself 'this is just an exposure exercise, all is fine...' for example. The key is to resist all compulsions. Permanently. I haven't managed to achieve this yet but others on here have and seen good results.
ces089ces089
- Date posted
- 3y
Look into the self-compassion workbook for OCD by Kimberly Quinlan. If you can’t afford therapy I think this is a great way to walk through exercises on your own. I do it alongside my daily ERP and I love it. The Self-Compassion Workbook for OCD: Lean into Your Fear, Manage Difficult Emotions, and Focus On Recovery https://www.amazon.com/dp/168403776X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_GHVPYR9BGMW2E5TSZTQM She also has a podcast “Your Anxiety Toolkit” which has some episodes that cover OCD. She provides great resources. There is also the Ali Greymond method where you track rumination time in addition to ERP. She has guidebooks as well but Quinlan’s book walks you through the process in a step by step manner.
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Tea and Honey
- Date posted
- 19w
Summary of recovery through ERP
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 !!!!!!
Perfect Impe...
- Date posted
- 18w
Question
What would I do for ERP if my OCD says because I didn’t do something correctly or remember something I will have panic attacks that don’t end?
hbocd
- Date posted
- 17w
ERP Therapy
I read about ERP and have seen information about it on here. One of the goals is to say, "maybe I am this or that...ect." That terrified me. The thoughts and images that go in my head are disturbing and upsetting. I don't want to even think about saying, "maybe this or that." It's devasting to have these thoughts and question why you're having these thoughts. Doesn't the "maybe" make it worse? The one thing that helps me is that is to remind myself that these are just thoughts and I know I'm not a monster, even if I feel like one. Is ERP not for everyone? Has anyone else had a problem with the techniques used in this kind of therapy? I had cognitive therapy for years with an OCD specialist and that seemed to help a lot. Writing out the worst case scenarios would make me suicidal. Im having a difficult time not obsessing over the "maybe" after intrusive thoughts now. It doesn't make it better.
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