How does anyone go through erp when your thoughts feel so so real ? What do you tell yourself? How do you push through?

Hello! You’re right OCD thoughts feel so real, I’ve experienced it as well. I push myself by thinking about how much happier I will be when I get over these thoughts. These thoughts have stolen so much of our time and energy. OCD has ruined our days and our life experiences. Think of how much OCD has taken from you. Use that as motivation to beat this. Take it one day at a time, second by second. What can you do in this moment to better yourself? Don’t worry about the future and what else you will need to face with ERP. Just focus on the current moment and keep building on the momentum. You got this!

I tell myself that I'm tougher than I feel. And my OCD proves it. Listen: you have lived with OCD. That is *hard* to do. It's exhausting, distracting, overwhelming... Before you ever had a name for it, you were carrying that heavy load all the time and my guess is that you were doing it alone. ERP is not easy. But you are no longer alone and *now,* carrying this burden has a purpose. Now you are pursuing your recovery. That's tremendous! And through ERP with a therapist, you are only picking up as much as you know you can handle. You're learning that you are capable of holding much more discomfort and uncertainty than your OCD ever let you believe before. So when the thoughts feel real (and of course they do! this is our old pal OCD we're talking about; we know exactly how real those things feel, that's why we're here!), you tell yourself what you already know: "I can handle this." It will pass. And like Greg said, it's helpful to remember why you're here (what OCD has taken from you) and where you're headed (the recovery your OCD is heading into). OCD is tough, but you are tougher, friend. You've got this!

What did you say to yourself when your thoughts felt so real and you get lost in them and stuck in a loop?