- Date posted
- 3y
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 3y
Many of my members do them at anytime! School, yup! donut shop, done! Exposures with response prevention is meant to be done through out your life whenever things come up. Having said that, at first while practicing the skill of ERP, many people find it necessary to practice in a way they can focus on the learning enough to gain the skill. once it feels you have it down, ideal is to do it whenever and wherever 😁
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 3y
I like to think of erp in two ways: “formal erp” where you might sit down and a purposely expose yourself by, for example, writing an imaginal (worst case scenario) script. And there are what I call “lifestyle erp” where you might continue on with your mall trip even though you might harm someone (for example). I always say - the best erp you can do is to live your life despite your fears. Intrusive thoughts are like background music. The goal is to allow the music to play while you continue on with your day. You don’t want to stop your day to try to change / stop the song. I hope this helps!
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 3y
Great question and great responses. In general, an exposure entails confronting whatever makes you anxious, without mentally or physically disengaging. As stated by other therapists, this could be something you purposefully seek out or just encounter. Basically, as long as you are confronting your anxiety (either a physical stimulus or even a thought that comes into your head), and "staying" with the anxiety until your anxiety comes down by half or more, you are doing the basics of exposures.
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you, all of these comments have been so great to hear these days ( I kinda relapsed ), I’m currently dealing with ROCD and guilt and the urge to confess things that might felt wrong towards my partner. Not giving on the confessions is hard but your support really make people’s day better.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 16w
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
So I've been working to address my OCD for about a month now. So far, I haven't been working on it with a therapist and have instead been trying to create my own exposure exercises. The primary obsession I'm working on is the fear that I'm somehow flawed or invalid on a fundamental level. The best way I can describe it it is that its similar to the feeling you get when you have germ OCD and you feel contaminated, except my whole existence and being feels contaminated, so to speak. I've identified a list of triggers, and a list of compulsions (pretty much all mental) that I've noticed myself performing. I started out by doing imaginal exposures and scripts where I'd write out triggering fictional scenarios and read them over and over, combined with mindfulness techniques to focus on my breath and bring myself back to the present when I noticed myself performing compulsions mentally. At first it worked to some extent, but eventually I started to feel like the stories I was writing about this obsession weren't triggering any anxiety anymore or a very low level. So I stopped reading them and focused solely on improving my ability to stay present and identifying compulsions as I perform them, and disengaging. Now, I'm at the point where it seems like my general anxiety levels throughout the day are lower, and the triggers I've identified are producing noticeably less anxiety. But that makes me wonder if somehow I'm just secretly doing mental compulsions without knowing it? Is only a month of rather disorganized and unstructured ERP enough to produce this much improvement? To avoid giving me re-assurance, I'd appreciate if you guys don't directly answer those questions, maybe just provide some possibilities or your own experiences so I can get a better idea of where I'm at. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
- Date posted
- 13w
When I catch myself doing compulsions mentally during exposure sessions, it seems alot of the time like the realization that I was just doing a compulsion is more distressing than the actual trigger I'm trying to expose myself to. It feels defeating having to admit the prompt at the end that I performed a compulsion yet again. I still think I've made progress overall, and generally speaking I don't think I'm performing compulsions as much as I used to, and my distress has also gone down noticeably (not completely) but exposure sessions have been kinda tricky for me from the beginning since its all mental. Additionally, I am a bit concerned that I could start using exposures to rid myself of anxiety rather than expose myself to it properly.
Be a part of the largest OCD Community
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond