ERP

Erp with my NOCD therapist isn’t really helping me either. It stinks. Maybe for urself, give it more time?

Hi marbo, It can be discouraging to feel like things aren't much different after starting therapy. I hope that you've shared this with your therapist; they can better explore what progress and "helping" would look like for you specifically. In general, I wonder if you're measuring "feeling better" by your frequency or intensity of intrusive thoughts (A), or amount of compulsions that you're doing (B), or level of anxiety/distress that you feel (C)? Here are my thoughts about each one: A) We know that intrusive thoughts are natural and normal for all people, even people without OCD or anxiety, so that's not a good measure of success. B) We know that ERP treatment is focused on reducing and removing the compulsions, whether they're internal mental rituals or external behaviors, so if you think this isn't improving, talk with your therapist about how you might need to adjust your ERP practice to really target the RP response prevention. C) We know that the ultimate goal is to reduce and be able to tolerate distress in response to intrusive and obsessive thoughts which happens when we break the cycle of doing compulsions and other safety/soothing behaviors to seek relief, so if this doesn't seem to be changing, you may be feeding the OCD cycle inadvertently and not even know it! Your therapist can help you find the tricky, subtle, sneaky ways that may be reinforcing the belief that "discomfort is bad" which, in a cruel irony, makes us feel more discomfort. ERP is certainly hard work, and sometimes it does take time to notice significant changes. I even warn my members that it can appear to get worse because it gets better, because we are becoming more aware of the anxiety and compulsions and purposely triggering anxiety without giving in to the false relief of compulsions. Contrary to OCD, though, it's short-term discomfort for long-term relief. Tailoring your ERP practice to match your values and what's important to you can help maintain motivation even when things are hard. I wish you well in your journey!