ERP question

@Nica It’s not about not doing my ERP properly, I’m saying that it’s hard to work on ERP for a specific theme if that theme comes and goes and a different theme replaces it

@Uphamia I mean, that’s the nature of OCD. Whenever it pops up with something new, do ERP for that. It switches (like it will always do) then do ERP for that. You will always have OCD. You will always have to deal with it—just like everyone else with OCD and ANY mental illnesses. But that doesn’t mean ERP doesn’t work for you/your brain. These types of therapists are hard but can be overcome with time, patience, and dedication to getting better. That also means accepting you’ll have different themes and they will change and old themes you thought would go away forever don’t truly do that and you’ll have to face them again. I have to face POCD at random times whoever my brain wants to act up, but it doesn’t become “a theme” anymore because I know how to handle POCD intrusive thoughts, images, and feelings. I’ve been recovered for almost 4 years now and ERP is about desensitizing but also, I’d say the big part of it is acceptance, building self esteem, and learning how to handle OCD so it doesn’t affect you the way it does when you aren’t recovered.

@Nica Thankyou for elaborating, that definitely makes sense, I have a therapist and she’s wonderful, I’ve literally had only one appointment and my issue is just that I begin to obsess over if I’m even doing the ERP right, and I just need to remember that it’s all about accepting the brains chatter but understanding it has no more meaning than just noise. I think I also got it in my head that I’d have to have very specific ERP goals for one theme until that theme fades after a few months and than move onto another theme rather than looking at it as every day exposing myself to something that triggers one of my themes and sitting with that discomfort, so ing general I’m just learning to get used to the noise and like you said, desensitize myself. Idk if I made any sense haha I just meant I think I was wondering if with ERP it’s okay to look at us as a general exposing myself to discomfort each day or do I have to work on one specific theme only each month, because my themes change almost daily so that wouldn’t work for me

@Uphamia Only one appointment? Okay, I’ll say it will take months to see changes even by working hard. You are changing your WHOLE life and you are rewiring your brain. IT IS HARD. It takes a lot of time as well. It took me 6 years to overcome all my mental illnesses, but those 6 years were worth every second because I am not beholden *at all* to my mental illnesses and I’m incredibly happy. You need to give yourself time and start working on practicing mindfulness and patience now, because 1 session, 10 sessions, maybe even 20 sessions depending on deep in the rabbit hole you are with your OCD will not hit “ full recovery” status. I’m being honest with you here even though it will be hard to accept (and anyone else reading this) because I see a lot of people say if you do XYZ you can fully recover in a month or two. Maybe they will say 5 months if you’re “really bad”. I don’t know anyone that’s done such a thing. A few month isn’t enough to change your own being, including rewiring your brain in such a way that’s needed to recover. It gives people false hope and it’s an outright lie, and that type of thing being passed around hurts people deeply.

@Nica No I think what you said is wrong at all, in fact if people expect healing within months and don’t get it all they’ll think is “clearly I’m doing things wrong or I can’t be fixed” plus it depends person to person because our lives are all so unique. Thank you for the tough love, my problem is it’s SO hard to be consistent and I always obsess over if I’m doing treatment right, it’s why I’ll stop going to the gym after a week, I just always think somehow I’m not working hard enough or I’m still somehow doing a compulsion and I just don’t realize it, but the tough love helps, I needed it

@Uphamia There’s a lot to learn, remember, and act on when it comes to healing and recovering and that’s the hard part, but it’s also beautiful if you look at it in a way of the healing journey. No mud, no lotus. You need hard times—mud—to bloom into a beautiful lotus flower. They need the mud or else they will not fully develop and bloom. That’s for humans too.

@Nica I really appreciate you taking the time to explain it all, you seriously don’t know how much I needed that, I think there’s a level of blind faith to it all as well, like you have to just trust that at some point you’ll reap the benefits but for now you just have to keep pushing threw even if you don’t feel “healed”. I lack confidence in every area of my life, and that’s my biggest road block, but I just need to practice trusting that I am in control and things take time

@Uphamia I deeply encourage you to keep at it with your OCD specialist and to ask questions about the ERP process and ask about health coping mechanisms, how to gain more confidence in yourself, and so on. Your therapist probably has that planned already because it’s key to success, but it’s good to ask regardless ❤️‍🩹

@Nica Thanks again, I hope you have a great weekend ❤️❤️

@Uphamia You’re welcome and you too! 😁