I’ve been going like all out in ERP to make sure that the anxiety stops and now I’m trying to understand if this is a compulsion ? And if it is what do I do ?
ERP isn’t to get rid of the anxious feeling… so it is becoming a compulsion. ERP is to change the way we respond to the anxious feelings and intrusive thoughts.
You need to rethink how you’re going about ERP. It’s best to do it with the guidance of a professional. If that’s not possible you need to remember to let the anxious feeling remain. Don’t find it or measure it just let it run in the background whilst you do your exposure. Be present in the moment of the exposure…
@thrutheweather Don’t time it*
@thrutheweather I do have a therapist but we do telehealth
@artsygirl Is your therapist an OCD specialist?
@thrutheweather Of course
@thrutheweather Staying present is very hard for me though. I feel like I go off thinking in my head even doing exposures
@artsygirl Nobody says it was easy… ERP takes work. You have to want to get better at dealing with the thoughts not wanting to get rid of the thoughts and anxious feeling. OCD is chronic so you need to learn to cope and respond when flare ups do happen. If you put in the work and deal with the uncomfortable feelings during treatment you’ll hopefully ‘recover’ and be able to shrug off thoughts like people without OCD can. Everyone has intrusive thoughts… you can’t get rid of them. You can only change how you respond to them.. this is the point of ERP & ACT.
@artsygirl ‘Nobody said it was easy’ my mind feels like alphabet soup 🤣🤣🤣
@thrutheweather This was unhelpful and honestly a punch in the face. I work VERY hard at ERP and have for a year and half so I am very aware that it is difficult. I have just recently figured out that this may be a compulsion and I was looking for help- not that I need to learn how to cope. I’m aware I need to do that. I’m trying to figure out HOW when ERP is treatment.
@artsygirl And lastly- white knuckling it isn’t the answer because I’ve been doing that and it isn’t working.
@artsygirl You’ve taken my comment completely wrong. I wasn’t implying you aren’t trying hard I was simply stating that it isn’t easy. I was quoting Coldplay… sorry if it sounded condescending. But what I’m telling you is that you have to put the work in to work through wanting to get rid of the anxious feeling. Someone in recovery told me this and I reacted exactly how you have and upon reflection they were right. I didn’t want to get better I just wanted the anxious feeling to go. I recommend that you go back to your therapist and tell them your experience so they can review your plan and hierarchy and start working with you to make ERP more effective… it might mean also trying ACT. Again apologies for any offence. Enjoy the rest of your day.
You don’t get rid of it, you get used to uncomfortable feelings and intrusive thoughts/images/feelings.
@Nica I guess I’m doing it because I want to get better and I want them to decrease? I don’t know if that’s compulsive
I'm thinking of trying some ERP on my own while I wait for treatment, but I'm having some trouble knowing what is a compulsion and what would be good exposure. For example, I have huge fears of being a narcissist and/or a generally bad person. So whenever I watch a movie or read something that has an evil character in it I automatically compare myself to that character and stress over if I'm like that person. A couple of things I do when this happens is Google other people's experiences, seek reassurance, rumination, etc. Sometimes I'll also google different symptoms of narcissism, freak out over things that I relate to, then get relief over things I don't. So my confusion is, would researching people who have narcissism be an exposure, or a compulsion since it's something I sometimes do during a spiral? Or, would the exposure be watching movies/living life hearing these stories, and refraining from the spiral of rumination and no Googling at all?
If your mind purposely keeps fetching a repetitive word, and you’re afraid it will never go away, is the ERP therapy to STOP the mind from doing it? Or ALLOW the mind to do it, and not react? Also, is repeating a word in your head a mental compulsion? Or would that be the obsession? So then what’s the compulsion? Posting on here? Lol
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?
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