Heart ocd

Hi guys, I'm working pretty hard on overcoming heart-focused ocd by doing exposures and refrain from doing all my rituals related to it. I have to admit that the event which launched my ocd in the first place was in itself not terrifying, but I experienced it as dying and it had lasted for months. Now by doing the exposure, I'm being thrown back in fear which literally burns me up and creates a severe flight-response and I often stay dysregulated for days. I have the idea that I'm doing almost everything I should do, but isn't there a limit to the severity of the anxiety? Just like you maybe just put a war-soldier in erp. No erp is not the solution, but maybe someone has some experience and strength about this. Hugs, william

Username: victoriam00

Date posted: 92d ago

Hi William! It’s possible that maybe this exposure is too high on your hierarchy to tackle straight away. If you’re able to talk with a therapist about this, that would probably be best. Sending love & strength!

Username: Anonymous

Date posted: 92d ago

Hi William, I share your heart-related/somatic OCD as my primary diagnosis. I just started ERP for it this past week and am not noticing a huge spike in anxiety as of yet so I guess I’m having the opposite problem. My exposure has been imagining my death. I even wrote it out as a story and recorded myself reading it to play back. I think my timing on upping my meds may be blunting my anxiety for better or worse in this case. Anyway, just wanted to throw meds out as an option. I know SSRI’s are often used to assist in conjunction with therapy for OCD. Definitely agree with the previous response about trying a less provoking exposure as well. I’m curious what exposures you are trying for this? I also wanted to recommend checking out the DARE response. It is a book and app and I’ve seen others mention it here. It’s been really helpful to me in reframing and slowly (very slowly) beginning to change my relationship to anxiety. You’re not alone my friend, hang in there.

Username: AlexPG

Date posted: 92d ago

@Anonymous DARE response helped me so much! I second this