- Date posted
- 2y
ERP
Anyone done ERP and did it help?
Anyone done ERP and did it help?
Personally I have had 15 sessions on here for ERP . I feel in the long run it hasn’t really mattered that much I feel neutral towards it . Everything I do is a combination approach and my OCD and GAD wax and wane like it always had . Individual results vary greatly, from the one extreme the greatest thing to sliced bread , to the other extreme doesn’t work at all . I am somewhat in the middle of the two categories.
Just to add one more thing if there was a National licensing process for the therapists it would be very beneficial for the patients . You would be able to select who you feel is really the best for you . Instead very much roll of the dice as to what state you live in with limited therapists of varying quality and understanding and rapport with the patients.
Most people on this app have, and yes of course it helps. ERP is the golden standard for OCD treatment.
It helps, but a lot of us are somewhat treatment resistant. It's not so much about making the OCD as it is making you more able to handle it.
For me personally I am not treatment resistant. My therapist is of medium quality and I put in at least medium effort .
*making the OCD go away
How does therapy whether ERP or CBT work if I am suffering with anxiety that is telling me I’ve done something wrong the feeling is so overwhelming I don’t understand how anything can clear my mind. I know it’s about seeing it differently but if I can’t now what does therapy do? I’m due to start mine on 17th May not sure what I’ll be offered yet
@sazMar The short answer is you’ll work it in baby steps. Erp is more useful than cbt for ocd but cbt is a great supplement. Erp has helped me with all but one core issue which I’m still struggling with.
I’m starting my ERP therapy this week but I have done CBT therapy directly. Listen to podcasts regularly that have absolutely helped change my life. The issue that I find is that without persistence and consistency and putting in the hard work, it will always return. It’s a hard reality but I think for me at least it has been the case. Tooling yourself and preparing yourself seems to be the only way forward.
Yeah I thought I would know the signs but it crept up on me. I think I forgot how sneaky it is
I’m in my 7th week of ERP and I can tell a big improvement! It’s hard but worth it
Yes and much more than I ever thought it would
That’s great news glad it’s working for you
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is one of the hardest but most effective treatments for OCD. If you’ve started ERP, what has been the biggest challenge in resisting compulsions?
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) isn't always easy, but as one of the most effective treatments for OCD, it's worth it. If you've started ERP, what has been the biggest surprise you've experienced in learning to resist compulsions? If you haven't started ERP yet, what is holding you back from starting?
I had just posted a summary of ERP for a group member, and I thought it might be useful for everybody. Here it is below (with a little extra added)…. ERP therapy is researched-based. Most other therapies don’t work. There have been people who have been literally stuck in their houses (from their OCD) who gained their lives back through ERP therapy. NOCD does ERP therapy exclusively. You can find it in other places too, but you have to ask around. There are two tenants of ERP therapy: The first one has to do with the repetitive thoughts inside our heads. These thoughts are actually defined as “obsessions”. You are not supposed to do anything with the obsessions. You are supposed to let them run through your head freely, without trying to fix them or stop them. Imagine a tree planted by a river. The leaves fall off and float down the river. You can see the leaves falling, but you don’t try to stop them or pick them up. You don’t try to fix them. You just let them float away. This is really important to do with your obsessive thoughts. The more you try to fight them off, the worse they get. I used to have blasphemous sentences running in my head 24/7. I felt like I had to put a “not” next to each sentence in order to “fix” it. But this just took hours of my time every day, and it was very scary, because I was worried that if I messed up, that I would go to hell. It was very freeing to learn later that I could just let those sentences run freely through my head without trying to fix them. The second part of ERP therapy is all about “denying your compulsions.” Every time OCD tells you that if you don’t do things a certain way that something really bad will happen, that is a compulsion. Once you recognize what your compulsions are, ERP therapy will have you practice stopping doing all of those things. For some people, that will mean stopping washing their hands or touching lights switches or, in my case, putting “fixing” words in their head. Compulsions are safety behaviors. During ERP therapy, you will practice stopping engaging with safety behaviors. All this is very hard to do and scary, so during therapy you will be given tools to help you deal with the fear. Often ERP therapy will take people from being non-functional to functional. I highly recommend it. ————————————————- PITFALL #1: After you have been doing ERP for a while and become somewhat successful, the OCD will try subtle little tricks to bring you down again. The first one is to tell you that your thoughts are REAL and not OCD, and therefore you can’t apply ERP therapy. Don’t fall for this trick! All thoughts are just thoughts. They are all meaningless. Don’t try to figure out what is real and what is OCD. Just treat all thoughts with ERP therapy. PITFALL #2: The second pitfall is that OCD will tell you that you can’t move forward unless you have absolute certainty that you will be safe. Hate to tell you this, folks, but there is no certainty in life. You will never know for SURE that you or your loved ones will be “safe” from the OCD rules. Therefore, you have to move forward in the uncertainty. It’s hard, but it gets easier with time and practice. We got this, guys !!!!!!
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond