Help me understand better?

I think the big picture is OCD and the anxiety it brings constantly leaves you in flight response, latching on to your fears and in some cases incapacitating you, affecting your daily life. I think we can all agree that no matter how hard we try we can't avoid our triggers, so in order to fully relieve ourselves from this incapacitating anxiety, we need to constantly face our fears and convince our brain that there's nothing to be afraid of, reducing anxiety long term. While yes compulsions do relieve anxiety temporarily, they often work less and less over time, meaning we need to do them more and more in order to feel relieved, or find different compulsions that may impact our life more, which defeats the purpose of the temporary anxiety relief. With ERP you can free yourself from flight response by rationalizing your triggers and dealing with them in the moment, removing that recurring anxiety and the need for compulsions altogether.

Hey, so the thing is you may get relief in the moment, however, the next time doubt creeps in, your brain has already learned that you must “do something” to get rid of the anxiety and you are then caught in the OCD loop. Believe me, I speak from experience, this can go on for years. What you are doing by allowing the anxiety to be there is you are teaching your brain that it’s ok to have these thoughts, to feel these feelings. It’s not so that you never worry about a specific thing. It’s so that you are better able to live with uncertainty and doubt and the distress they bring. Here is the thing, as you practice this, and I know how hard it is, but as you practice being able to allow the anxiety to be there, the anxiety does decrease. I didn’t believe it, it takes time and commitment, but it is so worth it. It’s ok to be anxious, scared, etc., but follow your values, not what OCD want you to do, and you will get your life back. I did❤️. All the best!

Just to give you an idea of how ERP worked for me. I was very anxious that my car door would hit the one next to me when I got out. My ERP was to park next to a car get out not look at the car next to me walk to the back of my car and get back in without looking at the other car. After doing that again, again, again etc. it isn’t really an issue now. I had the stress when I was doing it and let the anxiety go down on its own. So I retrained my brain. I hope that gives a bit of an idea how it works.