Date posted: 2y

ERP/ACT question

Hi. I’ve been very compulsive on this app of late and not using it in a healthy way. Question - a real issue I am struggling with is committing to ERP. - my mind doubts wether it’s OCD, so therefore sees ERP as useless. - my mind tells me that exposing myself will lead to discovery that my fear is true. - I’m finding it incredibly difficult to see my theme as irrelevant and not ‘real’ How have people tackled the above? Any examples would be great. E.g. was it just trusting your therapist knows and you just have to trust them? Was it just giving it a go for long enough? Would love some advice/lived advice etc. Cheers

C181913530

Date posted: 2y

I doubt everyday whether its OCD. Would love to hear some advice too.

HenryMP27

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2y

I understand the significance of determining whether your experiences align with OCD or another condition. It can provide valuable insights into the nature of your challenges and guide the appropriate course of action. However, it's important to keep sight of the bigger picture. Regardless of the specific label, what truly matters is acknowledging the emotional distress you're currently facing and taking proactive steps towards finding relief and personal growth. Rather than becoming overly fixated on labeling your condition, I would encourage you to focus on the practical strategies and interventions that can empower you to overcome your difficulties. If you're open to it, I think I can help you come up with a exposure exercise that may allow you to confront your fears and gradually regain control over your thoughts and emotions. Why is it that you think that ERP/ACT is useless to you? How is it failing?

Date posted: 2y

@HenryMP27 Thanks Henry. Bit more context. My theme is SOOCD. I identified as a straight male, with no seemingly other thoughts otherwise until the thought popped in - “you are gay”. Although it’s a bit more complicated with some ROCD stuff too, I’m now 35 and have been really struggling for a year. One of (many) roadblocks I’ve had to engage with erp has been this inner feeling or belief that I am gay. This despite never seemingly wanting, or ever wanting this, nor any romantic attraction or even thoughts about it. So take this ‘belief’ or maybe it’s an intrusive thought that it’s a belief, I’m scared that doing exposure will prove my fear.

HenryMP27

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2y

@gp What would you say is stronger? Your willingness to put yourself in an extremely uncomfortable situation that may have positive long-term results, or your fear of doing the exposure and continue living in pain What's the worst thing that can happen if you were to be gay? That you enjoy having sex with men and have to tell your family and friends about it? Is this really that scary?

Date posted: 2y

@gp Honestly, when it comes down to it. I seem to believe the intrusive thoughts and feelings as real and true. It appears to be a major barrier to me engaging in therapy correctly. It seems it would be far easier if I ‘knew’ this was ocd.

Date posted: 2y

@HenryMP27 It’s horrifyingly scary. I’m married with a son on the way.

Date posted: 2y

@HenryMP27 Sorry - I can’t really describe exactly why I’m so afraid of it. My brain just will not stop thinking about it. Won’t stop trying to find evidence that it’s true. Won’t stop trying to engage with the content and thoughts. And it causes me so much fear and anxiety.

HenryMP27

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2y

I say it because I am married and before I was able to overcome my rOCD I was afraid of interacting with other attractive women in real life. So... I went to a strip club with my wife and just like that... My fears slowly fade away within a couple of months. Exposure does work!

Date posted: 2y

@HenryMP27 Thank you for experience. From what I understand about treatment, it wasn’t the act of exposure that helped you, it was what you were doing in your head during and after if. So in terms of the way I logically see ERP, is it’s all about getting to a point where the thoughts and feelings don’t matter. So you get to a point where you are ‘meh’ to them. ERP creates the environment for you to do this and the RP is the practice to allow yourself to be as scared and anxious and unsure as possible. Then over time, the thoughts and feelings become less relevant to you. It makes absolute sense to me why this is helpful. My barrier appears to be insight into my condition. My psych has diagnosed me with ocd (that doesn’t seem enough), my symptoms mostly align with HOCD, that doesn’t seem enough. I’ve never felt a romantic attraction to a man in my life, that doesn’t seem enough. Yet … it’s like I don’t believe this is ocd, I believe the theme, and it’s stopping me from engaging in treatment. I THINK the answer is that EVERYONE believes their theme to begin with. If you didn’t, you likely wouldn’t care. The key is to trust in the diagnosis, trust in the treatment and engage in ERP, over and over again, until your brain re-learns healthy coping patterns rather than obsessive ones. It’s bloody so hard.

anxietypoops

Date posted: 25w

The RP in ERP

Hi! I've been on my OCD healing journey for about half a year and I have seen a lot of success. I'm reaching out for advice, I am very willing to do exposures because I know the more I do them, the more I get better, but I struggle with the response prevention part. I don't know how to control my brain when it comes to facing the fears especially since most of my compulsions are mental. I can tell myself the typical things "I am okay with the uncertainty of this happening", etc. but its like my brain doesn't believe them. I've been stuck in this disconnect for a while and would love advice you have heard from a therapist or learned that has really help you.

Cody Fournier

User type: Therapist

Date posted: 23w

OCD switches themes

I was just thinking about how OCD tries to be tricky and switches themes on us!! The amount of times I have said to myself in the past, IF ONLY I HAD THE OLDER THEME I USE TO WORRY ABOUT BECAUSE THIS NEW ONE IS SO MUCH WORSE!!! Has anyone ever experienced this before? Once I started ERP therapy, I began to really start understanding what mental/physical compulsions I was doing to really keep my OCD alive! While I did this, I would also tap into my self-compassion bucket, even when it felt like it was dry at times, because it was SO easy to judge myself for because of the sheer presence of my thoughts. I would also have the most self-compassion for myself for those taboo intrusive thoughts that really felt so strong, ego-dystonic and real!!! My OCD would hop around from theme to theme and just when I thought I figured it out (compulsion) it would hop again and make me discouraged! I noticed for me that once I really understood my compulsions, it didn't matter when the theme switched as I could tackle it at its core. If I was able to stay steadfast and resist compulsions the best I could, I started to notice that my CONFIDENCE increased in the long run! I also noticed that some of the core fears were the same for different OCD subtypes. OCD treatment is hard BUT living with OCD is harder. I have experienced subtypes including Harm OCD, ROCD, Moral Scrupulosity, Sensorimotor, Contamination, Perfectionism/Just Right, Hit and Run, Magical Thinking, Real Event/False Memory. ERP therapy allowed me to really work on stopping these compulsions and switching from theme to theme. I was fed up with what OCD took from me and I needed to do something about it. I talked to an ERP therapist and it was one of the best decisions of my life. If you are struggling, keep pushing and get the help you deserve!! You got this!!!

Tea and Honey

Date posted: 16w

Summary of recovery through ERP

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 !!!!!!

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