So I did erp and my thoughts don’t really bother me anymore. But the one thing that stayed is I’m always anxious and these anxious feelings don’t have thoughts giving me anxiety. To anyone who has done erp without medication do you still feel anxiety that’s annoying
I know this is a SUPER annoying answer but exercise has really helped me with this sort of thing
Yes… i hope you can help me with my posts…
The way it was described to me is that the thoughts go then the body follows. We've programmed ourselves to be in fight or flight and to react with certain triggers. Give the body a moment to realize it isn't on auto pilot and work on activities that relax you. I use to feel dizzy without any triggering thoughts whenever I'd get a certain distance from home cause that was where my ocd would make me panic at. Itb did go away esp once I let it.
For me, the thoughts often produced the anxiety. ERP results in the thoughts producing less anxiety which in turn causes them to be more easily disregarded. Because there are then less thoughts, there isn’t as much anxiety. However, I still get anxious feelings for all sorts of things. Mental anxiety to me is just fear of something happening or not happening that currently isn’t happening in the moment. It’s actually miraculous to me that the mind is able to conjure so much anxiety from something not based in reality. I also do things outside of OCD/ERP for my other types of anxiety. I hope this helps in some way!
Questions about ERP. My anxiety is very low due to the amount of medicine that I’m on but I still have the constant intrusive thoughts. Do others have issues with trying work with intrusive thoughts and ERP without anxiety? What have you done to work on it?
Anxiety and Not wanting to feel feelings Since I started ERP and resisting rumination and rituals and controlling things I’ve noticed I have extra mental real estate. I’m not as consumed by my thoughts but my baseline anxiety is like 6/10 always. It’s pretty high. My brain keeps checking in and saying “you shouldn’t feel this way! This isn’t right! Google depersonalization! Google spacing out and brain fog!” But I know that’s OCDs game. So I just sit with the anxiety and try to move on with my day. Interestingly, once I strip away all of the rumination, compulsions and rituals all I’m left with is my own uncomfortable feelings that I don’t like. This leads me to conclude that ocd is just a way for me to try and control how I feel. I always wanna feel good and relaxed. Everyone does but that’s an unrealistic goal. Has anyone else come across this before?
Question... I've been doing erp for a few months now. My obsessive thoughts don't swim in my head nearly as much anymore, which is wonderful. Here's my question: even thought the thoughts seem quieter, my anxious feelings still are there (chest tightness, butterflies in my stomach) Anyone else experience this? Are the same techniques used to combat "anxious feelings" as obsessive thoughts?
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