Does anyone else’s therapist to answer the thoughts back by kind of ALMSOT agreeing with them like - yeah, maybe - it is possible - that’s a problem for future me - that will suck Anyone bc I’m feeling like this will make my brain think all my thoughts r okay… I just started ERP therapy pls help.
Yes, these are non-engagement responses. You can also use phrases like: "whatever. I'm not going to figure this out/fix this." "Great story, OCD" "Thanks for reminding me how much I care about [subject of your obsession... safety, my loved ones, my relationship, other people, being a good person, doing things right, etc.]" You're not necessarily agreeing with the thoughts, just accepting that they're there and not engaging with them. Nothing you do will make you think they're ok. You're just learning that you don't have to react to them and learning to not perform compulsions. It's ok to accept the thought is there and dismiss it because it's not dangerous.
@ReadyForImprovement Thanks so much :)
Yuppp my therapist tells me to hard agree to the thoughts, sit in the feelings and then move on to whatever you were doing.
My therapist will make me say my intrusive thoughts out loud to both ramp up the fear response and to make me hear them out loud. Sometimes that will eventually make them sound ridiculous and you can let them go easier.
Oh I like that (but also hate it, you know how it is) - some of mine are truly stupid so I bet that would help me. Thanks for posting this suggestion!
Yes indeedy.
Oh, another thing I'm trying is writing out some of my core fears and/or intrusive thoughts on post it notes and having them all over the house. Every time I look at one I say something like "yep, that could happen" or "yeah, maybe" and sometimes I'll tap the note or not. As I habituate to these words, ideas, and thoughts, I swap in new, scarier ones. I'm finding it's helping me quite a bit so far...
I looped in my parents in case they come over to borrow something when I'm not home to explain the notes that have alarming phrases on them.
Accepting uncertainty feels like I'm accepting my intrusive thoughts (that I know are false) as truth. Does anyone else deal with this thought and have any tips to avoid thinking this? (I know it's my OCD telling me this so I can continue ruminating and "proving intrusive thoughts wrong", but it's a thought that makes me feel like ERP will make things worse)
If I'm understanding ERP correctly, it's not doing ANYTHING that would help soothe you, right? In my case I'll have a thought > usually I'll have my husband check things for me, if no-one is around to check things for me, I'll say to myself (in my head or out-loud) "I would never do xyz" "I didn't even get up from where I was, if I did I would've remembered walking to and from" (just examples). These are all compulsions, right? So I can't even mentally soothe myself. If I'm going to do ERP correctly, how do y'all stop the mental compulsions?
So I’m starting therapy this week but I’ve been trying to use ERP myself, my main compulsion is rumination which I wasn’t even aware was a compulsion. I’m trying to do ERP but when I focus on observing the thought it goes, I dunno if I’m focusing too much on actually how to follow ERP or is this normal? I feel like I might be subconsciously blocking thoughts because I know how bad it is when I go down the rabbit hole, but then I also worry that the anxiety goes too quickly and that I’m finding it too easy to ignore the thought?
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