thoughts that can be true?

@Anonymous thank you. i will try to sit with it. ive been not asking for reassurance ( my compulsion ) for a good 2 weeks now but it just continues to come back & eat at me

@moonjoy Ok. If you are seeing a therapist, you could ask them what you could do. Theoretically ERP should work very similarly between all obsessions. And I think each person has a different ERP strategy that they prefer/works better for them. There are a few different strategies, you could look into the different methods of ERP. I'm glad to hear you are trying so hard to not seek reassurance! That's really difficult to do, and 2 weeks is quite a bit of time, especially when you feel like it's eating you. I have been trying not to confide in people about my worries because I'm not sure if there is a compulsion involved in there somewhere, but either way it's really not helping me, and it's eating me too. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't be on these community posts today if I wasn't having such a hard time and trying to confide again. I have been generally trying not to confide for about the whole month of August now, but once halfway through and for the past few days I'm back to confiding. It's difficult.

@Anonymous im getting a therapist this upcoming week so im gonna ask him how i can really go about this. i think that as well sometimes, like im not really sure if being on this app is a compulsion of mine either and idk if it helps or hurts me. it really is hard. a whole entire month of trying not to confide is honestly really amazing. idk what to do because a bunch of thoughts are coming up and they can be true and it’s just like idk what to do. idk how to live like this if these things can be true and i just wont ever know . im just scared

@moonjoy I'm glad that you are going to see a therapist! :) You probably already know, but I thought I'd add that the therapist needs to understand OCD and use ERP therapy. OCD is very confusing, and even after 2 years OCD still has many mysteries to me, such as exactly what things are compulsions for me. But maybe I'm particularly slow in therapy. Regardless, ERP has been very helpful to me, and it is something I really needed. I'm sorry. It's all very scary, for all of us.

@Anonymous i had a really good therapist who understood ocd and who diagnosed me with it but sadly he left the place so i had to get a new one. im not sure if this new therapist understands ocd because i didn’t speak to him yet but thats the first thing im going to be talking to him about or asking him if he understands. im glad to hear ERP has been helpful for you. how long would u say you have to do it before noticing a difference ? if u can tell

@moonjoy It is different for each person, and even for each obsession. I noticed a difference almost right away with one obsession, and with another it is taking a long time for me. I know it's hard, you want to be better, but you should try not to focus on the time it takes. Each day do what it takes to get better, and let tomorrow take care of itself. Take your time, and remember to work on it. I myself am taking time off college for ERP, and I want to go back, but alas, I need to take more time for therapy first. If you need to search for a new therapist ever, the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) website has a place where you can search for OCD therapists near you. I hope that this therapist is good for you, though! Did your last therapist have you do ERP? Did they teach you it?