Is it normal to feel overwhelmed and sleep poorly when starting ERP for OCD?

I've been exposed to an absolute barrage of triggers over the last four days after months without any exposure. Doing my absolute best to practice ERP but almost in a state of shock.

It feels like I can never even get to be able to get there. It shakes me to my core and writing out my fears, triggers, and compulsions today for my therapist made my OCD finally feel real and that it’s not just my anxiety. Has anyone else struggled with this? Any tips for newbies who are scared 💩less?

So, I do have OCD. That’s not a question (Pure O mainly. Compulsions are mental and emotional checking and ruminating and comparing). And my OCD was ramping up pretty bad a while back so I started ERP counseling through NOCD. I learned some basic skills and good ways to respond and not engage to thoughts. But now, I think the therapy just brings things up that didn’t need to be that big. It makes minor things bigger. It brings overwhelm thinking I have all this “work” to do, when I think what I need is to let go. Of course with OCD letting go is not a simple task, but hear me out. I didn’t do therapy for over a month and started feeling better. I used some of the tools I learned a few times and things just seemed more minor and less serious. I’m now postpartum with anxiety panic and ocd so I upped my therapy and I truly think it’s making things worse. Does anyone else share this opinion or experience? I also think back to when OCD was darn near nonexistent and I was not in ERP therapy. I know things come and go but I’m just realizing this.