Hi guys also another question I’ve been doing ERP for awhile now. And I’m just getting into exposures and when I’m doing them with my therapist like writing out the things that scare me and saying them out loud it doesn’t seem to scare me. It’s more so when I’m alone having these constant thoughts daily is what becomes overwhelming and makes them feel real. Any insight on this?
What you are experiencing is very common, based on my own experience. The trick is to do the exercise maybe 3-5 minutes each day. The fear will eventually subside, but it takes time. Recovery is not linear, it's messy. While you recover, the disorder will hit you hard, to try to get you to stay on its treadmill. Just keep up with the program and share your fears with your therapist. S/he'll know what to do. Hope this helps.
hey, i totally get where you're coming from with the whole erp thing and how it feels different when you're on your own. it's super tough dealing with those constant thoughts that feel all too real when you're by yourself. you're definitely not alone in this. have you heard about "unstuck"? it's this ai-powered therapy tool for ocd (unstuckmyocd.com) that i've been using for the past month, and it's really helped me out. another member here recommended it, and i just wish i knew about it sooner! 🌟
I can relate. Talk to your therapist - this method maybe isn't for you. What helped me more was to just listen to my own obsessions on repeat (I recorded them) in daily life. Ask your therapist how to manage thoughts daily, let he/her guide you. Every method isn't suited for everyone - we have to find out wgat works for us.
Question, I’ve been in treatment for over a year now and have always had trouble having ERP scare me. I have mostly mental rumination and compulsions and have found that when I do scripts and recordings, they never make me anxious. Can anyone else relate? Any tips?
Hello guys, I need your advice because I am currently engaged in ERP teraphy and the thing is that I do not feel any fear with the thoughts I am trying to expose so basically it does not work for me. I feel very anxious and want to do rituals only when I have sudden thoughts so I don't really know to deal with that.
How do you do ERP? I'm not asking generally, but rather how do you, the person reading this, do ERP? I'm at the point where I'm trying to work out how to do ERP for myself (largely self-directed as I don't see my psychologist more than once every few weeks), and I'm trying to get an idea of what it looks like on a practical level. Do you try and do ERP every day? Multiple times a day? How long do you spend on each exposure/session? Do you do ERP at the same time every day, or do you change it up? What do you do after you've done an exposure, do you do any self-care once the exposure is finished? I see things online saying that it can take upwards of an hour for distress to decrease when doing an exposure, and I'm wondering what are you allowed to do during that time? If the goal of ERP is to sit with the distress, do you literally just sit there for an hour doing nothing until the anxiety goes down? That's a long time to sit doing nothing but feel anxious, especially if the goal is to do this every day. Right now I'm struggling with implementing ERP into my routine. I currently do ERP sporadically, and not on any kind of schedule. I'm struggling to find exposures that distress me sufficiently, and when I do find something I'll still find myself feeling anxious hours later even after I thought I'd acclimatized. I'd really appreciate hearing from other people so that I can get an idea of what good ERP looks like in practice.
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