- Date posted
- 1y
Curious
Did erp work for you guys
Did erp work for you guys
100%, it helped me after a few months, I didn’t realize how bad I had gotten until I overcame my ocd. I was anxious and shaking 24/7, erp helped me to face my fears and overcome them, which is something I never thought I could do. I recently have also been put on medication and it was a GAME CHANGER. But also remember everyone’s brain is wired differently. You get to decide how you want to deal with your ocd!
I’m 3 months in and it has helped me! I do ERP and CBT. Both know about it. ERP helps me face the OCD and both therapist help me get under the reasoning. Unfortunately, work has been very stressful this last month and a half so we are kinda taking steps back to help manage that and how it manifest. But ERP is helpful, especially with changing themes. You find out under all those is the same self values you may be ignoring or infringing upon
What do you mean by you get to decide how you want to deal with ocd ?
Yes! I would recommend it. I found a therapist here and she was excellent Although it was tough learning how to face my fears , it was extremely helpful I use ERP independently now
@Salstar How Long did it take you to face it ?
You do it at your own pace everyone is different I had 2 lots of therapy The first lot was about 10 sessions . A combination of 90 mins 60 mins and 30 mins The second set was about 8 sessions which was a combination of 60 minutes and 30minutes. Money well spent
Wow , but it worked for I guess pretty easily .
Yep
Yes! But not the first time - 20 years ago, I wasn't ready to face my fears and my therapist wasn't competent. Many years later I did ERP online, helped me immensely.
How did you complete Erp online if you don't mind me asking?
@Quieter2024 I had daily connection with my therapist by emails. We made a plan together for my exposures. To me it was easier to work with the exposures on my own this way - I didn't feel the pressure to be brave, I could walkbin my own pace. Don't know if this answer your question...
@Estrid No that makes sense, thanks for replying :)
@Quieter2024 😊👍
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) isn't always easy, but as one of the most effective treatments for OCD, it's worth it. If you've started ERP, what has been the biggest surprise you've experienced in learning to resist compulsions? If you haven't started ERP yet, what is holding you back from starting?
I had just posted a summary of ERP for a group member, and I thought it might be useful for everybody. Here it is below (with a little extra added)…. ERP therapy is researched-based. Most other therapies don’t work. There have been people who have been literally stuck in their houses (from their OCD) who gained their lives back through ERP therapy. NOCD does ERP therapy exclusively. You can find it in other places too, but you have to ask around. There are two tenants of ERP therapy: The first one has to do with the repetitive thoughts inside our heads. These thoughts are actually defined as “obsessions”. You are not supposed to do anything with the obsessions. You are supposed to let them run through your head freely, without trying to fix them or stop them. Imagine a tree planted by a river. The leaves fall off and float down the river. You can see the leaves falling, but you don’t try to stop them or pick them up. You don’t try to fix them. You just let them float away. This is really important to do with your obsessive thoughts. The more you try to fight them off, the worse they get. I used to have blasphemous sentences running in my head 24/7. I felt like I had to put a “not” next to each sentence in order to “fix” it. But this just took hours of my time every day, and it was very scary, because I was worried that if I messed up, that I would go to hell. It was very freeing to learn later that I could just let those sentences run freely through my head without trying to fix them. The second part of ERP therapy is all about “denying your compulsions.” Every time OCD tells you that if you don’t do things a certain way that something really bad will happen, that is a compulsion. Once you recognize what your compulsions are, ERP therapy will have you practice stopping doing all of those things. For some people, that will mean stopping washing their hands or touching lights switches or, in my case, putting “fixing” words in their head. Compulsions are safety behaviors. During ERP therapy, you will practice stopping engaging with safety behaviors. All this is very hard to do and scary, so during therapy you will be given tools to help you deal with the fear. Often ERP therapy will take people from being non-functional to functional. I highly recommend it. ————————————————- PITFALL #1: After you have been doing ERP for a while and become somewhat successful, the OCD will try subtle little tricks to bring you down again. The first one is to tell you that your thoughts are REAL and not OCD, and therefore you can’t apply ERP therapy. Don’t fall for this trick! All thoughts are just thoughts. They are all meaningless. Don’t try to figure out what is real and what is OCD. Just treat all thoughts with ERP therapy. PITFALL #2: The second pitfall is that OCD will tell you that you can’t move forward unless you have absolute certainty that you will be safe. Hate to tell you this, folks, but there is no certainty in life. You will never know for SURE that you or your loved ones will be “safe” from the OCD rules. Therefore, you have to move forward in the uncertainty. It’s hard, but it gets easier with time and practice. We got this, guys !!!!!!
I'm just laying here avoiding being an adult and wondering if during ERP the therapists are mean. Like, is it a "tough love" type of situation? That makes me anxious
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond