Do we make our intrusive thoughts become real?

I'm a bit confused on ERP. I understand not doing a compulsion in response to an instruive thought, but the planned, on purpose exposures confuse me. For example, I'm ordering a new phone and I had an instruive thought that said "When the phone arrives, you're going to take, soap, toothpaste, olive oil, etc. and put it on your phone before you put the screen protector on." A weird thought, I know. So now for exposure, I need to do what the intrusive thought says? I imagine I'll worry that I've smeared something on my phone before I put the screen protector on. I don't actually want to smear anything on my phone, I think that could damage it. But, for exposure, are you supposed to do this? It's confusing. What makes sense to me, and what I come back to is just letting the intrusive thought be a thought, and not doing a compulsion. That makes sense to me. It's the extra, planned exposure part that confuses me, and honestly gets me stuck in a worry cycle about ERP/CBT therapy itself.

Username: kaylabhkaylabh

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 32w ago

Hey! When I first started I had a lot of similar questions and concerns about ERP too. For instance, I have a fear of developing schizophrenia, so me and my therapist worked to find something that would initiate the fear of this. We would watch tiktok videos over and over until the anxiety dissipated. I say this to say you and your therapist will have to personally construct a plan together! I’ve done a complete 360 in my life thanks to ERP. It’s definitely worth it.

Username: kaylabhkaylabh

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 32w ago

@kaylabh TikTok videos simulating being schizophrenic^

Username: Audrey/33Audrey/33

Date posted: 32w ago

For exposure you don’t need to do what the intrusive thoughts say. Exposure is when you expose yourself to something that ends up making you uncomfortable and then the thoughts pop up. Only you know what will trigger the thoughts. The goal is to trigger you more and more and not do the compulsions so the urge to do them gets less and less.

Username: canigetawitness

Date posted: 4y ago

I got the intrusive thought "What if you unknowingly ran into your kitchen, pumped soap in your hands & rubbed it on your TV". My compulsions now are trying to figure out if I did that, looking for potential soap rubbed on the TV. How would you apply ERP to this scenerio? I'm confused about how it works to break the cycle.

Username: canigetawitness

Date posted: 4y ago

I'm stuck in an OCD cycle and having a hard time trying to figure out how to treat it with ERP. Basically what happens when I go to the bathroom, shower, walk past the kitchen sink, my mind goes "You've just ran over to the soap/shampoo bottle, and pumped soap on yourself for no reason." I think that's a weird thought, where did that come from. Next, I'll sometimes re-rinse my hands, body, etc. to make sure I haven't just ran and pumped soap on me for no reason. For ERP I get confused if I'm just supposed to let the thought "you've just ran over to the soap/shampoo bottle and pumped soap on yourself for no reason" be there and not react with compulsions. Or if I need to pump soap on me and not rinse it off, making pumping soap on me the new norm? I don't know, it's confusing to me.

Username: feelinghopel...

Date posted: 4y ago

I'm really confused about what ERP actually is. I've read that it's all about facing your intrusive thoughts & not doing the compulsions, but then I also hear it's about more than that, like eating off a toilet seat, or even licking a toilet seat. So I guess my question is if ERP is really about letting my intrusive thoughts be there and not reacting to them, whats the point of doing far-out-there exposures that would bother be OCD or no OCD. I could lick toilets, eat from them, roll around in dumpsters, make things opposite from the way I want them all day, but I'm still not going to like doing those things. It's weird because the description of ERP seems to contradict things when it's actually put into practice.

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Do we make our intrusive thoughts become real?

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