How do you use ERP (exposure response prevention) to help “just right” OCD? I’ve never quite understood how to expose myself to anything to help me not do my compulsions since a lot of my feelings are just that it’s not right Like for germ/cleaning OCD they say to touch a trash can or something to expose yourself and not give in to your compulsions, but how would you do something like that with just right ocd?

Question about ERP. So, if the goal is to habituate to whatever we are exposed to, how does that work logically on some exposures. For example, put your hand in a toilet & habituate to the discomfort. Or even, lick the bottom of your shoe & habituate to the discomfort. Make a picture crooked on the wall & habituate to the discomfort. My concern arises because even outside of OCD, I wouldn't completely habituate to these things as a person. #1, i don't have contamination OCD & I think sticking my hand in a toilet is icky. Licking the bottom of my shoe is icky too. Yeah, I can handle a picture crooked on the wall, but I prefer my pictures to hang straight. Get what I'm saying? Sometimes I wonder if I went through ERP, it wouldn't work anyway because outside of it, I'm not going to 100% habituate to these things. Not sure alot of people would completely.

(How can you do ERP when there is a legit concern?) Trigger warning for Contamination OCD/coronavirus. For instance, I’m pregnant right now and have had a resurgence of contamination OCD. (I also have GAD, so I’m never sure which tactic to take with a thought.) Health really is a legitimate concern here, and I’m told I should be more careful. Of course I overdo it, yet ERP seems to be the exact opposite of being more careful and that seems very, very unwise. How do you do exposure for something that your doctor says to not do? How do you do exposure for something like, for another unrelated example, not wearing a mask around other people right now in the time of the pandemic when you’re absolutely required to wear a mask and it’s dangerous to not? ERP basically doesn’t make sense to me. By that thinking I should be changing the litter box and not washing my hands and *I definitely should not do that*. How do you do ERP when there is a legitimate aspect of an actual concern?

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.