I’m very early in my ERP. I tried being brave and jumping right to eating a food that I was afraid of (fear of allergic reaction or bodily sensation) and I panicked really bad and dissociated. I feel like I made a mistake and it backfired on me😞I feel really ashamed and scared and just exhausted by this stuff.
It will be ok. I understand those feelings as I have had similar occurrences myself. Just try to calm yourself down and don't think to far ahead. Just take everything one step at a time right now until you start feeling like you are getting back where you were. Meditation has been helpful for me, but its also good to try and treat yourself to something you enjoy tonight. Be kind to yourself. This is hard and even though it feels like you made a mistake, I promise you did not. You took a step, and sometimes those steps slide out from under us and take us back a step or two. By taking things one step at a time, you will gradually get back to where you were abd you will be better off when it's time to take that step again. You were brave and you deserve to be proud of that. All the rest of us going through this understand and we're proud of you.
@Student of my mind 🧘♂️ Thank you so much for your kind reply 💜
You ate the scary food. Doesn’t matter that you panicked and that you dissociated. What matters is you ate something scary and survived!!!!!!!!! Next time you can just remind yourself that you survived this last time, you can survive it this time as well!!
Wooo! You tried!! That’s awesome! What would be an easier food or way to eat it next time?
Today I was officially diagnosed, and a lot of my thoughts all day have been “man, what if I actually don’t have it and I exaggerated my symptoms or something.” I had this thought especially because I hadn’t had a really bad episode in a while. But then sure enough, I had a little episode tonight. I feel like I might’ve brought it upon myself, at least in small part. Having difficulty separating OCD paranoia from real life problems to be considered with at the moment 👎🏻 Gonna sleep on it! 🙏🏻❤️
i would like some advice please and i didn't get any responses 😭.. apologies for reposting but just need some thoughts on this 🥲 //// after frustrations with erp not working, i intentionally brought up the intrusive mental images as well as sensations during an exposure in trying to practice desensitizing myself to them. but now im scared that me purposefully bringing on the images and especially the disturbing outward sensations means that i did something bad or acted on my thought since i took the action to purposefully create and bring the disturbing intrusive images and thoughts and feelings. now it feels like not just a fear but reality. and my anxiety levels are just too much. i'm just feeling terrible and would like some thoughts or support
I just started working on my first exposure today with my therapist after screening and creating the lists for several weeks now. We did an exposure together and now I feel 100x worse than I did coming in. I won’t go too into detail but it involved looking at a VERY gory image that had to do with my fear of natural disasters. I called my mom and talked with her and she was shocked and wondered how in the hell that would help me! I agree. Did any of y’all feel this way when you first started or is this just not the right kind of therapy for me?
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