Do things get better?

Proud of you ☺️

Just curious, what stats on recovery do you mean? I thought erp had pretty high effectiveness?

@Anonymous Google statistics. I remember seeing 1-2% of the population have ocd. 10% who do, seek therapy. 10% of those who have it get better with an average 6-12months. I'm unsure if they include meds in those stats. That wasn't good enough for me so it made me push harder

@Anonymous Those stats may also include therapies not fit for treating ocd. Who knows 🤷‍♂️

@Wolfram I've read stats where erp effectiveness was given at like 60-80%. But I of course it always depends on the sample and how you measure more or less subjective things like"improvement in symptoms" and such.

@Anonymous I was aiming for zero symptoms. "Fully recovered". I know a few people with it who have it to the point where its manageable but I wanted to be free of it completely

@Wolfram How you’re feeling now vs. before therapy things like that. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?! I need something to keep me going.

@Bossybacon So bear in kind I was undiagnosed for 27 years. Before therapy I felt out of control and completely confused to who I was. I felt torn and it was affecting every aspect of my life. I lost someone I cared about and lots of others through not knowing what I had. I didn't want to die but didn't want to live like that either. I thought everyone else was the problem and they didn't think enough. I had so many questions and so little answers. I was always searching for an answer but didn't know what the question was. During therapy, everything started to make sense. My questions answered slowly but not the ones I was asking for the majority of my life. New ones. Ones that gave answers. Ones my therapist helped me with. I went in to therapy knowing the recovery stats and wanted to prove them wrong. I wanted 3 months with no meds and to be completely symptom free. My therapist was on board with this. She didn't push me hard enough so in between sessions I did way more erp than she expected (once you get an understanding, run with it. If you make mistakes, learn from them and keep going). After 3 months of therapy I had a few good months with zero symptoms. Then I decided to cut out some distractions in my life and uncovered a mountain of crap I needed to deal with, honestly overwhelming to the point where I felt hopeless. Ocd came back for a bit and this time I dealt with the triggering trauma and the theme on my own. Took longer without a therapist but I did it. Now I'm symptom free. It feels weird at first when you're getting better, especially if you don't have memories of a life before ocd. The silence in your mind is unnerving and I didn't know that was my goal. I think clearly now. My brain isn't full of ocd spam mail clogging it up. I feel as if I've had a massive capacity open up and now I'm hungry for life. All this time I thought if I found out what was wrong I'd be better. I wasn't looking for a finish line after all, I was looking for the start line. That's a very short version of it 😊

@Wolfram In mind*