- Date posted
- 37w ago
Do things get better?
I only see negatives on this page… can anyone share positives? Is anyone getting better from therapy?
I only see negatives on this page… can anyone share positives? Is anyone getting better from therapy?
I've went years between "themes", almost OCD at 0%. So whatever you're feeling now, it won't last. Trust me. :)
Of course. I’ve been recovered for 4 years. What do you want to know?
I have gone years between flair ups where I don’t even think about OCD. It is possible!
When I first found out I had ocd, just before my diagnosis I saw negative comments everywhere on it. All bleak and hopeless. I then looked up the stats for recovery and they're shockingly bad. I said a massive f u to the stats and best them. Don't let negatives weigh you down or put you off. Smile and wave as you surpass all preconceived results and always have your goals in mind
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
Yes they can. What would you like to know?
@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*
I got better before I even knew what this was. Just muddled thru it with a program for anxiety. I've gone years in between episodes of what I called "my weird anxiety". If I got better for years I can get better again. Starting ERP here. I see no reason why it won't go away again 😊
Thank you everyone! This gives me hope! I have been thinking it’s not possible to get better. Everyday is a struggle and I forget what happiness feels like. I just want peace again! I will keep fighting.
I feel really scared and worried that the therapist I find on NOCD might not be effective, and instead of getting better, I might end up feeling worse. I’m afraid that if I don’t feel any progress, I’ll want to switch therapists, but my mom might get impatient with me. I worry that she’ll lose faith in therapy, stop paying for it, and think it’s a waste of time and money. I know therapy takes time and it’s not a quick fix, but I’m scared that things won’t go the way I hope. What if I don’t connect with the therapist? What if they don’t understand my OCD as well as I need them to? I’ve already been struggling so much, and the thought of going through another disappointment is exhausting. I’m only 14, and I feel stuck because I can’t manage this on my own. I need help, but I also need my mom to stay patient and supportive through this process. I’m scared that if things don’t improve fast enough, she’ll give up on paying for therapy. I don’t know what to do, and it’s making me feel really anxious. I just want to get better, but what if nothing works out?
People who went from a really bad time with OCD to a better time now. Is it really possible? What was your theme? Did you take medication?
December 14, 2024, marked two years since my first ERP therapy session with my NOCD therapist, Mixi. And October 2024 marked a year of being free from OCD. It was not an easy journey, confronting my fears face to face. Exposing myself to the images and thoughts my brain kept throwing at me, accepting that I might be the worst mother, that my daughter wouldn’t love me, and that I deserved to be considered a bad person. It was challenging having to say, “Yes, I am those things,” feeling the desire to run, but realizing the thoughts followed me. At the start of my therapy, I remember feeling like I couldn’t do this anymore. Life felt unbearable, and I felt so weak. I longed for a time before the OCD, before the flare-ups, before the anxiety, the daily panic attacks. I thought I’d never be myself again. But I now know that ERP saved my life. The first couple of sessions were tough. I wasn’t fully present. I lied to my therapist about what my actual thoughts were, fearing judgment. I pretended that the exposures were working, but when the sessions ended, I went back to not sleeping, constantly overwhelmed by fear and anxiety. But my therapist never judged me. She made me feel safe to be honest with her. She understood OCD and never faltered in supporting me, even when I admitted I had been lying and still continued my compulsions. My biggest milestone in therapy was being 100% transparent with my therapist. That was when real change began. At first, I started small—simply reading the words that terrified me: "bad mom," "hated," "unloved." Then, I worked on listening to those words while doing dishes—not completely stopping my rumination, but noticing it. Just 15 minutes, my therapist said. It wasn’t easy. At one point, I found myself thinking, “Will I ever feel like myself again?” But I kept pushing through. Slowly, I built tolerance and moved to face-to-face exposures—sitting alone with my daughter, leaning into the thought that my siblings might die, reading articles about my worst fears, and calling myself the things I feared. Each session was challenging, but with time, the thoughts started to lose their grip. By my eleventh session, I started to realize: OCD was here, and it wasn’t going away, but I could keep living my life despite it. I didn’t need to wait for it to be quiet or go away to move on. Slowly, it began to quiet down, and I started to feel like myself again. In fact, I am not my old self anymore—I’m a better version. OCD hasn’t completely disappeared, but it’s quieter now. Most of the time, it doesn’t speak, and when it does, I know how to handle it. The last session with my therapist was emotional. I cried because I was finishing therapy. I remember how, in the beginning, I cried because I thought it was just starting—because I was overwhelmed and terrified. But at the end, I cried because I was sad it was ending. It felt like I had come so far, and part of me wasn’t ready to say goodbye, even though I had already learned so much. It was a bittersweet moment, but I knew I was walking away stronger, equipped with the tools to handle OCD on my own. If I could change anything about my journey, it would be being open and honest from the beginning. It was the key to finding true healing. The transparency, the honesty—it opened the door to lasting change. I’m no longer that person who was stuck in constant panic. I’m someone who has fought and survived, and while OCD still appears from time to time, I know it doesn’t define me. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. Have you started therapy, is something holding you back? Is there something you want to know about ERP therapy? I'll be live in the app answering each and every one today from 6-7pm EST. Please drop them below!
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