Questions about ERP. My anxiety is very low due to the amount of medicine that I’m on but I still have the constant intrusive thoughts. Do others have issues with trying work with intrusive thoughts and ERP without anxiety? What have you done to work on it?

I’d say do the erp until the 3-4 drops down ever further. I’m happy that you’re anxiety has gone down, though! Remember that intrusive thoughts are normal and you may still be obsessing over them because you’re brain is used to it. Try Jeffrey Schwartz 4 steps, label it as an intrusive thought, remind yourself it’s not you it’s your ocd, and then focus on something more mindful and in the moment. Good luck!

Once ERP lowers your anxiety levels you gotta keep doing your ERP even tho you no longer experience distress or anxiety with your intrusive thoughts. The goal is to bring the intrusive thoughts on purpose when you are not thinking about them in order for your mind to move on from the obsession.

@bookworm if I’m being completely honest I haven’t been doing my ERP for a long time. I’ve relied on medicine to take away the anxiety and hoping through that the intrusive thoughts don’t become bothersome and go away. Unfortunately I think I’m going through a bout of depression so its somewhat split. I see my psychiatrist on Friday and am going to ask him what med changes we can make so I’m working on the OCD (and depression) but also functioning (I avoid and isolate as my job has weird hours and schedule).

haven’t experienced that but i don’t think the goal is to get rid of the intrusive thoughts. if they don’t give you any anxiety then wouldn’t you be better at forgetting them?

I still have anxiety, but we are talking about 3-4 tops on a scale of 10. Their still constant obsessive thoughts.

i don’t think you can do erp without anxiety depending on how long you’ve been using the strategies and meds. may i ask how long?

Curious...what medication are you on? I’ve been through so many meds this past year...

@AshleyLM I’m on Lexapro, Neurotin and take Xanax.

@AYCArnold, didn’t even think about that. Thanks for the feedback!