Anyone able to find success with ERP without the use of medication? I have been on almost all the SSRIs and I can’t tolerate the side effects. Trying it without them

Been getting off Zoloft the past couple months and going to therapy as regularly as it’s available. It’s really tough, but it’s getting better. I’m seeing a stronger me everyday and less breakdowns and spirals

Medication is best used in combination with ERP. Of course you can be successful without it.

For me I think everything depends on ERP, and how much I “let go”, independent of medicine. I had an extreme 4-day treatment without medicine, where there was a group of 3 patients and more than one therapist per patient being around them all the time. Was some common meetings and a lot of individual exposure. I f.ex. gathered water from the toilet to use as “hand cleaner”, and rubbed it into stuff at home, and slept with a shoe in my bed (I have washing/bacteria OCD amongst others). It was horrible, I was crying a lot while I did it, but suddenly, only after one day or two, the new horrible things I came up with surprised me in being not as bad as I imagined anymore. Long story short; I felt completely healthy for a long time after this. I’ve not been very good with maintanence, and now it’s back and I also use medicine. I notice I don’t let go as much as then, even with medicine, and I even feel weekly therapist meetings aren’t that helpful, since I have some difficulty finding the new motivation. I will ask for another intensive boost, or I really need to find a inner spark to just say “fuck this, I’ll do this shit”, because for me it’s the only thing that helps. Maybe meds make me a bit less sad, but for me they haven’t really made a very big difference. That’s what kind of nice but also very scary, because you can get help to be nudged to the edge, but in the end you need to take the final leap into the scary and insecure, and you are completely alone about it. At least this final step, and it’s so damn hard. But it helps. I’ve experienced being healthy for a while, I’ve seen others, more strict on maintenance, being healthy for long after this. I don’t think medicines are the biggest part. But, as a medicine comment; I also got a lot of side effects from many of them. I guess you’ve tried Citalopram as well? It’s one that haven’t given me noticeable side effects, but everyone reacts different. If you haven’t tried it, it could be worth a try?

Everything is possible ??