Does ERP actually work?

I keep asking questions about ERP because I'm trying to convince myself that it will actually work for R/E OCD. In one of the NOCD youtube videos, the analogy was "well people live with uncertainty all the time - they keep driving a car even if it can crash" etc. Yes, but driving a car is an uncertainty that people accept because it doesn't directly correlate to their IDENTITY, CHARACTER, and INTEGRITY. So to me that's an apples and oranges comparison. So yes I believe ERP can work (or I've heard) BUT can it work in the "right way" going forward. What I mean by that is do you come out of it 1) not having to accept a dogma / delusion? 2) do you keep your integrity and identity in tact or have to lie to yourself to move on from the real event? 3) is it TRUE peace of mind or just delusion? If it's not, if I have to sacrifice my integrity and identity to move on, to me that's not a genuine and sustainable solution it's just a bandaid. I hope someone who's done ERP can convince me otherwise because it'd be nice to move on from OCD

Real Events OCD

Anonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2d

Hey man. In my experience it works. But it only works as much as you are willing to do the hard stuff to make it work. I don’t struggle from real event but OCD is the same no matter the theme. It makes you doubt, and want absolute certainty and there is just no way to get it. Even if you did get it you would still question it because that’s what OCD does. The only way is to accept the uncertainty and resist doing the compulsions to try to get it whatever that is for your theme. Mine is contamination so many days I have to just accept that maybe I am contaminated or my clothes are and go about my day as normal without taking off my clothes or washing my hands excessively etc. OCD is attacking your character and integrity because that’s what’s important to you and OCD always goes after what’s important. You have to accept thoughts for what they are. The mind delusion you speak of is OCD my friend… it completely distorts reality. I still have bad days and I still have thoughts but ERP has help me to identify what is an OCD thought and how to manage it and not feed the machine to make it worse.

Anonymous

Date posted: 2d

These are a really good set of questions to ask before starting something that can alter your mind! Kudos for the due diligence. I don't have all the answers but one thing ERP has shown me is how many delusions I had that I didn't know. From my experience, ERP hasn't required me to believe in anything other than uncertainty and in my ability to learn how to sit in the discomfort it presents. The need for certainty (developed to make me feel safe in the world) led me to believe things that weren't true (to try to obtain certainty/ reduce distress) that I could not see were untrue until I learned to sit in the distress that I had been frantically avoiding. How how do I know that what im unlearning is delusions and what im learning isn't causing delusions? From what I understand, delusions require a degree of certainty. If I believe something but also believe maybe it's incorrect, I have a theory and if incorrect I have a shot of being corrected. If I believe something to the degree that it is difficult to consider anything outside of, if I am incorrect I'm stuck. The latter allows delusions to exist. The belief in uncertainty protects against delusions. ERP helps to make uncertainty easier to stomach by developing the ability to sit in discomfort. Im not aware of anything you have to believe in with ERP that would create delusions as it seems to be antithesis to delusions.

anxietypoops

Date posted: 23w

The RP in ERP

Hi! I've been on my OCD healing journey for about half a year and I have seen a lot of success. I'm reaching out for advice, I am very willing to do exposures because I know the more I do them, the more I get better, but I struggle with the response prevention part. I don't know how to control my brain when it comes to facing the fears especially since most of my compulsions are mental. I can tell myself the typical things "I am okay with the uncertainty of this happening", etc. but its like my brain doesn't believe them. I've been stuck in this disconnect for a while and would love advice you have heard from a therapist or learned that has really help you.

Tea and Honey

Date posted: 14w

Summary of recovery through ERP

I had just posted a summary of ERP for a group member, and I thought it might be useful for everybody. Here it is below (with a little extra added)…. ERP therapy is researched-based. Most other therapies don’t work. There have been people who have been literally stuck in their houses (from their OCD) who gained their lives back through ERP therapy. NOCD does ERP therapy exclusively. You can find it in other places too, but you have to ask around. There are two tenants of ERP therapy: The first one has to do with the repetitive thoughts inside our heads. These thoughts are actually defined as “obsessions”. You are not supposed to do anything with the obsessions. You are supposed to let them run through your head freely, without trying to fix them or stop them. Imagine a tree planted by a river. The leaves fall off and float down the river. You can see the leaves falling, but you don’t try to stop them or pick them up. You don’t try to fix them. You just let them float away. This is really important to do with your obsessive thoughts. The more you try to fight them off, the worse they get. I used to have blasphemous sentences running in my head 24/7. I felt like I had to put a “not” next to each sentence in order to “fix” it. But this just took hours of my time every day, and it was very scary, because I was worried that if I messed up, that I would go to hell. It was very freeing to learn later that I could just let those sentences run freely through my head without trying to fix them. The second part of ERP therapy is all about “denying your compulsions.” Every time OCD tells you that if you don’t do things a certain way that something really bad will happen, that is a compulsion. Once you recognize what your compulsions are, ERP therapy will have you practice stopping doing all of those things. For some people, that will mean stopping washing their hands or touching lights switches or, in my case, putting “fixing” words in their head. Compulsions are safety behaviors. During ERP therapy, you will practice stopping engaging with safety behaviors. All this is very hard to do and scary, so during therapy you will be given tools to help you deal with the fear. Often ERP therapy will take people from being non-functional to functional. I highly recommend it. ————————————————- PITFALL #1: After you have been doing ERP for a while and become somewhat successful, the OCD will try subtle little tricks to bring you down again. The first one is to tell you that your thoughts are REAL and not OCD, and therefore you can’t apply ERP therapy. Don’t fall for this trick! All thoughts are just thoughts. They are all meaningless. Don’t try to figure out what is real and what is OCD. Just treat all thoughts with ERP therapy. PITFALL #2: The second pitfall is that OCD will tell you that you can’t move forward unless you have absolute certainty that you will be safe. Hate to tell you this, folks, but there is no certainty in life. You will never know for SURE that you or your loved ones will be “safe” from the OCD rules. Therefore, you have to move forward in the uncertainty. It’s hard, but it gets easier with time and practice. We got this, guys !!!!!!

hbocd

Date posted: 12w

ERP Therapy

I read about ERP and have seen information about it on here. One of the goals is to say, "maybe I am this or that...ect." That terrified me. The thoughts and images that go in my head are disturbing and upsetting. I don't want to even think about saying, "maybe this or that." It's devasting to have these thoughts and question why you're having these thoughts. Doesn't the "maybe" make it worse? The one thing that helps me is that is to remind myself that these are just thoughts and I know I'm not a monster, even if I feel like one. Is ERP not for everyone? Has anyone else had a problem with the techniques used in this kind of therapy? I had cognitive therapy for years with an OCD specialist and that seemed to help a lot. Writing out the worst case scenarios would make me suicidal. Im having a difficult time not obsessing over the "maybe" after intrusive thoughts now. It doesn't make it better.

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