What “tolerating discomfort” with OCD really means

If you've ever read that OCD therapy involves "learning to tolerate discomfort," and immediately wanted to close your browser, we get it. OCD can create intense, overwhelming distress that feels impossible to sit with, so it makes sense that the idea of tolerating anything unpleasant might sound unreasonable at first. But the discomfort OCD creates is a false alarm. Exposure and response prevention (ERP), the most effective treatment for OCD, is about practicing a different response to that alarm: staying put and letting the feeling exist rather than trying to escape it with a compulsion. Compulsions can feel like the only option in the moment, but they keep that false alarm system on high alert. The more you practice sitting with the discomfort, the more you can see that you never needed those compulsions to get through it. Over time, OCD’s false alarm loses its power, and feelings of distress can start to decrease. Read more: https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/discomfort-doesnt-have-to-mean-distress/

Lauraiguess

Date posted: 6d

When ERP feels so triggering that it worsens your anxiety and depression to the point it is close to impossible to function, how do you tolerate that? It feels unmanageable to keep doing exposures.

CaspersKeeper

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 5d

@Lauraiguess My therapist told me that (since I have depression, anxiety, and chronic pain) if I was in a more crisis state with those, we would switch to managing depression/anxiety until I was function properly again/in a remission state. ERP isn’t supposed to make things so much worse that you can’t function. That’s why we start with ERP that is a low distress level, and then build up to higher distress level excercise.

Anonymous

Date posted: 5d

@CaspersKeeper Did you have to do medication for your OCD? I don’t want to do medication, but I’m praying that time and ERP helps

CaspersKeeper

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 5d

@Anonymous I haven’t had to take meds for OCD- I have tried meds for depression in the past and found them to not be great for me personally. All my progress had been made through hard work, building good support systems, and lifestyle choices. 👍 I do think for most people it is possible to have success without meds, but severe cases may need that extra support!

Anonymous

Date posted: 5d

@CaspersKeeper Good to know! What lifestyle choices did you find helped you?

CaspersKeeper

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 5d

@Anonymous Taking care of my health- eating well, sleeping well, exercise, community, cultivating a feeling of safety in general. 🫡 having your bases covered helps a lot with any illness.

Moviegoer

Date posted: 5d

This is a post I needed to see, even though the message is hard to swallow

Spooderman12

Date posted: Yesterday

I’m really struggling with my friendships because I am always so triggered that maybe my friends will leave me or forget about me. Whenever the feeling comes up it’s just so overwhelming and I almost get panic attacks. Then sometimes my ocd spirals to the point that I don’t know if I truly have ocd. It’s so hard to navigate and this is my first time making any comment about my ocd

Kaffe

Date posted: Yesterday

I have similar fears. My compulsion is to confess every bad thought or doubt about the friendship (as a way to test if my ocd is telling the truth). Over a month ago I had somewhat bad anxiety and I was close to text my friend to do the confession and potentialy start drama. But I didnt know how to phrase my thoughts and eventually, the compulsion went away.

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