Has anyone done exposure therapy for sexual intrusive thoughts ? And if so, how did you do it ? Was it a success ? Did the thoughts go down

I know it is really difficult. It is so distressing and comes with so many other feelings too like shame and guilt. I have been in therapy about 6 months now. I still have the occasional day when things are pretty bad but generally my quality of life has improved so much it is amazing. I am not saying it only takes 6 months to recover. I am still in recovery doing exposures every day. This is just my experience. For actual exposures, I don't know what type of sexual thoughts you have but I have HOCD so I started off simply researching/reading/looking at facebook profiles of people part of the LGBT community. I started with Glennon Doyle. Then, as that gets easier, move onto someone more challenging etc. Then I watched documentaries or movies or series with gay characters, like Queer Eye and basically just keeping moving to more difficult stuff. Now I am reading novels with gay characters. Does that make sense? I hope everything goes well for you. Keep pushing through. You owe it to yourself

I get that too. I feel similarly. I have been feeling like I am backsliding slightly and am just trying to stick to ERP and remember everything I've learned so far

Yes. Exposure therapy can work with whatever theme of OCD you happen to be combating at the moment. There’s specialists available via NOCD if the service is currently offered in your state. ERP therapy has a 70%-80% efficacy rate. Success can depend immensely on your willingness to engage in treatment. One of the things you’ll learn in treatment is that it’s not about eliminating thoughts. You may still have them, they just won’t have the same impact on your quality of life as they are now. But sometimes, as a byproduct of that experience, people do note that their thoughts decrease.

I keep reassuring cuz I feel guilty