Do you ever get stuck trying to figure out whether your thinking is a compulsion,obsession or normal thinking. Im stuck for the last 3 hours. The question keeps posing itself. Question is how do i do erp for this?

Yes all the time. I tried to explain this to my therapist. She said it’s called metacognition - thinking about thinking. (Maybe) or I just overthink, am I doing this right? I find it very hard to identify my compulsions. We even identified that my “cyclical worrying” is a compulsion. Because I “worry” in order to relieve anxiety, which sounds so weird. With that said, her advice was that it doesn’t really matter if you do it “the right way,” but just that you know you’re doing it/ trying it. It’s the practice and routing of ERP. You’ll likely figuire out your trigger —> obsession —> compulsion once you just give it a try. You can try writing it down. Remember compulsions can be mental also. Compulsions can also lead us back to triggers. It’s a very cyclical situation. So be nice to yourself and try not to think too much about it when you try it :) (says the girl with OCD to the guy with OCD)

I get scared in case it is a compulsion than i should resist. Thats why i try to figure it out.

Your comment about worrying being a compulsion makes sense to me....i think thats whay i do...thanks for the insight.

If there is no particular one out of those options which makes you scared, then you can't really do ERP I don't think. When you start to wonder and this thought loop wants to suck you in, you have to tell it you'll deal with it later, no matter how much anxiety not thinking about it causes or what other thoughts you get about why you should do it. Don't entertain those thoughts either and debate whether they're good reasons to do it. Just hardcore opt out.

Thanks for your feedback.