Hey, just wanted to share an accomplishment with you guys. i’ve finished 100 exposures. it took me 7-8 months. 3637 minutes total, so a little over 60 hours. my life has changed so much. feel free to ask me anything too ? thanks guys and keep it up

hey! yeah, first time i started doing them it felt all very heightened. and it isn’t always the first week either. two weeks ago i had a week of heightened anxiety, but i think that’s largely due to moving soon and other personal things contributing to it. other stressors in life can influence your anxiety overall. the way i do ERP is until my anxiety gets low enough and stays low enough consistently. i don’t do a set time. this has been intimidating at times and often felt “unfair”, but it’s important to push through them anyways. i’ve had exposures last for 20min and others last for 3 hours (those were much less often though). everywhere in between as well, with my average exposure being around 30mins. this will be different for everyone. i didn’t stop until my anxiety was low enough to stop. i set the timer on this app to “20 minutes”, but only because it checks my levels every 5mins which i like. i’d usually go past 20. i know this wasn’t incredibly clear to read. if you need clarification anywhere let me know, but i hope i somewhat conveyed what i was trying to

you’re good! i mainly deal with relationship OCD. i’ve had these thoughts for a little over a year. I started ERP back in November of 2019. I used to have intrusive thoughts practically all day. I used to do hundreds of compulsions. it got so bad that i’d be up all night, so i put a blanket over my window so the sunrise wouldn’t keep me from sleeping. i then got diagnosed with depression caused by my ocd. that was about a year ago. i began recovering and a couple months after i began ERP. ERP alone hasn’t gotten me this far, it’s been a lot of things. OCD used to affect me about on average 90% of the day. today? about 10-15% average. and it’s continually getting better. i’m not even sure if i suffer from my obsession anymore. i hope this helps

thanks!!

being a parent with ocd can be really tough just because of children and work and tome constraints!! i totally get it. i would maybe recommend doing it when you know you have more time? i would do mine earlier in the morning or later at night. or during the day if i knew i had a time slot open. i know it can be really tough. but honestly it sounds like you have a tough mindset. when the anxiety comes try not to panic, fully accept it for what it is, and keep it going. no doubt you’ll make it. stay strong, and it’s okay to not be sometimes as well.

ah interesting my theme is rocd. i do it like “i can accept myself and accept life with or without her” so if i was scared of cheating for example, i would do exposures on cheating, and outside exposures i’d work on accepting myself and life even if that were the case. sounds like you got a good plan going

thank you!! much appreciated! and don’t fight on haha! make peace with it :)

his advice is as useful as “don’t think about it” it doesn’t work like that. there’s a neurological process in play that keeps you from doing that. i’ve never seen or heard anyone recover from ocd without hard work and taking risks. one of the biggest mistakes i made early in my journey was trying to fight it. everybody would tell me “stay strong keep fighting!”. fighting it just makes it comes back stronger. it’s the complete opposite of acceptance. making peace with the thought, making peace with “worst case scenario” was one of the biggest game changers for me. ERP helped a great deal too. it’s important to stay consistent but also give yourself breaks. i often thought about it like working out. very similar to each other- it can suck temporarily, might not see differences immediately, but is very apparent in the long run.