- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
I enjoy the cumulative effect, working toward a goal, the sense of freedom. I don’t like the ripping-off-a-bandaid feel that happens several times a day. I would have thought after years of resisting to check locks multiple times that the feeling would have gone away. It hasn’t. It still pings all the time. I still have to put effort into resisting. It can be hard to accept that 1) maybe the anxiety over a obsession never really leaves and 2) that I shouldn’t read into its continued existence. Despite ERP, my anxiety over a particular religious obsession lingered for years. Someone else with OCD said “Mayne that means it wasn’t OCD.” That has haunted me. I still don’t know what to think about it. That obsession doesn’t bother me anymore.
- Date posted
- 5y
Maybe it was OCD, maybe it wasn’t. Whatever the answer is, we can continue anyway. Be proud of your progress! You’re doing amazing
- Date posted
- 5y
This is a very interesting question! I enjoy knowing that this is the best method of therapy for combating OCD. I enjoy seeing the results of my work as I record my exercises in my ERP notebook. I enjoy coming up with new exercises to combat different themes coming up, plus discussing this with my therapist to make sure I’m on the right track. What I don’t enjoy very much is actually sitting down and getting to work on a new exercise or a particular one where I don’t really want to do it for a variety of reasons. However once I do it and finish, I feel good that I was brave enough to get it done
- Date posted
- 5y
I didn’t enjoy the discomfort but you have to go through discomfort to get better . I enjoyed being assertive and willing to be better cuz the more ERP the more optimistic I became about life moving forward .
- Date posted
- 5y
I feel like I've missed something and could've done better, but I enjoy the extra time that I have due to less time checking!
- Date posted
- 5y
I enjoy the freedom I feel afterwards. However a lot of the erp I’ve been doing has been every exhausting so I don’t like that part where I feel so fatigued.
- Date posted
- 5y
I feel like when I’m done I don’t know how I’m suppose to feel
- Date posted
- 5y
You might experience a little loss from not needing to do as many of the compulsions that you once did. Just fill that time with something you enjoy doing. You will quickly lose having that feeling.
Related posts
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 25w
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) isn't always easy, but as one of the most effective treatments for OCD, it's worth it. If you've started ERP, what has been the biggest surprise you've experienced in learning to resist compulsions? If you haven't started ERP yet, what is holding you back from starting?
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 22w
I find while doing exposures, rarely does my anxiety lessen. It usually amps up and stays that way for the remainder of the day. I could be having a fairly decent day, but dutifully do my exposures and then the rest of my day is anxiety filled. I guess that’s just how it is now? Also, I’m wondering if my therapist even believes I have OCD. I totally understand my therapist cannot provide reassurance. But it’s to the point it seems my therapist acts like I actually did the thing I fear. I feel so isolated.
- Date posted
- 18w
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 !!!!!!
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