I feel proud of myself for doing ERP. I am here sitting with so much anxiety because of trying to refrain from performing a compulsion. You all should be proud of yourself if you do erp no matter how imperfectly you might be doing it. Facing our fears takes courage. I am trying to have faith this is going to work.

Good for you. You can do it. We have to get out of the loop of OCD. Try to refrain as long as you can. I am cheering for you from far away.

Ocd lies to us and tells us the anxiety won't go away. It is all a lie. Anxiety won't last forever. But if we perform compulsions we are guaranteed to have OCD affect our life longer.

@Sunflower 1234 Same to you! We can do it!

@catattak So it has been 4 hours since I posted this. I have not done the compulsion even though my anxiety is high. I am trying to live with the anxiety and embrace it. I am proud of myself. Little steps towards recovery.

@Sunflower 1234 That's awesome. I've also not done mine. It's gotten to the point where I have been touching so many things I would have hopefully lost track and have no choice but to let it go. That's sort of the next level of sitting with it but here we are doing well!

@catattak Amazing! Good news! Keep up the good work. Ocd is losing power as we refrain from doing compulsions.

@catattak I am realizing I can live with uncertainty and anxiety. I feel like if we can embrace uncertainty and anxiety OCD will lose power over us.

@catattak I still have not done my compulsion. The urge is strong though. But I want to show ocd that it doesn't control me. I want to delay performing my checking compulsion another day.

@Sunflower 1234 Keep going! That's so awesome!

@catattak How are you doing with refraining from your compulsions? Continue to show OCD who is boss.

@Sunflower 1234 Mine is weird because its covid 19 and you still have to wash and stuff. So I have been washing my hands but I still have not sanitized my phone or any belongings that came in contact with my low risk contamination last night (food) so I think I'm technically still going but have given into others. So-so I think!

@catattak Great work. I think it is good to wash your hands as long as you over do it because of OCD. Keep it up. I heard something on a postcard today that spoke to me "Be brave. Be courageous. The goal of ERP is not to feel comfortable but to live your life" I am cheering you on.

@Sunflower 1234 Meant to say "don't over do it"

@Sunflower 1234 Thank you so much! Keep it up!

@catattak Check out Mark Freeman on youtube if you have not. He has a video on how to wash your hands in a healthy way and not to satisfy your OCD fears.

That's so good! I'm really proud of you. This sounds really like it's fairly high up on your hierarchy and you're doing so well!

@catattak Thank you. Sounds like you are making great progress toward recovery too. We can do it. We are strong. If we can learn to live with anxiety/ uncertainty, OCD got nothing on us. 😊

Yes I posted something on Facebook two days ago. My compulsion would be to check Facebook to see what people comments. My OCD urged me to check Facebook. I didn't check Facebook yesterday. The urge and anxiety both decreased. I was expecting the anxiety to continue to decrease today but it was actually higher this morning. 😐

Also I day dream a lot. I just realized since doing erp and being more thoughtful of my mind that a lot of my day dreaming is ruminations to explain away my OCD fears.

@Sunflower 1234 That's pretty par for the course. Have you heard about "within trial habituation" vs "between trial habituation"?

@NOCD Advocate - Katie No I have not.

@Sunflower 1234 Here's an article explaining it https://beyondocd.org/expert-perspectives/articles/what-does-habituation-mean

@NOCD Advocate - Katie Thank you for all the helpful information you have provided on this forum. I am learning a lot about erp through you.

Thank you. Hope you are having a good day beating your OCD. 😊