(How can you do ERP when there is a legit concern?) Trigger warning for Contamination OCD/coronavirus. For instance, I’m pregnant right now and have had a resurgence of contamination OCD. (I also have GAD, so I’m never sure which tactic to take with a thought.) Health really is a legitimate concern here, and I’m told I should be more careful. Of course I overdo it, yet ERP seems to be the exact opposite of being more careful and that seems very, very unwise. How do you do exposure for something that your doctor says to not do? How do you do exposure for something like, for another unrelated example, not wearing a mask around other people right now in the time of the pandemic when you’re absolutely required to wear a mask and it’s dangerous to not? ERP basically doesn’t make sense to me. By that thinking I should be changing the litter box and not washing my hands and *I definitely should not do that*. How do you do ERP when there is a legitimate aspect of an actual concern?

My therapist put it to me that “just because you do ERP doesn’t mean you live like a pig in shit.” People without OCD still take precautions for their health. What differentiates them from us is that they’re generally satisfied with the precautions they’re directed to take, and they generally aren’t plagued by an overwhelming, unrelenting sense of “but what if I’m wrong? what if the directions are wrong? what if the directions are right, but I didn’t follow them well enough? what if I didn’t do what I’m supposed to and somebody dies because of it?” and then argue with themselves over it, continually check to make sure they haven’t set things up to fail, take more (or more stringent) precautions than they need to, and feel varying levels and flavors of guilty about their actions and thoughts regarding the situation. I work in an Emergency Room, and when the pandemic started our bosses gathered us all up and told us “We don’t want you guys to look at all these different news sources telling you all these different things about the virus, because we don’t know how accurate their reports are. We are keeping up with, and following, the CDC guidelines.” So in the case of the pandemic, ERP doesn’t mean refusing to wear a mask; and in the case of changing cat litter, ERP doesn’t mean neglecting to wash your hands. It might mean—depending on what compulsions you deal with—stepping onto your front porch for some fresh air, or refraining from wiping down mail/packages, or being strict about washing your hands for 20 seconds instead of 90. And then sitting with/breathing through any guilt or anxiety you feel about *not* engaging in any precautionary behavior that an authority on the subject (like the CDC) would consider to be excessive. Congratulations on your pregnancy, by the way 😃

There are so good webbinars about this, check out IOCDF town hall on you tube. The basic is "live according to the guidelines", thats enough ERP for aprson with OCD, the response prevention part us to do nothing more than recommended, in your case follow the recommendations for pregnancy.

Hey so I searched a lot for this because I struggle hard. I found this webinar a while ago that helped me A LOT. You have to do safe ERP right now. It cant be done like it used to. Simply put, you have to follow the cdc and your doctors recommendations and no more. With OCD we tend to go overboard. I used to store my groceries for a week and wash my hands more than 70 times a day even though me and my husband work from home and only do curbside pickup of groceries. ERP for me was to lessen my hand washing and only do a single handwashing for 20 seconds. I also had very long shower rituals and for me ERP is to wash each body part for 20 seconds and move on. You shouldnt be doing ERP like you maybe did before the pandemic because sitting on a bathroom floor or whatever the more extreme versions were before is not safe right now. I loved this webinar. It's long but so so SO worth it. I sat down with my husband and watched it one night while eating supper on the couch. I really highly reccomend it. https://youtu.be/zoXXRRC3opk

This is something best discussed with a doctor and therapist.