- Date posted
- 4y ago
- Date posted
- 4y ago
ERP has to begin with initiating anxiety but you already feel anxious about the thought. Someone with HOCD might need to intentionally trigger their anxiety by looking at pictures of someone of the same sex whereas you already have been triggered (experiencing the thought). Now you just have to RP by not compulsing (ruminating). A future practice for this specific obsession could be picking a specific time to expose yourself (E) to a bar of soap, knowing that it will trigger that uncomfortable thought you had, and then choose not to ruminate and sit with the anxiety (RP).
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Thank you annano & Carl. This does make sense. Maybe the intrusive thought is the exposure itself & not responding is the response prevention. I could look at pictures of soap, maybe put a soap bar beside the TV?
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@canigetawitness1992 Yes, now you’re on to something!
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@canigetawitness1992 Yes! You got this
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I don’t think ERP teaches that the content of your intrusive thoughts are real. It teaches our brain how to live with the anxiety that those intrusive thoughts may bring. With ERP, the way out is through
- Date posted
- 4y ago
This is correct.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
That’s not the case. ERP does not teach you that the content of your intrusive thoughts are real. It isn’t designed to prove or disprove anything. It’s about triggering distress (via exposure) and practicing resisting compulsions (response prevention).
- Date posted
- 4y ago
But if my intrusive thoughts are "Go smear soap all over the place and your TV" , exposure would have you do that instead of just sit with the thought and not do the compulsion to check if you had.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@canigetawitness1992 Which would be validating the thought, right?"
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@canigetawitness1992 There's a difference between it being a thought and it actually happening is what I'm trying to say.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@canigetawitness1992 What’s the reason behind smearing soap on your TV? Like what is the core concern or fear?
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@NOCD Advocate - Carl Cornett I don't really know to be honest with you. All I know is that I got hit with the thought "You're going to smear soap across your TV on purpose." And now I don't know what to do with that thought.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@canigetawitness1992 Maybe the fear is that I'm doing weird things that are opposite to how I'd choose to do them & I don't even know if I'm doing them.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@canigetawitness1992 I've tried to find the core fear and all I feel is dread. I don't know why.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@canigetawitness1992 Sounds like a random intrusive thought. It appears your concern here is maybe you’re not doing treatment correctly, and you’re preoccupied with doing it wrong. So, in this case you could say to yourself, “Maybe I’m not doing treatment correctly. Maybe I’ll do it wrong and make myself worse. Maybe I’ll never get better. Moving on.” You don’t have to figure it out.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@canigetawitness1992 This happens to me as well, not knowing why I don’t like a thought. My main theme is PureO and sometimes I’ll just get “a bad feeling” about a thought or thing. To subside my anxiety, I ruminate on it. This is a conjecture, but it seems like you may just be ruminating and consequently finding more things to be confused and uncertain about which in turn causes you to ruminate more. It’s a cycle and you probably don’t even know why you’re there. I’m currently working on this myself so I can only offer the tools I have acquired thus far. I can offer you to try and sit with the uncertainty of it all. Try to sit with not knowing why the thought bothers you, why you keep thinking about it, why you had the thought. Your brain knows how to make it through this bout of anxiety and the less you feed it, the sooner it will dissipate.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I think “trying not to care and move on” is doing ERP. You don’t need to further trigger yourself by smearing soap becasue your initial trigger was just having the thought. Is that correct?
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I want*
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I try to not care and movie on without answering the intrusive thought, but if ERP is about intentionally creating distress related to the content of the intrusive thought, I do worry because smearing soap across my TV was the intrusive thought, but actually smearing soap across my TV would bother me, so I don't know what this means because the actual action of smearing soap across my TV would bother me, so what does that mean about me?
- Date posted
- 4y ago
move* on
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w ago
i don’t think i can, i can’t stomach the possibility of these things, or maybe i can (because they might be true and deep down i know that) and just don’t want to and want to pretend it isn’t there. i can’t do ERP, i just want to pretend it isnt there and won’t happen to clarify, i know i have to do ERP, i know it’s necessary; i don’t need to be told this, this is just how i am feeling currently
- Date posted
- 14w ago
I can't stop thinking about ending my life. I feel like I'm not even living, I'm just surviving. Everyone is capable of being a person and functioning and I'm just stuck here avoiding everything. My psychiatrist said my ocd is severe and it will all take time and I'll start erp and I'm already on medication but I just feel so depressed and like I won't be able to handle erp and it's already too late for me. I feel inhuman, it's debilitating. My major theme is just fear or contamination, I can't even make myself a meal I can't touch anything in the kitchen. I get stuck in the shower for 2 hours and when I don't shower because I'm depressed I feel like a walking germ. My hands are a mess, my school work is shit, I avoid and avoid and I'm just so tired of "living" like this. My psychiatrist said they don't have any therapists available right now like.... excuse me? What do you mean u don't have any 😭 I honestly don't even know why I'm typing this becuase nothing helps, nothing ever will. I'm so deep into this I can't get out, my room looks like shit, I can't live in this body anymore, I really can't. I let everyone down, I am and will be such a dissapointment. I don't have any dreams or goals or passions I just wasn't made to be here. I don't know how or who to ask for help like there's nothing anyone can do, I'm already on meds. I can't keep being like this, seeing everyone judge me for acting insane.
- Date posted
- 9w ago
some days I wake up with so much dread and guilt. It makes it so hard to keep going. I open my eyes and I’m hit with a wave of nausea and terror. I feel ashamed of my compulsions and my OCD. I feel like a monster for my checking compulsions. For momentarily sexualizing things that shouldn’t be sexualized out of anxiety. I’m ashamed of a lot that I give into because of anxiety. Confessing things that are meaningless to my boyfriend. I feel so awful and unworthy of existing and of love. I feel hopeless I don’t want to keep pushing, the more I push the more meta my OCD becomes and the more guilt I feel for this mental illness. The more confusing it becomes to do ERP. If compulsions are a choice, they feel like life or death and it’s driving me insane, I beat myself up so badly over them I’m scared of compulsions, I’m scared of thoughts, I’m scared to be awake, I’m even scared of sleeping because my intrusions and compulsions haunt me there too. I spend my dreams trying to explain or justify my OCD and compulsions to people. I’m exhausted, I want this to stop so badly. My severe OCD isn’t feeling any less severe and it’s been months. I don’t want to keep questioning my every move but I’m so hyperaware of everything I do. I’m so tired. Some days I don’t even have tears to cry with. I’m just so full of despair and shame
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