Hey everyone who’s doing ERP, How are you doing now? What has it been like for you? Have your thoughts gotten worse before they get better? I would like to see how other people have experienced recovery so that I know what’s ahead.

ERP is definitely challenging and not easy. For me it really intensifies the thoughts and spikes my anxiety. It also really urges me to do compulsions to quickly calm my fear. The beauty of it is that, in doing ERP, you are intentionally facing your fears and anxieties and not running from them. This results in an overall decrease in anxiety and OCD over time. It’s like if your scared of going on an elevator, the first 10 times on one will be really scary, but by the 100th time on an elevator, the fears won’t even matter anymore. Just be patient with it and allow the anxiety to spike, knowing that, eventually, it will come down for good.

I’ve been doing ERP for about 8 months through NOCD. In the beginning it was pretty heightened and tears were involved at one point, but wow the results that come afterward is incredibly worth it. I would consider my OCD severe last year, it was the same severity for months until I started therapy/ERP and that’s when I finally started seeing progress. In the beginning I’ve heard it’s common for it to get worse before it gets better, I slightly dealt with this but it barely lasted and you have to keep pushing yourself. Now I’m a lot better than I was last year. I still have the OCD symptoms for sure, but the intensity and frequency of it are less. There are days where I really feel like myself again. You learn what to do when you’re having an off day or even an off moment. Overall it’s the best course of action I have ever taken.

Hey Sheri! So - ditto to above actually. I'm on week 4 of NOCD and it's tough! I'm having more OCD and more anxiety - but before I was just forcibly pushing it away. I'm learning to deal with it now instead of trying to force myself to ignore it. That way I can do it naturally. It's totally reprogramming the brain and so hard. But - that being said - I am noticing a little difference and know at the end of this I'll be so much better. Just stick with it and don't give up. :)