- Date posted
- 4y ago
- Date posted
- 4y ago
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.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
^^^ this. Don’t rush feeling less and less anxious. It will happen naturally
- Date posted
- 4y ago
That makes a lot of sense. I’m on week two and it’s been getting pretty difficult. The OCD dreams and disturbing thoughts and urges have come back. This motivates me a lot, thank you
- Date posted
- 4y ago
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.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
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. :)
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Thank you! I wish you luck as well. It’s getting tough but I’m tougher!
Related posts
- Date posted
- 20w ago
Those of you who have overcome at least a bit, if not all, of your OCD. When you went through the CBT and ERP, did it feel like the end of the world? And how did you face the fact that your fears and uncertainties might actually come to life?
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 9w ago
December 14, 2024, marked two years since my first ERP therapy session with my NOCD therapist, Mixi. And October 2024 marked a year of being free from OCD. It was not an easy journey, confronting my fears face to face. Exposing myself to the images and thoughts my brain kept throwing at me, accepting that I might be the worst mother, that my daughter wouldn’t love me, and that I deserved to be considered a bad person. It was challenging having to say, “Yes, I am those things,” feeling the desire to run, but realizing the thoughts followed me. At the start of my therapy, I remember feeling like I couldn’t do this anymore. Life felt unbearable, and I felt so weak. I longed for a time before the OCD, before the flare-ups, before the anxiety, the daily panic attacks. I thought I’d never be myself again. But I now know that ERP saved my life. The first couple of sessions were tough. I wasn’t fully present. I lied to my therapist about what my actual thoughts were, fearing judgment. I pretended that the exposures were working, but when the sessions ended, I went back to not sleeping, constantly overwhelmed by fear and anxiety. But my therapist never judged me. She made me feel safe to be honest with her. She understood OCD and never faltered in supporting me, even when I admitted I had been lying and still continued my compulsions. My biggest milestone in therapy was being 100% transparent with my therapist. That was when real change began. At first, I started small—simply reading the words that terrified me: "bad mom," "hated," "unloved." Then, I worked on listening to those words while doing dishes—not completely stopping my rumination, but noticing it. Just 15 minutes, my therapist said. It wasn’t easy. At one point, I found myself thinking, “Will I ever feel like myself again?” But I kept pushing through. Slowly, I built tolerance and moved to face-to-face exposures—sitting alone with my daughter, leaning into the thought that my siblings might die, reading articles about my worst fears, and calling myself the things I feared. Each session was challenging, but with time, the thoughts started to lose their grip. By my eleventh session, I started to realize: OCD was here, and it wasn’t going away, but I could keep living my life despite it. I didn’t need to wait for it to be quiet or go away to move on. Slowly, it began to quiet down, and I started to feel like myself again. In fact, I am not my old self anymore—I’m a better version. OCD hasn’t completely disappeared, but it’s quieter now. Most of the time, it doesn’t speak, and when it does, I know how to handle it. The last session with my therapist was emotional. I cried because I was finishing therapy. I remember how, in the beginning, I cried because I thought it was just starting—because I was overwhelmed and terrified. But at the end, I cried because I was sad it was ending. It felt like I had come so far, and part of me wasn’t ready to say goodbye, even though I had already learned so much. It was a bittersweet moment, but I knew I was walking away stronger, equipped with the tools to handle OCD on my own. If I could change anything about my journey, it would be being open and honest from the beginning. It was the key to finding true healing. The transparency, the honesty—it opened the door to lasting change. I’m no longer that person who was stuck in constant panic. I’m someone who has fought and survived, and while OCD still appears from time to time, I know it doesn’t define me. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. Have you started therapy, is something holding you back? Is there something you want to know about ERP therapy? I'll be live in the app answering each and every one today from 6-7pm EST. Please drop them below!
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 9w ago
So you got to ask me anything… Now I’d like to ask you something! I’ve heard from Members that they were so scared coming to their first ERP session. They were terrified that I would think they were crazy, that I would tell them their worst fears were true. That I would confirm they are some form of a terrible person or have them hauled off to prison for their thoughts. I’ve also had Members share how they’re very scared to begin ERP treatment because they’ve researched enough to know it means facing the fear, without the compulsions that have kept them feeling safe (but not really safe) this entire time. They struggled to see how they could be capable of doing this, while simultaneously acknowledging that they did not want to live like this anymore. If you have had your first session, what were your thoughts before? Did you have any hesitations or fears going into it? How did it turn out? If you haven’t yet begun to work with an ERP specialist, what is holding you back?
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