Hello all, I started erp therapy with the nocd therapist. I just really am having trouble saying things (worst fear) and doing the exposures of my worst fear. I know erp has helped many people. Anyone here that has done well with the full treatment? Just some positive advice needed.

It is difficult but the treatment is most effective when you do say the things and sit with the anxiety with your therapist's supervision. The therapist can help guide you on how and why you feel that way to get to the underlying cause of why those thoughts are occurring. The insightful process helps, and I agree it is really difficult to say these things outloud. However I have discovered that there is nothing I have said that my therapist hasn't heard before, and saying the terrible things outloud and pushing through the anxiety is what defeats ocd. Your ocd doesn't want you to say it outloud so by not doing that, you are allowing it to still control you. I have learned to embrace the difficulty knowing recovery is on the other end. Also the more you say these things outloud, the less power they have over you because the point is to learn thoughts are just thoughts. So we are not trying to regulate thought, but rather understand the emotion triggered by the thoughts will not hurt us. That helps to diminish the discomfort. I also have harm ocd and my cat gets brought into my obsessions. I learned this is because ocd likes to center around things we care about. It doesn't make the obsessions legitimate; it is just something to fixate on. You are stronger than you give yourself credit for. Work on this with your therapist when you are ready but you can do this!

Thank you so much! So glad to hear! So whenever I am struggling, I will read your helpful post ❤️

I'm glad it helped! I'm in week 3 as well and I also get more anxious doing the erp on my own versus with the therapist. But that is important to pay attention to as well, to understand which obsessions make you more anxious and what you do to cope. It is very challenging but I just keep reminding myself it's worth it.

I would suggest use the resources on the app, such as the SOS button, and message your therapist for some guidance. I have used the SOS resource and it has been very helpful for me when I'm anxious and need to be brought back down. But also in the meantime take a few deep breaths in and out to try to relax. Remember the anxiety is not going to hurt you. You are strong for working through this erp and it's just like any other erp, just more intense. However my therapist has also warned me engaging in very extreme erp exercises can be very difficult. I think it's great that you are trying, it means you want to recover, but if it is very difficult take a break and distract yourself. And maybe the next erp you engage in try one with a lower anxiety score. But also remember this does not mean you did something wrong or you failed, you just engaged in something very difficult. So it does not mean you can't do it, it just is very challenging which is normal. Good luck and try to stay focused on your plan to recover and do not get discouraged! But also definitely message your therapist. They may not answer right away depending on your time zone but they can help you with some tips on what to do when you are feeling this way.

You're welcome and thank you! You can handle this and you are strong than you give yourself credit for!

What's your problem is it saying things out loud your fear the most ?

Yes My ocd is fear ocd. I an afraid I will put something in my dogs water that is bad. Also I worry about past afraid I did. I work with the erp therapy on here. She said I have to do exposure by saying “i put poison in my dogs water”. It is very difficult to say these things.

Thank you so much!! I really do appreciate you response. Definitely the positive feed back I needed. I know its a tough rode but I shall work through it. Thank you again for your support.

I meant to say before. I am currenty working with the nocd therapist. Yesterday was my third session and we did some erp together and now I have to it on my own until next meet. I can always message her which is great. I guess doing the erp alone and saying the things out loud scared me. Your response most definitely helped.

Yes me too! I know they wouldn’t lead me in the wrong direction and erp has a high rate of helping!

Hey aldear. Hope your doing well. Tonight I’m sitting here doing my exercise exposures and it’s a new one that I did that I discussed with my therapist. You know how my intrusive thoughts are about hurting my dog. So one that’s been bothering me is that if I poisoned my dog in the past because there’s like this one situation that bothers me. So as I was repeating while doing the imaginary script and I also did on the loop tape anxiety just got worse. I just kept getting more anxious I felt. That’s specific situation as what really bothers me about this whole harm OCD with the dog. And like now all I wanna do is compulsion to feel better but I know that’s like the complete opposite of what I should do.

Thank you so much! I messaged my therapist also. Thank you for your support. If you need anyone to talk to let me know! 😊