i read an article earlier on and it said you should definitely not try erp by yourself and you need an ocd specialist to do erp. i don’t have access to one, so should i not do it?

Erp doesn’t have to be so technical. A lot of people can’t afford going to/having sessions with an ocd therapist so they can actually start doing ERP on their own. You can start off by watching, listening, or reading something that you used to enjoy that now triggers a subtype and see how well you handle it. And if you get anxious, “maybe I do, maybe I don’t.” “maybe I will, maybe I won’t.”

For me I have been doing ERP on my own and have noticed significant progress! I was struggling with suicide ocd (having thoughts of killing myself/harming myself that I DID NOT want to do). I also had OCD about becoming depressed, etc. Anyway, I started by doing 15 minute ERP sessions with a knife and just dropped my guard against the thoughts and just let them exist. There was one instance where everything just clicked. I had tried ERP before but I was doing it with a misunderstanding that when you do it, you try not to have the thoughts. Well, I learned that it’s truly about letting your mind throw any and all thoughts at you, and realizing that they’re powerless and will not hurt you. It’s our reaction to the thoughts that drives the OCD. So when I was sitting there and having literally all kinds of self harm thoughts (at one point I couldn’t think clearly at all) I had my first true breakthrough in 2 years of struggling with it. No matter what my mind throws at me, I am in control of my body, I am in control of how I choose to respond to them. So yes, you can do ERP alone and see positive results, it’s just a bit more difficult. Hope this has helped :)

I wouldn’t advise trying it on your own especially for the first time. Especially bc a lot of the time one of our fears is... “did I do it right? Or am I a bad person now?” Your therapist will start you off w the thing that gives u the least amount of anxiety. It’s best to do guided ones w them at first. Would you like me to ask my therapist what her advice is about ERP if someone doesn’t have access to a specialist?

if you have mild to moderate ocd then i think it's completely fine to do some erp by yourself, as long as you're educated enough on it