- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
Congratulations! 🎉 🎈
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- 4y
Thank you!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
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- 4y
Congratulations!! That’s awesome to hear! :)
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- 4y
Thank you :) !
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- 4y
CONGRATULATIONS!!! 💖 Do you have any tips for me? I’ve been applying ERP for months now but I ruminate a ton, and have a million justifications for why doing my compulsions is “the right thing to do”.
- Date posted
- 4y
Thank you so much! It’s good that you’ve been applying ERP but the trick to recovery is to do it for everything - especially ruminating. The best thing for ruminating it to catch yourself when you do it and say “I am doing a compulsion, I’m going to stop now” and revert your attention elsewhere. It’s tricky at first but eventually it will become so easy it’s automatic. And most importantly don’t justify!!!! There is no justification, that’s what your ocd is telling you, it’s not the truth. Even if you think of a justification ignore it and don’t ruminate anyway. It helps short term but in the long term that is what will be holding you back. You’ve got this!
- Date posted
- 4y
@HS369 Thank you SO much! I really appreciate your help! Congrats again on your recovery, and thank you!!
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- 4y
That’s awesome!! I have a question about erp. How do you “sit with the anxiety” without having mental compulsions? I would think having anxiety WOULD be a compulsion. Is it not?
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- 4y
The anxiety itself is not a compulsion but things like ruminating, “problem solving”, racing thoughts are. They are very tricky to stop doing at first because It almost happens automatically. The best thing I did was stop myself when I noticed myself doing it and say to myself “this is a compulsion, I’m going to stop” and then revert my attention elsewhere . The more you do it the easier it gets to stop quickly before it eventually becomes an automatic response.
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- 4y
@jasminex123 Do something you enjoy :). I used to play a game on my phone or chat with a friend on the phone. If you talk to someone though make sure it isn’t for reassurance.
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- 4y
Yes please I’m barely staring and everything triggers me.
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- 4y
Of course! I promise it does get better. If you have any questions let me know.
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- 4y
So happy for you. And literally any advice would be helpful. 🤍
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- 4y
Thank you! My biggest thing would be perseverance and consistency with your ERP. It starts getting easier and easier to resist compulsions and it’s the best feeling!
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- 4y
I’ve struggled with even starting erp and continuing
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- 4y
ERP is very difficult especially at first, my therapist even told me it might get worse before it gets better. Persevere I promise it’ll get easier.
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- 4y
I have real event and the chronic guilt is killing me. I did so many things to prove I’m not a bae person.
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- 4y
You don’t need to prove anytbing to your ocd anymore ❤️ simply ignore the nasty voice telling you to feel guilty, stop doing what it tells you to do. It feels weird at first because this ocd makes us feel like we’re bad people but you deserve relief and recovery. Guilt was my biggest feeling with ocd. Sending lots of support because this theme was the worst for me I know how horrible it is. Here’s a good link, this really helped me. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.turningpointpsychology.ca/blog/real-event-ocd%3fformat=amp
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- 4y
ERP is so hard! I keep wanting to confess. I feel like I don’t deserve anything.
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- 4y
It will be hard at first. The best thing to do is be compassionate and kind to yourself, tell yourself that you do deserve good things even if you don’t believe it at first. And keep going with your ERP
- Date posted
- 4y
It’s just that I had it since August. I didn’t know it was OCD. I made a racist remark along time ago at work because I was trying to side with my boss and for some reason I can’t let it go. This was along time ago. And it hurts me deeply because I’m a POC and my friends are biracial and I haven’t hung out with them because I get slurs in my head and it’s torture. and I changed myself completely and I have so much guilt.
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- 4y
This seems to be really common in the real event theme. I’m not going to give you any reassurance but I would recommend you read the website I linked it’s very helpful. I would also suggest you don’t avoid hanging out with your friends for that reason because avoidance is a compulsion! Luckily real event ocd is treated the same as every other theme with ERP. If you follow it you’ll be able to move on guilt free x
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- 4y
I want to confess to them.
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- 4y
It’s so hard I can’t breathe sometimes!
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- 4y
I know it’s hard . Are you seeing a therapist at the moment?
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- 4y
Yes 😭
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- 4y
This is good, I’d express this clearly if you haven’t already. Is she a CBT therapist?
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- 4y
I can’t stop or sleep.
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- 4y
She’s so though NOCD. She does ERP
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- 4y
I’m sure you’re in good hands then ❤️ make sure you are following the ERP perfectly though you can’t miss certain things out. Especially avoidance, confessing and ruminating.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
Today I over came something that had been consistently bothering me with my contamination OCD and I'm over the moon I never thought I could do it yesterday the anxiety was there but I sat with and it faded I'm so happy thank you for all your support guys and I recently started working out and I feel much better To anyone out there struggling it gets better trust me a few months ago I was at the Lowest point in my life I couldn't even leave my house I failed really badly at school but now I can even go outside I try to socialize some days are harder than others and I've had a few hiccups along the way but it has gotten much better And I'm starting a recovery course for school to make up for my grades I'm so happy guys 😭then I can finally get into uni
- Date posted
- 20w
I had just posted a summary of ERP for a group member, and I thought it might be useful for everybody. Here it is below (with a little extra added)…. ERP therapy is researched-based. Most other therapies don’t work. There have been people who have been literally stuck in their houses (from their OCD) who gained their lives back through ERP therapy. NOCD does ERP therapy exclusively. You can find it in other places too, but you have to ask around. There are two tenants of ERP therapy: The first one has to do with the repetitive thoughts inside our heads. These thoughts are actually defined as “obsessions”. You are not supposed to do anything with the obsessions. You are supposed to let them run through your head freely, without trying to fix them or stop them. Imagine a tree planted by a river. The leaves fall off and float down the river. You can see the leaves falling, but you don’t try to stop them or pick them up. You don’t try to fix them. You just let them float away. This is really important to do with your obsessive thoughts. The more you try to fight them off, the worse they get. I used to have blasphemous sentences running in my head 24/7. I felt like I had to put a “not” next to each sentence in order to “fix” it. But this just took hours of my time every day, and it was very scary, because I was worried that if I messed up, that I would go to hell. It was very freeing to learn later that I could just let those sentences run freely through my head without trying to fix them. The second part of ERP therapy is all about “denying your compulsions.” Every time OCD tells you that if you don’t do things a certain way that something really bad will happen, that is a compulsion. Once you recognize what your compulsions are, ERP therapy will have you practice stopping doing all of those things. For some people, that will mean stopping washing their hands or touching lights switches or, in my case, putting “fixing” words in their head. Compulsions are safety behaviors. During ERP therapy, you will practice stopping engaging with safety behaviors. All this is very hard to do and scary, so during therapy you will be given tools to help you deal with the fear. Often ERP therapy will take people from being non-functional to functional. I highly recommend it. ————————————————- PITFALL #1: After you have been doing ERP for a while and become somewhat successful, the OCD will try subtle little tricks to bring you down again. The first one is to tell you that your thoughts are REAL and not OCD, and therefore you can’t apply ERP therapy. Don’t fall for this trick! All thoughts are just thoughts. They are all meaningless. Don’t try to figure out what is real and what is OCD. Just treat all thoughts with ERP therapy. PITFALL #2: The second pitfall is that OCD will tell you that you can’t move forward unless you have absolute certainty that you will be safe. Hate to tell you this, folks, but there is no certainty in life. You will never know for SURE that you or your loved ones will be “safe” from the OCD rules. Therefore, you have to move forward in the uncertainty. It’s hard, but it gets easier with time and practice. We got this, guys !!!!!!
- Date posted
- 14w
When you become a “conqueror” does it mean you’ve completed ERP or you’ve just gotten to a good place with it? If so, how long did it take to finish therapy and how did you finally make progress? I’m having a hard time sticking with it right now as it feels unproductive. I’ve been in ERP for about 2 months and I can’t wait to be done.
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