I think my problem is that these intrusive thoughts scare me and that even giving them the power to scare me gives them meaning. When they are just thoughts and nothing more. They are just a random clip in our brain. It’s just so hard to practice letting them pass through and not let them affect me. And it’s especially hard when your OCD cripples you in fear 😞 Any tips or advice on how to just let the thoughts pass right through me and not instill me in fear?

I’m just afraid that the thoughts will take over and that I will act on them 😞

What really is ERP? I’ve been against it just because I’ve dealt with EMDR but at this point I think I’m willing to try

@LuLaBelle95! Girl you have to try! It’s helped me sooooo much! I literally thought I was going to do after 11 months of talk therapy before learning about erp. Erp is doing very low anxiety things to get used to the anxiety. It’s kind of like building up tolerance. So if watching a show that has a lesbian couple in it is very triggering to you bc you have hocd (this is an example for you) then first to do a super low erp look at a picture of them? No reaction is a good thing then maybe move up to listen to the couple have a conversation, then watch half an episode without ruminating, checking or doing a compulsion. Then watch a whole one. And eventually you can do it without any Reaction which is the goal. I think NOCD YouTube and website have good explanations and examples. Also for me I have real event as well so I do things like right the event down over and over, read it out loud, write a letter to the friend involved in the event, record a loop tape to listen to, don’t avoid them on social media, if they post pictures on social media then I look at them, etc

@Justmesadly I’m just so scared. My thoughts are about harming myself and others specifically my husband and it makes me sick. I never had the thoughts of harming others they have always just been about me. And now idk how to get rid of these thoughts

@LuLaBelle95! You can’t get rid of them, but by doing erp they will happen less and you’ll be able to have them without really paying attention. I used to have the thoughts 24/7 it felt like my brain wasn’t ever free. Now I feel like I only have them every once in a while and when I do I’m like oh that’s weird or I just don’t even notice it much more than a minute and I don’t react at all. In the app there’s an erp section and you can select harm and they will even tell you what erp you can try based on your hierarchy. I highly recommend it. Don’t start with someone that you know will cause you to spiral. Start low and increase

@Justmesadly Did you have similar thoughts to what I’m experiencing? I’m just afraid that it’ll bring up more thoughts. And my therapist isn’t certified in ERP so I’ll have to work with him and maybe a therapist on here. I’m just really scared of the exposure. Maybe I don’t know enough about the therapy

@LuLaBelle95! I don’t have harm ocd, I have real event , pocd , hocd, Rocd. Yes when you do erp and start getting better sometimes new thoughts come up bc OCD doesn’t like that you’re winning but you can’t let it win! And I would not do erp or even talk about OCD with someone that’s not an OCD specialist honestly. For me a non specialist just made things 10x worse. The therapist I seee on NOCD is incredible and has taught me all about OCD and the best therapy techniques that are the most successful and even anxiety tips

@Justmesadly Yea I’m really pondering it. I think I’m going to do some more research on it first and then make a decision. I just wanna make sure I completely understand what it is before I make a decision ya know. I appreciate your feedback tho!🙂

@LuLaBelle95! Great idea! I think it’s best done when you know what you’re doing