How do you practice ERP on mental compulsions? I don’t understand. So I’m having an intrusive thought which mine are usually not about me doing something but something being done to someone else. Then thought sticks and becomes more intense the more I try to push it away or replace it etc.. am I supposed to force my self to have the thought and have anxiety. Is telling myself it’s just a thought, a compulsion? How do you sit with your thought? And what happens when you do? Will the thought go away? I don’t understand

I know it’s so confusing!!

I’m doing it too. From what I gather you do the exposure and then sit with the anxiety. Reassuring yourself I think is a compulsion so I’m trying to avoid that or saying it is just a thought…rather I just do something else and if the anxiety is there I do not pay attention or give the thought my attention but if the word or sentence I am using in erp starts repeating in my head or coming back that’s fine! As long as I’m not starting to try to figure it out or do compulsions…I try not to get upset about the word or feel failed rather just let it pass without spiraling into it: it’s very subtle work and hard!! But the key for me is to recognize the ocd feelings of anxiety and not start ruminating or doing compulsions. I will say the anxiety is very uncomfortable and for can feel unbearable until it passes. But the answer is in sitting through that discomfort! Hope that helps 🌷

So from what I understand is that you don’t try to force yourself to have the thought. Rather you do something that would trigger that intrusive thought. And then instead of doing a mental compulsion you just tell yourself something along the lines of, “hm yeah I feel uncomfortable right now, but I can handle this”. But the trick is that you can’t repeat that to yourself over and over, because then it comes with a compulsion. So then you literally just have to sit there with the discomfort and not do any compulsions. So no avoiding the feelings/thoughts, no tensing up or fidgeting, and if you catch yourself ruminating you have to stop yourself and be like yeah no I’m not going to go down that road. This helps to 1-lower the anxiety and 2-lessen the frequency and intensity of the intrusive thoughts

We learn

Thank you!! This had been very informative. It had been very difficult for me to process how to practice ERP correctly. I am newly diagnosed and this is a little confusing since I’ve always been taught to push bad thoughts away or try to replace them with good thoughts. It’s hard to practice allowing thoughts to sit there and to be honest I don’t think I have really ever done it. I also don’t have specific triggers or at least have not identified them yet. My anxiet along with my thoughts can be really random and I’m sure my therapist had a hard time helping me for that reason. There are days I feel a good and other days which I feel horrible. Anyways thank you everyone for respond. I will continue to practice.

Thank for help