- Username
- Anonymous
- Date posted
- 3y ago
- Username
- catattakcatattak
- Date posted
- 3y ago
I always tell myself that the risk of the bad thing happening is worth it if I can overcome my mental illness. For me it was (and still is) compulsions and ruminations around covid 19 and suffering to death on a ventilator. I had to do a lot of work to choose which hard I was going to tackle and in the end I managed to come up with the ERP mantra that if I died because I didnt do a compulsion, it was okay because it was in an effort to stabilize my mental health. I really got to a point where I had to decide that the life I was living in fear, was not a life at all and that compulsions were fuelling all the horrible things in my life.
- Username
- WhatabtmeWhatabtme
- Date posted
- 3y ago
The kind of ironic thing about erp is that it is meant to teach us how to not use coping mechanisms .... in a way, the response prevention part of an exposure IS the new coping mechanism we are trying to adopt, if that makes sense. The more we try to make erp more comfortable, the further we get away from the whole point of it in the first place. That aside, my therapist always suggests reducing the external stressors in our daily life that make us more vulnerable to the ocd. If we are well rested, well fed, watered, etc. We are more likely to feel confident enough to do erp in the first place which makes a world of difference in feeling like we can handle it
- Username
- AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 3y ago
That makes sense. My difficulty is insomnia due to the intrusive thoughts so being well rested is a challenge. There's no way around...we must go directly through the fear, to get to the other side.
- Username
- WhatabtmeWhatabtme
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@Anonymous True, I get that. I think then just focusing in on the stressors that you are able to reduce in some way... less caffeine and alcohol for example, or maybe drinking water and getting outside, having a routine, it may help a little! I think you're right though, we gotta go through, take that risk, and trust in the process. Good luck to you!
- Username
- the-dude-abidesthe-dude-abides
- Date posted
- 3y ago
I do a breathing meditation before and after
Related posts
- Username
- Kaycee86
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Tried to practice ERP today. I was able to handle some things. It just seems so scary. I hope I can continue to improve but worried something may trigger me. Yesterday i had a bad episode to the point of being in tears. I dont like when it gets to that point. Hoping to stay strong. Any tips from anyone on here that helped them stay motivated?
- Username
- Oth
- Date posted
- 3y ago
How do you do ERP? I'm not asking generally, but rather how do you, the person reading this, do ERP? I'm at the point where I'm trying to work out how to do ERP for myself (largely self-directed as I don't see my psychologist more than once every few weeks), and I'm trying to get an idea of what it looks like on a practical level. Do you try and do ERP every day? Multiple times a day? How long do you spend on each exposure/session? Do you do ERP at the same time every day, or do you change it up? What do you do after you've done an exposure, do you do any self-care once the exposure is finished? I see things online saying that it can take upwards of an hour for distress to decrease when doing an exposure, and I'm wondering what are you allowed to do during that time? If the goal of ERP is to sit with the distress, do you literally just sit there for an hour doing nothing until the anxiety goes down? That's a long time to sit doing nothing but feel anxious, especially if the goal is to do this every day. Right now I'm struggling with implementing ERP into my routine. I currently do ERP sporadically, and not on any kind of schedule. I'm struggling to find exposures that distress me sufficiently, and when I do find something I'll still find myself feeling anxious hours later even after I thought I'd acclimatized. I'd really appreciate hearing from other people so that I can get an idea of what good ERP looks like in practice.
- Username
- Calove
- Date posted
- 2y ago
How does anyone go through erp when your thoughts feel so so real ? What do you tell yourself? How do you push through?
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