Anyone find that ERP is not helping with the ocd? I’ve been going up me hierarchy slowly but I’m not getting any real relief from obsessions or anxiety - at times it seems to just get worse. My therapist says until I have gone thru my entire hierarchy I won’t feel much change in my symptoms. Anyone else going through this? I feel kind of dejected and hopeless about it like this is never getting better. My therapist even said I should maybe stop ERP because it’s not working (she might have been baiting me, tho - I don’t know)...

As difficult as it is, try agreeing with the thoughts rather than resisting them. This is no easy feat but I believe this helps to take the power away from the thought. I write a lot of scripts and read them over and over for about 30 minutes several times a week. And when I get an IT I try to just agree with it, like, “yes, OCD you are right, that is exactly what is good to happen.”

Hi guys, erp took a long time to work for me but it did work. It also took a very skilled therapist who picked up on all sorts of hidden compulsions I was doing in my head. I did erp for a long time with no progress because there were still compulsions I wasn’t aware of. My therapist also changed my attitude to one of welcoming the anxiety and deliberately provoking it whilst resisting all compulsions. This was hard but really powerful. Please stick with it ?

I don’t think ERP will make the obsessive thoughts go away. I think the aim is to reduce the anxiety that obsession causes because when you do the exposure you’ll realize nothing bad happens when you don’t perform the compulsion. You can’t really get rid of intrusive thoughts though... even people who don’t have OCD have intrusive thoughts. When you say it doesn’t help with it do you mean that it isn’t reducing your anxiety towards it? Or just that it’s not making the obsession go away? I’m just not sure if I understand correctly. I think being able to accept uncertainty also plays a part here.

I feel like part of the problem might be the way in which you react to the thought. When the thought comes up try to accept it as what it is: A thought. Try not to react to the thought and just let it be there.

*exactly what is going to happen. (Auto correct)

What happens when you do ERP for a specific obsession? Does it not help reduce your anxiety for that obsession?

Yup. ERP does nothing for me besides make me worse I don’t get the point of it.

ERP doesn’t seem to do much. My obsessions are around my bf cheating - so ERP for that is for example when I get that obsession, to delay or not call him. But I have that obsession constantly and the ERP doesn’t seem to help with it...

^ Sorry if that’s not helpful P. That’s me kind of thinking it through in my head :p But also I’m not sure I fully understand too.

Right, pineapple - it doesn’t seem to help with the anxiety. My therapist said that with repeated exposures the obsessions should also reduce but that hasn’t been happening. I’m kind of at a loss..

Hi all, thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I do acceptance statements as well (“yes he may be cheating on me”, “I have no control over him cheating on me”, etc). It seems like the work I’ve been doing with my therapist and ERP and this sort of thing should be having SOME effect...I don’t want to blame my therapist but at the same time I’d expect something more significant - everyone keeps heralding ERP as the “gold standard of treatment” but it feels anything but that.. My therapist doesn’t do ERP with me (she sends me home with homework exposures to do on my own). We have never done ERP together. Does that help?