Question for people who’ve been doing ERP for a long time: do you feel like you have to keep doing exposures continually over time, in order to stop obsessive thoughts? Or do you feel like once you’ve done them long enough you’re able to clear the obsessive thoughts and stop doing ERP? In other words, do you feel it is an ongoing way to manage OCD or do you feel it can stop it from recurring?

The goal isn't to stop the thoughts. It's to stop your response. Stop the response (ERP) and chabam! No more OCD symptoms. You're getting caught up in the thought of always having to do ERP. THAT is a compulsion. OCD is tricky that way 😉

Ahh fair enough. Well then the first stuff I worked on I don't do exposure for anymore. Awesome to hear about the tapping!

ERP works well over time and the thoughts become far less distressing. OCD rears it's ugly head again when I find myself off balance. Times of added stress, too little sleep, when I am hungry or sick.

So, even though I’m no longer having panic attacks, ruminating, intrusive thoughts, avoidance, compulsive behavior, etc every single day like I was last year, I still get days where the thoughts seem more real than other days. I have essentially completed my ERP therapy, but even on days where I feel stressed about ANYTHING else going on in my life, my mind will also circle back around to the intrusive thoughts, even if that was not my originally stressor. But, if it gets really bad, I will repeat my old ERP exposures to calm me down and keep me center again. Don’t look at it as taking steps backwards, think of it as a refresher to clear your mind again and remind yourself who you really are.

Thanks but that isn’t quite my experience. I don’t expect to stop the thoughts altogether, but I have experienced the thoughts becoming less problematic, and feeling as though I was able to manage the OCD, both with ERP and EFT Tapping (a form of energy healing.) I was curious what other people’s experience has been with doing exposures in terms of clearing the symptoms vs having to continue with exposures over time. I don’t actually get caught up in the thought of having to do ERP, and that hasn’t been a compulsion or compulsive thoughts. I’m more trying to learn about other people’s experiences, in part because I have had very similar results with those two different approaches, and EFT is known to be able to clear things over time. Thanks for answering :)