I started doing erp for harm ocd about 3 weeks ago..I started to feel like I was getting better but as my exposures get harder it seems like somedays my intrusive thoughts and complusions get worse. Has anyone else experience this? I feel like I'm never going to get better.

So I've been working to address my OCD for about a month now. So far, I haven't been working on it with a therapist and have instead been trying to create my own exposure exercises. The primary obsession I'm working on is the fear that I'm somehow flawed or invalid on a fundamental level. The best way I can describe it it is that its similar to the feeling you get when you have germ OCD and you feel contaminated, except my whole existence and being feels contaminated, so to speak. I've identified a list of triggers, and a list of compulsions (pretty much all mental) that I've noticed myself performing. I started out by doing imaginal exposures and scripts where I'd write out triggering fictional scenarios and read them over and over, combined with mindfulness techniques to focus on my breath and bring myself back to the present when I noticed myself performing compulsions mentally. At first it worked to some extent, but eventually I started to feel like the stories I was writing about this obsession weren't triggering any anxiety anymore or a very low level. So I stopped reading them and focused solely on improving my ability to stay present and identifying compulsions as I perform them, and disengaging. Now, I'm at the point where it seems like my general anxiety levels throughout the day are lower, and the triggers I've identified are producing noticeably less anxiety. But that makes me wonder if somehow I'm just secretly doing mental compulsions without knowing it? Is only a month of rather disorganized and unstructured ERP enough to produce this much improvement? To avoid giving me re-assurance, I'd appreciate if you guys don't directly answer those questions, maybe just provide some possibilities or your own experiences so I can get a better idea of where I'm at. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

Okay so I have been struggling with pocd. And I have been getting better but now my ocd is telling me that I'm proving it right by slowly started to get better. For example, after so long of trying my hardest to avoid anything protaining to children I realized that I have to in order to get better. So I've been letting myself go out more and yk see children. The intrusive thoughts are still there though. Which is feeding into it trying to convince me that it's real. It feels like it does that anytime I'm a step closer to getting better. Does anyone have any advice on how to help it? I struggle with mental checks and responding. I know that I should let it pass but it's so difficult. The intrusive thoughts have been getting worse too. They pop up over the smallest things. It's all just jumping to insane conclusions and I'm so sick of it. I just want to be better.

My theme is suicidal OCD. I’ve been doing ERP since last year November and the overall intensity of my thoughts have not reduced at all. I have these thoughts 24/7 and my life feels like a living hell. Not two minutes goes by throughout the day where I’m not suffering from relentless thoughts. I don’t want to take meds because of the side effects and my insurance is coming to an end so it’d be difficult to ween off them by myself. I’m starting to feel so hopeless because I’ve done the toughest of the toughest exposures and I’m not getting better at all. My life is a living hell and I don’t see my condition with OCD getting better anytime sooner.