People with avoidance compulsions: have you found that when you start doing the things your ocd makes you want to avoid, you start to like those things again, or do you still just do it uncomfortably with uncertainty? When I first started erp for SOOCD, my goal was to stop my avoidance compulsion, mainly where I would avoid physical intimacy with my partner. When I engaged in physical intimacy, even when the ocd discomfort was there, I would often feel okayish but would still feel uncertain or have thoughts like "I'm a fraud", "what if I'm in denial". I guess my question is, are you supposed to just do the things anyway, even if you keep having those thoughts? It just makes me want to avoid even more.

Yes, 100% keep doing them if you know thats what you desire. Ocd knows that you don't want to NOT like it, so it latches onto that. Remain present. Focus on sensations like physical touch with your partner. Remind yourself what you like about them and keep that emotional connection strong. I can't tell you how good I felt with my ex when I focused on just the feeling of his skin pressed upon mine :)

I hear that, but I think it triggers me when you bring up the word "desire", you see, as ocd has been messing with my mind for so long that it's impossible to tell what I desire. That's the whole problem actually, and the reason I avoid, because I DONT know what I desire and don't want to do the wrong thing. I know you can't give me reassurance because it's not healthy. But I think this is where the vicious cycle takes hold for me when it comes to avoiding intimacy in SOOCD.

@Whatabtme I understand that, that must be very hard for you! I feel the same way from time to time because my mind is a very weird place. In that case I would take the pressure off of being intimate. If you're constantly thinking and panicking about how you don't know what you like, you're just going to stay in that panic. If you feel like you want to do something, then do it. But don't force anything, because if you force things they won't feel genuine