Hello I am looking to start ERP on here with a therapist. I am quite nervous about it incase it doesn't work, I've had BWRT Therapy, CBT privately for months and I'm still horrified and scared of these thoughts. I haven't been officially diagnosed either which leads me down a horrible thought path.. but every therapist I have seen has said I have got harm ocd/pure o. Any advice on starting ERP? Thank you

I was afraid ERP wouldn't work for me either. But it does. It has been life changing for me. So first, your counselor will help you set up your hierarchy. You will use this to do exposures. You start slow and build your way up. Your counselor will be there to support and guide you. So the key to ERP is not to do any type of physical or mental compulsion during or after the exposure. Before they exposure, you will rate your anxiety level. As you do the exposure, your anxiety will go crazy. It will feel like an eternity, but it only lasts a couple minutes. Then your anxiety will peak then decline. If you ending anxiety is 4 or above, that means you need to do the exposure again. Your ending anxiety should be 1 or 0. You will definitely know when your anxiety is down where it needs to be. Ibhave harm OCD and pure OCD as well. I'm not going to tell you ERP is easy. Its terrifying and incredibly uncomfortable. The urge to do a compulsion can be so strong. It won't happen overnight and it will take hard work. But the anxiety relief you get from ERP is long lasting. The relief you get from doing a compulsive is very short lived. Hope that helps.

Thank you so much. Its horrible isn't it. I need to do whatever has to be done to help this as it is ruining every day now and I want want enjoy my life again. One of my problems is I don't know what my compulsions are (which again makes me think well it's not ocd then if you don't have compulsions your just evil!) I have noticed my intrusive thoughts are worse when I'm not with my family. I have to put something infront of my door at night to 'stop me doing something in my sleep' and have to say 'see you in the morning to my daughter before she goes to sleep' otherwise something bad will happen. Are these compulsions? X

ERP does work well. It is natural to be nervous. The therapists here at NOCD are awesome. They have heard everything before. Congratulations on taking the first step to recovery. We are all here for you.

Thank you both. I really hope it works/helps. Take care of yourselves too! Zx

It also makes me question my love for my family which is absolutely heartbreaking but it makes me think maybe you don't actually love them and that's why your having these thoughts as you actually want to do them. 😭

Thank you for all your advice its very much appreciated! I'm going to schedule a call when I'm home alone Wednesday and get this started! Time to get better and start living my life with my family properly again. Thanks again x

A couple of weeks ago I had an intrusive thought involving suicide it really scared me as I hadn't had it before and thought I was becoming suicidal so I called my gp and he panicked and arranged for a home care team to come round (I think this is to stop you going into hospital and check on your children's saftey) it really upset me and I had to explain to him its a intrusive thought so yes I am a bit more hesitant about what I say. I guess that's why these guys are so good and ocd specialists as they know its ocd and not what we want to do (even if ocd tells us otherwise!) I have woken up this morning with terrible thoughts again :( What if this isn't ocd, what if this is delusions and I'm loosing hold of reality etc. Its getting harder I've got to say. Sorry for going on! Xx