- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi! I’ve been in recovery before and am pretty much there/almost there again! I got ERP therapy last year, started Prozac, and stayed in recovery for a full year. It was the best year of my life and I will never take life for granted again. I relapsed a few months ago because I got pregnant and was fired from my job (illegally btw) and stopped my meds all around the same time and it was difficult. But I decided to get back on my meds during my pregnancy and started ERP again and use ACT a lot as well and am giving birth any day now and things are really starting to look up. It really just takes commitment to refusing to give in to compulsions, especially rumination, and over time, it just gets easier.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 3y
great work!
- Date posted
- 3y
@NOCD Therapist - Jenna O. Thank you 🙏🏻
- Date posted
- 3y
Comment deleted by user
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 3y
congrats!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 3y
i'm an OCD therapist and also have OCD myself! i struggled primarily with postpartum OCD but it's always been there in a waxing and waning way even before. i believe that you can't necessarily get rid of the obsessions, can't get rid of the compulsions completely, but you can get rid of the disorder part - the part where it guides your decisions, where it impacts your life, where it makes you feel distressed and impairment in lots of ways. i've seen it happen since 2008 witnessing it with my former clients and my current nocd members and recovery is a beautiful and very possible thing :)
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- 3y
Love this!
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- 3y
Love to hear this! Glad you are using your experience to help others! For me, when I am in recovery, I don’t think of them as obsessions anymore because they are just thoughts that pop in every once in awhile, and I do no compulsions when I am in recovery. I just don’t allow myself.
- Date posted
- 3y
Oh hi, hello 😁 👋🏻
- Date posted
- 3y
Hey 😃
- Date posted
- 3y
The people who are saying OCD isn't chronic are flat out wrong. That being said, ERP can help you break the cycle and dramatically reduce your anxiety. Intrusive thoughts will never completely go away. Everyone has them. But OCD can fade into the background and not be in control.
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you for your comment. To clarify those who say it use to be ocd sufferers too. I feel I have to believe them.
- Date posted
- 3y
Love the odea of letting fade into background. That's recovery too
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 3y
love this
- Date posted
- 3y
I'd like to know as well Please do share,
- Date posted
- 3y
Unfortunately I think ppl get better and leave the app. Hopefully we will hear from some. Here is one https://youtu.be/FMr6CiHBU3U
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- 3y
@Rose Thanks for sharing 🙂
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
How long did it take to make this? And is it actually possible?
- Date posted
- 23w
People who went from a really bad time with OCD to a better time now. Is it really possible? What was your theme? Did you take medication?
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 20w
December 14, 2024, marked two years since my first ERP therapy session with my NOCD therapist, Mixi. And October 2024 marked a year of being free from OCD. It was not an easy journey, confronting my fears face to face. Exposing myself to the images and thoughts my brain kept throwing at me, accepting that I might be the worst mother, that my daughter wouldn’t love me, and that I deserved to be considered a bad person. It was challenging having to say, “Yes, I am those things,” feeling the desire to run, but realizing the thoughts followed me. At the start of my therapy, I remember feeling like I couldn’t do this anymore. Life felt unbearable, and I felt so weak. I longed for a time before the OCD, before the flare-ups, before the anxiety, the daily panic attacks. I thought I’d never be myself again. But I now know that ERP saved my life. The first couple of sessions were tough. I wasn’t fully present. I lied to my therapist about what my actual thoughts were, fearing judgment. I pretended that the exposures were working, but when the sessions ended, I went back to not sleeping, constantly overwhelmed by fear and anxiety. But my therapist never judged me. She made me feel safe to be honest with her. She understood OCD and never faltered in supporting me, even when I admitted I had been lying and still continued my compulsions. My biggest milestone in therapy was being 100% transparent with my therapist. That was when real change began. At first, I started small—simply reading the words that terrified me: "bad mom," "hated," "unloved." Then, I worked on listening to those words while doing dishes—not completely stopping my rumination, but noticing it. Just 15 minutes, my therapist said. It wasn’t easy. At one point, I found myself thinking, “Will I ever feel like myself again?” But I kept pushing through. Slowly, I built tolerance and moved to face-to-face exposures—sitting alone with my daughter, leaning into the thought that my siblings might die, reading articles about my worst fears, and calling myself the things I feared. Each session was challenging, but with time, the thoughts started to lose their grip. By my eleventh session, I started to realize: OCD was here, and it wasn’t going away, but I could keep living my life despite it. I didn’t need to wait for it to be quiet or go away to move on. Slowly, it began to quiet down, and I started to feel like myself again. In fact, I am not my old self anymore—I’m a better version. OCD hasn’t completely disappeared, but it’s quieter now. Most of the time, it doesn’t speak, and when it does, I know how to handle it. The last session with my therapist was emotional. I cried because I was finishing therapy. I remember how, in the beginning, I cried because I thought it was just starting—because I was overwhelmed and terrified. But at the end, I cried because I was sad it was ending. It felt like I had come so far, and part of me wasn’t ready to say goodbye, even though I had already learned so much. It was a bittersweet moment, but I knew I was walking away stronger, equipped with the tools to handle OCD on my own. If I could change anything about my journey, it would be being open and honest from the beginning. It was the key to finding true healing. The transparency, the honesty—it opened the door to lasting change. I’m no longer that person who was stuck in constant panic. I’m someone who has fought and survived, and while OCD still appears from time to time, I know it doesn’t define me. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. Have you started therapy, is something holding you back? Is there something you want to know about ERP therapy? I'll be live in the app answering each and every one today from 6-7pm EST. Please drop them below!
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