Message to OCD sufferers who haven’t tried ERP yet.

[deValentin]

Having OCD is when the abnormal becomes normal. Abnormal is the need to eliminate all possibilities of harm to feel safe or to eliminate all imperfections to feel complete (the Latin word “perfectus” that gave us the English word “perfect” means “completed”). Having OCD is when the normal becomes abnormal. Normal is to be contented with a reasonable degree of certainty/safety to feel certain/safe or a reasonable degree of satisfactoriness to feel satisfied. The solution is to stop counting on the elimination of all possibilities of harm to feel safe or the elimination of all imperfections to feel complete. It is to start contenting oneself with a reasonable degree of certainty/safety to feel certain/safe or a reasonable degree of satisfactoriness to feel satisfied. This is called Exposure and Response Prevention. It’s sometimes a long process, depending on how severe is one’s OCD and how long it lasted, but I tried it, and it worked for me.

[lml885]

Yes I need to try this more with a therapist but now I have a lot of “pure O” obsessions where things like song lyrics or feelings just come on like intrusively or ruminations and it is hard to break. Been working for over 20 years doing everything.

[deValentin in reply to lml885]

I also find that the more one consciously tries to get rid of a song or a feeling in one's mind, the more it persists. The July 5, 2023 issue of Psychology Today has a good article on that subject "The Pink Elephant Problem".