ERP therapy

[Traps67]

Hello fellow OCD’ers. Has anyone here been thru ERP therapy? I’ve had ERP for the last 81/2 months and feel much better but still not quite there yet. How long were you in therapy? I’m on Prozac now with Abilify as a supplement. Thanks for any help.

[TomFed]

Hi,

It's all different. Some people just take a couple of months to go through the exposure hierarchy and learn to successfully apply ERP tools everyday to deal with OCD when it's spiking. Some people need much more time. If you see good progress keep going. And well, remember that the goal of ERP therapy is for you to learn to apply ERP tools by yourself whenever OCD is coming back out of the closet, not to sit in therapy for years as it might become another safety behaviour/compulsion.

[Sallyskins]

I take sertraline along with an Abilify (aripiprazole) supplement - I find it really helps.

Don't expect a miracle cure for OCD. It does take a while, and you may have setbacks. But progress is still progress, no matter how long it takes. And it's better to make slow but sure progress so it gets wired into your brain.

In many ways therapy is like being given a tool kit and being taught how to use it. Once equipped, you need to keep those tools sharp by using them each day, and occasionally, if it helps, reading some self help stuff that you find helpful.

Good that you're feeling better. Keep going with it!

[Hidden in reply to Sallyskins]

Thank you for your advice 🙂

[bulldog71]

ERP really helps. I had been on Prozac and Abilify with decent results. I was taken off those two and put on Luvox. The Luvox turned things around for me like nothing else. I also use the ERP skills in conjunction which help out a lot.

[Hidden in reply to bulldog71]

Thank you very much

[Natureloverpeace]

People’s recovery journeys are going to be different because treatment needs to be custom-fitted to the individual. People often have co-morbidities, different severity levels and different levels of insight. Also, the expertise level of the OCD specialist matters. Old school ERP use to be just habituation, hierarchies and working on the surface fears. A person can make great progress that way but still be white-knuckling it and not get free from their OCD. Psychoeducation about OCD is essential before even beginning the actual ERP. This could be a couple of sessions or a couple of months or more, depending on the individual. The person needs to understand how OCD works, how the OCD cycle is maintained, the need to accept uncertainty, etc. The exercises need to be a collaboration between you and the therapist. Even if two people have the same theme , and even the same compulsions, they can be doing the compulsions for different reasons. The exercise needs to have value to the person. Applying exercises isn’t a cookie-cutter approach. Motivational Interviewing, ACT, DBT, Inhibitory Learning can all be part of the process as well as long as they aren’t used in a way to negate or get rid of the distress , otherwise, the OCD cycle is fed. Let the distress come down for the long-term by not reinforcing the OCD cycle.

With effective treatment, the person will learn to tell the difference between their voice and the voice of OCD. They learn that OCD has been feeding them lies and they can stand up to this bully and not have to do its bidding. Freedom from OCD is empowering but recovery can be messy and it’s not linear. You can thrive in life again, living it according to your values instead of under OCD’s dictatorship and lies. A really good OCD therapist will help you discover the core fear and address it. Just tackling the superficial fears alone (old school ERP) is an open window for OCD to change or add themes because the underlying core fear that underlies the OCD would still be there.

Everyone needs to do their recovery journey at a pace that is best for them. The pace can change depending on where the person is at. Recovery is never over since there isn’t a cure yet. Active recovery is important. Stay involved in the OCD community, keep up with the evolving education . Supporting others is a great way to support yourself.