A quick video talking about my old, OCD door checking compulsion and the huge spike in anxiety I experienced the first time I practiced Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) techniques with that compulsion.
If you’re doing ERP, be prepared for that big spike in anxiety. It’s not a bad thing. Don’t avoid it. Just as exercising makes your heart pound, especially if you haven’t exercised in a long time, so too does ERP make your brain pound and sweat and shout. But that’s a sign you should do more of it. ERP exercises your brain. Anxiety is just your brain sweating.
