Exposure & Response Prevention for OCD Door Checking
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.
March 27, 2014 @ 1:11 pm
Thanks for the video, it really struck a chord. I’m about to start ERP and my symptoms are uncannily like your own. It really does help to know that others have gone though this, and it’s not just me who’s struggling.
Thanks again!