How to Take Steps Away From OCD

"Working with a therapist who offers skilled and precise Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) can help you fully walk away from all compulsions. But to do this, you have to be all in."

"Each day she would spend hours checking that she had got all the details correct, reviewing all she'd done that day to make sure that she hadn't said or done anything that might cause offence or harm someone. She'd reassure herself that she was doing the right things. She would ask reassurance from her loved ones so she could be more certain that she had not done anything wrong; she would hate to feel like there was a chance that she might be responsible for anything that could even possibly cause hard. She sometimes even retraced her steps to make sure that she had not hit anything along her path."

"The problem was that the knight valued being brave and moving towards the life she wanted, but at the same time she also felt a strong need to be completely and utterly certain at all times: 99% certain wasn't enough because the cost of it not being OK felt like too high a price to pay."

"So she pushed herself to take a step East by doing something she cared about.Then she took a step West by checking that she hadn't"

Obsessive-compulsive disorder can be terrifying and debilitating, but it is treatable. Working with a therapist who provides skilled and precise Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) can help reduce and stop compulsions. ERP requires full commitment rather than partial effort. A metaphor describes a brave knight at a fork in the road choosing between a life filled with adventure, creativity, fun, family, friends, and learning, and a life filled with certainty. The knight wants both, but certainty drives hours of checking, reviewing, reassurance-seeking, retracing steps, and avoiding even small chances of harm. The cost of not being completely certain feels too high, so the knight must learn to move toward the desired life while tolerating uncertainty.

Read at Psychology Today