Obsessive Compulsive Treatment
ERP therapy for OCD tackles the cycle of obsessions and compulsions head-on. Here’s a breakdown of what it might involve:
- Gradual Exposure: You’ll work with a therapist to create a hierarchy of your triggers, starting with the least anxiety-provoking and gradually working your way up. This could involve things like spending time in mildly dirty environments for someone with contamination fears, or resisting the urge to rearrange objects for someone with symmetry obsessions.
- Response Prevention: The key to breaking the cycle is resisting the urge to perform compulsions. A therapist will guide you through these exposures while encouraging you to sit with the anxiety without giving in to compulsions. This might feel uncomfortable at first, but over time, the anxiety will lessen.
- Learning Coping Mechanisms: ERP isn’t just about exposure. You’ll also learn tools to manage anxiety and intrusive thoughts when they come such as through mindfulness techniques and attention retraining.
Our OCD therapists in Rockville Centre, NY are Here to Help
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We understand how OCD can make daily life extremely difficult. Our therapists can help you manage your symptoms and find relief.
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Common Obsessions in OCD
- Sexual Orientation: “Maybe I am not really straight?” “Maybe I will realize one day that I am not actually gay”
- Relationship: “What if this is not the right relationship for me?” “What if I’m not attracted enough to my partner?”
- Responsibility: “What if I offended that person?” “What if my negligence causes someone to die?”
- Harm: “Maybe I could lose control and harm someone,” “What if I become a serial killer one day?”
- Pedophilia: “Did I look at that child for too long?” “What if that intrusive image means that I am attracted to children?”
- Racism/Cancellation: “What if I am racist?”, “What if I accidentally blurt out a racial slur?” “What if I said something in high school that will get me “canceled” now?”
- Religious and/or Moral Scrupulosity: Unwanted “blasphemous” thoughts, “What if I am a bad or immoral person?”
- Contamination: Needing to feel “clean,” Fearing contracting illnesses or spreading germs
- “Just Right”: Repeating behaviors until they feel “just right,” “What if I won’t be able to tolerate the feeling of this not being just right?”
- Somatic: Hyperawareness of one’s automatic body sensations such as breathing or blinking and fear that this hyper-awareness will never stop
Common Compulsions in OCD
- Avoidance
- Checking
- Distraction
- Rumination
- Mental Rehearsal/Preparation
- Repeating behaviors until they are “right”
- Rethinking thoughts
- Pushing thoughts away
- Wishing thoughts away
- Counting
- Praying
- Silently repeating phrases
- Moving objects
- Replacing thoughts
- Researching
- Comparing
- Reassurance-seeking
- Cleaning, disinfecting
- Scanning the body for signs of anxiety or arousal
Obsessive Compulsive Treatment in Rockville Center, NY
The current “gold-standard” treatment for OCD is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). We also incorporate Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to bolster treatment effectiveness. Both ERP and ACT are highly effective in improving symptoms of OCD.
Don’t let OCD hold you back from living the life you want. We offer ACT and ERP for OCD in Rockville Centre and online across NY & NJ. Get help today.
ERP for OCD
Read more about ERP for OCD on the IOCDF website