Avoid the pitfalls that can sabotage your OCD recovery

ERP for OCD, the evidence-based therapy for the disorder, is relatively straightforward: face your fears without doing compulsions. However, implementing ERP well requires identifying all the various types of compulsions that can reinforce the OCD cycle. Some of these can be quite subtle, and if you and/or your ERP therapist haven’t identified that they are playing a role, they can turn into pitfalls that can sabotage your recovery.

The following is a round up of these subtle potential saboteurs and a link to a blog post for each about how you can address them:

1. Think you don’t do mental compulsions? Well, how ’bout this one?  The “trying on compulsions” compulsion
2. When emotions turn into compulsions: The Subtle OCD Compulsion You Might Not Know You’re Doing
3. When you’re in a shame-based self-punishment cycle because OCD tells you you’re bad: Self-punishment as an OCD ritual
4. When you’re doing things for others for fear-based reasons: The truth about people pleasing
5. When you’re micro-monitoring your OCD symptoms in hopes that you can finally eliminate them all: How micro-monitoring OCD symptoms can keep you from getting better
6. When OCD and PTSD intertwine: Post-traumatic OCD
7. When OCD is mixed with workaholism (or a state of constantly doing something “productive”, even if it isn’t work), just right OCD, and a feeling of never being quite good enough: Optimization OCD: Your productivity does not equal your worth
8. When you have health issues and OCD tells you it has an MD: Managing Health Anxiety/OCD
9. When technology is hindering your OCD recovery:
   • How technology can inadvertently have you doing compulsions: Are You Handcuffed to Your Devices, and Is OCD at Fault?
   • Is your phone sabotaging your OCD recovery? Marrying Intention and Attention
   • Are news and social media getting you down? 3 questions about impact of media on mental health
   • Maybe some positive news could help turn things around: Positive News: the opposite of OCD
   • Is wearable technology right for you and your OCD recovery? OCD, self-criticism, and wearable technology

Learn more about taming OCD

To learn more about how I used ERP to take back my life and for Dr. Reid Wilson’s powerful guidance for applying my ERP strategies in daily life, see Is Fred in the Refrigerator? Taming OCD and Reclaiming My Life.  Click here to purchase your copy.

Sign up for my Shoulders Back! newsletter to receive OCD-taming tips & resources, including notifications of new FredTalks, delivered every month to your inbox.

My blogs are not a replacement for therapy, and I encourage all readers who have obsessive compulsive disorder to find a competent ERP therapist. See the IOCDF treatment provider database for a provider near you. And never give up hope, because you can tame OCD and reclaim your life!