How do you do ERP for Harm OCD?

(It's called THE MIND WORKOUT in the UK and Australia/New Zealand, DAS MIND-WORKOUT in Deutsch, ENTRENA TU MENTE en español)

Connect on any of these:

[benmiddleton]

I absolutely hate my harm OCD!!! things that I would never do in real life are the thoughts that drive me insane. I am currently seeing a CBT

[a-gony]

Thank you so much. I struggle with the constant thought of, "What if I lose my mind and become a serial killer?" Schizophrenia was a big one for me as well.

[EternalAlana]

I have struggled with harm harm ocd since age 9 .. I am in therapy now but it has destroyed areas of my life.
But it has been getting better.. thank you for this video

[Pathrissia]

Yah, When I have my cloudy days I can feel scared of myself. As if I am a monster and could hurt anyone I like. And indeed, the crazy part is that I did not realize this was OCD too until now. I thought something was simply wrong with me and that I had some kind of demon inside of me..(yup).

[shishirchitre]

I'm having OCD for last 6 years. Now it's mostly gone. All these years I mostly avoided ERP. I traveled from harm OCD to Religious OCD to Harm OCD again. The anxiety comes and goes within 48 to 73 hrs. But only ERP has helped me. I've a fear of my subconscious will get altered to a bad person. When I'm not under that typical OCD feeling, I laugh at it. But when anxiety comes back, it suddenly starts to feel real. Even though I know it's nothing but the OCD. Anyway, thanks for the help!!! Keep up with the videos.

[highinheaven]

I've had OCD since I was 9 years old. I'm 21 now and for the past year I've had increasingly worse harm OCD. god, it's horrific. my psychologist just started me on ERP for harm OCD (I've never done ERP for anything else) and I feel like I'm about to explode! I'm so thankful I saw your video and it makes so much sense that harm OCD is something that occurs much later after you first develop symptoms (I've been through health ocd, counting, checking, etc) and that you should start elsewhere. TY!

[everybodyhasabrain]

I'm glad it helped. I never knew that violent visions and things like that were part of OCD, either until I went to see a psychologist and it was on a diagnostic test. I just thought my imagination was really violent. That all went away after I did Exposure-based CBT and it's great to have my imagination back. The more we talk about the diversity of OCD symptoms, hopefully, more people will get help. All the best on your journey with this!

[HClevelanddurga]

i had harm ocd for years and was afraid to tell anyone. it became so big i had to get help. i overcame it with great therapy. but then after my husband and i divorced and he told the court and judge i wanted to kill my children and i lost custody of my kids. i was a homeschool mom of 5 kids. he was a flight nurse and knew what ocd was but told the court i was a homicidal maniac. ive never been right since. its been a real nightmare. my ocd is gone but so are my kids

[violettah]

I love your videos. It have helped me so much! I`m dealing with harm OCD, and is working on it with my therapist. Being a psychologist myself, but struggeling with OCD most of my life. I haven`t really understood that I had OCD until my symptoms got worse. But finally I`m getting help and I`m so grateful for that. I will show him your videos, so positive, helpful and full of hope.

[Jessica_Jones]

I just found out a couple days ago that I have this. I've been suffering for 2 years. It was debilitating. It's destroyed areas of my life. I'm happy to know what it is now. I feel like I can finally rebuild my life. Thank you for making this video. I plan to get this therapy soon.

[everybodyhasabrain]

I had the same issues with falling off buildings and getting hit by cars, and a bunch of others, too. Along with all sorts of compulsions. But I thought my compulsions were necessary and I thought that what I "saw" was just my creative imagination. I didn't get diagnosed for years. BUT the diagnosis is only useful for getting insurance to cover treatment. Whether they're labelled as OCD or not is irrelevant to whether you want to keep having them in your life. They are things you can get rid of.

[everybodyhasabrain]

I did not use medicine while I was doing CBT or before or after. But that doesn't mean you can't also experience a similar level of recovery by using medication temporarily in conjunction with CBT. It just means that I didn't use medication.

[everybodyhasabrain]

Thanks, Brian. Sorry to hear about the OCD symptoms dragging life to a stop. Have you tried a therapy like Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) or Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)? They helped me tremendously to deal with my harm-related OCD symptoms. It is super hard but it's possible to put them behind you. Keep pushing. I hope you find the right support to help you up and over this. It really is possible to live a life doing all of the things that you're terrified of right now.

[gutz]

Its ironic, the first time I had harm OCD was when I was a kid and it involved a knife as I was holding it near a loved one. I thought for sure that thought of harm only meant I was a psychopath like all those evil people I heard about in films. Later I became a butcher and worked with knives as a profession for over a decade. Even when I was a cook in the army I was fine. Truth be told, I had a number of obsessions outside of knifes at that point, like falling off a building and so forth. Now that I have given up butchering and traded a knife for a computer is now that I am afraid to hold one. I am so afraid I will stab myself in the eye out of pure impulse that I cannot hold pointy knives, be it to cut bread or to cut a steak. I went back to work as a butcher for Easter week as it is the buisiest week in meat because I needed the money, but to do my job, I HAD to wear safty glasses, unheard of in the meat industry. So I got laughed at and made fun of and told at one point by my boss to take them off. I admit, after a solid week of working with the knife I was a bit calmer, but those glasses became my shield that I had to have two pairs in case I lost one. No way was I going to work without those glasses. It now appears though after this heavy exposure, my OCD is looking for new things to damage my life with. One of the now is screaming on public transport. Its just sad that I was never this bad and I have gotten worse. I only just realized now that I am 35 that all these years these thoughts I had were due to OCD. I just wish I had the internet growing up to see that I was never alone. Now I need to heal myself.

[thekadju]

my fear is that I will just get so annoyed with these thoughts that Ill end up carrying it out just because I can't take it anymore.

[elzannejonker]

I have had harm OCD since I was 9 years old. I am now 22 and I still have harm OCD thoughts and compulsions every now and then. I sought help when I was 19 and it bacame too much for me to handle- OCD started taking over my life. It disabled me in my daily activities. I have had terrible harm OCD around other people and I know what you are going through! You are not alone and there is hope. I am extremely sad to hear about your situation. That must be horrible!!!! I pray that God will provide.:)

[jayewatkins]

I really enjoy watching your videos :) i think you have a great way of explaining things in terms that everyone can understand. Your light hearted, upbeat approach is refreshing also. I do not have ocd but i wish everyone success.. You can do it x

[jffan]

Really brilliant mark. I wish I had this when I had no idea I had ocd. I just thought I was a psychopath and it really was just the worst thing imaginable.
Now I have done cbt and researched ocd and done erp it's amazing to think I have survived because before it was a matter of time before my life imploded....
Great that you are raising awareness and facts about anxiety.  Well done my friend

[everybodyhasabrain]

That's the question I'm talking about. Accept the uncertainty (trying to get a yes/no answer is just your OCD tricking you into pursuing certainty) and then act according to your values (the answer to the question shouldn't affect your actions because healthy actions come from your values, not reactions to fears in your head). Trying to be certain if something is "normal" is a typical OCD symptom. Focus on the actions that will take you where you want to go in life. They don't need labels

[everybodyhasabrain]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "because of OCD". Compulsions can cause all sorts of physical harm and getting caught up in our obsessions can open oneself up to being harmed from people or things around us. That's why it's so important to get help. OCD is treatable so there's no need to be experiencing that harm, regardless of whatever thoughts our brains might throw at us.