Exposure & Response Prevention
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a similar type of cognitive behavioral therapy used by mental health therapists for treating psychological disorders, typically aimed at individuals who struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The Exposure in ERP refers to subjugating yourself to the thoughts, images, objects and situations that make you anxious and/or start your obsessions. While the Response Prevention part of ERP, refers to making a choice to resist compulsive behaviors once the anxiety or obsession have been “triggered”. Although this process is challenging and difficult, many who commit to willingly confront your anxiety and obsessions while simultaneously committing to not give into the compulsive behaviors generally feel a drop in their anxiety levels over time.
One way to think about the ERP process is by imagining jumping into a cold body of water. Immediately when your body hits the water you feel the uncomfortable cold that chills you to the bone and you are faced with the implicit question of, what does this mean? You might frantically think, “ah, this is cold!” “Get out now” “this is terrible!” etc. This might result in you quickly getting out of the water only to watch your friends and family enjoying themselves at the pool or lake. Another possibility is that you refrain from getting out and manage to stay in the water until the feeling of the cold water is at a minimum manageable if not surprisingly enjoyable.
OCD plays on the bodies potential alarm system which we need to have functioning properly to keep us safe from potential threats. Typically, what happens is we find ourselves in loops of behaviors because we’re responding as if you are in danger, rather than “pay attention, you might be in danger”. Through proper exposure and response prevention therapy we can reduce your anxiety and obsession through deciding to stop continuing the compulsive behaviors. This often leads to the opening of possibilities in many areas of your life.