Danielle Jhiani says you don't need to hunt for core fears separately. Good ERP work exposes them naturally in the first few sessions. Focus instead on doing exposures for your worst fears and sitting with the discomfort until it fades.
A lot of people come to me asking, do I need to identify my core fears in order to recover? I think I need to figure these out. And the answer is yes and no. If you're getting the right treatment and your therapist or your coach is helping you identify your intrusive thoughts and they're teaching you what to do with those, your core fears are already coming out in these intrusive thoughts. It doesn't take long for that to happen. So let's talk about somebody with contamination ocd and they're washing their hands all the time, and they're making sure the kids don't bring their shoes in the house, and they are cleaning constantly. As I'm asking them, what's the thought and the fear that's coming up, what's going on in your brain when you want to wash something for 30 minutes? And they say, well, if I don't do that, then somebody might get sick. And we'd say, okay, let's work with that thought and practice exposure with that thought. Maybe we start to delve into another thought, which is, well, if somebody gets sick, then they're going to die, right? So if you're getting the proper treatment, those core fears are very quickly coming out. Now, if I'm working with somebody with, let's say, relationship OCD and they're worried about their feelings for their partner or their partner's feelings for them, those intrusive thoughts are their core fears. There's not just one core fear in there. In fact, if we just dig down and we think we find one or two core fears and we focus on those, that's great. But we still have to know what to do with all of the other intrusive thoughts coming up. Now, it is important to go as deep as possible and make sure that we're doing exposure on the big fears, which are essentially the core fears. So someone who's doing the proper treatment with you is going to encourage you to continue to do exposure on the things that cause the most discomfort. Right? Because if we just do exposure on the somewhat uncomfortable things, but not the really uncomfortable things, then we're not going as deep into the recovery as we could. So if you find yourself, I need to find my core fears. I need to stop ERP and go do this other type of treatment that helps me identify that. What I want you to know is if you're working with us or someone else who's doing ERP with you and they're doing it well, those core fears are naturally going to come up pretty quickly, usually within the first, second or third sessions. So there's nothing different that you have to do, nothing different that you have to identify. It's just your brain seeking relief and looking all kinds of places to get relief or proper treatment. When in reality you can't do five things at once. You need to focus on one thing at a time. So if you're doing erp, if you're identifying your intrusive thoughts, and if you're learning to expose yourself to those thoughts, consistent consistently, and doing that long enough till the discomfort fades, then you're in the right place and you don't need to go anywhere else. If you need help with this, check out the link in the description below. For our recovery programs, we have cost effective programs that can help people recover. Reaching the lifetime recovery stage is my goal for people with ocd. Meaning OCD is a thing of the past. It doesn't really bother you, but the way to get there is to learn how to respond to discomfort, uncertainty, and doubt and learning to do that for the rest of your life. That's how we get to the recovery stage. That's how we stay in the recovery stage. And we can help you get there if you need it. Please comment below on this video. Let us know if you liked it. If you disagree, I'd love to hear your opinions and we'll talk to you really soon.
