Danielle Jhiani explains that OCD recovery time varies based on proper treatment like ERP, how often you practice, and your mindset toward uncertainty. Consistent practice, accepting setbacks, and avoiding compulsions to force recovery matter more than a fixed timeline.
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Welcome back. My name is Danielle Gordon Gianni. I'm an anxiety and OCD recovery coach. Helping people eliminate anxiety and OCD from their lives just like I did. So you can thrive in your life and have happy relationships. Today we're going to talk about how long it takes to recover. I want you to know that it really varies depending on the person. There's a lot of factors that, that play a part in recovery. That first one is are you getting the proper treatment? If you're not getting the proper treatment, you aren't going to actually get to that recovery stage. And that proper treatment is exposure and response, prevention and acceptance work, along with a couple other things sprinkled in the second one is how often you're practicing the skills. Again, we can learn a lot of information, but if we're not actually applying, applying it on a daily basis, then we're not going to start to make a difference in our recovery. So you want to make sure that you're not learning a lot of information and then not applying it. You have to be applying it and that's what starts to make the difference and change and rewire your brain.
Not only do you have to be applying the skills, but you also have to be recognizing when those intrusive thoughts show up, when those fear based thoughts show up and use the techniques each and every time those show up. Because if you're not, you're probably doing compulsions and compulsions feed the OCD and they make it worse in the long run. I know I mentioned a tip to recover quicker, but you have to make sure that you're not obsessively trying to get rid of OCD quickly. We all want it to go away and there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with wanting to feel good. But if you are frustrated that the thoughts are showing up, if you're expecting it to just go away quickly and not let your brain have that journey of recovery, it's not going to work very well. And then you also have to make sure that your mindset is that uncertainty. Negative thoughts, they're part of life. In fact, they're just thoughts, right? They're not really positive or negative, they're just thoughts you have to stay aware of knowing when it comes back, being confident in the skills, not pushing those thoughts away when you trying to get rid of it, when you're able to recognize those thoughts or when you know what to do with them, then you're going to recover a lot more quickly because you've got the Right skills, you've got the right support, and you have somebody that's redirecting you. When you get off track in recovery, the really great news is as soon as you start learning ERP and practicing erp, you are going to going to get better and better. When you get to that recovery stage, when those compulsions get to zero, we don't know because everybody's different. But you're going to be feeling better through time. Those thoughts are going to cause less discomfort. You're going to have more time in between some of those dips that you might have dips, or some people might call them relapses in the recovery process or are very normal, but you can get to the point where you're not having those. If you keep going, it's just trying to protect you. When you can understand it's doing a good thing and know what to do differently and just let the recovery journey be what it is, you're going to recover a lot more quickly. When you get obsessive and try to force it and think that OCD is just going to go away, it's not going to work very well for you. It doesn't work that way for anybody. My recovery journey was getting better and better and better and better with some dips, and that's normal again. It's like a baby learning how to walk. A baby doesn't just stand up or even run. They stand up, they take a step and they fall down. They stand up and they get better and better, but they fall down sometimes. And that's just the way the human brain work. So essentially, you have two options. You can learn the proper techniques and go through that journey, which is a lot of great and sometimes difficult times. This is like life in general, right? Or you can just not and stay stuck. And likely OCD will get worse over time. So when I used to put it that way to myself, I was like, nope, I don't want to stay stuck. And that motivated me to get going. Now. How do you recover more quickly? I know this is going to feel counterintuitive, but essentially you let go of recovery needing to look a certain way. You let go of needing to get better right now. And when you can accept that this is my journey, I'm just going to go with it and not have any expectations, get support, do the best I can, then you're actually going to get better a lot quicker. If you want recovery help, I have several program options, some very cost effective, to help you get to the lifetime recovery stage. Like I have gotten to. No matter how difficult your OCD is, no matter how long you've had it, you can get there. It's just a matter of learning new techniques, new skills. Life can be wonderful. Thank you so much for being here. We'll talk to you soon.
