Danielle Thornton, an anxiety and OCD recovery coach, explains how exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy helps people with OCD live normal, happy lives. ERP works by stopping compulsions and gradually facing feared thoughts and situations, which reduces anxiety over time. Thornton shares her own recovery as proof it's possible.
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Welcome back. My name is Danielle Thornton. I'm an anxiety and OCD recovery coach. And today we're going to talk about whether or not you can lead a happy life when you have ocd. And this is a common concern and question for a lot of people struggling with ocd. A lot of people with relationship OCD wonder if they can have a happy relationship. People with other subsets of OCD wonder if they can have a normal, happy life with ocd. And the answer is that you absolutely can be happy and live a normal life when you also have ocd. The key is to get help and treatment for your ocd, right? When you haven't gotten the proper treatment, which is erp, exposure and response prevention. There are other things out there that are going to be helpful, but exposure and response prevention is the foundation for ocd. It's something that I think is very necessary to get to the recovery stage of ocd. Without that, you're not going to get as far in your recovery. But once you get treatment and you know what to do with the intrusive thoughts, the anxiety, the compulsions that are going on, then you can learn what to do with all of this so that your OCD can get better. Because again, when OCD is in the driver's seat, when you're doing compulsions, that's reinforcing the OCD and intrusive thoughts. You're getting more intrusive thoughts, more anxiety, and the cycle is just continuing and continuing to go on and on and on. So you need to learn erp, exposure and response prevention. The response prevention is not doing the compulsions. I'm going to put the OCD cycle up here again to show you that when OCD gives you an intrusive thought and you respond with doing a compulsion, you're basically saying to OCD that I believe you that there's something wrong. I believe you that I need to do something about it. And once you do that, you just reinforce that cycle. And OCD is going to give you more intrusive thoughts because it's gotten what it wants in that moment, right? So half of the puzzle is not doing those compulsions. And for a lot of people, it takes working with somebody who can help you identify all of your compulsions. I'm sure you're aware of many of them, but there's probably some that you're not aware of. So first you have to identify all of the compulsions, and then secondly, bringing them to as close to zero as possible, which is where recovery from OCD is. And some people, and a lot of people need help with that. They need help bringing those compulsions down because it's not an easy thing to do when you struggle with ocd. The other half of the puzzle is the exposure, right? Not running away from the thoughts, not pushing the thoughts away, actually going into the thoughts and fears that you're having, which I get it, I have ocd. It's very scary to think about that. I've been in the same boat, really afraid to do exposure. But the thing with exposure is when you're working with somebody doing exposure, they shouldn't push you too far, number one. So you're only going to be doing exposures that you're comfortable with doing. But secondly, and most importantly is when you do an exposure, let's say you're doing an exposure on something, that's a 7 out of 10 of anxiety, right? Once you start doing exposure, that anxiety is going to actually drop. The anxiety is never going to get worse. People are afraid to go into the exposure because either they don't want to feel the anxiety or they don't want it to get worse. And it's not going to get worse. When you do exposures properly, it's actually going to get better. That anxiety is going to drop pretty quickly for most people. So exposures are not as scary as you think. They're actually very confidence building in the process. And when you start to put all these pieces of the puzzle together, your anxiety starts to drop. You're able to be more in the moment. You're not doing compulsions, you're not spiraling out of control. And as you're working with somebody to make these things happen, to practice these new skills and to not get stuck in the old habits that are feeding the ocd, you are going to start feeling better. And as that anxiety comes down, you are going to be able to be in the present moment. You are going to be able to enjoy your family. You are going to be able to spend time with your partner and enjoy it more. You are going to be able to actually get out of the house and spend time with friends or go to the park or walk your dog or whatever those things are that you haven't been able to do because of ocd. And as you continue to use these skills and as you continue to start to live the life that you want to be living, that you haven't been living because of ocd, it's going to be a slow progression of less anxiety, more happiness. You're going to be able to Start to reach certain goals that you're looking to reach. Do things that you've been wanting to do, not be stuck in your head in rumination all the time. You absolutely can have a normal, happy life and relationships, even if you have ocd. No matter what the subset of OCD is. This is very possible, but the key is getting the right help. So crucial. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people that don't understand ocd, whether we're talking about therapists, psychiatrists. I work with people all the time who reached out to get help and it may have been somewhat helpful. It may not have been helpful at all, but it wasn't what they really, really needed in order to get to the recovery stage of their oc.
Once you find that, and I'm one of those people that can help you, there are others as well. Once you find the right help and you start taking the right steps to heal, you're going to feel better and you can absolutely live a happy, normal life with ocd. So please don't lose hope about that. I want you guys all to know that I have been where you were at. I have struggled with ocd. I have had extreme anxiety, I haven't been able to get out of bed. At times I have felt like I couldn't even get on with my day. So I know what it is like to be there. But I promise you, it is so possible. I have overcome OCD in many different areas of my life and I know that you can too. So if you are looking to get to where I am at the recovery stage of ocd. If you want a happy life, if you want a successful relationship, please reach out to me and let's come up with a recovery plan. I'm going to give you a free recovery plan, whether that's working with me or somebody else to get point you in the right direction where we can get you help for your OCD and you can start to live the life that you desire. Make sure that you check the description box below, click on that link and either schedule a free call with me to talk more about how I can help you and create a recovery plan for you, or you can start right away with my course or coaching options to start to get to the recovery stage and feel good. So I hope you found this video helpful. If you like this, please click like subscribe if you want more notifications on videos just like this and I will talk to you next time.
