Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

ERP: The Gold-Standard to Treat OCD

Do you or your child ever have obsessive thoughts that just won’t go away? Are you compelled to do certain rituals like eating food one exact way or checking to make sure you did what you needed to do “just right”? Obsessive-compulsive disorder makes us have frequent, unwanted thoughts and urges that cause major anxiety. People try to cope with these obsessions through doing compulsions, which are actions that temporarily relieve the anxiety, but in the end, they make it worse. If this sounds like you, please reach out and we can do a clinical exam to see if you have OCD.

The “gold-standard” to treat OCD is exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP). The International OCD Foundation explains, “The exposure component of ERP refers to practicing confronting the thoughts, images, objects, and situations that make you anxious and/or provoke your obsessions. The response prevention part of ERP refers to making a choice not to do a compulsive behavior once the anxiety or obsessions have been ‘triggered.’ Over time, the treatment will ‘retrain your brain’ to no longer see the object of the obsession as a threat.”

One of the purposes of ERP is empower you to create your own exposures and process your own responses by equipping you with therapeutic tools and strategies. You are not alone and I am here to help!