Today I realized and understood how crucial consistency and repetition is when it comes to ERP and recovery. Isn’t funny and ironic how repetition can actually be a helpful tool instead of a tedious and harmful one like it is with our OCD? I think its all about balance.

OCD makes us do unnecessary repetitive compulsions over and over which end up wiring our brain that way which is a HUGE reason why it feels like we can’t stop and can never get “over” OCD. However, repetition of healthy habits and behaviors, or in this case, repeating and doing ERP over and over will be only way to balance the harmful effects that OCD has left us. Repeating ERP over and rewires our brains.

The reason I thought about this is because its almost been a month since I have actually full on lived back to my apartment because I have been at my parents. 90% of the reason of that is because we all got sick with some horrible respiratory virus, it seems like its the flu. Being a hypochondriac, you can imagine the huge trigger this is.

But today I thought of the lesson I was just writing out “ERP must be continuous and repetitive.” I did not realize how much being in “one spot” in a way feeds my OCD because it starts to adapt to that, and anything else seems dangerous; for example in this case, now I feel that my apartment is COMPLETELY dangerous and I MUST avoid it at all costs. I need to quarantine it.

This is not fun. I wish OCD wasn’t so astute and meticulous sometimes. But anyways, I am here to tell you guys, if you are anything like myself, especially dealing with comorbidities like ADHD, you need VARIETY. You have to constantly be switching it up so that your OCD does not win and does not latch on permanently on something this is important in our lives like your living space.

It is continuous work guys. But i do no mean that in a way to discourage or scare you. On the contrary, I mean it in a motivating way. I mean it in a way to not let us fool ourselves from the deceptions of OCD. We like safety, and if there is ever something that disrupts that like in my case, illness, we start worrying and freaking out. Well, our OCD does. But we do not need to let it drive us.

I love you guys, and may you have the energy and motivation to keep forward in your OCD recovery like I am trying to. We can do this.