This blog is not meant to replace therapy. Please consult with your therapist surrounding the subjects discussed in this blog.

As an OCD therapist, I spend a great deal of time reading and learning more about treatment for OCD and anxiety disorders. This work excites me and I’m always eager to learn how evidence-based treatment methods work for my clients (and for myself as someone who lives with OCD). I’ve said to clients countless times that what I find most fascinating about treating anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder is that there is so much to learn. The comparison I use is a silly one but it’s like rummaging through drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. As soon as I think i’ve found all there is to find in the junk drawer, I discover something new and a whole new drawer pops open to continue to learn and discover.

I thought today would be a good time to explain briefly what it means to adopt an exposure lifestyle. The first step towards understanding an exposure lifestyle is first understanding the reasoning behind it. It requires likely, an understanding of Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and why this is the gold standard for OCD treatment.

The reason ERP works is because of something called inhibitory learning. This means approaching feared scenario’s and creating new, more positive engagements with what we’ve avoided previously due to the anxiety. Therapy with an ERP therapist would entail creating a hierarchy of feared scenarios to approach avoided discomforts at an agreed upon pace. I would say, adopting an exposure lifestyle is adjacent to this and an important part of ERP therapy success and maintaining wins in symptom reduction.

Adopting an exposure lifestyle means choosing to lean into anxiety provoking moments in your daily life. These are the moments when your OCD pops up with the “what ifs” and intrusive images or thoughts. For someone with generalized anxiety it might mean leaning into everyday worrisome scenarios and choosing to embrace the moment of uncertainty rather than dwelling in escalating worry. The goal is to reduce avoidance or compulsive responses just because our anxious brain or obsessing thought patterns tell us to.

Here is an example:

Let’s say you’re afraid to touch public doorknobs due to fears surrounding contamination or germs. You’re about to touch the door handle when your OCD says, “Its covered in germs,” and your compulsion might be to use a napkin or sleeve to open the door instead. Adopting an exposure lifestyle might mean to choose to agree with this worry instead of shying away from it. In this moment instead of closing your eyes as you grab the handle with your sleeve, you confidently eye the doorknob while you grab the handle with your bare hand and say “so what” to the presence of germs.

This might seem like ridiculous advice, especially if you’ve been living with compulsions for a very long time. I would strongly suggest you consult with a therapist as you apply this. There is evidence-based research to back why this approach works. We’re choosing not to engage in the worry, we’re learning the feared scenario is unlikely and/or not as intense as we feared and we’re gaining confidence in our ability to move through life without listening to out OCD.

Adopting an exposure lifestyle, like anything else, takes practice and time to embrace. I can speak to my personal experience as well as the success I’ve seen in my clients. The moments that we lean into our anxieties, essentially leaning into life, we build confidence and realize we can take on the world. It’s freeing!

This blog is meant to be purely educational. Please seek a therapist to guide you through these practices so that they can be safety and correctly applied.

If you’re interested in anxiety, OCD or phobia treatment please reach out to us! It would be an honor to walk with you through this journey of healing.