OCD is exhausting and often misunderstood.

If you’re dealing with intrusive thoughts, compulsions, checking, reassurance-seeking, or avoidance, you’re not weak or broken. Your brain is stuck in a loop.

The good news: OCD is highly treatable, especially with the right approach.

What OCD actually is

OCD involves:

• unwanted, intrusive thoughts

• intense anxiety

• compulsions or mental rituals to reduce that anxiety

• short-term relief followed by stronger anxiety

Common themes include:

• contamination fears

• harm or “what if” thoughts

• relationship OCD

• moral or perfectionistic obsessions

• postpartum intrusive thoughts

• checking behaviors

How ERP therapy helps

ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) is the gold-standard treatment for OCD.

In ERP, we:

• gradually face feared thoughts or situations

• reduce compulsive responses

• learn to tolerate uncertainty

• retrain your brain’s fear response

ERP is structured, collaborative, and paced carefully. It is not about forcing you into extreme situations.

If avoidance is a big part of your experience, you can also read more about exposure therapy.

OCD, anxiety, and trauma

OCD often overlaps with anxiety and sometimes with past trauma. In some cases, EMDR therapy can be helpful alongside ERP.

We’ll always choose the approach that actually fits your symptoms.

Common ERP misconceptions

Here are the misconceptions I see most often in real practice. These are the ones that stop people from starting ERP or make them quit too early.

“ERP means forcing myself to do terrifying things.”
ERP is planned, paced, and collaborative. It does not start with your worst fear. It starts with mild, specific exposures that feel uncomfortable but manageable. The work happens in the stretch, not the panic zone. A session looks like sitting with a thought, delaying a reassurance ritual, or letting your body feel uncertain for a few minutes while nothing bad happens.

“If I don’t feel calmer after an exposure, it didn’t work.”
Relief is not the goal in the moment. Learning is. The nervous system learns through repetition that anxiety can rise and fall without rituals. Often the anxiety stays elevated during early exposures and drops later, sometimes hours later. That delayed drop still counts.

“ERP is about suppressing or getting rid of thoughts.”
ERP does the opposite. Thoughts are allowed to show up fully. The work is changing your response, not controlling your mind. When people try to “do ERP correctly” by pushing thoughts away, they usually end up strengthening OCD.

“I have to stop all compulsions immediately.”
Most people reduce compulsions gradually. We choose which rituals to delay or soften first. Full response prevention comes later, once confidence and skill are there. Abruptly cutting everything off can backfire and increase dropout.

“ERP will erase my anxiety forever.”
ERP builds flexibility, not immunity. People still feel anxiety, uncertainty, and doubt. The difference is that these experiences stop running the show. Anxiety becomes background noise instead of a command.

“ERP isn’t safe for intrusive thoughts about harm, sex, or my baby.”
These are exactly the thoughts ERP treats, when done carefully and ethically. The thoughts are not wishes or risks. ERP does not increase danger. It decreases avoidance, shame, and mental checking that keep OCD alive. This is especially important for postpartum intrusive thoughts, which are common and widely misunderstood.

“If I don’t feel ready, ERP will be too much.”
Readiness is built through preparation. Psychoeducation, mapping triggers, learning how OCD works, and practicing small uncertainty exposures come first. You do not have to feel brave to start. You just have to be willing to practice differently.

Next steps

If OCD is taking up too much space in your life, ERP therapy can help you take that space back.

You’re welcome to book a free intro call to talk through OCD therapy in Copenhagen.