Behavior Therapy For Exposure And Response Prevention (ERP)

Reasons for Germaphobia?

• A traumatic experience (first-hand or second-hand) that links germs or dirt with a negative emotional response

: his brother push her into the lagoon?

• A seemingly benign situation such as a scene from a television show or film

: fear factor, the contestant have to go through into the mud

• A preexisting tendency to worry that has been compounded by current happenings

: the H1N1 issues

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

The mostly widely practised behaviour therapy for OCD is called exposure and response prevention (ERP).

The "exposure" part of this treatment involves direct or imagined controlled exposure to objects or situations that trigger obsessions that arouse anxiety.
If, for example, a patient were being treated for an obsession about causing an accident while driving, the therapist would have to practice what is called "imaginal" exposure. Imaginal exposure involves exposing the person to situations that trigger obsessions by imagining different scenes.

The main goal during both in vivo and imaginal exposure is for the person to stay in contact with the obsessional trigger without engaging in ritual behaviours. For example, if the person who fears contamination responds to the anxiety by engaging in hand-washing or cleaning rituals, he or she would be required to increasingly resist such activities - first for hours, and then days following an exposure task. The therapy continues in this manner until the patient is able to abstain from ritual activities altogether.

To mark progress during exposure tasks with the therapist and in homework, patients are trained to be experts in rating their own anxiety levels. Once they have made progress in treatment, participants are encouraged to continue using the ERP techniques they have learned, and to apply them to new situations as they arise. A typical course of ERP treatment is between 14 and 16
The patient will continue to fear the same unconscious, blasphemous thoughts against God that have been plaguing them, and they will continue the immediate compulsory repentances for the sinful thoughts in their head. Unfortunately, both the anxiety over the thoughts and the compulsory responses to the thoughts only increase one’s focus on the blasphemes and curses directed towards God. The more they repent, and the more they resist the thoughts, the more their mind will remained focus on the same unwanted obsessions since OCD began. Prayer to God can help, of course, but there comes a point where the Christian is too besieged by fear to respond to God’s calling. This is where ERP can help. At first, exposure response-prevention seems like the very opposite thing a Christian with unconscious thoughts should do. Not only does one expose themselves to horrible thoughts against God, but they delay repentance for such thoughts as well. And yet, both of these measures help decrease the control that unconscious thoughts may have over Christians. By exposing themselves to the thoughts and apparently sinful actions, believers learn to manage and control the fear they might have of the images and voices in their head. In addition, if the compulsion or repentance is delayed until a set time, Christians focus much less on the thoughts