Podcasts · RECOVERable: Mental Health and Addiction Experts Answer Your Questions

ERP: How Exposure and Response Prevention Treats OCD

22 Oct 2026 · 1 h 03 min

Can you beat OCD by choosing not to act on your fear? In this episode of RECOVERable, host Terry McGuire sits down with OCD specialist Jenna Overbaugh to break down exposure and response prevention (ERP), the gold-standard therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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OCD is a two-part problem, obsessions and compulsions, and ERP is the two-part solution. Jenna, who brings both professional and lived experience of OCD, explains why the response prevention piece matters as much as the exposure, how safety behaviours and avoidance quietly keep the anxiety cycle going, and why traditional talk therapy can turn into verbal rumination and reassurance seeking that make OCD worse. You'll learn the difference between a thought and thinking, how to resist invisible mental compulsions by catching the question and not answering it, what an extinction burst is, and why the inhibitory learning model focuses on learning something new instead of waiting for anxiety to drop.

Jenna walks through how a therapist builds an exposure hierarchy using a 0-10 SUDS scale, why exposures should be collaborative and start at challenging but manageable, and how to postpone or reduce a compulsion when anxiety spikes. She covers how ERP compares with CBT, DBT and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), what research says about ERP alongside SSRI medication, whether there is a cure for OCD, the most common mistakes people make with self-directed ERP at home, and the red and green flags to look for in an ERP therapist. She also shares her own experience with false memory OCD as a new parent and describes lesser-known subtypes such as real event OCD and relationship OCD.

Whether you live with intrusive thoughts, love someone who does, or are wondering if ERP is right for you, this conversation shows how to make your life bigger so OCD gets smaller.

Subscribe to RECOVERable for more expert insights on mental health recovery, leave your questions in the comments below, and share this video to help someone with OCD know they are not alone.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro: Why ERP Is the Gold Standard for OCD

02:40 – ERP Myth or Fact Lightning Round

09:00 – What Is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)?

18:40 – What Does Sitting With Anxiety Feel Like?

23:20 – How Do You Stop Mental Compulsions?

26:00 – Habituation vs. Inhibitory Learning

33:00 – Is ERP the Same as CBT or Exposure Therapy?

42:00 – What Is an Exposure Hierarchy?

45:40 – Can You Do ERP at Home by Yourself?

51:40 – How to Find a Qualified ERP Therapist

54:00 – Lesser-Known OCD Subtypes

Questions the Video Answers:

• What is exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy? • Why is ERP considered the gold standard treatment for OCD? • Does ERP make you face your worst fear on the first day? • Can talk therapy make OCD worse? • What is the difference between ERP and exposure therapy? • Is ERP the same as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)? • How do you stop mental compulsions like rumination? • What is an extinction burst in OCD treatment? • What is the inhibitory learning model in ERP? • What is an exposure hierarchy and how does a SUDS scale work? • Is ERP more effective when combined with SSRI medication? • Is there a cure for OCD? • Can you do ERP therapy at home by yourself? • What should you look for in an OCD therapist who does ERP?

#ERPTherapy #OCDRecovery #MentalHealth

Links in the notes 1

• https://recovery.com/