10 Practical ERP Exercises You Can Start With at Home

After understanding the theory of Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), it’s natural to want to know what it actually looks like in practice. How do you go from understanding the OCD cycle to actively breaking it? The answer is through small, courageous, and deliberate actions.

If you are haven’t already done so, you can take my online OCD screening test, which maps your obsessions and compulsions and shows how ERP can help.

This guide provides examples of practical ERP exercises that illustrate the principles we’ve discussed. They are designed to help you build an understanding of how you can begin to confront your fears and resist compulsions.

The examples below are simplified and may not be suitable for everyone. They are intended to demonstrate the method, not to be a substitute for a personalised treatment plan. Please start with exercises you feel are very low on your fear ladder and stop immediately if you feel overwhelmed. The goal is manageable challenge, not catastrophic distress.

The Golden Rules for Any ERP Exercise

Before attempting any exposure, it’s vital to have a clear framework. These are the rules that make ERP an effective, evidence-based therapy rather than just a stressful experience.

1. Build Your Ladder First: Don’t start with your biggest fear. Draw a “fear ladder” with ten rungs. Rung 1 should be a task that causes only mild anxiety (perhaps 2-3 out of 10). Rung 10 is your most feared situation. You must start at the bottom. Success at lower rungs builds the confidence and skills needed to climb higher.
2. It’s an Experiment, Not a Test: You cannot “fail” an exposure. You are a scientist gathering data. Your hypothesis is: “If I allow myself to feel anxious and don’t perform my ritual, will my feared catastrophe actually happen, and will the anxiety last forever?” Every exercise is an opportunity to collect powerful evidence against OCD’s predictions.
3. Response Prevention is Non-Negotiable: An exposure without response prevention is counterproductive. The entire purpose is to break the link between the trigger and the ritual. You must commit to resisting the physical and mental compulsions during and after the exposure for a set period.
4. Lean Into the Anxiety: The goal is not to feel calm during an exposure. The feeling of anxiety is the signal that you are doing the exercise correctly. It’s the feeling of your brain learning something new. Your job is to learn that you can tolerate this feeling. It is uncomfortable, but it is not dangerous.

ERP in Action: Examples Across Common Subtypes

Here are ten examples of low-to-medium level exposures. Remember, these are just templates; your own fear ladder will be unique to you.

For Checking OCD

1. The Single-Check Lock-Up: When leaving your home, lock the door once. Turn the handle once to confirm it’s locked. Then, turn around and walk away without looking back or performing a second physical or mental check.
2. The “One and Done” Email: Write a low-stakes email to a friend or family member. Read it through one single time to check for typos, then press send. Resist the powerful urge to go into your “Sent” folder to re-read it.

For Contamination OCD

3. Putting Shopping Away: Put an intact packet of food into the cupboard without repeatedly wiping its packaging or seeking reassurance. Follow ordinary food-hygiene guidance and any medical advice that applies to you.
4. The Ordinary Object Practice: Touch an ordinary object you use every day, such as a book or a household door handle, and continue your planned activity without an extra ritual wash. Keep normal hygiene, including washing before eating and after using the toilet. Practise allowing the doubt to be present without spreading dirt or creating a genuine hygiene risk.

A note on practising safely

ERP should be challenging enough to create new learning, but it should not involve genuine danger or acting on a harmful thought.

For Harm OCD & Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts

Note: These exposures are about confronting the thought, not ever acting on it. The goal is to learn that having a thought has no power.

5. Writing the Feared Thought: Open a document and write down your intrusive thought, word for word (e.g., “I might lose control and swerve the car”). Read the sentence out loud to yourself for two minutes. This is an exposure to the thought itself, without the filter of your mind.
6. Proximity to a Trigger Object: Hold a “trigger” object that your OCD deems dangerous but that is contextually safe. For example, hold a butter knife while you sit at the kitchen table and drink a cup of tea. The goal is not to “prove” you won’t do anything, but to allow the intrusive thoughts to be present while you learn that you remain in control.

For Scrupulosity (Moral/Religious OCD)

7. Embracing Minor Imperfection: Deliberately do something that is slightly imperfect but morally neutral. For example, hang a picture on the wall so it’s slightly crooked and leave it for the day. This challenges the need for perfect righteousness in all actions.
8. Imaginal Exposure to Blasphemy: Imagine a blasphemous or irreverent image or thought during a non-religious moment. Let the thought be there without trying to neutralise it with a prayer or a “good” thought.

For “Not Just Right” Sensations (NJRE)

9. The Asymmetrical Arrangement: Place a set of objects (like books on a shelf or cushions on a sofa) in a slightly asymmetrical or “untidy” way. Walk away and resist the urge to go back and fix it for the rest of the day.
10. The Unfinished Sentence: In a personal journal or a blank document, type a sentence and deliberately leave it unfinished. Close the document and sit with the intense feeling of incompleteness.

After the Exposure: How to “Surf the Urge”

The minutes following an exposure can be intense. This is when the urge to perform a compulsion is at its peak. Your job is not to fight the anxiety, but to ride it like a wave.

• Acknowledge the Feeling: Say to yourself, “This is anxiety. I feel it in my chest. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s a false alarm. My only job is to let it be here.”
• Stay Present: Don’t get lost in the “what if” stories. Focus on your feet on the floor, the sounds in the room, the feeling of your breath.
• Track Your Progress: Notice how the anxiety, like a wave, eventually peaks and begins to subside on its own, without you having to do anything. Jotting down your anxiety level (0-10) every five minutes can provide powerful proof of this.

This process is challenging, but it is where you build true resilience. This is the work that a qualified therapist in Ireland, accredited by the PSI or IACP, would guide you through, providing the support and expertise to help you climb your ladder safely and effectively.

Next in this series: A Guide for Parents of Children with OCD in Ireland

Return to our main guide: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): The Definitive Guide for Ireland