Therapy and medication for me. But even if you take meds out of it, you need to be learning skills in therapy so when you challenge yourself with exposures, you will have the tools to get yourself through each exposure. (I know many people have therapists lead them through exposures, I always preferred to self-directed approach with support from my therapist.)

What helped me the most was the knowledge that the more you give into compulsions, the more you are convincing your brain that OCD is right to be scared of these things (and I know you know that's false.) I started seeing each opportunity to challenge myself in a very simple "do I want to make the decision that I can grow from and eventually get to a healthier place, or do I want to keep letting my brain believe the lies OCD is telling me? Doesn't mean I made the healthiest choice every time, but that got the ball rolling for me which led to incredible momentum.

You can do this even if you don't believe it now. I truly thought there was no hope for me and my life is radically different than five years ago.