EMDR and me

[scarlettina]

Years ago, after explicitly diagnosing me with PTSD as a result of my experience with my mother's illness and death (a diagnosis that had been gently implied by other therapists), my then-therapist recommended that I undergo EMDR treatment. EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, a therapeutic technique in which the therapist

Comments

[prettyshrub]

I talked about EMDR with my therapist, but did not pursue it. What I did was use one of the techniques on my own.

The technique I am talking about is alternating body parts, like walking or tapping with one hand and then the other. Doing that while thinking (carefully) about some painful things helped me let go of some of the pain.

I still struggle with my stuff and I hate the way it hampers me, but therapy did help me deal with things that I couldn't on my own and I am glad about that.

I hope you make good use of the skills you learned.

*HUGS*

[criada]

A friend of mine has done the shoulder-tapping thing on his own, with good results. His descriptions of the treatment make me wonder, thanks to my own experience with pattern-induced epilepsy, if EMDR is basically like inducing a seizure.

[scarlettina]

That's kind of a terrifying thought, frankly, at least to me. And if that's the case, then for myself I can't see doing it without supervision of some kind. it just seems like asking for trouble.

[criada]

I didn't mean it to be terrifying! I'm specifically talking about petit mal seizures, not the big scary grand mal ones with all the body shaking. A seizure is an interruption in the electrical flow of neurons, while PTSD creates situations where we can't turn off that flow. My theory is that the Chicago Block, that Ken got, briefly stops that flow long enough to let the brain reset and notice that actually, they don't need to be in fight-or-flight mode.
My suspicion is that EMDR, in being similar to petit mal seizures, is like a neurological slap to the face: a brief order to the nervous system to stop for a second and calm down.
By being in fight or flight mode, our psyche doesn't have to stop and think about the trauma. But of course, we have to think about the trauma in order to get over it. I hadn't heard about the intense flashbacks one can get with EMDR, but that's still consistent with my petit mal theory. Many times, when I've had petit mals, the period right before the seizure itself (which is just a brief moment of

[criada]

I should probably finish my metaphor by saying that we need to remember that occasionally the train will slow down, we will see some awful monsters just outside the window, but that we're also still in the train, and that the monsters outside can't hurt us.

[prettyshrub]

That had never occurred to me. An interesting theory. I always thought of it as just a calming technique that lets your brain process the emotions instead of getting stuck in them.