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

[anaka]

It put an end to my ex's near constant panic attacks when they got really bad. The kind of pain you're describing wasn't as aspect of his treatment, though, nor was it something I read about in the research I did. That might be chalked up to a bad call on the doctor's part.

[scarlettina]

It might indeed have been a bad call on the therapist's part; like I said, this was early on after the development of the method. And I'm certain that it works for other people because, say what I will about it, it's clear that something dramatic was happening--even something effective or perhaps it's more appropriate to say affective. EMDR was still being referred to as experimental at the time. I remember specifically having it explained to me that stress manifests in different parts of the body, and that we would periodically check on where I was feeling discomfort. My suspicion is that the level of distress I felt was 15-20 years of grief and anger manifesting all at once. The doctor's bad call was letting it get to the point it did all at once, rather than helping me find a way to bleed it out gradually.

[seattle_janice]

My experience was a lot like that. It got to the point where the thought of going made me queasy.

[varina8]

I'm a little wonky today (4+ hours of sleep will do that) but wanted to reply as soon as possible. I did EMDR in 2001. I did not have the kind of overwhelming pain you did. That said, I do remember the experience as being intense

[kateelliott]

[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