#EMDR therapy

[jesusinstilettos]

I’m about to save you thousands of dollars in therapy by teaching you what I learned paying thousands of dollars for therapy:

It may sound woo woo but it’s an important skill capitalism and hyper individualism have robbed us of as human beings.

Learn to process your emotions. It will improve your mental health and quality of life. Emotions serve a biological purpose, they aren’t just things that happen for no reason.

1. Pause and notice you’re having a big feeling or reaching for a distraction to maybe avoid a feeling. Notice what triggered the feeling or need for a distraction without judgement. Just note that it’s there. Don’t label it as good or bad.

2. Find it in your body. Where do you feel it? Your chest? Your head? Your stomach? Does it feel like a weight everywhere? Does it feel like you’re vibrating? Does it feel like you’re numb all over?

3. Name the feeling. Look up an emotion chart if you need to. Find the feeling that resonates the most with what you’re feeling. Is it disappointment? Heartbreak? Anxiety? Anger? Humiliation?

4. Validate the feeling. Sometimes feelings misfire or are disproportionately big, but they’re still valid. You don’t have to justify what you’re feeling, it’s just valid. Tell yourself “yeah it makes sense that you feel that right now.” Or something as simple as “I hear you.” For example: If I get really big feelings of humiliation when I lose at a game of chess, the feeling may not be necessary, but it is valid and makes sense if I grew up with parents who berated me every time I did something wrong. So I could say “Yeah I understand why we are feeling that way given how we were treated growing up. That’s valid.”

5. Do something with your body that’s not a mental distraction from the feeling. Something where you can still think. Go on a walk. Do something with your hands like art or crochet or baking. Journal. Clean a room. Figure out what works best for you.

6. Repeat, it takes practice but is a skill you can learn :)

[wisterianwoman]

When I was in counseling as a kid and even going through cognitive behavioral therapy, I thought I was doing everything I could to heal. The truth is that I was only treating the symptoms of my unhealed trauma and unresolved feelings: anxiety, stress, emotional outbursts, destructive behaviors, and so on. I wasn't being taught how to feel, express, and release my emotions; I was being taught how to understand my past experiences, think about them differently, and rationalize my way to functioning. This is known as intellectualization: a coping mechanism wherein reasons and logic are used to avoid the discomfort that comes with genuine feeling.

[system-of-a-feather]

You mentioned going for EMDR because of lowered dissociation. Is EMDR a bad idea with a CDD?

People with high dissociation are typically cautioned against EMDR (though I've heard it working fine for some) due to the risk of flooding. EMDR is considered a really good way of treating PTSD, but it can be a little *too* effective for dissociative clients as the dissociation is there for a protective reason + the dissociation tends to be both complex and hold a lot of conflicting beliefs and feelings. It's good at getting to the meat of it, but with dissociative folk that effectiveness can be dangerous and bring up more than an individual can realistically handle thus "flooding".

Usually for more dissociative individuals, a similar yet slower approach of Brainspotting is more recommended as it works within dissociative barriers more than EMDR that kinda tends to bypass them.

Of course, this is all just general consensus and its not really a "people with CDD should never do EMDR" cause every person and situation is different so its best to talk to your therapist and treatment team and figure out what works best for you / the individual

I'm on mobile but a few things talking on it (I only skimmed them but they seem correct and informative)

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

[cosmicwindmillcomplex]

Do you have any advice for people who are about to start EMDR?

actually yes! And I’m so glad you asked because idk if I ever would’ve thought about making it into a post! apologies for the late response but wanted to give it a lot of thought! I’ve been doing EMDR on and off for about 3.5 years now with my therapist, as a disclaimer: I am not an expert so this would be my advice based on my personal experience with and knowledge of EMDR.

1. Make sure you trust your therapist or whoever the professional who will be guiding you through the experience is; also make sure that they are qualified with EMDR experience. They should not offer the option if they have no experience with it.

2. Make sure you are in a relatively stable enough place to go through it. Don’t lie just because you want to do it. it’s a very intense psychological experience and can be draining so just be somewhat prepared and don’t be surprised if you feel kinda worn out the rest of the day after the session. There have been times I have taken breaks from EMDR when other issues of life became problematic and as a result I was less stable. It’s not something you want to force when you’re not stable enough, for safety reasons. For me it was difficult to admit I wasn’t stable enough as I wanted to just “push through” thinking it’ll automatically heal me, but it doesn’t quite work that way.

3. My sister is also a licensed therapist and gave me this metaphor when I was struggling with EMDR, it has shifted my perspective and helped me a lot. Think of EMDR as riding a train through your subconscious/inner world (however you like to think of it). In between the bilateral stimulation parts your therapist will usually ask something such as “what are you noticing”. This is when you peek out the train window or poke your head out and see where the train has stopped. but you stay on the train and then repeat the process at the next stop. Do your very best to observe and not be “sucked in” to whatever you are noticing. What you notice could be an image your brain gives you, it could be a memory, or a physical sensation of some kind as well. It’s kind cool like your brain is communicating with you!

4. EMDR does require bringing up and having to somewhat relive your trauma in the controlled environment, which is why you want to make sure you trust your therapist and have any grounding items nearby or with you. If you go in person and drive yourself, don’t feel the need to drive away immediately. It’s okay to sit for a while until you’re ready. If you do telehealth maybe keep some grounding items near you and always be in a room/environment where you feel really safe. Allow time afterwards for some self care and taking it easy.

5. My therapist describes it as a process to try and close the trauma loop in a way that the memories don’t impact you quite as badly. Some have equated it to “exposure therapy but make it trauma”, although it’s kinda right, it’s more complex than that. Often things that come up repeatedly can be clues, like a branch of a tree, and through sessions you may find the roots deeper down. There may be root memories you’re not aware of and through EMDR you may eventually find those roots when you’re ready.

6. Be patient!!! You don’t want to overthink or over analyze it too much outside of therapy. It’s okay and natural to think of it but don’t try too hard to investigate, give your brain time and it will probably make sense later down the road when you are ready. I usually will write down something if it comes up and then try to put it out of my mind until next session. Don’t push yourself or judge too hard. It is a lot to go through and very heavy, it makes sense to feel frustrated or discouraged but you will make progress in your own time. Don’t be afraid to use a stop signal if you feel overwhelmed, you don’t always have to keep going!

7. Be honest! Do your very best to not worry about being judged or anything like that. Let your brain go where it needs to go without judgment or trying to control it. Don’t lie or try to force your session to to a certain way, all it will do is slow your progress! (Not trying to call anyone a liar intentionally, but sometimes we would try to direct or deflect certain things in session due to feeling like we needed more progress faster and fears/anxieties/doubts, as an impulse reaction almost, in this case we think about it for a while and journal on it until we have the words to talk it out and explain more in another session later on. “Lying” in this context can also just simply be telling your therapist you’re okay when you know that you are not.)

I hope this helps and makes some kind of sense! Wishing you lots of love and comfort as you start your journey with EMDR ❤️‍🩹

[murderbot-moodboard]

Little bit more personal than I normally post on here, but today I got scheduled for my first ever trauma therapy/EMDR appointment. 🎉 It's taken several years for me to recognize that I've experienced trauma, realize how many different experiences have actually been traumatic for me, and see just how much trauma impacts my daily life and ability to function. The first appointment is in about two weeks, so I'm really excited for that! I know it's probably going to be hard in some ways, but I'm looking forward to seeing improvement in the symptoms that have been messing up my life more and more lately. So, yeah. That's the post. Trauma therapy, here I come! 🙂

[truecampbell]

So true.

[shattered-system]

Were looking into EMDR as we feel it would be really helpful for us. Any advice/warnings from those who have had it/are in it rn? Especially systems?

[whatsnewalycat]

I can see the gains from my trauma work in things like how I can have a bottle of alcohol in my house without wanting to suck it dry. How my rage doesn’t shoot through the roof when my kids are loud. How I feel present in my body during sex. How I don’t go into a fugue state when men raise their voice around me.

About a year ago I started doing EMDR/ART. About six months before that I was diagnosed with ADHD & PTSD. A few years before that I started medication management and therapy for anxiety and depression. Before that… idk.

There’s a period of time I didn’t feel happiness. I spent years of my life, over a decade, abusing drugs and alcohol, self-destructing, trying to replicate that emotion. Trying to get rid of that terrible, gnawing nothingness. Trying to blunt my rage and shame.

And. Just. It’s so worth it to put in the work to get better, please believe that.

If you’re on the fence about seeking help, please do it. You can do it. Even if it’s hard, even if it’s daunting, even if it’s slow going. You one hundred percent can fucking do it, I know you can.

You deserve to squeeze every last beautiful drop out of this life.

[the-cabin-complex]

Us in therapy today

[ID: “they weren’t lying” meme, captioned as, “they weren’t lying, that simply existing as an unaccommodated autistic child in a gradeschool can traumatic.” /End ID]

[witherbee]

for Mental Health Awareness Month, I wanted to share an old zine i made when i was pretty in the throes of PTSD. i had been diagnosed 9 months earlier and had years before i got EMDR therapy.

i am always here if folks want to talk about PTSD, trauma, or EMDR

[4spooniesupport]

[er-cryptid]

Strengths and Weaknesses of EMDR

[ironwilledf-up]

Every week I'm meant to start the emdr part of emdr therapy and then something happens to trigger me during the week and we end up spending so long talking about that that we don't get to my longstanding traumaaaa.

Fuck my life though.

[cosmicwindmillcomplex]

DID is a weird thing to deal with sometimes and EMDR is intense as hell. Remembering things you never had knowledge of before and constantly doubting every step of the way. Feeling like you know something but it’s just out of grasp…..but at the same time you don’t always want to know. Feeling so much at once but also feeling nothing at all. Confusing doesn’t do it justice but is the best word I can find.

Just exhausted.

[karamamazov]

One time i wrote a paper on EMDR being a pseudoscientific therapy and since then every time i see someone mention it i have a burning urge to yap to them about it being a bunch of horse shit but I usually manage to stop myself because i know most people don’t really care whether it’s scientific or not just that it’s effective (which it is but not for the reasons people think it is alas)

[limeskye]

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan - 1x01 - Pilot