Experiences with EMDR?

My therapist recommended it to me for dealing with a major trauma in my life and I am trying to do some research to see if it would help.

Hi swgrl09,

My therapist has also recently recommended EMDR to me. My first EMDR session is tomorrow morning so I don't exactly have a clear perspective on it yet myself.

I have read on various websites and forums that experiences with EMDR can vary. I hear that it can, but not always, be very difficult and uncomfortable and that emotional and physical sensations from the traumatic event(s) can be experienced, but these feelings should not be any worse than the feelings felt during the event that you are being asked to focus on.

If I am feeling up to it after my session tomorrow, I will try to add my experience to this post, if you want me to!

Kind regards,
Swiffer61

Hello
Swgrlo9
I had emdr treatment about 2 years ago I had breathing sessions and going through the trauma
Also I had a session were I followed her finger round the room and commenting on the events that had took place I didn't find it helped me much I then went onto cbt but found this little help as well iam no waiting to see a psychiatrist hope you have better luck than me take care
Hodgie

i have just completed 9 sessions of emdr, it is fantastic how it works, however it does drain you completely. I still have a long way to fo but it is certainly helping. Grab the sessions with both hands its the way forward.

wayne

I am leaning towards trying it, I am waiting for my therapist to get back to me with some more information. I am worried about it really making me emotional. I am working full time and a full time graduate student, so I don't want to get into a bad place emotionally and then not do well in school ... sounds like a stupid reason, I know my mental health is more important ... but when I am handing out loads of money for school I don't want to have to retake courses, hah. Thanks for the info.

Its an odd thing whilst your having the therapy its tough going but once the session is done, u feel better, and you kind of get a sense of direction, with stuff. I personally think it will help make the studying easier. Its an amazing therapy and i do swear by it. Go on take the step you wont regret it

wayne

Well, I am having my first EMDR session this coming Monday. I am nervous, but also excited at the prospect of possible relief. We'll see how it goes!

please let me know how you get on.....ive been put on a waiting list for emdr but am so scared,i feel like ringing up and asking to try cbt instead.....which equally frightens me

Well, my first appointment was not too bad. Most of the appointment consisted of the therapist (who already knows me and my backstory) collecting information about my symptoms, thought processes, experiences, etc. Then she took some time to explain and demonstrate what she was going to do.

She does it a new way.. I guess they either can move their fingers infront of your eyes or they can tap on your thumbs (you sit with two thumbs up and she taps back and forth on them lightly). I guess both ways have the same effect, that's just how she does it.

While she does that, she has me decide on a starting point and to reflect on that during the tapping and just see where my brain takes me. We did not get to do it for very long because it was the first time and she did not want me to get overwhelmed, but it was interesting because I thought about things I really really never let my brain get to. After you may feel really tired. I did.

So next week we are going to do the emdr the whole session and see how that goes. She did make it clear that it is safe, if i feel overwhelmed she can help me get out of that place, etc. So far so good I guess.

so glad it went ok ....ive changed my mind though...i dont feel ready at all....will keep reading your progress though...
might be ready one day

my nephew had it and also said it was of great help to him following a bad road traffic accident he was involved in , Im currently having CBT at the moment only had 3 sessions but as said at the start it would be a gradual process so I have to remain optimistic.

Thanks for the replies, sickandtired you definitely have to be ready and if you are not ready for it, that is perfectly ok. I would not suggest doing it if you do not feel you are at that point yet. Maybe just talking to a therapist in general, not going into the EMDR, would help? Or a support group if there are any local ones?

yeah....i rung my therapist left a message and asked to try cbt instead...
just the thought of emdr made me cry all last night

I have been diagnosed with PTSD following some incidents at work where I was attacked by a mob of teenagers. I have had 5 EMDR sessions (now after 7 sessions of CBTwith a different Psychologist, a visit to the Psychiatrist who transferred me to EMDR) I have covered the safe place and how to visualise it and have moved onto looking at the events that happened. The last session I had was truly awful, it was like a form of torture. Normally with a panic attack I breathe rapid and shallow, with this I found my throat closed up, I could hardly breathe or swallow and I felt really badly that I was going to throw up. It was a case of one burp after another. My chest is often tight around the centre (sternum) but oddly it was the sides that went really tight this time. My legs were bouncing like crazy! I could visualise what happened in the one incident really clearly, I knew I was in the therapists room but it was like I wasn't, then all of a sudden I went back 36 years to a time at school where I was given the bumps on my birthday and hurled into a load of bushes.
The therapist who is a really nice lady and level 2 trained told me that it often gets worse before it gets better. I already sleepwalk, shout out in my sleep and occasionally defecate as well. Sorry for the graphic description. I have barely slept at all since my last EMDR session, and I know the tiredness feeds the condition, I close my eyes and the childhood memory keeps entering my mind, if I sleep the nightmares are awful. Does everyone get this for a while? The psychologist phoned me up a couple of hours after the session because she was concerned about me and she spoke to the Psychiatrist, now they want to try me on an antipsychotic medicine called Quetiapine. Does anyone here have any experience of EMDR having this effect? do I stick with it? does it get better with more sessions.... or will this tip me over the edge? Any experience of Quetiapine? Sorry this has been such a rambling response, my minsd is all over the place.

think very carefully about what has already helped you and wether you are ready for the EMDR...?
I,d been doing well,then I went for my second appt with the phsycologist.....I,d been feeling low anyway and she seemed to bombard me with these new techniques etc ,I heard the word EMDR and suddenly imagined how I would be sat in a chair,going through the old painful memories again.....I felt sick
next thing I knew,I,d agreed to skip cbt and go straight to EMDR....she gave me a 'panic' booklet and some activity goals etc and I left feeling bewildered....
I spent the rest of the day crying and then my hubby came home and asked what was wrong with me....I answered,"I dont know" then fell into fits of sobbing.....
I really felt like Id taken a big step back in my recovery.......just the thought of EMDR had my mind in turmoil....that was enough for me to decide,I was not ready!
As soon as I rang the MH centre and told her I just wanted to do the cbt......I felt a weight lift and my mood completely changed.She said she was going to ring me anyway as she felt that I,d been overwhelmed with all the info.....she must have got vibes that I was scared.
That said,everyone is different and I too have heard it makes you feel much worse before you get any better,but Im just not ready to risk that yet,even though the waiting list means it would be months......dont even think I,d be ready then....maybe never.I want to deal with my panic attacks and obsessive thoughts,but I dont want to delve into my past,its far too painful.
hope you come to the right decision for you

Thanks for your reply, I thought I was ready, the psychologist explained all the theory and like everyone these days I had googled EMDR and its positives and negatives. I suppose I thought what had I got to lose, I could hardly get any worse could I????? I honestly had forgotten about the incident at school when I was 13.... after all 36 years is a long time, but its just like it happened yesterday now. I feel like I have even more to deal with than I had before..... I worry what other things might be dredged up from my mind that have been long forgotten. The mind.... well mine sure is a weird thing. Do not let my experiences put you off though, some people on other websites reckon its the best thing since sliced bread.

My therapist explained to me that experiences such as you have had can happen, and that supposedly whatever happens during the sessions and even after is what your brain needs to process what it hasn't processed. So according to her, I would say that your brain is doing what it needs to. My therapist also told me that I could have a lot of crazy dreams, nightmares, be exhausted, and that my brain could still be processing outside of the session all week. I don't know if that helps at all.

For me, I had my second session yesterday and it was definitely harder than the first. I feel very jittery and anxious today, but a lot of stuff came up in the session that I did not expect would so fast.

I would say if it is too difficult for you, don't push yourself. So far I know I am processing things that I have not and that have been pushed back in my mind for a looong time - for good reason, but are making me crazy now, so I am going to stick with it and see how it goes.

Good luck, keep us posted.

I am wondering from anybody who has had EMDR before if what I am experiencing could be a result of getting further into it. As I said, my second session was this past Monday. I am finding this week that I am very anxious and paranoid. I am noticing odd things that normal people would not think twice of and getting anxious about it. I am paranoid that my boyfriend is cheating on me, even though he is not. But I keep finding "signs" that he is (that aren't really signs at all.)

I guess some background might help. I am having EMDR for two traumas I have gone through in the past year. I don't want to get into the details of everything, but first I watched my mom day very quickly in a very painful way. It was a shock. Then a few months later my sister's husband broke into my apartment and did some awful things to me that I don't want to get into the details of here. The details aren't important for this purpose. She is still with him and making excuses for him.

Anyway my symptoms primarily have been a combination of being related to both traumatic experiences. We worked on the "mom" trauma first and are just slowly moving through it until I get to the brother-in-law trauma. I think my paranoia and inability to trust are due to the brother-in-law thing as well as fear of loss because of my mom. But I was not this paranoid before. Could the paranoia be coming out because I am processing some of the other problems that were overshadowing it? I think my grief has been overwhelming and much "louder" in my head than dealing with the BIL issue. I haven't really let myself deal with the BIL issue yet.

I guess what I am asking in a VERY long winded way is if this sounds like it is part of me processing through EMDR and if I keep working through it, will it get better? I will bring it up at my next session with my therapist.

I had another EMDR session today, this is the second one where the Psychologist has taken me back.... if that is the right description to what happened. I remembered lots of things, actually more than what I wrote down at the time. The question I asked the Psychologist was.. are the things I am remembering, things that happened to me or is it that I am remembering some of the vivid dreams and nightmares that I have had since? I feel that I do not know the difference between the reality and the dreams/nightmares. Sounds mad I know!!!
It has been explained to me that the brain will blank things off at the time as a self protection mechanism, some of what happened will not be remembered until either a dream state or EMDR uncovers the memory. The memory can then be processed.
This session was weird, in the middle of remembering the incidents at work, I remembered an incident when I was 5 years old this time, something I had long forgotten, but now i have remembered it, I can remember it happening.... if that makes any sense???

Chalk - I have had some odd experiences like that too. In the middle of thinking about the traumatic events, my brain will jump to some other point in my life, ya know? Something that I would not have thought about at all otherwise and would not have even remembered. My therapist says that your brain will go where it needs to go, and if it doesn't make sense why that is ok, but it is just what your brain needs right now.

Im really interested in this, how do i go about getting it? Is it expensive therapy or can the nhs refer you? thanks

Charlotte x

It's nice to know that others have experienced the same... well probably not nice for them but you know what I mean:).
My mind seems to jump about alot when the hand is going side to side, it almost mesmerises me. A few times the psychologist had to say my name to get me to come back to what I was supposed to be doing, it was like I had gone elsewhere, trapped in my thoughts and then stopped following the hand.
There does not seem to be much on NMP about EMDR, I would have expected alot more, as I presume it must be quite a common therapy these days.
Many thanks for finding the time to reply Swgrl09, I appreciate it.

---------- Post added at 12:40 ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 ----------

In reply to chl hobbs, I have been having EMDR via the NHS, I am in Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS trust area, I am not sure it is available everywhere. I was referred by my Doctor to the Adult and Community Mental Health team with anxiety and panic attacks, I saw a Psychiatrist who referred me to CBT. After about half a dozen CBT sessions which to be honest were achieving nothing except leaving me in a worse state..... and the Psychologist likewise I was referred back to the senior Psychiatrist and then he decided that EMDR would be the most beneficial course to take. I have certainly responded to the EMDR, you have to trust the psychologist and go with it or I imagine it would not work. The EMDR has dredged up lots of things as you can see by my earlier posts, I am not sure whether I am always remembering actual events though or my dreams/nightmares. With me the boundary betwen reality and dreams has become a bit blurred.
The first few sessions are history taking, creating a safe place for your mind to go and it is only after about 4 or 5 sessions you start to address the events that have happened. I have had no reduction in anxiety or panic attacks, if anything they may have got slightly worse, but then the Psychologist says that this is quite common and once the mind processes the events properly you should see a reduction in symptoms...... I hope!!! I will stick with it, I have nothing to lose, but alot to gain, I do not want to be as I am for the rest of my life.
I believe EMDR is available privately, but make sure the person doing it is properly trained and has at least level one and even better level two training. I believe it costs about £60 to £80 per session privately but these figures may not be correct.

That is very intestesting, your last post, Chalk.

I have investigated EMDR on the advice of my GP but when referred via a second party, they suggested beat the blues course - I am not depressed!

My incident, whereby I was involved in a fatal road accidient which killed three people, is a complete blank to me. Some may say that is good, but, I think it has sort of hampered my recovery, albeit more than 20 years ago!!!!

I think, since that incident, that things that made me nervous I have taught myself to blank them out and then bang, it is a problem.

I am interested in the updates on this subject and wish you all well with your treatment.

This is a fascinating thread, keep us up to date with your experiences guys :)
Want to see something good come out of it!!! Sounds wacky at the moment!

Yes, it is odd as this past time my anxiety does feel worse too ... but I keep being told by my therapist that is because I am only now processing things that have been beneath the surface for a long time. So hopefully sticking it out will bring some peace finally!

I have been having REALLY vivid dreams still. Sometimes frightening, but not always. Sometimes just odd. It's a very interesting thing to go through. My next session is in a week today, I'll update as things come up.

I was told that I am in what is called the processing stage of EMDR. I think what they try to do next is some sort of desensitization to get your body to react less to the mental stimuli it receives. I will update as time goes by, my next session is 4 days time, so assuming they haven't found me a nice jacket that fastens at the back :wacko: I will keep you posted.

I had another session on Friday, they are really tough, again I went back to the events that happened. I "remembered"things that I had not written down afterwards. I was worried that I was remembering dreams or nightmares and that I was creating false memories. The EMDR Psychologist tells me that people recover memories of the events that the brain had shut out of memory at the time, that it does this to protect itself, it is like a computer that freezes up and that the emdr unfreezes it and allows the brain to process the memory and then the memory should be able to be remembered without the panic and the panic attacks get less. Well I'm hoping that the Psychologist is right. I am still in the getting worse stage before it gets better I think!!!.... well I hope???
I have been given another new medication Quetiapine (Seroquel), I told the Psychiatrist that my BP was lower than average (typically 110/70) and that some meds dropped my BP too much (as I seem quite sensitive to them). I had read that this can cause a drop in BP. I am assured that this is unlikely to happen at a dosage of 100mg. I try it and guess what?? BP drops to 87/53. I am so light headed and go dizzy when I try to stand. Well, not taking any more of those. I think that if someone has a higher BP to start with it might help alot as is very sedating. Chemical Cosh is the expression that springs to mind!!

i had a session yesterday. We spent a lot of time discussing the panic and paranoia I have been experiencing and again, it is due to me processing things that I have never processed fully. I am still amazed by what comes up in sessions, things that I never let bother me but did at the time. I don't think about those things anymore, but I guess they are all below the surface affecting me. It's like throwing up - it feels crappy coming out, but once it is over it will feel better.

I am so tired!!! I slept for 2 hours last night because I was so irritable and got in a big fight with my boyfriend at 2 AM. Ugh. All my fault too, and I knew it. I hate the irritability, hostility and hyperarousal I get wtih this. Therapist still says its the result of me processing stuff,that it "feels icky while it comes out" and I will feel better in the end ... I just am tired of not being myself and being totally aware of that yet have no control. After the fight I had a big mental breakdown ... third one since Friday. It's been a rough week.

Had another session of EMDR, lots of memories flooded back of the events that happened, smells as well, really horrid, I thought the drains in the hospital were blocked but it apparantly was my memories remembering the smells around at the time of being attacked. I remembered other events with great clarity as well that happened whilst I was working there, even conversations, like they had just happened. It really is weird and it brings it all back like it has just happened. Do not get me wrong, I always know I am in the session, its not hypnosis. I have had lots more panic attacks over the last 2 weeks and the nightmares have been really bad (so bad i needed a shower and had to change the bed clothes... need I say more!) I just hope that my Psychologist is correct when she says it gets worse before it gets better, I only seem to be getting worse. Does it really get better??? Typing this has made my leg shake uncontrollably..... its thinking about it all.
My psychologist says I am spending too much time trying to rationalise the memories, because I question some bits of the memories. I know 80 or 90% is right that I remember, there are still some little details that I doubt happened. She says go with it, it does not matter, but I hate the idea that my mind is playing tricks on me and that I might have some false memories in there.
Anyone else had memories that are questionable? Does this happen to everyone?

I don't know about memories that are untrue, but I have dreams that make absolutely no sense to me. My therapist says that it doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense to me, it is what my brain needs to do right now. So I would assume that could also translate to false memories, it is what your brain needs to express.

Elad - It would be worth talking to a therapist about and getting a consultation. I guess the brain processes trauma in different areas and using EMDR helps it to put together the events and the emotions ... It's really hard to explain. But the mugging could be a traumatic experience for you, also there may be other things that it can help with. My therapist has said that she has seen a lot of success using EMDR for other places where people just seem to be "stuck" during normal talk therapy. So I'm not sure, but it could be worth a consult.

It is difficult though. It dredges up a LOT of emotions that I did not know i had and has been scary at times. From what I've learned, it will be worth it. So I'm willing to give anything a shot at this point.

Going again in a few hours for another session.

Well, I had another session of EMDR. The sessions do something to my insides, I cannot stop burping!!! My throat goes tight and I feel sick. Apparantly my anxiety levels had fallen from 9 or 10 out of ten to 9, then 8, then 7 or 8, but this week it had gone up again to 8 or 9. I have had twice as many, well two and a half times as many panic attacks this last ten days, the anxiety has been awful. The Psychiatrist apparantly suggested I go back on Diazepam. No way, I was getting addicted to those. Why exchange one problem for another? I seem really down and depressed despite being on Fluoxetine (Prozac) and am not sleeping. To be honest I dread sleeping because of the nightmares. Surely there must be an improvement soon. The sessions seem to leave me sad and with a feeling like it has happened again to me, they seem to refresh the memories....... but why can't my head deal with them better? Sorry if I seem negative... this is just an honest update after each session.

I asked my therapist about EMDR and she feels it's not appropriate with a history of abuse over a long period of time. I guess I have to go with her knowledge; horses for courses and all that.

For those of us with a chance of a significant improvement I would grab the chance.....?
Doxy
x