First Emdr Session (worried)

[kiringirl82]

I have severe anxiety and panic to the point I'm unable to live a functional life.
Yesterday I did emdr for the first time. During the session I became very sweaty, tense, light headed and dizzy and at this point I felt like the floor gave out under my feet and somewhat out of control. I had to take a break but finished. I was scared of what happened but my T told me this was normal. Later that night I couldn't sleep and became very anxious til it developed into a full out panic attack and I mean major, my husband almost took me to the er. The next day (today) IV been uneasy and anxious all day. I can't stop thinking my session was bad and is hurting me. I'm scared of living with more anxiety and panic...this I can't handle. I've talked to my T and he keeps reassuring me I'm fine and this is normal but I don't believe him bc I'm feel very scared and alone and very unsure of anything at this point. If you have experienced the things I have and are doing well please respond. I need some real reassurance, I'm feeling like I'm falling and have no control....just look for a lighthouse. Thank you.

 

[seedling]

Did you establish a safe place to go to at the end of the EMDR session? Or a container to put the memories back into?
My first few EMDR sessions just did those things, instead of working on a traumatic memory.
Did you start with a "small t" memory, not the worst ones?

When I first tried EMDR we did just going to my safe place, it felt good and gave me a good feeling that lasted a few hours.
The first memory I worked on was one that I rated lower.

I'm wondering what procedure your therapist used to introduce you to EMDR.

I may not be available the next few days to reply again, but I will be thinking of you and hoping that you can emerge from your frightened state. EMDR is/can be difficult. When I started EMDR I had been in CBT therapy for 5 years and had some coping skills built up and had processed some of the trauma.
I used to feel really buzzed and had a hard time sleeping after EMDR, then the next day I would feel like there were weird shifts in reality and sometimes I would have a hard time if I was at work and had to deal with a lot. I would also be very tired. It's easier now. At the end of a session my therapist makes sure that I have ended somewhere positive (or at least not stuck in the worst of it).

Trust yourself when it comes to your treatment. If it doesn't yield some positive effects in the end, it may not be for you. If it's hard, but you get somewhere, it can be very worth it. It's good to have a reassuring therapist, in the end it's your decision.

 

[Justmehere]

Every trauma therapy that processes trauma can stir up symptoms and that's pretty much what you are experiencing. In most cases, it's not the therapy that is damaging a person in a way that can't be restablized. It's the material, the trauma, that your brain is trying to process and is getting symptomatic about.

It's not something to fear. Do all you can to remember that fear, and all feelings, are not always fact. Try to not fear the fear but learn to tolerate the experience of fear. While fear and spikes in symptoms are not something to fear, it is a really important thing to watch, and all trauma therapy should be done only when someone has enough skills and/or support to handle any spikes of symptoms.

I personally became too destabilized with EMDR to do it myself and had to go with a different trauma processing therapy and I had to do a lot more work on grounding skills and other coping skills to handle any trauma work.

If you are becoming so destabilized you can't function and your therapist is not pressing a big PAUSE button to help you build skills to deal with symptoms, then that's a problem and it may be time to really be clear with your therapist you need more skills and to go much slower or you may need to find a different path to process the trauma.

 

[EveHarrington]

Did your therapist work with you extensively to ensure that you had coping skills to deal with all of the thoughts/feelings that emerged as a result of EMDR?

 

[kiringirl82]

Did your therapist work with you extensively to ensure that you had coping skills to deal with al...

I just met my therapist and this was only our second visit. I've only had talk therapy a few times seven years ago

 

[kiringirl82]

Did you establish a safe place to go to at the end of the EMDR session? Or a container to put the memor...

WE didn't do anything like what you mentioned. I didn't know I was supposed to have a safe place.
He wanted to start and my earliest bad memory bc he said it works better then newer ones. I sat in front of a light bar and held sensors in my hands. It was very intense!

 

[seedling]

I had homework to do before we did any EMDR. Wrote down a time line of traumatic memories, rated them one to ten.
Did a check list of cognitive distortions and ways I felt about myself.
My therapist read everything over that I wrote.
We did the safe place, she had me imagine some kind of container that I could "put" the traumatic material in where it would be safely held tight until I took it out to work on the next time.
I had at least three or four sessions of prep work, and I was eager to do EMDR, had been thinking for a year that it seemed like the next step for me in my therapy.

Early memories do work better as the newer ones seed from those. But I started with a lower rated early memory, nothing major, and we moved on from there. It still was a lot for me at first.

It sounds like he had you dive in way too fast. If he doesn't seem to be able to handle your reactions and you want to do more EMDR I would suggest you find someone else that can be more thorough. Maybe he isn't used to dealing with PTSD and more intense levels of trauma. EMDR is effective for emotional healing in people that aren't suffering a major mental illness.

 

[Deleted member 37085]

I have severe anxiety and panic to the point I'm unable to live a functional life.
Yesterday I did...

Went through very similar experiences recently in EMDR. Extreme paranoia and panic. After more than 10 session but less than 16 (have to count them) I am stopping for I had loud buzzing in right year two bursts. Now my brain feels likes it's fried. I had multiple trauma events and I heard that I was not a good candidate for EMDR after because of the multiple traumas. Geez. Hope you are well and handling post session symptoms. JJ