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I've experienced something like this, but I experience pain instead of numbness. Early in my trauma therapy, I tried some somatic stress reduction exercises, and just calling attention to awareness of my body sensations was triggering. Trying EMDR with tappers was triggering. Much of my...

Hi, @Njay. For recuperation, I agree with @Freida that rest is really good. What I've found though is that it's helpful to figure out what kind of rest works for you. Sometimes I get brutally tired, but not the kind of tired that gets better with bed rest or just sitting. I figured out...

Hi, @Keefe. I'm sorry that you've had a hard time and that you've lost your old therapist and are being screamed at. That all sounds very hard. It's important during the process that you can tell the therapist how you are doing and that you have some level of trust. I know that I have a lot...

More hugs for you, @Teasel

Made a cup of Lemon herbal tea and waiting for it to cool off a bit so I don't burn my mouth.

Sometimes in EMDR I know I'm getting close to something difficult. With my therapist's help, we adjust what we work on, so it's not too overwhelming, but also deep enough that we make progress. Other times, we'll get started on something, and an unexpected wave of feelings comes crashing in...

My mom died when she was 49 and I was 27. At the time, I was in grad school and went to the health center for some counseling. The counselors put together a small group of students who had all lost someone. They made the very important point that back 150 years ago, many people had...

Yes, that's for sure! I never would have guessed how many "onion layers" I have been carrying around. Have you considered doing EMDR virtually? I have been doing it online during COVID and after some initial hiccups have found that it still works for me.

Too much Halloween candy, although it was fun sitting outside with our dog and saying hello to the children & neighbors who came by.

Good luck on your journey, @wittmegan ! I have found this forum to be a great place to find people who understand my experiences. I agree with @intothelight that you do not need to worry about sharing too much or triggering people here.

Bran cereal, a little granola, some raisins, and milk. Cold cereal is my comfort food (or one of them).

I grew up an a household with lots of sex & no affection. I've made significant progress over the years, but I'm still learning how to combine "trust" and "affection".

This is a very appropriate response, I think. I can understand that fear. But if I was in the same position, I would be angry at my therapist that I have to burn up therapy time dealing with her screw up. I will say, though, that it's been useful for me to express my anger at my therapist in...

EMDR was frightening for me--I do have parts and many were terrified. So, we spent quite a bit of time setting up protectors & wise resources. I gathered from my therapist that we weren't doing this from an IFS point of view. There was no sense that the protector was necessarily an...

A lot of suggestions out there are also disheartening because they make it sound so easy to cut back. @StillPen is right that it's so hard to quit when the alternative to the screen is a lot of PTSD symptoms.

I've struggled with this for many years. Here are some things that help me: What I am doing very recently is that I keep the phone in my car. It's good for me to be sure to get out of the house or job every two hours for a little break/walk, so I check the phone at the same time to see if...

Welcome to the forum, @One day at a time, and I hope you have a healing journey. Yes, I and many others here have found that EMDR brings up more memories. It can be like opening a door (or many, many doors in some cases). Or like peeling away the layers of an onion. It sounds like you are...

We're right in the middle of the process. Our female parts are starting to blur and feel more like one, strong female part. For the male parts, it's been a hard process. A few of them experience life with greater co-consciousness of the others. When memories of a trauma come up, though, it...

That's a wonderful step! My daughter did this a few years ago and has no regrets.

Bowl of cereal--a mix of bran flakes, Cheerios, and granola, with some extra raisins on top.

Hi, @prynne . We're thinking a lot about integration. We've been in the thick of learning to have the parts talk more to each other, and then that has led towards integration. But that whole process has been hard and exhausting because now when something difficult comes up, a handful of parts...

A small handful of Cheez-It crackers (orange square crackers, with a salty, somewhat cheese-like flavor).

I hadn't heard of the term rescripting, but when I looked it up, it's clearly something I do a lot of with my therapist along with EMDR. Sometimes the rescripting happens by itself. Other times, it will come up while we are doing EMDR, or we will do a little EMDR after the rescripting to "tap...

Mrs. W knows about my dissociative disorder and believes it. She has experienced my switching. I have tried to explain it to a couple of friends I can trust, but haven't been able to explain it in a way that makes sense to them. That is frustrating and leaves me feeling lonely.

Yes, "didn't let them" seems accurate. The presence of Little Wendell has been pretty obvious for decades, but he didn't really get to speak up in therapy in the early years. He was able to talk though when my therapist invited him to do so. Other parts were more reticent. This is from the...