I can't figure out how to do that either, very annoying, but typical of me... I'm not good with puters at all!
Good question on the quoting. Simply hit "reply" in the bottom right corner of which ever post you want to reply to and it will come up. One note of caution though. Quoting takes up a lot of the forum memory so it's suggested that you don't use the quote function when replying to a post directly before your reply. When you do use the quote function quote only the portion of the post that you are responding too. It's a little tedious to do this as the entire post will be quoted and you have to erase the parts that you aren't responding to. When breaking a post up into separate quotes that you are responding to (as I have done in this post) you need to put the beginning and ending bracketed commands in front of each quote. In this case the beginning command is quote="maddog, post: 271711"
(I am leaving off the brackets ( [ ] )so it doesn't requote ;o). The ending bracketed command is /quote. You will see these bracket [] commands when you hit "reply" and what I am saying will become clear.
To include a quote from 2nd different post (I've included one fro Helliepig below), go up to that post and hit reply after you've done the first one. The second quote will show up in it's entirety too so go thru the same procedure of erasing what sentences aren't needed to be in the quote. Hope this helps ;)
Still warring in my mind between thinking that the whole process sounds too weird and wacky to be worth anything more than a giggle
I too thought the process weird and in the beginning was very anxious that I might not be doing it right (geeze imagine that .... must be the PTSD LOL). It is scary MD and can get very hard. That is why it is imperative that EMDR be done with a qualified EMDR trauma T. Your T will help you through it all, keeping you grounded and stopping when needed. And remember, you can always stop it yourself. Tell your T if you are feeling too overwhelmed and need to stop. Though I must say, I was stubborn, wanting to get thru it. Fortunately my T was very aware of how deep I got and knew when to pull back, even when I didn't. Don't let the fear stop you from doing the EMDR Maddog. It's incredibly hard yes......in fact it's the hardest thing I have ever done......but so very worth it in the end!
Iam, I am struck by your paragraph on integrating ego states, and your "compassion towards them". It feels like an essential step after the EMDR work. I even had an incredible sense of two ego states meeting that already knew about each other. My T says all the parts are aware of each other on some level, it's just the "me" bit out there that isn't.
What I really had the hardest time of accepting was the different ego states. It felt like split personalities to me and I really resisted it. Long into our EMDR work my T had me imagine a conference table in which all of the ego states, including the current adult one, could meet to discuss things. I know my critical ego state was aware of each, not so sure if the others were aware of the others. The critic was in control most of the time and VERY stubborn! Yes, compassion for each of the ego states is essential into integrating them into one whole. I mean.....I sure as hell don't want to listen to anyone who doesn't have compassion for me, let alone allow them to protect me! When I could finally feel compassion for my critical self, that part willingly came into my heart, so to speak, to let me protect her. Really the whole thing is quite INCREDIBLE!
