Emdr: After The Session

[Joseph Sean]

Hi there,

I wanted to see if other's shared my experience and had advice on coping...I've done EMDR for 3 months and it has been profound. I am a new person! However, after every session I feel very anxious, introspective yet confused, aggressive, over-emotional and physically awkward; like fatigued and loss of appetite. Fortunately, the next day without even noticing I start immediately feeling better. Does anyone relate, and/or does anyone have suggestions on what to do after a session? The past two weeks I've been very aggressive after and that's a scary place to be in....thanks

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Intergrating memory is quite an exhausting task, think about it.

Though for me, my therapist and i only did 1 EMDR session, i had a flashback, heard my mom's voice like she was in the room and freaked out. He stopped, got me mostly emotionally ok again before i left the session. Its was about 6 or 8 months ago and well before i came here. It was all too 'packed tight' and so now that things are 'loosening up' he plans to revisist it.

The next day i was VERY exhausted, anxiety was very high, shakey, and also no patience, snappy, temper was hot etc. So yeah i can relate.

 

[Deleted member 28942]

Hi @Joseph Sean I can fully related to that. I've been doing EMDR for a while now. The last session I had was on Friday and we unlocked anger. Since Friday, I've been on emotional rollercoaster. Anger, joy, disgust, hate, fear, compassion, etc. A lot of other memories are coming back too. I sometimes get terrified. Here are some of the things that help me:

1. Listening to music that gives me hope. Like Through the Rain - Mariah Carey, I Believe I Can Fly - R. Kelly.
2. Sleeping or laying in bed under the blanket
3. Punching the pillows
4. Writing in my journal - I write everything that comes to my mind
5. Giving myself a hug

 

[Kailani]

I recently had a bad experience after EMDR; dissociated to what felt like another planet! Had a lot of somatic memories and pain and had a problem catching my breath. Kept telling myself it was just a difficult session and that it would pass. Used grounding and safe place and the next day was a little shaky but better. There are great grounding threads on here. Hope it gets better! Congrats on your effort!!! Glad it's paying off!!!!

 

[lostforgottensoul]

I recently had a bad experience after EMDR; dissociated to what felt like another planet!

You're doing better than me, i attempt to dissaciate (have at times) every therapy session.

There are great grounding threads on here.

There are A LOT of grounding threads here but this one was the best i found (one of the posters in the replies put a ton)

https://www.myptsd.com/threads/breathing-and-grounding.3637/

 

[makibrd]

Hi @Joseph Sean I can fully related to that. I've been doing EMDR for a while...

Can I ask how long it took for you to be able to release the anger? I Started EMDR several months ago, but find myself getting embarrassed to express anger at all. Now I've noticed I'm irritable, use cuss words which I never used to do and I actually feel like I'm worse now then before I started

 

[Jnean]

All the time. I've been doing EMDR for a few months on a weekly basis. It takes me days to recuperate and recharge, just in time to go back into another session. It's hard. I too use coping skills that work for me. I color. Alot. I binge watch tv series and cuddle with my pets. I try to keep on a schedule but I wake up every night in the middle of the night from bad dreams. I have them every night. It's my anxiety. I do my routine activities during day and night as best I can so that I can try to get in tune with myself again. I get very tired too like I could sleep for a whole week. Good post. I'm happy to hear about what others do too. Thanks for sharing.you are not alone it seems.

 

[Crow]

Totally relate. My T always tells me to go home, take a bath and sleep. She advises me to stay away from other people for the night. I usually zone out watching TV for a night or two. It's the nervous system resetting itself and building new pathways.

 

[Panda Bear]

I've only had two EMDR sessions thus far. Last week, we had a major derailment because of a new traumatic event. Anyways, it took me a good day to get my footing after the sessions. The first time, I needed some serious exercise! A long, hard and fast walk did the trick to get me back to reality. The second a session was a holy rollercoaster of emotions and mostly sadness.

It passed and I had some good realizations after.

 

[Deleted member 28942]

@makibrd I took me over a year of therapy and about half year of EMDR.

Here is a short info:
I grew up in emotionally and physically abusive family. I had no recollection on most of the bad stuff until I was 30. My mom, I believe was a narcissist or BPD. She would take away my favorite stuff and destroy them or give them to my brother and when I would get angry she would tell me I am jealous and selfish. In my mind, I confused anger with jealousy and it was only last week when we processed those memories when I came to the realization that I am not jealous I am angry. Since last week, memories and feelings are coming up more and more. There are still few more things to be resolved around anger. Like her telling me I shouldn't be angry or her begging me not to be angry at her. The begging part is a big thing. I give in to manipulative people who beg. For this week, I want to work on some other memory because anger is very powerful and I need a brake.

 

[makibrd]

@makibrd I took me over a year of therapy and about half year of EMDR.

Here i...

Thank you for sharing your story.
I also came
From an emotionally abusive family where I was not allowed to express any feelings . If I cried, I was told to stop feeling sorry for myself. This lead to a victim mentality and crying over Everything. Now since doing EMDR I feel so much anger and feel as though I'm moving backwards. Maybe it's bc I've beem used to my dysfunction as "usual"
Thanks for the support

 

[Deleted member 28942]

If I cried, I was told to stop feeling sorry for myself.

The same here. Thanks for sharing, I added that to my list of memories to work on. What do you think would be a good positive cognition? I am thinking "I can have compassion for myself" or "It's OK to have compassion for myself now" or "I can feel hurt or sad"