EMDR Lashback - When EMDR Goes Wrong

[Sam70]

Hi Anthony,

Thank you for your response and support. Glad it could help Iam too :) . I was just reading some back posts to this thread and came upon this that I hadn't read before:

"Any person with complex PTSD would typically not be a candidate near immediately. Quite bold if a therapist went near someone with complex PTSD. Severe PTSD, also not a good choice as the trauma is too intensive.

If a person has multiple trauma, depending on the trauma itself, works through that trauma and openly talks about it, then maybe EMDR could be an option to find or recover any hidden aspects and bring them out. From what I am aware, there is a criteria in which must be met first to be capable of under-going EMDR. What that is I do not know, but typically a therapist must first analyse all aspects of the trauma and use commonsense as to if the person is holding out from them or not. If they are, usually they will be rejected for EMDR. If the person is quite open and talks about the worst and most secretive issues, even keeping some to themselves still, they will usually fit the mold to have EMDR because they are more open which means less surprises and less chance of something going wrong.

The problem if it goes wrong is brain damage. This means, in a small dosage you could experience reliving your trauma on a heightened daily response. Basically your trauma is going to worse in your mind. If the damage is medium, the brain nearly fries itself, you could find some pretty serious states of shock, convulsions daily, loss of motor skills, etc etc.

If it totally went wrong, your looking at being pretty much a vegetable. The therapist would have to be a moron though to push someone who wasn't responding already to the treatment though to that level. That would be negligent on the therapist behalf if anything ever got that bad."

...Okay Anthony, this scared me some. If you don't mind me asking, how do you know so much about EMDR/what are your credentials/etc? How do you know about the cognitive deficiencies/formerly termed brain damage you speak about? I'm very curious about this, for this might have happened to me. I've had serious states of shock, non-epileptic seizures almost daily since EMDR, etc. Thank you in advance.

Sam

 

[anthony]

Sam, I have studied the results, I am not an EMDR practitioner.

EMDR is a very very good treatment for piecing together fragments, however; it has nothing to do with EMDR what I am saying, it has to do with how the brain works in relation to trauma therapy period.

The problem with EMDR is not EMDR, it is the therapist behind the technique with the attitude of, "I can fix you regardless how broken you are... you are my next challenge." That is the danger with EMDR. There are also a lot of uncertified practitioners, ie. they have not actually attended both parts of the training, been certified by the EMDR International / Country of origina EMDR institute. Instead, they take the online assessment, read the book, and begin practicing EMDR on patients.

All therapies are done that way... you read about them, you practice them... somewhere along the line you get certified at delivering them.

Regardless the type of therapy, it is about the brain and how your trauma has interacted with it. The more trauma, the more volatile the brains response. Again... this has nothing to do with EMDR, it has to do with every therapy in general. Your brain is literally retraumatizing you daily, now... just doing nothing, and it can be worsened with therapy if done incorrectly or overloaded.

The EMDR International institute is upset about the US Government not using EMDR for veterans. Well... here is the problem. The depth of combat trauma is severe and complex at best, and EMDR comes with way too many risks delving into complex trauma types. If it was just a deployment with no action seen... sure, EMDR would be great... but the majority of soldiers see some type of action in war... and EMDR has too much risk at releasing too much to quickly, without adequate control.

 

[Iam]

In the states you can find a certified EMDR specialist on the emdrnetwork. org (space added so it wouldn't link).

Personally I have found EMDR to be very helpful in accessing feelings and memories. I have been absolutely amazed at how it works, frequently taking me to things out of the blue so to speak. It has also evidenced how different perceptions of the same trauma are stored in different parts of the brain (sights, sounds, smell, taste) We can have my suds down to 0 one or more and focus on a different want and my suds level sky rockets immediately.

There have been times when it gets very intense and overwhelming. At those times my T has me pick up the "younger ego state" and take her to my safe place and end the emdr for that session. This has happened only a few times, but I can see where if the T is not well trained that a person can actually get stuck in the past trauma or totally freak out.

 

[anthony]

Its not really about getting stuck in a past trauma actually, that is fine, because your brain is already holding onto past trauma for there to be a problem in the first place. That is just a symptom spike... which anyone can deal with with persistence. The problem you actually hit on the head, which is a positive for you, but can be a negative for others, and especially depending on the complexity of a persons trauma was, "frequently taking me to things out of the blue so to speak".

That is where the brain can be overwhelmed and lose control, instead of naturally allowing your brain to now unlock something, EMDR forces the process, and suddenly a persons "something out of the blue" can be a suppressed, terrible traumatic event their brain had locked up tight, or even memory of a known event... which overwhelms the person and sends their brain into meltdown.

It happens with many therapies... the severity of meltdown is the issue though from being forced vs. naturally occurring as the brain now accepts its time to release it knowing instinctively that it can now deal with and process that memory without self damage.

Many may not realize, but our brain has a self protect mechanism within it, for ease of speaking.

 

[anthony]

You have no doubt read similar things from people with exposure therapy. They got forced into something that was too significant for their brain to handle, or just happened to be something they avoided because they're keeping secrets about a traumatic instance, which exposure to something suddenly overwhelms their brain without being ready for it, as there was no buildup to the stressor.

 

[Sam70]

Sam, I have studied the results, I am not an EMDR practitioner.

Hi Anthony,

Thanks again so much for your reply. The EMDR therapist that did EMDR on me was a Level II Facilitator, one of the best. She's listed on the EMDR website. So I'm just trying to better understand because I've been searching everywhere as to how to heal from this. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I don't know where to turn and I feel so alone in this.

Thank you again,

Sam

 

[anthony]

I don't know the answer to where your at now Sam... having been treated and now having epileptic seizures... sounds more to me you need to be seeing a psychiatrist level for clear answers, not psychologist. EMDR has gone wrong for you, and that is unfortunate, but you will need a doctor now to find the answer IMO.

 

[Sam70]

I've seen many of the best docs and psychiatrists, they don't know. Thanks anyway for trying.

 

[anthony]

Have you had FMRI scans under the condition? That way atleast neurologists could see what is going wrong to help you.

 

[charliehotelwhiskey]

It was suggested to me years ago that I should try EMDR, I was hesitant about it because I didn't know to much about it and said no thanks. I'm glad I did after reading this thread.

Thanks for sharing.

CHW

 

[hazen]

My own personal experiences with EMDR are not very positive, but I have not suffered like others unfortunately have in this thread.

I first went to a counselor 8 years ago when I was experiencing severe stomach pains for reasons I did not know at the time. I was also very unaware of my PTSD at this point. After two sessions with this counselor I mentioned that I was uncomfortable with doors but I didn't really know why; I just thought it was odd. She then proceeded to say that she wanted to "try something with me to help" and then attempted EMDR with me. She never told me I had PTSD or why she was doing what she was doing.

After two more sessions of this I wasn't feeling any better and was just very confused and stopped going. Only a year ago, when I discovered that I have complex PTSD, did I understand what the heck that counselor was doing back then. My current T, when she heard what the counselor had tried to do, went wide-eyed and said "you should never try to treat someone in any way without their understanding and consent".

Reading this thread has made me thankful that I wasn't more worse affected by this... and I feel terrible for those who have been. I understand that EMDR may work great for some, and thats fine... but we are all an experiment of one. I don't think I'll be trying it again but that is just me.

 

[scott_1971_h]

I have multiple traumas stemming from childhood to last year. I did not know when I did the treatment that it is not recommended for someone with numerous traumas. After the first three sessions, I snapped and had to be medicated (I still am medicated now.) The first week or so after that I kept getting this horrid "things." My traumas (not all but way more than I could handle) would flash like a picture book through my mind. I would have my eyes open and the whole room was flashing as if a bulb was going off.. then I would go off the deep end and get violently ill for about a week. Since then I have noticed everytime I get triggered, I have this weird "thing" happen to me. It is not a flashback. It is like the EMDR is burned into my brain.. and it won't stop.
bec

Would you sat that you are having "EMDR Trauma"? I have heard that it is one of the more common adverse events associated with it. I was going to start EMDR but a few things cropped up and I deided there was no way I could trust my therapist. Haven't been back.

Scott