EMDR Lashback - When EMDR Goes Wrong

[Lucycat]

I just want to add that I too had multiple traumas, and multiple EMDR sessions that have helped me big time. Not an easy therapy, but in my experience very worthwhile. my therapist is very experienced and trained in EMDR and is just brilliant!!!

 

[becvan]

Since there has been some interest in my old thread I thought I would update it a bit here. I still get those wierd light-bulb room flash things. It is no longer flashback related though, it just goes off as if some strobe light went nuts in my brains. They are not as painful as they used to be, as they only cause mild headaches now and don't scare me. They don't last as long nor do I get them as often. Perhaps in another five years I will be able to come back and say they have ceased altogether. I can only hope.

Over time I have also learned a lot more and these are the things that I believe contribute to a possible adverse reaction to EMDR and that should be discussed in-depth with the EMDR therapist before treatment.

• Amnesia that hides trauma (as in you know you have trauma but can't remember it)
• Dissassociation
• Complex trauma

Also to be noted is if EMDR treatment is lacking what is called the safety stage of therapy. This is where you learn coping skills to deal with the fallout of the treatment, learn to have a support network for help and learn to trust the therapist. None of which I had to begin with. Good EMDR therapists will embark on this aspect, FIRST, and not skip it altogether.

Please note that in no way do I believe or think that EMDR does not work. I know it does for the majority. However education and caution should be used.

bec

 

[anthony]

I actually explained in further depth in the recent EMDR wiki page that is currently under editing, [DLMURL]https://www.myptsd.com/threads/eye-movement-desensitization-and-reprocessing-emdr.86472/ about this exact thing, and you will even find the referenced location from Dr Shapiro's own book that outlines there is a possibility for brain impairment in the neurological processing, however; I will say, its a very slight chance. The biology heading outlines the biological aspects of it, though you should read it all to fully understand the EMDR process, as the page linked works as one, not each section.

The high risk categories for this is combat and complex based PTSD, because both trauma types are proven extremely resistant to therapy and pharmacology due to the severity of the trauma type. Not all... but within those two groups, there are high percentages that have either amnesic effects to their trauma, which means dissociated. When you read the process linked above, and understand how EMDR works, then you can understand how suddenly mild brain impairment could be a risk factor.

The page says it best IMO. Overall, I would actually recommend EMDR nowadays for most people, as the majority of PTSD patients aren't in the severe / combat / complex trauma types, they are majority in one off traumatic events and recover primarily with time, though trauma therapy intervention rapidly speeds up that process.

Those in the combat and complex trauma types, should first educate themselves extremely well, provoke themselves somewhat with attempts at exposure and such to get a feel for what will come with trauma therapy, and try and nudge anything really bad within their brain out under such circumstances... then give it a shot.

Quite honestly, the physicians themselves should be finding such people at high risk within the screening interviews and rejecting them, however; some are not fully qualified correctly, have only read the book and taken the book course with certificate, which is not an EMDR Institute endorsement of accreditation, which some use as such. The other side, is that some just don't put the patients health first, and instead see it as a challenge, which with other therapy types is ok, but should not be done with EMDR.

 

[becvan]

Very nice article Anthony! Lays it out nice and easy to understand. :)

bec

 

[Ms. Muffet]

Bec-- Thanks for redirecting me here. Don't know how I missed this thread.

I am shook. I've never spoken with someone who had a similar EMDR experience. I left my therapist (after years of working with her) and never returned (obliterated trust and I couldn't function for months) and ultimately I almost lost my life.

I still have the brain burning thing and it is three years after the fact. You describe it so well. The flashing. It is agony. Strobe---YES. This is exactly what I say to my husband. Strobe. Over and over. Sometimes with images, sometimes just sensory. It took so long for the snapshots to subside. Still frames of hell for weeks after. I ceased to exist for some time there. I never fully come back in a way. Hard to articulate.

Okay. I have to process this. Thank you for sharing. Really. I will come back and read this thread in more detail but right now I'm freaking out just knowing I'm not the only one this happened to. Deep breath. "Flooding" doesn't begin to describe. I know flooding. Flooding is something you ride out over hours or days. This was more; different. It changed me. It's like my wiring got screwed up.

I am not against EMDR as a whole. I had used EMDR a decade ago for panic attacks with success, and with the same practitioner. Never in my life had I imagined that using it for childhood trauma would erupt inside me what it did. This electric malfunctioning misfiring inside my head.

Anyway. Thanks for posting this. I feel like . . . I don't know. I don't know what I feel.

 

[anthony]

It's all about the right therapy for the right job.... This is where practitioners get all caught up... They preach one therapy when one alone is not the overall solution.

 

[becvan]

Your welcome Ms. Muffet. I am saddened that another person has been left with this damage and yet relieved to have someone understand it so completely at the same time. One of those damned if you do and damned if you don't things. Take your time and come back when your ready. I'll be happy to discuss any aspect of this with you. I hope your strobes are lessening with time.

bec

 

[Abstract]

becvan,
I am sorry this happened to you.
Thank you to everyone for all this information.
I have two major trauma incidents and a handful of pretty serious ones (as well as lesser but still affecting emotional trauma over many years). I also have a three year gap with almost total amneasia and this more or less dates back to when the dissociating started (from what I can gather). There may be nothing that happened in that time or there may be something.
I have only seen my new t six times and dissociate so much have not managed to tell her most of this.
EMDR is on the agender but I shall now be sure that she knows all this before we go down the EMDR road.

 

[Sam70]

Hi,
I can't believe I found this forum after having EMDR 11 years ago. I have not been the same since. I am disabled. (crying). thank you

 

[anthony]

I have made some changes to the EMDR article, as the word "brain damage" is still speculative, so I have included that as being that, changed some terms to use "cognitive impairment" and also added some minor points about the EMDR Institutes current admission that neurobiology of EMDR is lacking in determined theory and that such aspects are speculative at this point until studies can determine defined results / direction.

This is more than likely a reason as to why the US DOD also won't heavily invest within it, even though they endorse it as a tier-1 treatment... though the military aren't well versed on telling the truth... I know this from experience.

I would say though that for the majority, EMDR should prove quite effective. I don't care what any keen EMDR practitioner says though when in relation to complex or combat based trauma, you are just asking for repercussions touching either heavily with EMDR due to the unknowns about the trauma itself... you would want a sheer expert, nothing less, if venturing into EMDR with either trauma type, ie. someone who has been doing it for 10+ years for those two trauma types... my opinion!

 

[jettrav]

My EMDR Nightmare

When I began EMDR, I had some relationship issues that I was talking to my therapist about, and I thought the therapy was going well. I was feeling stress but not experiencing any serious trauma. My therapist felt EMDR would help clear things up rather quickly, and I agreed.

But things did not go well. Quite frankly I wish I had never heard of EMDR.

Undergoing this therapy I re-experienced painful memories from many years in the past. This led to a period of sleepless nights (something that almost never happens with me) as I endured a parade of terrible flashbacks. These negative experiences did not occur just during sessions, but relentlessly throughout a number of months in which I felt I was constantly engaged in an ongoing medley of horrible moments of reignited trauma from all those years ago.

I so much wanted to believe in EMDR, and I gave it my very best effort over eight or 10 sessions, but ultimately I can't begin to describe how incredibly painful that time of my life was.

The worse I felt the more progress my therapist said I was making. I didn't start feeling better again 'til I said enough is enough and quit EMDR and therapy altogether.

I seem to be having much more success by hanging out with friends, playing music, riding my bike, trying to make a positive difference doing decent work, eating healthy and focussing on the positive achievable good thing in life.

I know some people swear by EMDR and I've read enough to know that it can be a remarkably successful treatment option.

I'm writing this, however, to remind therapists that there is no one-size-fits all therapy, that no therapy is a magic bullet. Most of all, I'm writing all therapist to take a full history before starting EMDR with a patient. There may be some long dormant issues that you need to know about. I don't want another person to go through with EMDR what I went through.

 

[anthony]

The flipside of this coin, is that if the client does not disclose it in the first place, then it can't be ascertained as a dormant issue or not. There is nothing you can do about that scenario, other than continue going forward, accepting that any type of trauma therapy is going to make things much much worse initially, before getting better. That is trauma therapy. If you think anything less, then you had false representations going into it.

But you own your history, not the therapist. You don't disclose, how is anyone supposed to know?

There are always two sides to any story, and we must view both, as well as own any of our own shortfalls, not just blame another for something we control.

A therapist can ask us, have we experienced any prior traumatic events in life? If you answer, no, then we now own anything that comes up as being forgotten about, suppressed, etc, and that is just part of trauma therapy.