You have to be very careful for things not to flood you. Sometime you feel like you can face things and face a lot but realize later that it was too much. You take very small pieces at a time, rather than a lot. This is a bit annoying, especially because we want to get over things so fast, considering how horrible they are.
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EMDR Lashback - When EMDR Goes Wrong
- Post starter becvan
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D
Deleted member 487
This is exactly why you need someone that is trained specifically by Dr. Shapiro in EMDR and multiple traumas. If someone is not properly trained, it will mess you up bad, in some cases permanent.
T
toemock
Kiterage, this is really not the time or place to toot your own horn. There are some highly traumatized people on this board and a Dr. Phil-like approach is uncalled for. Everyone processes trauma differently - one size does not fit all. No one has all the answers and no one knows the whole story. Some people may be placing the bulk of the responsibility on their therapists for good reason.
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Lockedinfear
I am right now sitting in my room & in tears. I haven't left my room for 3 days. I'm 36 years old and have been doing this therapy for multiple traumas over a 15 year period. I have done 4 sessions. The last session I had was 5 days ago in which a flood of trauma memories in a rapid fire sequence happened and sent me into an out of body experience and full on panic attack. I'm isolating from everyone right now and feel so scared. I don't know what to do now or how to get out of this place. My therapist called to check on me but I am scared to even talk to her. I haven't been in this bad of a place for years, and I feel very powerless, overwhelmed and terrified. Anyone have any advice?
Kintsugi
Sponsor
@LuckyDuck Sadly Becvan hasn't been with us for some time now. When she originally posted this thread in 2007, EMDR was far more risky and unreliable than it is today.
Check out Anthony's post near the bottom of page 6 (I would quote it but I really need to quote the whole post and that is against the rules :P ).
Check out Anthony's post near the bottom of page 6 (I would quote it but I really need to quote the whole post and that is against the rules :P ).
R
Rosie Rose
I have had many traumas in my life - nothing that would make the news, but things that have deeply affected me, my self-esteem, and my mood. I was bullied in elementary school and my father was an abusive alcoholic. There are other issues as well, but they are too hard to write down.
A few months ago, stress from my job triggered me to have a major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety. I have been off work for months. I was on depression medication for a week, and I had such terrible side effects, that I stopped taking them and started to see a naturopathic doctor. I started eating much healthier and took supplements, but after a few months, I knew I needed something more. My depression was getting better, but my anxiety was still there. I was told about a psychotherapist who did EMDR.
I have had 5 appointments with the psychotherapist so far, and I have resolved some issues that have been troubling me since childhood. I am feeling so much better and my self esteem has improved. I have many more issues to deal with, and I am confident that EMDR is working for me.
I have to admit I feel like I am having side effects with yesterday's session. I am having difficulty focussing my eyes and I feel like there's pins and needles in my brain. We have been having 1.5 hour sessions, so I am going to ask her about cutting back to 1 hour sessions.
I absolutely recommend it.
A few months ago, stress from my job triggered me to have a major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety. I have been off work for months. I was on depression medication for a week, and I had such terrible side effects, that I stopped taking them and started to see a naturopathic doctor. I started eating much healthier and took supplements, but after a few months, I knew I needed something more. My depression was getting better, but my anxiety was still there. I was told about a psychotherapist who did EMDR.
I have had 5 appointments with the psychotherapist so far, and I have resolved some issues that have been troubling me since childhood. I am feeling so much better and my self esteem has improved. I have many more issues to deal with, and I am confident that EMDR is working for me.
I have to admit I feel like I am having side effects with yesterday's session. I am having difficulty focussing my eyes and I feel like there's pins and needles in my brain. We have been having 1.5 hour sessions, so I am going to ask her about cutting back to 1 hour sessions.
I absolutely recommend it.
C
Carla
Last year November I went to seek help out of desperation and Gnadenfrei in Kallangur, Australia introduced me to this EMDR. All I can tell you he triggered so many traumas in my life that most sessions I couldn't even recall how I got home. For 3 months all I could think about was suicide and how I wanted to die. I lost my appetite, I would get violently ill and involuntary burst out into tears. I was so profoundly sad. Every week I would ask him when the crying would stop. The last session he sat reading off his mobile a letter from a friend of how successful EDMR had been, I replied I still had suicidal thoughts. His response was that I should go book myself into a mental hospital and I was beyond his help. Once again I have no idea how I drove home in the state I was in. I then realised he was looking for a success story, months earlier he diagnosed me with PTSD, severe depression, anxiety etcetera and 3 months later he tells me to go to a mental hospital. I went to my GP who put me immediately on medication to undo the damage Gnadenfrei did and I follow up with him, I have not had a suicidal thought since seeing my GP and I am on the road to recovery. My advice is stay away from this. A proper councillor or therapist does not need a machine to help you recover they just need to be good at their jobs. They trigger all your traumas and then send you home in a state of suicide. This should be illegal in my view.
D
Desi
I'm really glad to find this thread I ended up reading the whole thing from the beginning. A lot of people have said that you need to make sure your therapist follows the rules carefully and have a high level of training to ensure the therapy is safe from harm.
My t seemed to do everything by the book and I had done everything right as well I even researched it. I want to make it completely clear that I still had some very significant side effects from it! Like brain damage type of thing.
Was I diagnosed with multiple traumas from childhood? Not officially but my t was very aware of my story and now I realize I could qualify for the multiple trauma label.
My t said I was processing stuff too fast and I needed to slow down but as many of you know, when you go to therapy often times you are overwhelmed by feelings and you haven't learned how to slow yourself down yet.
I did EMDR for a year and a half length of time back in 2008. I experienced a foggy brain from overwhelming grief. I also experienced impaired speech, motor skill issues, and problems processing information that persisted for YEARS. I've reflected a lot on this experience and I do think my sympotoms I'm sharing are related to grief but different. Please be careful people. If it can be that easy for EMDR to go wrong I don't know why if you should try it.
My sister is currently doing EMDR and I have decided to advise her to either stop/proceed with great caution.
My t seemed to do everything by the book and I had done everything right as well I even researched it. I want to make it completely clear that I still had some very significant side effects from it! Like brain damage type of thing.
Was I diagnosed with multiple traumas from childhood? Not officially but my t was very aware of my story and now I realize I could qualify for the multiple trauma label.
My t said I was processing stuff too fast and I needed to slow down but as many of you know, when you go to therapy often times you are overwhelmed by feelings and you haven't learned how to slow yourself down yet.
I did EMDR for a year and a half length of time back in 2008. I experienced a foggy brain from overwhelming grief. I also experienced impaired speech, motor skill issues, and problems processing information that persisted for YEARS. I've reflected a lot on this experience and I do think my sympotoms I'm sharing are related to grief but different. Please be careful people. If it can be that easy for EMDR to go wrong I don't know why if you should try it.
My sister is currently doing EMDR and I have decided to advise her to either stop/proceed with great caution.
joeylittle
Sponsor
I couldn't let this go by without saying that those symptoms could also have been related to depression. I'm not discounting your story - but unless you went through a process of ruling other things out, I don't know that it's accurate to connect those symptoms to the EMDR. Correlation does not equal causation.
V
Victoria.victorious
I have a completely different opinion. EMDR worked for me but it took 2 years of establishing trust with my therapist and center for me to decide to take this route to therapy. I would never take back a single session of it. I have suffered from a long list of physical, emotional, and psychological trauma/abuse. Yes multiple types and throughout the course of twenty years. I wont get into that what happened it is not important for readers. What is important is that people are not misinformed on emdr treatment itself.
Emdr stands for eye movement desensitized reprocessing. Go look it up. The facts. First of all trauma is stored in a very specific part of the brain. It completely changes ones mental ability and capacities. traumatic memories are "stuck" in the brain and can affect the way one interprets themselves and the world around them. In a traumatic state one reacts on "flight or fight" responses. this is key to the way trauma victims behave. victims are unable to disassociate with the past memories In a way that causes them further trauma, grief, and difficulty moving on with their lives. the negative beliefs that surround a traumatic event get "stuck".so as a victim of family violence a negative belief that i have formed is that i am worthless.
Through emdr i could find exact moments when i felt that way. I could see that a memory of childhood abuse caused the feeling of worhtlessness and it later continued to form my beliefs of worthlessness in relationships, in my workplace, at school, in my self esteem. So you start with a target memory and focus on the negative statements you told yourself because of it and also at that same time decide what positive belief you would like to replace it with. a good therapist will never start with the "worst" memory first. A good therapist will ask you every session what you want to do that day never forcing you to do emdr. A good therapist will not ask you to describe the event. my therapist described emdr as sitting on a train watching the memories past by. YOU DONT GET OFF THE TRAIN. YOU ARE NOT Asked to relive it. You must separate yourself from the past and if you cannot do this then you may not be ready to take on the challenge. and i mean that in the nicest honest way possible.
Because yes it is a f*cking challenge and yes it can deplete you. It was extremely emotional and yes i had anxiety attacks and insomnia as a result but those lessened overtime and as i developed better ways to cope with the things coming up. the more you bring up the traumatic shit the less power it wields over your brain thus you begin to desensitize ( become less affected by) the trauma hence the name (emDr) (desensitized reprocessing). Its the only thing that has worked for me. I am no longer living in the shadows of the past. I no longer hold onto old negative beliefs. When i think about the abuse or trauma i dont have anxiety attacks anymore or let it play out in events happening today. It doesnt overrun my life. its all because emdr begins to store these traumatic events differently. As i processed the worthlessness memories she would ask what positive belief do you want to tell yourself....i said that i am of worth, that i am loved, that i deserve respect. You close the session by focusing on these positive beliefs and letting the brain process this new way of thinking. it truly allows the memory to take its last breathe before you replace it with powerful insight on the facts of what happened and who you truly are. It is the beginning of creating a positive way of looking at the now and the future. totally worth it.
Another thing emdr works best if you are sober, if you are in other forms of support groups, if you are in a safe environment where trauma is not reoccuring(i cannot stress this enough) and with the support of friends/family or whoever. You must be ready to cope with the things that come up and have good coping skills like reading, journaling, art, exercise, yoga etc. Its best to nap or relax after a session. It is best to not be taking pychiatric drugs in unison because this affects processing. it is best to know what youre getting into and take care of yourself i cannot urge this enough. Do your research first and ask questions before you just trust anyones opinions because the human mind is unique to each individual.
Emdr stands for eye movement desensitized reprocessing. Go look it up. The facts. First of all trauma is stored in a very specific part of the brain. It completely changes ones mental ability and capacities. traumatic memories are "stuck" in the brain and can affect the way one interprets themselves and the world around them. In a traumatic state one reacts on "flight or fight" responses. this is key to the way trauma victims behave. victims are unable to disassociate with the past memories In a way that causes them further trauma, grief, and difficulty moving on with their lives. the negative beliefs that surround a traumatic event get "stuck".so as a victim of family violence a negative belief that i have formed is that i am worthless.
Through emdr i could find exact moments when i felt that way. I could see that a memory of childhood abuse caused the feeling of worhtlessness and it later continued to form my beliefs of worthlessness in relationships, in my workplace, at school, in my self esteem. So you start with a target memory and focus on the negative statements you told yourself because of it and also at that same time decide what positive belief you would like to replace it with. a good therapist will never start with the "worst" memory first. A good therapist will ask you every session what you want to do that day never forcing you to do emdr. A good therapist will not ask you to describe the event. my therapist described emdr as sitting on a train watching the memories past by. YOU DONT GET OFF THE TRAIN. YOU ARE NOT Asked to relive it. You must separate yourself from the past and if you cannot do this then you may not be ready to take on the challenge. and i mean that in the nicest honest way possible.
Because yes it is a f*cking challenge and yes it can deplete you. It was extremely emotional and yes i had anxiety attacks and insomnia as a result but those lessened overtime and as i developed better ways to cope with the things coming up. the more you bring up the traumatic shit the less power it wields over your brain thus you begin to desensitize ( become less affected by) the trauma hence the name (emDr) (desensitized reprocessing). Its the only thing that has worked for me. I am no longer living in the shadows of the past. I no longer hold onto old negative beliefs. When i think about the abuse or trauma i dont have anxiety attacks anymore or let it play out in events happening today. It doesnt overrun my life. its all because emdr begins to store these traumatic events differently. As i processed the worthlessness memories she would ask what positive belief do you want to tell yourself....i said that i am of worth, that i am loved, that i deserve respect. You close the session by focusing on these positive beliefs and letting the brain process this new way of thinking. it truly allows the memory to take its last breathe before you replace it with powerful insight on the facts of what happened and who you truly are. It is the beginning of creating a positive way of looking at the now and the future. totally worth it.
Another thing emdr works best if you are sober, if you are in other forms of support groups, if you are in a safe environment where trauma is not reoccuring(i cannot stress this enough) and with the support of friends/family or whoever. You must be ready to cope with the things that come up and have good coping skills like reading, journaling, art, exercise, yoga etc. Its best to nap or relax after a session. It is best to not be taking pychiatric drugs in unison because this affects processing. it is best to know what youre getting into and take care of yourself i cannot urge this enough. Do your research first and ask questions before you just trust anyones opinions because the human mind is unique to each individual.
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