• 💖 [Donate To Keep MyPTSD Online] 💖 Every contribution, no matter how small, fuels our mission and helps us continue to provide peer-to-peer services. Your generosity keeps us independent and available freely to the world. MyPTSD closes if we can't reach our annual goal.

Undiagnosed EMDR recommended?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Lpas

New Here
My therapist who Ive only seen 4 times and who I like and can trust has recommended EMDR for me. However, upon researching into it, it seems my perceived traumas are nothing compared to some that are being treated. Sure I had a screwy childhood, but was never physically abused, I had a traumatic divorce(psychological abuse), a child with a heroin addiction and as a nurse was abused verbally on a regular basis, but does all this constitute PTS?
 
If the traumas are mild or are not the source of PTSD, then the EMDR course of treatment may be correspondingly short. Maybe the question to ask your therapist is what would EMDR potentially offer you? I have PTSD, but in my own treatment I can see that EMDR can be a tool to promote greater coping skills, less worry about the past, and calmness.
 
EMDR has been shown to be quite effective for an increasing breadth & scope of disorders, conditions, and “even” “simply” concerning issues/events that could use some serious processing.... with an exponentially better prognosis as a result.

Not at all unlike how supplemental o2 is helpful for patients with a wide variety of issues, not just pulmonary patients.. although there’s a definite usefulness scale. Absolutely for pulmonary, nearly always for cardiac, often for this, sometimes for that, won’t really make a difference for this, that, or the other... surprising useful with, huh, I wonder if there’s something else going on with this patient?
 
I'm doing EMDR. Just always remember - healing isn't linear. Stuff happens and other stuff comes out. Memeories are recovered, reprocessing happens, dreams get weird. Everything gets weird. Phobias and anxieties may show up, for me one was acrophobia (heights) to the point heights on TV and in video games were a no go.
Go do the therapy. What you dig up may surprise you - and help you heal.
 
My first T 5 years ago was an EMDR expert for 40 years, she tried it with me about 5 times, never worked, not even a little, at least for me.

She did say that my defenses where like a steel wall
 
EMDR is used for all sorts of things - not just trauma - because the idea is to change how you think about things, not to erase the memories. My niece was getting bullied at school and her T used it to help build her confidence back up and change how she saw herself in the interactions.

I've been doing it for a couple years for trauma and it is amazing. When it works all those horrible memories that are stopping me from healing become just sad events in my past that can be left behind.

I won't lie though -- when it's used for ptsd it is a hard, hard road so make sure you see someone who has experience doing trauma related emdr.
 
I thought EMDR was invented in 1988 by Frances Shapiro.
Could be, I was actually one of the last patients for this T before she retired, she was about 80. She was very good and helped me through my initial mental collapse 5 years ago.

When it revisited me about a year ago I had to find a new T and luckily the one I found not only specializes in CSA but she is quite good and has helped me immensely. Of course the price of a really good T is that they take you to places long ago buried. I am now dealing with even more childhood trauma I had not been addressing.
 
Yes, this is why I haven't gone back to therapy. I am doing ok now, so I don't want to dig up anything else. I'm a coward.
I never had therapy in the beginning (because they didn't know what PTSD was until 20 years ago) but I did have an absolute train wreck 45 years down the road. The cumulative effects to health and mental health make it worth fixing it now. Medical science now knows that almost all autoimmune diseases are the result of extended stress. Because of extended stress I now have Addison's Disease, thyroid problems, and deal with this wonderful list of symptoms on top of PTSD symptoms:

Addison's:
Extreme fatigue
Weight loss and decreased appetite
Darkening of your skin (hyperpigmentation)
Low blood pressure, even fainting
Salt craving
Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
Nausea, diarrhea or vomiting (gastrointestinal symptoms)
Abdominal pain
Muscle or joint pains
Irritability
Depression or other behavioral symptoms
Unable to sleep


Then there's thyroid - which can go low or high:

Symptoms of an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) can include:
Experiencing anxiety, irritability and nervousness.
Having trouble sleeping.
Losing weight.
Having an enlarged thyroid gland or a goiter.
Having muscle weakness and tremors.
Experiencing irregular menstrual periods or having your menstrual cycle stop.
Feeling sensitive to heat.
Having vision problems or eye irritation.


Symptoms of an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) can include:
Feeling tired (fatigue).
Gaining weight.
Experiencing forgetfulness.
Having frequent and heavy menstrual periods.
Having dry and coarse hair.
Having a hoarse voice.
Experiencing an intolerance to cold temperatures.


I can tell you which labs to go to for blood tests with the shortest wait times, when my Addison's crashes I can tell the doctor what I need in the IV to fix me - if I'm lucid. Last but not least my PTSD came from stuff that happened in a hospital, so that adds to the fun and games.

For me EMDR helped take the pain off those memories and start healing. The time between did not make any of this any easier to deal with, it just made a worse mess to deal with later.

No you are not a coward...you need to be braver than hell to deal with PTSD.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top