Headaches And Emdr

[samson]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum. I've been in therapy for nearly 6 months. I've been depressed and anxious on and off for many years. Eventually it was becoming harder to mask and function normally. I've suffered multiple traumas and my T is using emdr. It's been a difficult and exhausting road, but I am beginning to see improvement and having some really good weeks.

My question tonight is has anyone else suffered a bad headache during or after emdr. Today we circled back around to a trauma I'm having trouble expressing my emotions about and I got really sleepy and a little dizzy. The session was almost over so we stopped at that point. I came home and slept for 2 hours and then had the headache. Anyone?

 

[Loloma]

Firstly welcome to the forum. Unfortunately I cannot help with that issue, although I am sure there are others that can. :)

 

[amethist]

My husband was exhausted after EMDR, and sometimes did have headaches from the stress of it all.

Your pushing your brain in a controlled environment to face things that it does not want to face, so yes it will be tired afterwards.

 

[samson]

Thanks for the response. It's so strange how it can be so exhausting watching someone's fingers go back and forth for 90 minutes. :)

 

[poeticprincess88]

My therapist talks about how your body reacts different ways to how you're trauma is coming out. For instance I have had issues with my eyes or a weird feeling in my body. My therapist who does emdr also does EFT stuff too so we can work at processing all of it. You should be able to work with the EDMR to settle things before you leave your session.

This type of therapy can be exhausting at first. If you're consistent with it your body will adjust. It took me some time.

 

[lighteningdarkness]

Hi Samson, sorry only just read your post. How's the T going - is it any better?

I had some really weird physical reactions after the EMDR. A lot of exhaustion, feeling spacy and light headed and dizzy. At the end of a recent sessions which went amazingly well I couldn't focus my eyes for several minutes (which was a bit weird but ok because I felt calm for the first time).

 

[samson]

Things are going much better. My T and I have been working on keeping me from dissociating. He explained that when we are doing emdr my blood vessels in my brain are swelling from the workout they are getting and if I dissociate completely the blood vessels shrink too quickly and that's actually a medical definition of a migraine. We are working hard at communicating during emdr so I don't completely dissociate. Today I told him I was feeling numb during a set of eye movements and we took a break for a couple of minutes and grounded to the room. When we resumed I was able to stay in the memory and get through it till I felt calm.

As a funny note, I was dealing with some anger today and about that time a big clap of thunder and lightening happened and the electricity went out in his office. He has big windows, so it wasn't dark. We both kinda laughed and he said that was the special effect for anger today. I asked if it costs extra and he said yes. :) It came back on in a minute. He also asked me if storms freak me out and I said no. I love storms. I can imagine that would have been hard for someone who doesn't like storms.

I'll stop rambling now. :)