Is There Anyone Who Could Answer My Question?

[Neverthesame]

I have tried emdr before. I personally found it a bit intense, but I know it has helped many, many people.

It sounds like you have a good therapist, grounding techniques are most certainly a learned skill. Don't be discouraged if you find it doesn't work very well right away, keep practicing. It will be easier to do, faster to work and more effective.

Actually, now that I think about it. That is probably why I had difficulty with emdr. I don't think I was practicing my grounding often enough. So definitely don't let me scare you off of emdr. Just remember to take it slow, don't be afraid to speak up and tell your therapist if you are feeling overwhelmed.

 

[Lucycat]

Hi @tumble-down.

You might want to look up 'pseudoseizures' or 'non-epileptic seizures'. They are different names for the same thing, the latter being the preferred name here in the UK. You can look on Google or do a search within the forum here. I suspect that this is what you are describing, and if so you will see that you are not alone and there are others on this forum who have written of it in the past.

 

[seedling]

The first session of EMDR I did was my "safe place" and practicing the container to hold all my "bad" stuff. This was a pleasant thing for me to do and I felt good afterward. Maybe you can see how this type of EMDR practice works for you - starting with positive practices and thoughts - and see how that
works for you.

 

[Suzetig]

@tumble-down welcome to the forum. I've had experience in the past of having trauma related seizures, I only had a couple as severe as you describe - I can imagine how scary they must be for you. The thing that helped me was anti-convulsant medication. I wasn't on medication for long, just a year or so, but it helped me enormously and was prescribed to me without an epilepsy diagnosis. I had ECG and MRI scans that didn't show anything - my family doctor thought it was an extreme form of migraine. It was only when I disclosed my trauma (well into adulthood) that my current doctor put he pieces together and said the seizures were most like a form of conversion disorder related to trauma.

You have a good team around you, do ask about medication for the seizures, I hope you get some answers soon.

 

[Born to Run]

@tumble-down Unexpectedly, I had to go through a faint/collapse state myself in therapy this week, not involving my legs though. I was confused and emailed later with my therapist, he is both a physician and trauma therapist. He wrote the following with regard to the faint/collapse state -coming from the four F's -flight, fight, freeze, faint- : "As for the collapse state, there could be a myriad of symptoms such as low blood pressure, Bradycardia, fainting, dizziness, limp extremities with weakness….. Any physical, emotional or psychological state one would expect with complete collapse of a system, in a dynamic and individual setting." Yes, I do therapy in English as I am from Holland, but live in Switzerland, so it is not a translation.

@Suzetig Interesting to read about your experience, although very unpleasant. I believe your seizures could also have been the result of the faint state as it is called in somatic experiencing. Did you also not notice something that would trigger this like tumble-down?

 

[Suzetig]

It's difficult to say - at the time I was seriously struggling with dissociation and honestly thought I was loosing my mind. This was in the late 80s/early 90s when understanding about trauma response was really just developing and I was quite young at the time - meaning I very much listened to what my doctors were saying about my symptoms. I was tested a lot for physical problems and so while I looked for signs that I felt just before a seizure, I didn't link this with triggers because it seemed to be separate.

It was only when I changed doctors and we had reason to review my records that my new doctor suggested the seizures were trauma related. It may have been part of a faint response but its hard to track back.