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Need Others Experience With Exposure Therapy

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Robbed

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I have been having exposure therapy and have experienced many reactions to each session. Has anyone expereinced seizures after their session? Does anyone dissociate during a session. How long should each session last? I have mulitple traumas to deal with so it may be different for me. I would like to hear other peoples experiences, Has anyone every been videod. My therpist would like to video me and I am unsure if I will consent to it.. I have been encouraged by everyone online to continue with this and I am thankful for any advice you can send me.

Thanks again
Robbed:hello:
 
I have been going through exposure therapy as well for my many traumas. My sessions are recorded but not videoed. I have never experienced seizures following a session, but have dissociated on numerous occasions. Luckily my therapist is able to recognize when this happens and is able to bring me back around. My sessions are usually about 3 hours. She wants to make sure I am okay before she lets me go. We usually take a walk down by the river and she just talks with me. When she is certain I am grounded, we discuss and summarize what we accomplished that session and where the next will go. At this time I see her twice a week. I am hoping the frequency of sessions will diminish soon. I would encourage you to continue with this therapy as you will soon desensitize to the trauma and be able to work toward healing. You will be able to stay present more often and while it will still be uncomfortable and unpleasant to talk about, it does get easier. I wish you all the best. Don't give up. You can and will get through this.
 
Years ago I went to a therapist that video taped my sessions. She gave me her guarantee that no one else but she and another doctor would see the videos. After a while I just stopped noticing the camera in the corner of the room.

Exposue therapy is tough. Opening youself up to things that you know can cause you problems and leave you vulnerable is difficult. It does work, but it takes time. Desensitizing yourself to triggers is not for the timid...at least it hasn't been so far for me. Like gentlelady said, it does get easier the more you do it.

For me the exposure therapy is an ongoing, almost daily thing. Just going someplace new or meeting new people for me is a type of exposure therapy. Sort of a slow re-expanding of my severely contracted world.

Lisa
 
I have done the type of exposure where I wrote down an account of a trauma and read it aloud in session with my counselor. We did this perhaps 6 times. The exposure didn't reduce my symptoms, but it made it possible for me to be able to talk about the trauma in counseling. Now I am considering my counselor's suggestion to try this again in a modified form in order to reduce my avoidance even more.
 
In response to some of your questions: With exposure issues I dissociate pretty much every time and usually feel unwell for 2 or 3 days afterwards, sometimes having flashbacks, and delayed reactions.

I think it's tough for the therapist for those of us who dissociate a lot because you have to try to find the balance of enough exposure to help, but not dissociate.
 
While it's not exactly exposure therapy the cognitive behavioral therapy I'm doing makes you write about your worst/most traumatic experience in great detail. each week you have another essay that approaches it from a different angle. you are also asked to read what you have written every day. it is designed to expose you to the event and bring up all of the feelings.

so i have been writing about the night i saw an IED pass by our truck right before it blew up a truck a at the end of the convoy. as each week progressed more stuff would come up until in this weeks session I cried. (which for me is a MAJOR break through :)) the feelings around that night seem less difficult to deal with now that i have allowed myself to feel them.

this whole process over the past month has been hard. i feel like I'm on the verge of craziness. they say that is the point and it will soon get better but man, it better come quick.
 
This is a tough process...I had to write out my most major trauma..write it out and then to make it easier to say out loud...tape it and then listen to it daily....I think it is supposed to help get the memories out of your head so to speak. It was hard...i can say it was effective but not 100%. PTSD is so much work, especially with numerous traumas but with hard work...your good days will start to outweigh your bad. That is what happened to me. I am trying EMDR as well....I don't even think there is an answer, or a magic answer. We just have to work hard and positive self talk ourselves so the negative thinking does not overcome us. i found this very helpful too......changing your thoughts is hard work. Everyone is different and I think recovery or the process of recovery is pretty much a lifetime thing it is just a matter of how you wrap your brain around it. I don't know if this helped but that is my experience.
 
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