Hello Folks,
Something I've read/heard a lot when people talk about EMDR is that "It can wipe you out for a couple of days, sometimes a week," and that "It brings up old stuff which can be painful and unpleasant." EMDR is difficult, seems to be the basic message. And: "It's different for everyone."
I've begun EMDR treatment for C-PTSD, and we've been focusing on one particular trauma out of the wide variety I've (unfortunately) got available to work with. The day of processing, it feels like my head is left spinning a little-- familiar old thoughts of the trauma and the people involved bubbling up and percolating away for hours. When I wake at night, I'm conscious of those same thoughts almost immediately. They are intrusive. Then variations or expansions on those thoughts for the next several days, or most the week. I've also found myself re-engaging in frozen/avoidant behaviors and panic/anxiety states I remember being trapped in at the time of the originating events. (Eg, oversleeping for 11-12hrs, unwilling to rise after waking, intense hypervigilance & negative predictions, hopelessness/futility). The thing is, none of this feels any different from when I first underwent these feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, or in the years since. If anything, it maybe feels more concentrated and intense. There doesn't seem to be any reconciliation or positive shift, or lessening of distress.
Understanding that processing affects everyone in different ways, I'd still like to know more about what post-session processing actually *feels* like and consists of for other PTSD sufferers-- what types of thoughts go through your head, what type of emotional reaction(s) you experience, and what behaviors you find yourself enacting (even if it's just to shut down completely and do nothing), duration of all-the-above.
Detailed descriptions of post-processing are in short supply-- the handful I've seen are either curt or vague.
I guess my own thoughts so far about EMDR are:
"Is this *it*?"
"Is this what I'm supposed to be feeling?"
"This doesn't feel helpful or even any different from what I've already lived with mentally for years."
Thanks in advance for any insight or experience you might share!
Something I've read/heard a lot when people talk about EMDR is that "It can wipe you out for a couple of days, sometimes a week," and that "It brings up old stuff which can be painful and unpleasant." EMDR is difficult, seems to be the basic message. And: "It's different for everyone."
I've begun EMDR treatment for C-PTSD, and we've been focusing on one particular trauma out of the wide variety I've (unfortunately) got available to work with. The day of processing, it feels like my head is left spinning a little-- familiar old thoughts of the trauma and the people involved bubbling up and percolating away for hours. When I wake at night, I'm conscious of those same thoughts almost immediately. They are intrusive. Then variations or expansions on those thoughts for the next several days, or most the week. I've also found myself re-engaging in frozen/avoidant behaviors and panic/anxiety states I remember being trapped in at the time of the originating events. (Eg, oversleeping for 11-12hrs, unwilling to rise after waking, intense hypervigilance & negative predictions, hopelessness/futility). The thing is, none of this feels any different from when I first underwent these feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, or in the years since. If anything, it maybe feels more concentrated and intense. There doesn't seem to be any reconciliation or positive shift, or lessening of distress.
Understanding that processing affects everyone in different ways, I'd still like to know more about what post-session processing actually *feels* like and consists of for other PTSD sufferers-- what types of thoughts go through your head, what type of emotional reaction(s) you experience, and what behaviors you find yourself enacting (even if it's just to shut down completely and do nothing), duration of all-the-above.
Detailed descriptions of post-processing are in short supply-- the handful I've seen are either curt or vague.
I guess my own thoughts so far about EMDR are:
"Is this *it*?"
"Is this what I'm supposed to be feeling?"
"This doesn't feel helpful or even any different from what I've already lived with mentally for years."
Thanks in advance for any insight or experience you might share!