Terrible Effects After Second Emdr Session

[Deleted member 37085]

Fried my brain; too long sessions June 1960; as long as dr. holds sessions to only 20 min. I will ke...

I have NO IDEA why I typed "June 1960"??? Oh well, the rest of what I typed here makes sense. Emdr sessions began September, 2016 and now taking short break from emdr sessions and discussing what came up during emdr sessions and also working on stabilization methods. Thank you for your post. JJ

Oops! June 1960 is member, geez, emdr fried brain syndrome. Please excuse disconnect. JJ

 

[Ruby Rose]

H

Hi there!
I was recently diagnosed with ptsd after almost 3 years of therapy and really no progress. I...

Hi,

I have had about 10 sessions of EMDR for similar reasons to you. I am making slow progress but progress all the same!!!
I quite often leave the session feeling extremely exhausted both emotionally and physically. That night I usually have an okay sleep and the next day will feel okay. Then day 2 & 3 I will quite often have flashbacks and new memories come up - some I don't even know how they realate to the Trama. These can be very difficult and distressing!! I too just want to be alone and isolate myself.
Yesterday's I had another session with therapist and left feeling really spaced out and weird.
So don't know whether normal or not but hope it helps to know that some of what you are experiencing you are not alone.

 

[Deleted member 37085]

Hello @Ruby Rose. The word I will never use to describe any of the many varied horrible side effects of E.M.D.R. is the word normal and yet I get what you mean! I will so agree with you and say that E.M.D.R. is seemingly beyond difficult and oh so distressing to go through! And I felt so much fear even paranoia, and flood of emotions during sessions. And the brain/mind numbing post sessions was so very scary yet, I would not trade a second of what I went through for one nano-second of life pre-E.M.D.R. for this therapy has stopped the mind-bending triggering and flashing back to the perps who nearly destroyed my life.

There are some who have undergone E.M.D.R. and say that when their T only held their sessions to a minimum time limit (15-30 minute sessions) the terrible E.M.D.R. side effects were not so debilitating for them. My T ran my sessions far too long 45-60 minute sessions and also kept the cascading light machine running far too long during each run as well. That said, I am beyond grateful for E.M.D.R. so you hang in there and I would do E.M.D.R. again yet would only allow T to administer very short sessions (15 minute sessions) and I am open for future sessions if I so choose.

I spaced out too and felt like my brain was melting at times and I had to isolate myself from people, places, and things up to a point in order to be able to self-care during post E.M.D.R. session bad effects, yes. So you take really good care of yourself @Ruby Rose and I am here and others as well for you are not alone. Jade.

 

[Ruby Rose]

Hello @Ruby Rose. The word I will never use to describe any of the...

Thanks Jade. My EMDR sessions usually go for 45-50 mins and yesterday Therapist used both hand movements and the tones not sure if that's why I had the weird spaced out feeling or not. I did also feel like she was wanting to rush the session.
Thanks for you encouragement to stick with it. Last night as I had a few wines to try and deal with how I was feeling.I felt like it might be time to stop this kind of therapy!!

 

[Deleted member 37085]

Thanks Jade. My EMDR sessions usually go for 45-50 mins and yesterday Therapist used both hand moveme...

So understand @Ruby Rose.