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Therapy Has Uncovered Past Trauma

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KP the nut

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What is the saying, pride comes before a fall - :poop:. EMDR has been going so well recently, my T and I have cleared some targets and I am driving reasonably confidently again. I am learning to control panic attacks by using grounding techniques. In short I am regaining control - during the day.

At night it is different, my nightmares are becoming more and more vile and terrifying. They all start off nice and fluffy, but before long I and sometimes others are in mortal danger. The common theme is that I am trapped, confined, terrified and dying, then I wake shouting. Most involve a vehicle or small room.

Today my T gave me the choice, work on the dreams OR work on an action plan for the future. Idiot that I am said the dreams. They are seriously affecting me now. I couldn't at that stage tell him my vilest dream so we did another. EMDR time, we did a few cycles picking up on trigger points. Physically I was shaking, tense and in pain. At one point I stopped, it is hard writing this.

T asked me if I had ever been trapped or tied up, I said no, then almost instantly two memories. One from my childhood when I managed to lock myself in the airing cupboard, I was maybe 6. The second when I was 17 and undergoing PUVA treatment in hospital. The PUVA machine was the size of a phone box with UV strip lights on all four walls. Usually the nurse allowed me to sit, but once it was a different nurse and she made me stand. I had a full blown panic attack.

I started crying and the feelings of fear, anxiety, abandonment and failure were overwhelming. It brought up so many painful memories.

T thinks my car crash when I was trapped has re awoken those feelings and they are coming out in my dreams. It took a long time for me to 'come back' to the present after the session. I don't know if I am strong enough to go through this.

I'm so scared, I don't know what else is waiting to rear its ugly head. Another fun session is planned for next week
 
(((Bloom))) (((Jeeps)))

There is so much of my childhood that I want to forget, but this will mix in with that. It is the first time I've seriously considered giving up. EMDR is so intense.
 
(((Kath))) I have had nightmares for more than the past 4 years... I know it seems like the priority. But please pause to consider and reassess. Being at the butt end of my subconscious... the retrieval... hurts like hell. Personally I'd rather have a conscious plan... and try to deal with the terrors one on one. Process them as they pop. I had all the terrors built up from apnea... when I got the right treatment they broke loose... like a tsunami... I know it sucks. But I do better one on one. With the diary. With my T I work on a plan... a coping strategy. You all here, give me the ability to cope with the subconscious sh*t... I work out with my T what my coping strategy will be.

If I back off I consider it surrender... I ain't gonna back off. Even if I backslide, which I have since coming here.
 
Bring it forward and examine it with an adult mind... can we really avoid? Or shouldn't we bring it all forward to where we are now... not just play the tapes... but bring them to who we are now... we are not powerless now.

I've never felt like this. If I look at the tapes now it may reinforce what I have always felt, that I am unworthy of love, that I deserve to be abandoned and to feel like a failure.
 
Kath,

I have not had EDMR and thought that I wouldn't remember my past, since it had been "forgotten" for so long. Guess, what....the memories started coming back a little over a month ago.

You have been working with your T for a while, and from your posts, it seems you have had a lot of success from this method. Perhaps this is the best way for you to work through the issues of the past? I'm not sure that stopping EDMR will stop what has already started.

Just my rambling thoughts.

"linking arms"

Deb

PS-We will all get through this.
 
Maybe I should more aptly say... that I accept that my mind magnifies memories and amplifies them on an as needed basis because "it thinks that's what I want." I have had some very direct experiences that proved to me that my memory of events is not 100 percent... and I am willing to conceed (sp?) that I am not the end all, holder of "truth"... that perceptions vary. I do acknowledge emotional discomfort... but I choose to let it go... back into the flow... so that I can experience other emotions... and not get stuck.

I can, if I choose, cling to the belief that I am unworthty of love... that I deserve to be abandoned and to feel like a failure... but if I do... I have to accept the consequence of that thinking... that I will risk manifesting exactly the thing I do not want. The opposite.

I choose to see but let pass unfettered, the feelings of unworthiness, of unlovability, of deserving of abandonment and of failure... and to seize on the weaker but solid thoughts of the contrary... and to reinforce them... create new pathways that better serve me than self defeat. It's a crap shoot, and not easy... but it is better to try to consciously choose what best suits me perceptively now... than continuing to beat the sh*t out of myself for another couple of decades.
 
You have been working with your T for a while, and from your posts, it seems you have had a lot of success from this method. Perhaps this is the best way for you to work through the issues of the past? I'm not sure that stopping EDMR will stop what has already started..

I have worked with him for a while and I trust him. Today, those memories coming up was a complete shock, things I hadn't thought about for years.

Truth is I won't back out, too damn stubborn. On the other side I feel I can't do it, but then if I don't do it, what is the alternative. It all hurts too much. I'm scared it is all linked to my Dad leaving us, and that is one I can't/won't face.

So tired now, but scared to go to bed, I know the dreams will come back - death, injury, rape, trapped, confined......

I just don't know anymore
 
There is so much of my childhood that I want to forget, but this will mix in with that. It is the first time I've seriously considered giving up. EMDR is so intense.

It certainly sounds like some linking from your trauma is going on.Poison is better out than in I think.

Sounds like me. My psych session scared me off going more than once more in 2 years because it released a world of pain and memories.

It can be very intense. Your mind would only release it if you are strong enough. Because if those feelings are the ones that gave you PTSD, they are very very intense. If it get's too much breathe and take councelling a bit more slowly until you finish processing everything. The intense feelings will get worse and worse and then fade.
 
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