EMDR

[venusianlove]

has anyone tried it? what was your experience with it?

[Nathalie99 Partner]

Hi venusianlove,

Here are some earlier posts about EMDR (search results):

healthunlocked.com/healmypt...

[Dolphin14 Moderator]

I've done emdr and I found it to be quite helpful in addition to talk therapy. It allowed me to really get to the core of my trauma. I still do sessions on occasion. I have an emdr/ifs therapist along with a talk therapist.

[nessa3]

I've been doing it for 6yrs

It can be intense and triggering...

But...it has greatly diminished the flashbacks..nightmares

I recommend it...make sure it's from a Trauma informed MS level therapist

[BearTree]

I went to about a dozen sessions and found it very helpful. It was combined with talk therapy that helped the thrapist figure out what to focus on during the EMDR part. The machine used auditory, visual, and tactile stimulaton while I thought about the disturbing events. We started with less distrubing parts and worked toward more disturbing parts.

It seems to have severed the "hot wire" in my brain that was causing me to have PTSD symptoms like rage and panic attacks. Hope that helps.

[andrea_27]

I did it for a few months along with talk therapy. I enjoyed it, didn't find it too traumatic anyway. We did eye movements and later on, tactile stimulation - touching my hands one to the other rapidly. I'm not sure if it helped long term (I think it might if you had one or two particularly disturbing traumas) but I had lots of little ones. It definitely helped me at the time though - almost always if I arrived at the session feeling depressed/anxious etc I would leave feeling really good. It was much better than talk therapy in that sense. The talk therapy was with the same T. Try EMDR - see what you think. Some swear by it. I'd certainly recommend it. Good luck venusianlove!

[GRUMPYA]

I had it. They dont always do it by moving a hand in front of your face they use little bulb things that you hold in your hands and each one makes a sort of buzz on alternate sides.

When I had it we talked about my most problematic part of my trauma and kept on talking about it while these things were buzzing in my hands. Before we started there was preparitary work about relaxing and feeling safe and after we did some relaxing stuff. Obviously it was upsetting, I had several sessions, some my brain just shut down and there were no thoughts in my head at all but most seemed like just a strange way of spending a morning.

Once i had had my sessions the memory was still there but it was like there was a bit of fog or distance between me and the part of my trauma we talked about. I thought the benefit was marginal but a year later i know i am the best I've been for 10 years. The other areas of my trauma are still there and still troublesome but with the worst part processed i feel as though i can cope better with my other issues.

[Beingindependent Volunteer]

I personally didn’t like it. I found it to be agitating and triggering it just depends on the person. So if you go to a therapist that does this and you don’t like it you are not obligated to do this and tell her/him.

[maripeza]

Hello, yes, I have tried emdr and it has helped me a lot. It has relieved my pain and shame and guilt, all caused because of my trauma. I really suggest it.

[funkygypsy]

Hi ive done it but have a lot of dissociation and depersonalisation EMDR isn't recommended for people with high levels of these I did do it and I had some negative scary body sensation s that were actually pretty terrifying

[funkygypsy]

But other people have had good results with it depends on your own trauma situation