I've looked at several sites online to try and find something out about EMDR - what specifically it is, what it entails, etc. - and everything seems to be quite technical and hard to understand. I generally prefer to have at least a vague idea of what I'm getting into before just jumping in head first so I figured I'd ask here and see if anyone was willing to share their stories and experiences regarding the EMDR process. Anything you're willing to share would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
DA
I have PTSD but I haven't had EMDR. You are right the articles are technical. I know with some of my treatments I talked over my concerns with my counselor. I used several different desensitization methods. Some types of triggers responded to talking about them and reframing the experience. Other triggers I used other methods of being less distressed. My type of PTSD is considered complex and severe. Also treatment choices depend on what the counselor is comfortable using. I am blessed to have a second counselor that is also good for me. I am learning that his perspective is different from the first counselor. What is important is that you can always ask for a change if you don't feel that it is working for you. I can say that some of the methods used for me were hard but in the end I am noticing a big difference in my ability to confront stresses from my past. Good luck. PTSD is tough not impossible.
ReplyDeleteI found this link off an support group. One of the members spouses suffers from PTSD and is beginning EMDR. I don't know if this link
ReplyDeletehttp://www.emdr.com/general-information/what-is-emdr/what-is-emdr.html
will help but she attached it to a brief discussion about what her husband was to expect. It sounds to me like it is a visual and sub-consious 're-training' of your responses to stressors.
I have PTSD and I've written about my treatment with EMDR on my blog. It has been very helpful in me being able to get over my mother. I see her now and don't have the paralyzing fear I used to feel. I also take everything she says to me now with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteI still have the same triggers with my DH though. That is, he triggers some of the old messages I got from my mom. I need to do some more work with my therapist on this. We've been married 12 years and in many ways, I put my mother's mask on him in many of our conflicts.
I was in cognitive behavioral therapy for close to 18 years. Talk therapy was bad for me because it just opened up the old traumas but did nothing to resolve them. I would spend the entire hour venting about my mother, but was still powerless in the end to change the dynamics of our relationship. EMDR is the only treatment that has worked for me for that, and it took only one session to see results. After 4 sessions, I was able to regard my mother in a completely different way, as just a human being with severe shortcomings who hurt me a lot when I was a child. I don't harbor any ill-will toward her. I'm not afraid of her anymore either. If anything, I feel sorry for her. That doesn't mean I let her off the hook. I still hold her accountable, as I should, as any normal feeling person should hold others accountable for bad behavior.