EMDR for PTSD

[ohgillian]

I found some older threads but didn't want to zombie a post that was over a year old. Can you tell me about EMDR for PTSD? I've been dragging my heels forever, but I actually today finally called a provider that was recommended to me. I feel like -- I can't deal with working thru this, but I don't want to deal with NOT working thru this.

From prior threads I found on here, it sounds like it's pretty emotionally draining? I'm nervous about having to dredge up the traumatic events. I did read on here that I should try to schedule so I don't have to go back to work afterwards, but do I really want to go be home alone with my thoughts? UGH.

Thanks.

[calamity]

It was amazing for me, but yes it is an emotional process. It basically creates new pathways in your brain to deal with past traumatic situations. It can look different depending on the therapist but I went it not expecting much, and almost couldn't believe it worked.

I would go home and decompress with a bath or some way to relax and self soothe. Like, EMDR was my workout and I needed to rest and recover after.

[ohgillian]

Mar 27, 2019 13:30:53 GMT -5 calamity said:

It was amazing for me, but yes it is an emotional process. It basically creates new pathways in your brain to deal with past traumatic situations. It can look different depending on the therapist but I went it not expecting much, and almost couldn't believe it worked.

I would go home and decompress with a bath or some way to relax and self soothe. Like, EMDR was my workout and I needed to rest and recover after.

Thanks. This response makes me feel less anxious about it. I know there's a lot of empirical support for it (maybe that's not the right phrase) but it seems so weird. 

[Deleted]

I am doing it right now (I mean not RIGHT now, obviously). It’s been tough, but I have made some good progress. We worked through the trauma of my husband’s hospitalization. We are in the middle of working through my labor and delivery. This one is harder to work through. It can be a lot to handle, but I am optimistic it will be worth it.

[ohgillian]

Mar 27, 2019 13:48:46 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

I am doing it right now (I mean not RIGHT now, obviously). It’s been tough, but I have made some good progress. We worked through the trauma of my husband’s hospitalization. We are in the middle of working through my labor and delivery. This one is harder to work through. It can be a lot to handle, but I am optimistic it will be worth it.

How long do you think it's going to take? Not each session, but in all? 

[dancingnancy]

I can’t speak to it directly, but DH is going through it right now. He is having great results, but is pretty drained the nights he has a session. He goes after work.

[anonymous]

i did this once and i was so drained afterwards and then got really sick and haven't gone back. I know i need to but it's hard to be ready to see it through. I will say, when i come downstairs in the morning after kids have eaten and the kitchen is mess, or when i go into the playroom and shit is everywhere i sometimes lose my shit. like it gives me such anxiety. in the first session we were in the memory of a vacation from when i was about 7 and assaulted and i kept focusing on some dinner party we went to and i said i was stuck on the memory of being in a living room and papers everywhere and just kind of messy and my shoulders got all tight. It made me wonder if that is the connectoin. for that reason alone i should probably go back.

[ohgillian]

Mar 27, 2019 14:01:55 GMT -5 anonymous said:

i did this once and i was so drained afterwards and then got really sick and haven't gone back. I know i need to but it's hard to be ready to see it through. I will say, when i come downstairs in the morning after kids have eaten and the kitchen is mess, or when i go into the playroom and shit is everywhere i sometimes lose my shit. like it gives me such anxiety. in the first session we were in the memory of a vacation from when i was about 7 and assaulted and i kept focusing on some dinner party we went to and i said i was stuck on the memory of being in a living room and papers everywhere and just kind of messy and my shoulders got all tight. It made me wonder if that is the connectoin. for that reason alone i should probably go back.

It sounds like going back could be beneficial but I understand feeling like it would be hard to see through. I'm really anxious about the thought of working thru the particular issue, but I also feel that things have gotten worse for me over the past year-ish, and I don't want to keep getting worse. 

[Deleted]

Mar 27, 2019 13:58:23 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

Mar 27, 2019 13:48:46 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

I am doing it right now (I mean not RIGHT now, obviously). It’s been tough, but I have made some good progress. We worked through the trauma of my husband’s hospitalization. We are in the middle of working through my labor and delivery. This one is harder to work through. It can be a lot to handle, but I am optimistic it will be worth it.

How long do you think it's going to take? Not each session, but in all? 

It really depends on the level of trauma and if there is anything you need to uncover. I met with this therapist at the beginning of January. We did maybe 2 or 3 sessions of intake, and I think I started EMDR in mid-January. I feel like the first trauma took us 6 or 7 sessions. I’ve only done 2 sessions on the second trauma. I am hopeful I will be done by mid-June, which would probably put me at 5 months of EMDR for two related traumas.

I’m happy to answer other questions you may have. I’m pretty open about it.

[ohgillian]

Mar 27, 2019 14:13:54 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

Mar 27, 2019 13:58:23 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

How long do you think it's going to take? Not each session, but in all? 

It really depends on the level of trauma and if there is anything you need to uncover. I met with this therapist at the beginning of January. We did maybe 2 or 3 sessions of intake, and I think I started EMDR in mid-January. I feel like the first trauma took us 6 or 7 sessions. I’ve only done 2 sessions on the second trauma. I am hopeful I will be done by mid-June, which would probably put me at 5 months of EMDR for two related traumas.

I’m happy to answer other questions you may have. I’m pretty open about it.

Thanks. I may PM you. 

[calamity]

I want to say mine took about 8 sessions, but I was already familiar with my therapist so that helped. My last session I felt like I finally made the breakthrough and called my husband sobbing with happiness like I could feel the release.

I'm happy answer any other questions too, it's still kind of like magic to me that is actually worked!

[anonymous]

Mar 27, 2019 14:04:26 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

Mar 27, 2019 14:01:55 GMT -5 anonymous said:

i did this once and i was so drained afterwards and then got really sick and haven't gone back. I know i need to but it's hard to be ready to see it through. I will say, when i come downstairs in the morning after kids have eaten and the kitchen is mess, or when i go into the playroom and shit is everywhere i sometimes lose my shit. like it gives me such anxiety. in the first session we were in the memory of a vacation from when i was about 7 and assaulted and i kept focusing on some dinner party we went to and i said i was stuck on the memory of being in a living room and papers everywhere and just kind of messy and my shoulders got all tight. It made me wonder if that is the connectoin. for that reason alone i should probably go back.

It sounds like going back could be beneficial but I understand feeling like it would be hard to see through. I'm really anxious about the thought of working thru the particular issue, but I also feel that things have gotten worse for me over the past year-ish, and I don't want to keep getting worse. 

it is worse for me too now, especially around an anniversary so i know i need to do it.  i'm just scared but i know that in july i'll be kicking myself for not seeing through

[anonymous]

Mar 27, 2019 14:29:41 GMT -5 calamity said:

I want to say mine took about 8 sessions, but I was already familiar with my therapist so that helped. My last session I felt like I finally made the breakthrough and called my husband sobbing with happiness like I could feel the release.

I'm happy answer any other questions too, it's still kind of like magic to me that is actually worked!

I would be interested to know what a breakthrough felt like for you.  the therapist I was seeing described it as sort of rewiring the memories so I am not sure if there would be a breakthrough.  RElated Q,  how do you know when you're done with a trauma?

[calamity]

anonymous,

When I was able to talk through the memory and not break down. And for me my breakthrough was when I changed the outcome of the experience of my trauma. Without being specific, I took back my 'power' by imagining myself screaming at the abuser and saying exactly how I felt about the situation.


From there I felt empowered about how to deal with the experience moving forward when I feel triggered. And I also set boundaries with people in my life based on these realizations.

Not sure if that makes sense.

[anonymous]

Mar 27, 2019 14:57:22 GMT -5 calamity said:

anonymous ,

When I was able to talk through the memory and not break down. And for me my breakthrough was when I changed the outcome of the experience of my trauma. Without being specific, I took back my 'power' by imagining myself screaming at the abuser and saying exactly how I felt about the situation.


From there I felt empowered about how to deal with the experience moving forward when I feel triggered. And I also set boundaries with people in my life based on these realizations.

Not sure if that makes sense.

this makes a lot of sense and seems in line with what my therapist described.  I am very happy for you.  I also really appreciate your sharing

[calamity]

No problem anonymous, I wish all of you peace ohgillian, @angryharpy, on your path to freedom.

Happy to answer and questions anytime

[ohgillian]

Mar 27, 2019 14:57:22 GMT -5 calamity said:

anonymous ,

When I was able to talk through the memory and not break down. And for me my breakthrough was when I changed the outcome of the experience of my trauma. Without being specific, I took back my 'power' by imagining myself screaming at the abuser and saying exactly how I felt about the situation.


From there I felt empowered about how to deal with the experience moving forward when I feel triggered. And I also set boundaries with people in my life based on these realizations.

Not sure if that makes sense.

Thanks for sharing this. My situation is more like @angryharpy's, but I can imagine being able to recount my situation without being flooded with awful feelings, and that would be swell. 

[Deleted]

ohgillian, to give you a little more perspective: my PTSD has sort of an obsessive compulsive element to it. Like instead of avoiding situations, reading anything about birth or pregnancy would trigger me to do excessive internet research. I’m talking pulling up studies conducted on pregnant women in Iraq from PubMed. Do you want to know a fact about gestational hypertension? Because I probably know it. I’ve lost literally hours at a time just looking stuff up. My November productivity at work was baaaaaad because I would spend half my day doing this.

I’m also taking medication, but I am not sure when the last time I Googled anything about pregnancy complications was. It’s been at least a month, which is HUGE for me.

[ohgillian]

So the therapist recommended to me isn't taking new clients. She recommended someone else and that person isn't taking new clients. Now I'm kind of crying in my office. Luckily, I live in an area with a lot of providers, so I can definitely find someone else, it's just that it takes so much emotional effort each time I make a call.

[Deleted]

Uggggh. I’m sorry. I went through that. The therapist I see now was full when I started with her. So I tried someone else, who was just not good for me at all. I wound up getting on the original person’s wait list and am really glad I did.

[yentl]

Mar 27, 2019 15:34:48 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

So the therapist recommended to me isn't taking new clients. She recommended someone else and that person isn't taking new clients. Now I'm kind of crying in my office. Luckily, I live in an area with a lot of providers, so I can definitely find someone else, it's just that it takes so much emotional effort each time I make a call.

Email them. Go to psychology today and search for EMDR and your insurance. You can contact anyone through that site through email. Then, once you find someone who has openings, you can call them.

[Stan]

So my PTSD is sexual assault related. I had a truly awful EMDR provider who was a Dept of the Army civilian. Honestly she made my trauma significantly worse. It was all trauma recall and no talking through any of it. I would leave my sessions so broken and she wouldn't schedule me again for weeks. After I became suicidal I decided to look outside the Army and found a provider near my hometown in Southern Cal. I did EMDR on horseback which sounds far more hippie than I would normally be down for, but it was amazing. It was an intensive two week program and it cost me like 5k which the military would not cover. Nothing has ever been more worth it. I followed up with a provider where I live and I'm doing really well for the most part.

[winecat]

ohgillian- I hope you can find someone good soon. I did it a few years ago. It was an immense help. It wasn't easy but not doing it wasn't really an option for me. I wasn't doing well. In some ways, I think repeatedly going to talk therapy wasn't good for me. Initially it was helpful but it never got rid of the trauma. Like I *knew* what I should/shouldn't think/feel/do but I couldn't stop it. I think I went for 8 sessions.

[ohgillian]

Mar 27, 2019 22:13:44 GMT -5 winecat said:

ohgillian- I hope you can find someone good soon. I did it a few years ago. It was an immense help. It wasn't easy but not doing it wasn't really an option for me. I wasn't doing well. In some ways, I think repeatedly going to talk therapy wasn't good for me. Initially it was helpful but it never got rid of the trauma. Like I *knew* what I should/shouldn't think/feel/do but I couldn't stop it. I think I went for 8 sessions.

This isn’t basically what my primary therapist (a psychiatrist who does talk therapy) has said. She said it would be so much more effective for me to find and EMDR provider then to just talk it thru with her.

[ohgillian]

Mar 27, 2019 21:16:20 GMT -5 yentl said:

Mar 27, 2019 15:34:48 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

So the therapist recommended to me isn't taking new clients. She recommended someone else and that person isn't taking new clients. Now I'm kind of crying in my office. Luckily, I live in an area with a lot of providers, so I can definitely find someone else, it's just that it takes so much emotional effort each time I make a call.

Email them. Go to psychology today and search for EMDR and your insurance. You can contact anyone through that site through email. Then, once you find someone who has openings, you can call them.

Thank you for this suggestion. This sounds more do-able.

[gault]

Make sure you schedule appointments in the afternoons so you don't have to go straight back to work or a responsibility. Like others have said, it is so beneficial but so draining.

I used it for ptsd related to an abusive marriage. I had done talk therapy for years and it never resolved my triggers or fear. EMDR was life changing. You will not regret doing it.

And remember, it may be hard, but you are absolutely worth that work.

And i just read your most recent posts- i'm so sorry your initial therapist didn't work out. But you have got this.

[idoinjuly]

I'm resurrecting this post in hopes that we can get some updates from those who are doing EMDR.

I started a few weeks ago. I was skeptical because I didn't have any single event that I could attribute my driving related anxiety to. My therapist says it doesn't have to be, but could be years of not processing various events. We are focusing on my dad's death right now and I actually think he's helped me process the day of and days after.

[rosiebear]

@@@@@@

My friends’ 12 year old daughter went through this after a “live shooter” drill that she thought was real left her traumatized and regressing. Talk therapy did nothing but EMDR worked almost like magic for her.

The first session was horrible for her; she didn’t really understand that she was going to be asked to relive her fear and trauma, but then after maybe 4 sessions (huge change from session 1 to 2), she was done and back on track emotionally.