Many people have asked about EMDR.. so I thought I would share part of what is going on with me.. and it's due to that aweful treatment..

I've been triggered and triggered and triggered these past few weeks. I am out of it. and I know it. Anyways, I did around three ? sessions of EMDR last summer. I have multiple traumas stemming from childhood to last year. I did not know when I did the treatment that it is not recommended for someone with numerous traumas. After the first three sessions, I snapped and had to be medicated (I still am medicated now.) The first week or so after that I kept getting this horrid "things." My traumas (not all but way more than I could handle) would flash like a picture book through my mind. I would have my eyes open and the whole room was flashing as if a bulb was going off.. then I would go off the deep end and get violently ill for about a week. Since then I have noticed everytime I get triggered, I have this weird "thing" happen to me. It is not a flashback. It is like the EMDR is burned into my brain.. and it won't stop. It's painful and gives me migraines and my body shuts down.. not to mention the horrid anxiety this event causes. I have no idea if this will ever go away at the present, nor what is causing it. I have no one to ask because this area sucks. I worry that it has damaged me.

I just thought that for those of you considering this treatment.. consider this. I don't want anyone else to be stuck where I am from crappy information and a therapist that is too pushy for something that is very dangerous.

bec

Yikes Bec...don't you wish you could juts slap them with a lawsuit or smowthing?

I gues sit's a good thnig i refused EMDR a while back...it was aan instinct...they didn't even properly describe it to me...sheesh

Bec,
What is EMDR? I, too, have had multiple traumas. Thanks to you, i now know not to try it if it is offered to me as a treatment for my PTSD. I was just curious as to what it entails. What does EMDR stand for?
Thanks, Bec.

Josh

Read this post... Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

It will explain EMDR.. and yep don't do it if you have mulitple traumas...


Yeah, Really, I wish I could do something about it.. however I live in Canada.. (sarcasim)

Bec

Anthony.. we need a sarcasim button!

i had a session of "thought-field" therapy that sounds very similar. the therapist was tapping me on the forehead and hand and shoulders, and asking questions, but i didnt' answer outloud, just think of certain trauma. it was not good-i was shaking so hard i couldn't hardly walk out of the office, and i had a sick headache. later that night i became very suicidal. i never went back to her, found the one i have now real fast. just wondering if it is not good for multiple traumas too--not good for me, anyway.
cathy

Yep, that is basically the same thing. The therapist you had just changed the name.. probably wasn't certified for EMDR.. Yep, not good by any name..

bec

I have said it here before, and will add it too this thread, IMHO, unless the person has been personally trained by Dr. Shapiro herself, not a chance in hell would I do it with multiple trauma. Dr. Shapiro uses it on multiple trauma sufferers, however; she also screens patients extremely well beforehand, and as she is the creator of EMDR itself, you can imagine how misinformed and guided the teaching goes with the depth of it... ie. this therapist adds their own personal two cents without knowledge of implication teaching another, then they add their two cents, or drop some vital aspect without knowing the implications of it, then they teach someone else who melts a persons brain.

EMDR is a very good technique if used by experienced physicians with commonsense to be capable of reading a patients body language in order to judge whether they are not being totally honest to the questions asked whether they fit the criteria or not. If the slightest inkling that a person is not divulging the exact nature of trauma, then EMDR should not be used until such time as it is known.

Heck, I wasn't even asked questions.. none at all.. was told that she didn't need to know anything about my trauma? Uck, I got a witch doctor.. LOL, if you were the type Anthony, you coulda said I told you so.. as per our first conversations. LMAO...

bec

Hi Becs, thanks for your concern. The Chap that's doing it at Hollybush is fully experienced in this and he explained everything about it. I had one session at Hollybush when I was there in October. So I know what to expect this time. Because at Hollybush they give you a session of relaxation therapy straight after it. And that what makes it more, eh, how can I explain, more easier on you, I was affected for a few days after it. But otherwise ok.
Thanks for your thoughts on this.
Cheers
Scott

Hi

I had three sessions of EMDR, but found the whole experience really bizarre and uncomfortable. There seems to be an element when thinking about the trauma where you have to fully let go like entering a dream state by choice almost letting go of reality, by choice entering a state of recollection. I really couldn't let go.

Apparently this treatment works for lots of people, according to the doctors studies, so it might work for some and if it does that's got to be a good thing.

This is seems to be the in-vogue treatment and will no doubt be supperceeded by the next in-vogue treatment when that comes along.

Anyway I hated it and I'm not doing it again.

i