Thoughts on EMDR Therapy

Hi @Skylark54,

I have similar sleeping issues as I usually have fits in the evening, night and dawn hours. After seeing the GP, I ended up with this anxiety group called ARCVIC where I learned about sleep hygiene. I am quite surprised that there are a number in my support group who suffered from this, be it young or old. So don't feel alone.

What works for me is exercise or getting busy during daytime so that I would get really exhausted by the end of the day. After a hot shower, I would naturally just fall asleep. Sometimes I do wake up early at around 3 - 4pm though.

I have tried hypnotherapy with my fits but it doesn't work. Nor does meditation or mindfulness.

But as we are all different, do explore alternatives, I hope you will find one that works for you.

Thank you so much for your reply and the link to ARCVIC. I was unaware of this group. My Anxiety has been around for a while now with various degrees of severity, but I like to be proactive and find out as much as I can to help myself.

Like a lot of us, I have spent a lot of time at home lately procrastinating and being in my head too much, and also not during any exercise (I don't like exercise) so I'm now pushing myself to get outside and at least go for a walk a few days a week.

Hi Skylark,

I have BPD for many years, and have been through a range of treatments and councilling process's to try and get on top of things including EMDR.

I have had EMDR 3 times now for specific "named". trauma's that induce high levels of anxiety and emotional disregulation and have found this to profoundly break the link between the trauma / ptsd event and the emotional response in 2 of the 3 times.

It is definitely worth a try, but you need to be ready and in a space of trust to get the most out of the sessions. Key is to focus in on a specific event or issue, the ability to have complete trust in the facilitator / therapist, and the ability to belief that you can survive your panic response in the safety of your therapist/facilitated session as you enter into the EMDR sessions.

EMDR is very intense as its a form of hypnosis, so you need to relax (in your panic state) and let the facilitator guide and support you through the trauma response. I have found in all experiences, that there is a moment in the process where you want to break out of the process (eg you start telling yourself, its to hard, I'm to scared, I don't trust the therapist, this is crap etc....). These are the pivotal moments, to relax (as best you can ) into the process, continue and let yourself be guided by your faciliator, the more you are able to ready yourself for this, and be able to trust the moment and the process the greater the benefit.

To me its like sensing the fire of fear/panic and walking forward anyway..

where I have been able to do this fully (2 out of the 3 times) the link between the trauma and the anxiety has been resolved and fixed within the session.

I would definitely consider it, it will not cure everything, but when it does work, for that issue/trigger, it can be a profound and lifelong resolution.

I hope this helps, and good luck.. its definately worth a shot if you trust your therapist and they are recommending it for a specific issue.

cheers. Bob2

Hi there,

I suggest you should get someone who is fully trained in it. My mother was rather distressed about me having flashbacks and organized someone who was still getting trained because she wanted to get it fixed...

Kept get told I was too distressed for the reprocessing stage...

I ended up seeming to be regurgitaging all the misery about the past and not doing the reframing step due to distress.. Not actually making me feel any better... As I have lost having face to face socialization... with COVID-19 it was not beneficial that I kept being told that.. So stopped that.

Thank you very much for your insight. I am looking at options to help someone close to me and have always wondered about this and if it is an effective therapy.

Can highly HIGHLY recommend EMDR. I've had it a few times, most recently for severe ptsd. I contacted the clinic, explained that I was on a pension, asked if a mental health care plan referral from my GP would cover the cost. They were happy to negotiate the $50 shortfall down to $35, but to be honest. is absolutely worth it. I ended up going to a psychiatrist and mentioned EMDR and how well it worked for me, thinking she'd dismiss it. Instead she was very very supportive, advising they're aware that it offers incredibly good results in a very short period of time for some people, but they still don't really understand precisely why. Perhaps its worth noting, that the issue turned out to be far more than PTSD, with anxiety so severe that waking life for almost 2 years had been little more than a constant panic attack, with an inability to sleep more than 2 hours at a time, adhd, and asd. I've been anxiety, although not completely stress free, for almost a year so I encourage you to go for it and take back your life!