To ask your experience of EMDR

[PumpkinSpicedLatte]

This isn’t an AIBU but I’m hoping for some success stories/advice.

I’ve been advised to try EMDR therapy for PTSD surrounding my daughters birth 2.5 years ago.
I suffered post natal mental illnesses but went into recovery after a lot of intervention. The one and only thing I haven’t made a recovery in is my PTSD.
i have read a lot about what EMDR involves but I’d love to hear of any experiences, and I know MN is a very honest platform.
Thank you

I was suffering from ptsd relating to multiple traumatic miscarriages and birth related issues. Flash backs, hallucinations amongst other things. I was determined to tackle it but talking therapy hadn't worked. I was recommended emdr.

Like others I can't explain how it worked but it did, and I'm known for being cynical. It could be tough reliving certain moments and like other therapy I was mentally exhausted afterwards, but it took me about 7 sessions to tackle things that had been haunting me for a long time.

I had a few different events and worked on the one that had biggest impact (miscarriage)

Thanks @Rummikub - I'm not sure I'd know where to start...

I would recommend it. I had it through the NHS after a sexual assault. The therapist specialised in trauma and PTSD. Very effective.

I had had ''traditional'' therapy sessions before which had been useful but not life changing, but this truly was.

We first dealt with the most recent trauma to help me get rid of the anxiety, panic attacks and agoraphobia I had developed after the assault and then we addressed wider issues about relationships and early years trauma.

I have made so many positive changes in my life since the therapy.

I must say the first few sessions were really quite difficult as there was a lot to process but it got better a the sessions started to have a positive effect.

I had recurrent flashbacks/nightmares, occasionally at first then several times a night every night to the point that I used to dread going to sleep.
Had 2 sessions of EMDR (face to face) and haven’t had one since!
My therapist used the finger tapping technique on my hands.
Cant recommend it enough.

I've name changed for this because I'm paranoid about being identified.

I've had EMDR for CPTSD as has a sibling and we both had amazing results. It was honestly life changing. Believe me, I was a sceptic!

I also know two people who have had it for PTSD from a single traumatic event (car accident and childbirth) and also both report brilliant results.

Really, go for it. I've read that the benefits can 'wear off' and maybe that's true but even so, it's fantastic.

It felt like a weight had been lifted. After the first treatment I felt exhausted but lighter and different in ways I couldn't quite pin point to begin with.

My therapist spent a bit of time talking over various events (probably over a couple weeks)
before deciding which one.
I did start on another event but couldn’t go into it so switched to miscarriage.

Yes but it would likely be a few more sessions.
They can 'group' them according to the explanation I had.
I won't explain this well but they can do the work around a theme I guess like loss.
So I had three processing sessions around three traumatic events/themes.

Each took 2/3 sessions.
Planning
Processing and then review/plan the next one.

I hope someone else might be able to lay this out better than I can!

I couldn't handle it. I stopped after a session and a half because I felt so distressed. I do wonder if I perhaps am not really traumatised and therefore I was trying to fix something that I'd processed already in a different way. Tbh I did it to help a friend who's a therapist in training. But just because there's been a traumatic event in your past doesn't mean you are traumatised.

I had 10 sessions after being diagnosed with PTSD. CBT did nothing. Counselling did nothing. EMDR was amazing. My anxiety has pretty much disappeared, I no longer have PTSD and am off all medication. I was entirely skeptical.

Is it good if you have say a bad relationship with someone but not any particular episodes you could refer to? Like a general anxiety around that person?

@Toetouchingtitties do you mind telling me what meds you were on?

I have done EMDR for C-PTSD but only a couple of sessions during mixed therapy (sometimes we talk, sometimes we do exercises... not CBT!). It felt OK at the time and the therapist said I was doing the eye movement correctly. But I don't feel like it was a permanent fix. I am on (slightly uncommon) ADs, anxiety meds, pregabalin for pain, opiate pain meds... wondered if that could be the reason. We will revisit it I think - I have a good connection with the therapist. We haven't because I always seem to have sone immediate crisis!

Still waiting for my NHS ENDR appointment after being referred 3 years ago. I've been privately twice since, each time until I ran out of money.
It does work...or at least helps a lot to get back control, reduces symptoms enough to be able to function and pretend I'm normal.
I can see I'll likely need it again and honestly I dread it, going back to that place in my head that I constantly try and suppress is a difficult choice to make but I've made too many promises to those i love to take the other choice.

Could do with that NHS appointment turning up about now.

Another one here saying highly recommended, although I didn't know some drugs prevent it being as successful? Anyway, yes I think it saved my life - I had "survivor guilt" after a traumatic event and 15 years later its still worked, I rarely think about the event, but if I do I think it wasn't my fault and can carry on. I had face to face as obvs zoom didn't exist then, personally I'd prefer to be in the room but some say it works online - my therapist did the finger movements and again I reckon that's the best option, tapping I wasn't at all keen on. I wish it was more widely available its a vastly underrated treatment.

Any type of therapy should never be performed on a friend or some one close. Absolutely unethical and quite frankly dangerous practice. EMDR like all other evidence based practices are tightly governed with rules and responsibilities that therapist must adhere to.
I’ve been an EMDR therapist since 2003 and it is quite frankly the best therapeutic intervention available.
very few people cannot manage it and that is generally because of their distress intolerance or cognitive ability.
So good to hear of so many positive stories. All independent practitioners should be registered with the EMDR UK & Ireland association.

The way it has been explained to me is EMDR focuses on specific traumatic events.
During trauma the brain doesn't file memories like it normally does so it's like the memories are floating around and can surface at any point unbidden, uncontrolled and unfiltered.

The therapy takes you back to those moments as fully as possible and 'resets' the brain so it can file it properly.

That would depend on your anxiety response. So if some one makes you feel slightly anxious because they are unpleasant I’d say that was a normal anxiety response and not a significant response. Anxiety is a normal emotion that we all experience but only becomes problematic when our perception of being able to cope tips is off balance and affects our ability to perform normal daily activities.

I found it very distressing. I became flooded with the same emotions and physical response at the time of the trauma to the point I thought I might even vomit
The therapist was able to calm me after about 10 mins but I felt physically shook the rest of that day
I do now feel a sense of detachment and have healed from the traumatic event but unsure if it was down to the EMDR or if I just processed it myself?

I had this over zoom last year, about 12 weeks for abuse that spanned roughly 20 years from age 5. Obviously it wasn’t going to fix everything, however the specific flashbacks that we covered each week no longer occur. I would regularly zone out of my body and go back to a particular time, that doesn’t happen to me anymore. I don’t think the lights, eye movements or tapping are the part that works but more to do with sitting with a flashback for a solid hour, being made to describe it whilst being prevented from dissociating by the therapist. Therapists differ, so I won’t speak for all, although my therapists approach seemed very similar to brainwashing techniques I’ve read about used by Moonies or Scientologists. But it did the job it set out to do, no more no less.

It is incredibly exhausting, and I did feel extremely unwell mentally throughout the 12 weeks, but a year on I do not experience these flashbacks. I was previously put on CBT as a teenager, which was awful. The EMDR process doesn’t blame you for your feelings and experiences, nor does it make you feel like your symptoms are caused by a personal defect or lack of willpower. (At least it shouldn’t!)

I would recommend planning comfortable things to do after a session, try and not have something intense or stressful to undertake afterwards if possible. A nice tasty snack and a hot drink helped me wind down afterwards. Wish you all the best with it 💐

I had it a few years ago and it did nothing. Im trying again now and I’m hoping it will work this time. I’m still optimistic.

It works by the eye movements causing the same type of reprocessing that occurs in rem sleep ie when you dream.
It was discovered by Francine Shapiro while walking her dogs, by a river from memory.

I've had it, too. I can only describe it like a kid's transfer floating on water that gradually breaks into tiny pieces and then just disappears into dust.

For anyone looking, there's a Europe wide directory of practitioners.

I think it saved my life. Some years ago my depression became resistant to medication even at very high doses. I was intensely suicidal and on the verge of being institutionalized. I had a small child at home and did not want to be shut up and given stronger medication which might not work anyway and would have terrible side effects. I decided to try EMDR. Two or three sessions did more for me than years of conventional therapy. After about six months the EMDR therapist cautioned me that it might not work completely as I was still on some medication. With some difficulty I was able to taper off that completely and after another few months of EMDR my depression and anxiety went completely ok not remission. I still had a lot of memory loss, a side effect of the medication. Neurofeedback helped with that.

How would you know that it was medicine that stopped it working properly?

3 family members including me, used it for 4 very different reasons, all using 3 different types of prescription/ssris/tricycles etc, and all had huge successes with it, including:

PTSD
CFS- related mental health issues
Chronic pain
Night terrors

Life changing...i stopped being angry with my abusive ex and went on to meet my wonderful fiance!

Highly recommend it. Worker brilliantly for me, twice.