AIBU: Challenges of EDMR on NHS (trauma, sea, but no details)

[DonnaHadDee]

I was involved in a very scary incident about 12 years ago with my step mother and a friend. I won’t go into the details but for 30 minutes it looked really bad. Boating, mechanical failure, dramatic weather change, dark, broken ribs for me, etc.

Afterwards I just got on with things, busy with work, teenagers, changing jobs and countries, family health issues, and so on. Went back sailing within months too. I’m very fit and active, an army and farming family background where you get on with things. It’s always been in the background though. Due to some health check up things and what I attributed to work-stress I ended up doing EDMR after recommendation from my GP in the past year. Paid for myself. I’ve found it so helpful for me personally both mentally, and it helped with general health too.

It was an unknown topic to me, but as I mentioned it to others I learned more. I was very skeptical, I did not want to talk about it with people (I can and have done that with DH).

No problem for me to afford this myself. But I’m thinking about others who cannot. It has been a very effective approach for me. It seems a very cost-effective option, and limited time duration, and has well documented results. One year later, I really think it should be a more readily available on NHS

YANBU: Yes of course. It works and could be limited time/cost.
YABU: If people think it works they should pay for me

Yep. I’ve had EMDR on the nhs. It’s available through IAPT and secondary care (community mental health teams for more serious mental illness).

I was obviously very lucky then. ( or the NHS was in better shape 13 years ago). I used to a be a Detective working in child protection. When my DD was born I began having really disturbing nightly dreams that I’d smothered her in the bed. ( we did not co sleep ). After 9 months I went to the GP and although they were very sceptical that I would be eligible for any support referred me to the local mental health services. I actually fell below the required level to receive help but because of my job they offered me 6 sessions of EMDR. Absolutely wonderful stuff - so great of them. Totally resolved my issues and somewhere I still have the discharge letter from the therapist which was also lovely.

It is available but it’s effectiveness is specific to one particular area, the person I know who raves about it had a road traffic collision, no her fault, hers was paid for by insurance a few months later once physical injuries had healed. As its self contained cost wise, it’s the sort of thing many will choose to fund over waiting, it’s the ongoing type of therapy that is so expensive

I have read a bit about EDMR and what I read reminded me of a hypnotherapy session I had for a phobia (triggered by a traumatic event). My hypnotherapist has a neuroscience background. I had great success with the hypnotherapist. It makes me think there is a lot we don't fully understand about the brain.

A work colleague had EDMR on NHS for a very traumatic event and he said it was a game changer. I agree it should be easily accessible on NHS but I guess so should a lot of things. I suffer with chronic pain and asked my GP for an acupuncture referral. She told me I couldn't get a referral for that on NHS. I sent her some links showing that you can and she then said - well you don't meet criteria. Over a year later I have an NHS referral for acupuncture I got through a different pathway. I have paid for it privately which is why I know it works for me but I worry about the qualifications of private practitioners which is why I prefer NHS.

I was very skeptical about it, but could afford it and had nothing to lose. It's limited time, known cost and seemed to match with my one time historic trauma event, which felt very much in the past for me. But I thought I'd try it. I knew I did not want to talk to people about the event, other than DH of course, which does help in him understanding me better (a good thing!), but those talks didn't really help me i think?

I think I'd have been ok without doing it too. But my overall health and stress levels are much more manageable today following it. That event was always somewhere in the background, apparently that was compounding and making worse whatever day to day stuff I was challenged with. Sleep is much better too. Less stomach issues.

What caused me to post here was group discussion in which a friend mentioned the challenges of getting NHS support for it. It seems a really good approach for people who might have had a one off accident, sports, crash, etc.

I've no idea how it fits in the bigger mental health arena though, luckily I've never had much experience of that

I don’t believe there is a placebo effect - it works because an authority figure says it will work. There are some of us that have tried multiple other interventions that have not worked. Trauma blocks processing. You can have all the talk therapy and drugs but still not process the traumatic event or multiple events.

EMDR is different. It is hard to explain. Recalling a traumatic event is not so much about your feelings now but reliving the event - the sights, sounds, smells - and then reprocessing - I watch a dot going left to right for a while. Then my therapist will ask where I’m at now. Then go with that. Then watch the dot etc.
multiple iterations that leave me in a different place. Because I finally realise that an event happened in the past and I am no longer hijacked by unprocessed overwhelming physical responses.

BTW she works for the NHS but also does private therapy funded by the NHS.

This is how I explain trauma;

When something bad happens, a part of our mind gets the job of working out
why it happened so we can work out how to avoid a similar event in the future. However, when we suffer a traumatic event in our lives there isn’t always an answer to that question. Trauma events can be so random that there is no way we could have predicted it and therefore no way we could have avoided it.

The need to make some sort of sense of the experience can often lock us into that moment. A part of our subconscious becomes unable to move on until we can fully understand it and put it to rest in our minds. It becomes like a jigsaw puzzle with some vital pieces missing.

This is very similar to the model that's used by EMDR. The difference is that I work directly with that part of the subconscious to let it know that there will never be an answer and therefore the only option is to stop looking for one. You don't forget what happened by the emotional link is broken.

I had it on NhS...it was amazing. I need more but no longer available on ngs in my area.