Re: Emdr
Hi
Very difficult.
I was very cynical about it, mumbo jumbo type of thing.
I was told in advance that I would unable to drive afterwards for 30 minutes to an hour, which I did not believe.
I did not have the usual open eyes thing and follow the hand movements.
I had closed eyes and electric buzzer things in each hand.
I also had a pulse monitor on.
The object of the exercise is to recall the events whilst stimulating both sides of the brain.
This apparently allows your brain to properly process the events.
The therapist adjusts the frequency and intensity of the pulses up and down by monitoring you.
There was no need to talk about the events, just visualise them.
Being something of a hard man, it's soft to talk sort of thing, you just lock it away and cope I was taken by surprise.
Only a few minutes in I had tears streaming and was shaking.
I had to go over and over the first few minutes of the event again and again, very traumatic.
As the brain starts to process it events become less personal, more objective, you become an observer, not a participant.
The session was planned to be 90 minutes, it ended after 10 minutes, my pulse and BP had gone sky high.
A rest and then off again, same memories, but less effect.
We did this 3 times in total.
I was extremely confused and disorientated at the end and very angry with myself for being such a wimp.
This apparently is quite normal with men, less so with women.
It is worse with so called hard nuts like myself.
The surprising thing is that it worked.
I am far more relaxed about this event, well at least the first part of it.
I have learnt a lot about myself.
I am convinced now that it will work and that my life will be so so much better.
A long way to go yet, but I will get there.
I am very fortunate with my Therapist.
She has treated many like me.
Accept yourself, you will always react, you will always be scary when things happen.
That is no bad thing.
Bad things will not happen all the time, no need to worry about them and accept that there is nothing you can do about them.
Do not be afraid of yourself, it is normal to cry.
You are not a wimp.