Last week in therapy, my IC asked if I wanted to try EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). It is a type of therapy used to treat trauma. I am still suffering some significant symptoms and she thought it might help. In the therapy, patient relives the traumatic images while being distracted, by eye movement, tapping, or some other repetitive action. My IC is a very sane and conservative psychiatrist/doctor. She said that she originally thought of EMDR as some crazy new technique and was very skeptical about it but a therapist that she respects and who is trained in this has had enormous success with trauma patients.
I told her I wasn't interested, mainly because I can't bear the idea of going through the whole story with another therapist. But, I have been wondering if I should give it a try. I have been doing some internet research and it sounds interesting though a bit creepy. Has anybody had any experience with it?
(My IC has no problem with my not trying but just wanted to offer an option that might help me)

I have heard of it but do not know anyone with experience with it. Please let us know how it goes ig you decide to go that route. There might be many people on the board who could benefit ftom a type of therapy that will help diminish the trauma. I know I am one of them.

Good luck.
Lisa

Hi Susan, EMDR by Francine Shapiro is a real miracle therapy. I did not try it but seriously considered it and read a lot about it.

Susan Stillkickin also researched it. I don't remember if she followed through with the therapy.

It is a true help. For me, it was years later when I discovered it, and no longer felt I needed it.

I can't remember who, but some of our members did try it, and found great success. Was it Diego Don?

EL

It continues to amaze me how our recovery/therapy/etc seems to bring us down the same paths.

My therapist didn't bring this up to me. However, my H's therapist suggested it for me.

Though I think, generally speaking, H's IC has been really good for him, she has on several occasions brought up things she wants me to do. Kind of inappropriate in my mind since I've never met the woman. She also felt it would be a good idea for me to be on meds. I couldn't buy into someone diagnosing anything for me when we've never even sat in a room together or met.

However, she did talk about this therapy with my H. And because H would love to see my own PTSD allieved, he started researching EMDR and encouraged me to consider it.

I've kind of got the same creepy feeling you mentioned, though I don't know that I can really put my finger on why. And I share your feelings of not wanting to start from scratch and lay the whole story out again for someone new to see and dissect. If there was some way to successfully work through the PTSD, it would probably be well worth it, though.

Yesterday, there was a news article at our server's homesite regarding PTSD and how most treatments are not verifiably successful. Here's the link for that:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_he_me/ptsd_treatment

It would be good to hear if anyone has successfully gotten specific treatment for PTSD and could detail their journey a bit for us.

Thanks for bringing up this topic, Susan. Blueiris

"We cannot wait for the storm to pass; we must learn to walk in the rain."

By the way, I started scouting back through our computer history to see if I could find what my H had researched. No luck. So I did a quick search on the topic and found the following. The bummer with this is because its a "skeptic's" site and has a negative bent, its hard to know how objectively its written. I'll probably look around on-line for more info, but this article certainly made my feelings of hesitancy regarding the therapy increase.

http://www.skepdic.com/emdr.html

BlueIris

"We cannot wait for the storm to pass; we must learn to walk in the rain."

I know somebody who had it done here locally and claimed it to be a "miracle". They had very positive reactions and results from it.

I've never had it done myself, but I was thinking about it for a while.

Kid

I have done it, and know a lot about it, and I would say absolutely YES. It will help with triggers and the trauma, as well as the resulting messages about yourself. I would actually highly recommend it.

Hopearoo

Hi Hope!!! Would love to hear more about how you are doing and about EMDR. What was the experience like? What did you do during the sessions? How many sessions did you have to have? Please share if you feel comfortable doing that - or feel free to e-mail me.

I had quite a few EMDR sessions through a good therapist, to address the PTSD from the affairs. In my case, it had no effect at all. I even bought Francine Shapiro's book to see if it was being done correctly. Some psychologists I know attribute any positive results to the "placebo effect". But whatever works, works.
BB

hey Susan, you can e-mail me if you want to, I lost your e-mail address!