Posted by Annette on April 14, 2000, at 12:57:30
In reply to Re: Morc, how often... (last time, I promise!), posted by Abie on April 8, 2000, at 9:53:01
> Well, your story is both encouraging and a little daunting, but I am d--ned well ready to do *something* for myself. I'll try to report back in a few weeks on how it goes. Having done only superficial research (and most of that online so you know how iffy that can be sometimes), it seems to me that there must must surely be value in engaging both talk therapy and EMDR. No? oh well.
>
> Good luck to you on your trek, and we'll hope to see you in those friendly skies sometime! :-)
>
> > I kind of hate to say this here, but I had to stop it--not because it didn't work, but because it worked too well! It's a powerful instrumentality, and I just couldn't handle it. Evidently I have some underlying biochemical problems that require correction first, so now I'm back to plain old talk therapy, which is also helping a lot. I still believe in it, though, and wouldn't hesitate to use it to address a very focused kind of problem. E.g., I intend to use it to address my fear of flying one of these days!Just completed reading the entire thread. A lot to swallow indeed! I was raped over three years ago and while receiving counseling at C.A.S.A. (Center for Sexual Assault), my therapist used EMDR after months of trying almost everythng else, therapist directed flooding, desensitization, you name it. She wanted to put me on an anti-depressant, but I refused, as I felt my despair was born out of far too many tragic events occuring during the decade prior... culminating in this horrible rape, not a chemical imbalance. It was after the use of EMDR that things began to turn around. Finally, what I was able to understand intellectually, my heart and feelings were able to follow.
She explained that each day during the dream state the mind needs to sort through how it "felt" about the facts taken in during the recent period of time. And it does it by creating some pretty strange scenarios, whatever it takes do conjure up those feelings. It is the body's physiological way of healing emotions daily. EMDR emulates this in a conscious state and thus gives one more control and awareness. Something the dream state lacks.
In my case, I was stuck because I could not reconcile that this had acutally happened to me. EMDR was a way to move the feelings forward without the trauma of desensitization or flooding. I litterally began to slowly walk out of the "hole" from that day forward. I hope this helps.
poster:Annette
thread:14804
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/29995.html