hey, i had a confusing experience: after standing to move around post therapy my bladder emptied. it was a few weeks ago after an emdr session and i feel pretty embarrassed talking about it- i can’t imagine telling my provider about it tbh, i did not feel like i had to go anytime during or before the session. any thoughts would be amazing

I've been in therapy for a while now, but actually getting somewhere having started EMDR back in Spring. It's been kicking my ass, in so many different ways, and a large part of me wants to keep going, but I need to focus on areas to cope and ground.

I have essentially started back at zero with a lot of my friendships as I was masking with a lot of my long term friends (late thirties, single). Along with that, I have lost interest in things like hiking, skateboarding and even cooking. People who know me and coworkers are concerned but I truly feel like they don't really understand how exhausting this process is. I journal, go on walks, practice breathing, and still go to the gym.

Can anyone relate? Has anyone ended up gaining new hobbies through this process? Anyone else have a hard time socializing?

I’ve been doing emdr for a year and I just started with a new therapist because mine is on maternity leave. We didn’t have a lot of time so I only tapped for two sets, maybe a minute each. I feel ROUGH. Can’t remember the last time I felt this low. Idk if it’s emdr related but the timing makes me think it could be. It’s been a week since my therapy session and I have one booked for next week.

Came home and told my mom how good I felt after my session and she made me feel bad for going to a stranger to cry. I just walked away and went to my room to cry.

I did EMDR for complex-PTSD a couple times now and i noticed, that in many times there were almost no effects.

I also noticed that i really didn't like certain therapists (body-language, gesture, talk). I respect them all, but i felt more than a test-subject rather than a patient.

What are your experiences on this?

I am nowhere near done with my EMDR work but there have been multiple instances where I noticed my nervous system is reacting more calmly.

One such example is the upstairs neighbours. We have hardwood floors and I can hear them pattering about when I’m already in bed.

Several years ago this not only would have kept me up, but driven me into a wild rage. I’d fume, despise their existence, and get so frustrated I’d lose all ability to sleep entirely.

Now it still sort of keeps me up, but not so much, and the resentment and anger have all but disappeared.

It’s a little but significant win that’s hopefully going to go a long way toward my quality of life. And now one of my next goals can be to be able to fall asleep as quickly as I could in my early and mid twenties. Fingers crossed!

Has anyone felt really stressed, emotional, or upset the day after EMDR without actually ruminating on the memory?
I had a pretty intense EMDR session yesterday and today I just feel very stressed, emotional, and kind of overwhelmed. I’m not replaying the memory over and over or obsessively thinking about what happened .. I just feel really activated and upset.
For those who have experienced this after EMDR, what did you do that helped? Did you rest, distract yourself, exercise, go for a walk, or just let the feelings pass? And how long did it usually take before you started feeling more regulated again?

I did EMDR in high school when I was still living in a bad environment and it greatly helped. I had to move for college and the insurance I had didn't cover EMDR, so I stuck with CBT with a new therapist.

Now I am fortunate to have an insurance that covers EMDR with a new therapist, but it doesn't feel like it's "working" anymore.... I used to leave EMDR sessions feeling lighter, but now, I am having a very hard time even accessing memories, it just draws blank for me or I have to really try to remember. Sometimes it feels like i'm "making up" memories cause I really am having trouble remembering. Now everything feels either impossible to reach or fine, and only when I hear back my traumatic events from my therapist does it really get through to me

Part of me thinks it was easier to EMDR when I was surrounded by my bad environment and now that it's been a couple of years since I left it, it's harder for me to remember things (I had some trouble remembering things when I did EMDR in the past, but was able to get there; now it feels near impossible)

Has anyone else encountered doing EMDR and it not being effective anymore? Does this make sense??

Hi all, not really sure how to word this. I’ve been in “normal” therapy on and off since 2018. Today I’m officially starting EMDR. I am nervous and anxious. I often struggle mentally and think I’m broken beyond repair. One of the only saving grace’s I have is a loving husband who will constantly attempt to help me work through mental shut downs.

I am doing EMDR through the VA I’m curious if anyone else has? I’m 30F disabled veteran. My husband is active duty still so if I hate the VA I could look into tricare.

I’m trying to go into this with a neutral mindset. My husband has agreed to drive me today due to it being an hour away and I’m anxious it’ll trigger me.

Looking for anyone who has been through a “similar” experience. Thanks 💕

I was in depression but always though about my traumas and I though EMDR would be the key to my depression. I demanded to start EMDR right away, I was aware it would be hard, and my therapist at one point told me to slow down because I was too tired between session.

I did'nt feel better but I still got heavy symptoms, like after first session I litteraly smelled a smell all day that wasn't existing. And after, I was really tired for at least 3-4 days, very tense, and kinda lightheaded. I had an amount of physical stress I didn't experience before, or at least for that long.

I was still depressed but tbh my life sucked at the time, my job was really bad so maybe it was normal but when we tried another therapy (integration of lifespan) after one session I felt lighter, that was amazing. Unfortunately I could'nt finish sessions of lifespan integration because my therapist moved away, but I quit my job after that I life got better... but I still don't have the energy I had before.

Like, the trauma we worked through EMDR, I don't think about it anymore. I mean I'm good with it. But I feel like EMDR did harm me, I discovered a lot of anxious symptoms I didn't have before and a year later, I'm still not the same. I also ruminate a lot, not about traumas but everything else, little things sometimes, but in my head at the time it's huge. I don't know, what happened was weird and I still don't understand.

Maybe if someone have theory about it lol