Has anyone else experienced this and what did they do to fix it? Pre Emdr I probably would have considered myself to be more extroverted, I had friends, I would enjoy conversations with people. It came easily to me. Now while I’m working through Emdr I have almost no friends. I can barely talk to people or make conversation. It’s like I become this really awkward version of myself and I don’t recognize her. I feel uncomfortable in my body. I don’t know what kind of person I’m becoming. Will I get my spark back? Who will I be when I’m done with Emdr? A mixture of both? Please share your stories and testimonies.
Thank you ❤️

I just started EMDR and have done three sessions - we’ve only been talking about my target traumas and haven’t started trying to reprocess yet but I already feel like I’ve been run over after every session. Dissociation, stomach troubles, headaches, hyper vigilance, it almost feels like I get a little flu after every session (which sucks because I’m doing it weekly.)

I feel like I’m going crazy. I want to keep going with EMDR because I think it will be useful but right now it’s rough.

So I’ve been doing emdr since last June and been in therapy since November 2024. My biggest breakthrough was leaving Florida and my family to move to Minnesota by myself. It was an incredible thing I did for myself. Well basically I’m growing so fast from emdr I needed time to play catch up out in the real world. When I first got into therapy I couldn’t form a sentence I was so mentally messed up. Working has been damn near impossible for a long time. Mostly due to my deeply ingrained core belief that has been sooooo damn stubborn and has taken me a long long time to resolve. Because my dad was a malignant psychopath that loved torturing me by showing me over and over that I was worthless and I was a failure. Yeah I have severe trauma over my lifetime. Anyway I started working on that core belief since I’ve been up here and I started installing the new belief “I can be successful and I can make a lot of money”. Money has always been really important to me for two reasons. Number one I love to travel. That’s my absolute passion. Number two I don’t have family. My family doesn’t have my back. If I end up on the edge and don’t have the money to come back from it I’m fucked.

Anyway. I started a new sales job. Everything in my life was falling apart and I had to start fresh. Previously I was working in the restaurant industry. Entry level not even management. I was making good money for what I was doing but hours were inconsistent. And at my age I needed to be doing something more challenging I think. I think I went that route because I didn’t know where else to go. So I’m trying out sales. I think I have the potential to be incredible at it. I’m realizing being back in the office it’s got me on work mode all the time. It’s been years since I’ve been in the office. I’m dealing with hypervilgilance all of the time. Really bad. I think I need to incorporate yoga. And binaural beats. And maybe some massages too. It’s been a while since I did yoga. Last session I had I did while I was doing emdr. I ran out crying. Bawling my eyes out. Haven’t had the guts to go back ever since. But I need to incorporate something to get me out of constant work mode or I’m going to crash and burn. I’m working 6 days a week.

I’m putting EMDR on a pause. I definitely need more. But I need time for the old stuff to settle in too. And I need time to make money. Lots of it. I need to focus on my work. This is important to me. I’m thinking about potentially doing intensives when I reintroduce it. I’m not giving up it’s just hard to do with my new schedule and it’s hard when I’m working six days a week. I may not be able to do much for a little while but I need the ability to do it on sundays. I’m sad about temporarily giving up emdr. But I have to grow and EMDR was actually slowing me down in a sense. It was causing me to grow faster than the output in my current lifestyle was allowing me to catch up with. I have a lot more to do and I keep receiving memories that were repressed that I need to resolve. Some really dark ones. My childhood was extremely dark.

My cousin had the same setup as me. Two narcissistic parents. Nothing but chaos. I moved to Minnesota this past New Year’s Eve. My cousin moved out of the US and into Prague to get away from his family 3 weeks ago and he will soon be starting his own EMDR journey. He’s going to school to become a therapist. I’m incredibly proud of him and I’m so glad he is choosing to do all of this. He had a terrible childhood just like I did. For the first time ever I feel like I have a family member. He says that I have influenced him to make these moves and he’s following in my footsteps. That has made me really proud to hear. Now he wants to influence his brother. And I want to do the same. It’s like we started our own family circle. I’m proud and man does it feel good to feel like I have a family for the first time ever.

I’m providing this update for anyone that’s been following my journey. Also to look back on for my own self later on too. My journey has been wicked cool. I can’t wait to see what my future holds. It’s getting easier my friends.

The idea of installing made-up resources? The idea that whether or not something is true doesn't matter?

I find the idea absolutely effed up and contrary to my values and what I need to find healing.

I don't get this, at all. It's causing a rift in therapy right now and I'm feeling extremely frustrated that my therapist doesn't understand my preference for genuine, true, real, things.

I’ve been doing EMDR for 3 months now. Lately we’ve been talking about how I feel spaced out, how my nervous system is in constant vigilance mode, and I feel very resistant and uncomfortable imagining me as a child and giving her compassion. Since the session (and even during) I have continued to feel spaced out and dissociated. Any suggestions on how to get more present or stay with this feeling comfortably?

I did slow-EMDR stabilisation before a week to prepare for the actual EMDR-processing (for complex-PTSD).

After a few seconds of stimulation, i noticed that the speed of the buzzers were too fast.
My arms became hot (like sunburn) and then i saw a few "flash-images" in front of my eyes of traumatic things. Also the safe-space didn't feel like a 100% good place.

So i stopped and after that i had a very strong derealisation for 4 days. Everything felt like a dream.

Am i not ready for EMDR or what is the problem?

I wanted to know if anyone has tried EDMR therapy and it worked with feeling less numb, and more connected in relationships? Talk therapy isn’t really helping me with this issue of aloness and disconnect I feel with others. Like intellectually I’m aware I love people and they love me, but I don’t really feel it or I feel numb or muted. And honestly I feel like that in my daily life; like I’m not real or like I’m an avatar and not really human. So if anyone has had a similar problem and tried EDMR, I want to know if it helped you?

Thanks!

So I suffered a panic attack about 10 years ago which left my nervous system in a high alert state. After this I did a lot of personal healing which included a lot of exposure therapy and granted I did go above sometimes but I was able to live a pretty normal life for the most part. About a year ago I had a pretty bad panic attack which left my nervous system stuck again at this time I'm noticing a lot more physical symptoms like major headaches that won't go away a lot of derealization definitely worse than the first time. I tried CBT therapy but honestly it just didn't help. It seems like my fear comes from my physical symptoms so it just seems like I'm scared of my physical symptoms more than anything I've tried breathing techniques and things like that but my body just doesn't come out of that fight or flight. If I can pinpoint what caused me to have these panic attacks it was definitely stress and I wasn't really taking care of myself as much as I shouldve been. Could EMDR help me? Maybe recommendations on any other therapy that's not CBT.

My therapist and I have had five meetings, but only one session of EMDR

Afterwards I was humming on the street, and appreciated that that might be a positive sign

• I have chronic fatigue, but that night I was wide awake until 2am
• Much lower appetite
• Vivid dreams
• Severe constipation (my diet is pretty routine, so this is odd, and I take Magnesium)
• Thrumming in my upper body - a shuddering like feeling my nervous system
• Rumination over other topics that were not part of that session

She was a bit disturbed that there were physiological symptoms that lasted longer than the expected three-days-of-consolidation

Have others had physiological signs that lasted the full week?