If you have ever been through a traumatic incident, you know the power it may have over you. Dreams, memories, and anxiety-induced solitude may all stop your routine. It may not be easy to motivate oneself to go somewhere at times. Although medication and talk therapy are the most common ways to deal with PTSD, you may be interested in learning about additional possibilities. Numerous people’s lives have been improved by the use of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). The patient’s bad experiences and distorted views about the past, present, and future are the focus of this eight-step Financial District EMDR treatment.
Here are a few reasons why EMDR therapy is essential.
1. Better focus and concentration
People with PTSD or CPTSD often struggle to pay attention to even the most mundane tasks. Several factors are at play here, such as the brain’s inability to properly store the traumatic memory and the nervous system’s inability to regulate its level of arousal, both of which negatively affect one’s capacity to focus.
2. Useful for overcoming trauma
After experiencing a horrific incident, moving on might seem impossible, but EMDR treatment can help. It might be difficult to avoid reminders of a traumatic incident after they have been embedded in one’s memory. With the help of EMDR, your brain can restructure the memories, emotions, and experiences associated with your trauma such that it no longer rules your life.
Some of the effects of trauma may never fully disappear from your life. But Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) may significantly lessen trauma’s influence on your life, and it can help you deal with the present without dwelling on the past.
3. Gaining success quickly
Patients who have attempted talk therapy for years may find relief from their problems in as little as a few EMDR sessions because of the treatment’s unique methodology. In EMDR, you also don’t need to talk about every memory, which is great if you have problems expressing yourself verbally.
4. Change your beliefs
Many people have negative past experiences that have led them to retain self-limiting ideas unconsciously. You may avoid making eye contact on the bus and keep your thoughts to yourself until asked since you were rejected as a youngster and now believe your existence inconveniences people around you. Childhood trauma or a painful breakup may have fueled lifelong beliefs about imperfection and unlovability.
By demonstrating that these negative beliefs are only an interpretation of an event and that there are alternative, more legitimate, and positive interpretations possible, EMDR therapy helps to de-emphasize them.
Sadness is not the only emotion that may be triggered by remembering the past. If you have encountered trauma, these flashbacks might make it difficult to go about your normal life. The intensity of certain recollections may “freeze” you in time. You are trapped, and it could be simpler to ignore the problem altogether. When this occurs, memories of the traumatic experience are triggered by everyday stimuli long after the incident has faded. By enabling your brain to process memories in a less distressing manner, EMDR treatment may help you break the freeze cycle. Contact David Salvage, MD, FAPM, if you want to try this therapy.
