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What's your experience with EMDR?

the patriarchy slayer

I'm very skeptical towards any “effective” therapy as it's always NTs on whom the effectiveness of treatment gets studied. I see that therapies work different for us, autistics, so I'm curious about your experience. Particularly interested in treating PTSD/cPTSD with EMDR.

  • Hi,

    I had EMDR Therapy back in 2015 before being diagnosed with Autism in 2021 and for me it has been the best therapy I have ever had.  The Therapist at the time diagnosed PTSD from being in a Domestic Violent Relationship.  I was told to envisage my ex partner and my ex mother in law in a room and tell them exactly what I thought of them.  Whilst I was doing this my therapist told me to focus on his hand/arm which he was moving from side to side.  this went on for ages, even my therapist asked when was i going to finish as his arm was getting tired!!! When i got home my now ex partner (not the DV relationship) said i was a changed person.  

    I found it got rid of the anger i had towards my ex and the memories i had whilst being with him but reflecting on my new split from my recent relationship i still suffer from PTSD and triggers of being around people who like to argue or not being comfortable around people causes my social anxiety (hope this makes sense).

    I also had the two vibrating devices to hold with another therapist to help with my being bullied at school but i found this did not work. After the second session i told them it was not working.   I did ask for EMDR therapy but for some reason i was not listened too, 

    I hope my reply helps.  Just wish i could find help with my Depression, social anxiety, anxiety, OCD, Body Dysmorphic Disorder and eating issues - these seem to be an ongoing thing and getting harder to deal with as i am getting older!!!

  • I had EMDR a few years ago before realising I was autistic - It did work for me for the few specific memories I which seemed to crop up often. For me I was given two vibrating devices to hold, one in each hand - I was worried the whole time I must be doing something wrong because it was so outside of the normal therapies I was used to having, but the therapist will be talking you through everything as you do it.
    What I would say is your memories have to be quite specific of what you want to go through which I didn't realise, as the therapist will ask you to keep on thinking about it and running through very specifically while the devices alternate (though I think some services use lights or sound), and my sessions ended (mutually agreed) because I did not have any more specific memories I could run through in detail.

    I wasn't expecting it to work, but I did find that my memories of events were not triggered in the way the used to be, what I think the reasoning is, is that when I was having those memories before, my brain would jump to the worst bit of it, but going through that memory in EMDR you have to go through it in detail, thinking of everything you can remember including what happened after (the fact that the event ended and you survived) - and this is the bit your brain needs to process to stop the memories reoccurring as if it is still happening.

    It won't work for everything, for me the long term abuse and neglect I had still affects how I think, but not having the very vivid and intense flashbacks triggered has improved my quality of life.

    If you have any questions let me know :)