EMDR incorporates side-to-side eye movements, tapping, or auditory stimuli to activate both sides of your brain, mimicking REM sleep. After trauma, your brain holds onto a distressing memory. Bilateral stimulation supports your brain in doing what it could not do during the trauma. Once you can process it and place it in the right context, the emotional charge it has been carrying will dissipate.
Side effects for EMDR treatment are rare, but something to consider to take it all in. Short-term side effects that you may experience can include physical ones like dizziness, nausea, and headaches. You may also feel fatigued, experience sleep difficulties, and have more dream activity than normal.
EMDR can help you, even if memories are not fully present. Almost everyone will experience some form of trauma in their lifetime. You’ve survived it, so why remember it? The problem is, no matter how hard your brain tries to forget it, you may still end up with this uneasy feeling that you can’t quite put a finger on.
EMDR research started with its use for PTSD treatment. There has been evidence showing positive outcomes with other psychological issues. Depression stems from negative or overwhelming life experiences. Some of these experiences can also be traumatic. So the tie-in here can be significant. Being able to identify the cause of the depression and reprocess how a person deals with those experiences can be helpful in overcoming the negative aspects.
The way EMDR and many other therapies now conceptualize trauma is with a much broader scope than traditionally thought. It isn’t just limited veterans who have seen combat or people who were abused as children - though those experiences certainly qualify as trauma and often result in a PTSD diagnosis.
Trauma can get stuck in your nervous system in a multisensory way. You hear, see, and feel things when you recall the event or become triggered in some way. Some of the memory is real mixed with things you imagine. Regardless, your body holds it all in your nervous system in an unfinished, unresolved state.
