Quote:
Originally Posted by SarahMichelle
EMDR was NEVER helpful for me... but it is contraindicated for people with DID i believe. My old T didn't know that though.  That made things a lot harder for me.
I am working with a trauma T and we do a LOT of processing of the trauma, and it is actually helpful for me. It is REALLY hard work. Painful a lot of times. But she is really good and comforting, and that helps a lot. It also helps that we have really long sessions (sometimes as much as 4 hours at a time) so if something gets stirred up a lot, we have time to calm down. I think that makes a BIG difference. If I were in just the regular 50 minute or 90 minute session type therapy, NO i definitely would not find it helpful. |
Hi SarahMichelle,
I don't have DID but i definitely have dissociative tendencies and different ego states/parts. It's possible that i would qualify for a DDNOS diagnosis.
When we do trauma work, it really feels like i start out as my normal adult self who can handle talking about it. But at some point, something switches inside me and i feel like i am in that child self where the emotions are terrifying and intense, and i feel like i need someone to protect me. My t tries to get me to keep my adult awareness while this is happening to me -- and try not to let that child self merge with me, so that i can keep my head and calm my emotions back down. But it is very hard to do when i feel i am being pulled into that other state of being. It's like once i cross my limit, my logical reasoning and sense of current-day presence is gone and i'm in some kind of swirling world of pain that feels way beyond my ability to manage.
I'm not sure if my t knows that EMDR can be difficult for people who are dissociative or not. I know that she knows that it's important to help me learn coping skills and have internal resources i can draw up to help me. But the problem is -- even if i've learned those coping skills -- once the pain gets bad enough that i feel like a child being traumatized, the coping skills don't come to my mind. All i can notice is the pain.