Quote:
Originally Posted by growlycat
I have had exposure therapy for fears and phobias. What your t is doing sounds like "emotional flooding" which is a controversial way of dealing with a phobia. It means you force your way though overwhelming anxiety and supposedly you end up on the other side of it. My long term t though that flooding was just asking for retraumatization Most of my t's have worked with me via gradual exposure or as one t put it stress inoculation. All gradual.
|
She has had me rate things so we start at less distressing topics first and work our way to the most distressing. I ranked times in my life and types of abuse based on how remembering it and talking about it made me feel. We started at the 'not very distressing' and have worked through to the 'very distressing'. It's been going on a few months, but what we worked on before was easier.
In a way, we have gradually exposed me to distressing memories. Now that I'm at the high-ranked memories, though, I'm just feeling overwhelmed.
Intellectually, I understand what she's trying to do and I see the purpose in it. That's why, I think, I keep going back. I don't want to be terrified by my past and I do see how this would work. When I drop the intellectual part, though, I'm just left with how I feel and that's what I'm struggling through now. It's hard to keep my eye on the 'prize', so to speak, when I feel so awful by the process.