Black Magic

I've previously posted about how mental trauma is the ultimate cause of my gut brain disconnect, so this week I thought of expand a bit more on whys being doing about it. Before that though I will quickly say that this is written purely from my experience of the therapy to date and by no means an I some sort of expert on it; quick disclaimer out the way!

In my case, I'm currently having EMDR therapy AKA Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Before I started this, I did actually have a small nugget of knowledge of it's existence and the fact it's used for trauma due to the parent of a very good friend being an EMDR therapist themselves, so the fact that I was told it was required came as no surprise; my issue was why on earth hadn't I been referred for it sooner instead of the many hours of counseling I have under my belt? So when I was given my diagnosis, there was some anger and frustration at having had to get to this point before someone actually pointed me in the right direction, but I must not dwell! 

For me, starting EMDR finally helped with understanding the difference between counselling and therapy, with counselling creating an effective safe space for you to talk things over and ultimately 'help yourself', but therapy actually addressing the issues and building methods of healing with the guidance of the therapist. Now if you asked me how EMDR works, I couldn't tell you, but from what I gather it's not even fully understood anyway, but it does work (hence this week's post name). From my limited experience and understanding, EMDR activates both sides of the brain through things such as eye movements or alternating tapping, this coupled with bringing up the traumatic memories helps the brain store the memories properly instead of them being stuck in the active part of the brain, ready to send your body into fight or flight mode at any sort of trigger as it believes you are still on that situation. The mind truly boggles on it, but this simple act genuinely works, I've had memories of experiences go from being immensely clear and triggering panic attacks, or large emotional responses, become faded and have much less power over me. Issues I've never even spoken about have now become something I am able to speak about openly and confide in friends where before only I and those involved were aware. It's also made it so that seemingly innocent things that may have triggered a trauma response before, are slowly becoming less.

Ultimately trauma is not something to be ignored and can impact you in ways that may not be so immediately obvious, until it doesn't; and that is the real amazing thing about healing.

Ta ta for now!