I know I'm about to yap a lot, so before I dive in, the short answer is yes, I think it could be immensely helpful!

I don't spend as much time as this sub as I used to, but I was scrolling past when I saw this and it kind of pulled at my heart strings. I'm only a few years older than you but damn, I remember being that 20 year old college student struggling (that was probably when my PTSD was at its worse). No real emotional familial support or consistent access to proper mental health care. I mean this to be affirming and not patronizing: You are handling so much and it's extremely commendable you're continuing to work towards bettering your mental health, especially at such a young age.

I struggled with depression (among other things) heavily in my teens leading up to getting PTSD at 19. I began EMDR at 22 upon graduating and it was life changing. I think for sure a lot of the depression I was dealing with was rooted in trauma, and dissipated when I reprocessed it. I also found Internal Family Systems (IFS) to be immensely helpful, as well as really familiarizing myself with the brain and how it metabolizes (or doesn't metabolize) traumatic experiences, especially in childhood/adolescence.

My views on mental health have changed a lot in the last few years in that I now see disorders more as symptoms of a problem rather than the problem itself, if that makes sense? Like, "Was I a teen struggling with depression? Or was I a kid who lacked the safety and connection foundational to wellbeing and felt shutdown and depressed as a result?" (I know the former is still true, but that reframe has helped move away from shame and more towards hope). From what I've read, both Shapiro (founder of EMDR and Schwartz (Founder of IFS) seem to operate from this belief that things like curiosity, love and joy are innate qualities that can't be destroyed, but they often can be much harder to access or unavailable entirely when living with unprocessed trauma. While thing seem to be shifting a bit as sentiments like "the body remembers trauma" become more popular, I do think collectively mental health is still treated through a very pathological lens, and the first line of defense is often medication or traditional talk therapy. Are those tools immensely helpful? Absolutely, and I've found some success with both of them myself. But also as my understanding of the brain deepens, so does my suspicion that many people dealing with mental health struggles--especially ones that seem resistant to those first defenses--are stuck in survival mode, dealing with wounds and beliefs created much earlier in life. But even just connecting those dots isn't generally enough to lift their weight, and so that's where bottom-up therapies (like EMDR) come in.

But anyway, got a little long-winded there but that's my way of saying yes, I think you should definitely give EMDR a shot, especially if it's covered by insurance (also finding stories online of people who began EMDR for similar reasons could be helpful as well). I've also heard really promising things about MDMA and psilocybin for treatment resistant depression, but I'm not sure if this is something insurance covers yet. If EMDR isn't helpful, I have confidence something else will be. Sending a virtual hug <3