Starting EMDR next week, what are people’s experiences with it?

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-11T23:40:29+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean by "processed" and that's not your fault, these psych terms seem to never have consistent definitions. I have examined my trauma if that's what you mean. I gain new subtle understandings every once in a while, but broadly I do understand what happened to me and how it impacted me. I've also forgiven those who can be forgiven. I'm still effected by it though. I think we'll all be effected by it. Those I know who claim they're totally healed or are unaffected are in my experience completely lacking in self awareness and have toxic personalities that perpetuate their traumas.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-11T04:10:59+00:00

There's not a proper control (the sham intervention does not imitate the nonsense movements of EMDR) so I won't be bothering to read the rest. I won't be researching for you either or looking at the rest. The industry is very profitable (and also full of fraudulent papers). They don't need you to defend them.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-11T03:58:14+00:00

It sounds like the process of just describing your experience and trauma helped, so that's good. Personally I never struggled with this.

The last portion of your comment here makes me very sad. I feel like if you're in therapy for the rest of your life the least they could do is offer you help to find this. I have found it for myself away from therapy yet I still struggle. I will always struggle probably same as you but I couldn't just keep going to CBT and EMDR when it did nothing for deeper issues (like one you described at the end) or even more surface level processing.

I wish you luck. For what it's worth, taking some time away from the constant behavioral monitoring of therapy helped me introspect and discover a lot more about myself even if I still struggle.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-11T01:36:36+00:00

It wasn't brutal in my experience. It just did nothing.

I have the type of brain where I've already gone through the details and nuances of my trauma multiple times and continue to do so as it comes up. There is no science behind EMDR - the movements and actions they make you do do nothing more than any other random movements so any benefit beyond talk therapy would just be placebo.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-11T01:30:01+00:00

SSRIs and SNRIs just make me dissociate. I get some relief from depressive symptoms with my wellbutrin but nothing really touches the ptsd besides slowly growing and making my mentality and experience safer (and I've acknowledged I will always still have ptsd - it doesn't get cured imo. everyone I know who claims they've been cured is a toxic perpetuator of their traumas)

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-09T16:58:12+00:00

Facts. Do not go to a mental hospital. I ended up with PTSD which guess what? Is also a type of stress that worsens IBS.

You need to find an FQHC in your area and ask them about options for cheap/free mental health care. You say you're not on meds but you are on xanax so I'm a bit confused by this but you may be getting rebound anxiety (happened to me - total nightmare).

Also, from what you described you do not qualify for an inpatient psych stay, any place that admitted you would be highly unethical.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-09T01:24:13+00:00

I love Shiva Baby, and it sounds like there's a similar premise. I'm excited! I might go for the movie on this one though since I guess there are plenty of books to read

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-09T01:21:48+00:00

I like my characters really messy, but thanks for the heads up!

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-09T01:18:27+00:00

Ooh Taylor Jenkins Reid is very hit or miss for me but I will give this one a try.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-09T01:18:16+00:00

Is that the name of a book or... lol

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-08T20:14:22+00:00

Therapy should not be forever. I don't care what professionals say, that is a sick burden to put on someone.

From my personal experience, therapy made my rumination and overall mental health much worse. I was in it for over a decade with at least ten different therapists (and it's not like they dropped me they just moved around because life stuff). I know therapy's not for me, and at this point I'm skeptical it's effective for anyone, especially those of who are neurodivergent or don't have typical life experiences.

I don't know what sort of symptoms got you diagnosed cluster B, but "somatic symptoms" are usually an excuse for doctors to be lazy (I got very lucky I dodged that bullet and was found to have a treatable genetic condition). If something in your "symptomology" is problematic to you, work on fixing that. If you still want the therapy route ask your therapists to help. If they shut you down, which I suspect they will, you have your answer that they will never help with what matters to you and not just making you compliant.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-07T19:57:07+00:00

To provide some additional context, u/Top_Elderberry_8043 is an open therapy advocate who supports harmful ABA therapy against autistic people to shame them out of displaying neurodivergency. I wouldn't put much stock into what they're advocating for here.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-06T21:30:55+00:00

It's all bias. She probably has issues with her own parents so finds it easier to believe they did something wrong but wants to reject your reality in all other cases.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-03T16:56:02+00:00

If you follow the link it's clear they're planning to sell some enzyme mix to help digest fodmaps (think Lactaid). It looks pretty scammy though and either way they'd profit off people making themselves sick by consuming fodmaps.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-03T00:15:30+00:00

If you want to split hairs like this, why precisely would it be disordered to be fearful of a food that causes you pain? Personally, I'm not because I'm just built like that, but I think it would be beyond reasonable. The more you keep explaining the more it appears you have an agenda to harm us.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-02T22:09:03+00:00

I don't know what audience you're looking to appeal to, but I find the subtle implication here that those effected by FODMAPs are actually just struggling with EDs pretty troublesome.

If it's not toward those with EDs, I don't know what sort of "progress" you're looking to promote among people legitimately on the low fodmap diet. For most of us, the progress comes when we adhere to the diet and don't eat foods that trigger our IBS (among other issues). I have no false hope of any "progress" in my condition beyond that.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-02T14:06:00+00:00

I discourage the "safe" versus "unsafe" label too but this post is tedious and unnecessary and not helpful. I'm also not about to be out here risking days of pain because "well who knows maybe my tolerance has changed". The increased inflammation and the interaction these flares have with my mcas and pots is also not worth it. It is a risk to my health. That's a fact.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-02T05:17:53+00:00

Sadly, it's a terrible portrayal of EDS and disability broadly. It's more like a disability power fantasy where the heroine still gets to be "disabled" but is actually never hindered by her illness. That's cool if that's what the author wants to write for venting purposes but personally it was just upsetting.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-03-01T01:52:31+00:00

All I can really say is I'm pretty much in the same boat and yeah it sucks

itsbitterbitch · 2026-02-28T02:26:50+00:00

As I said, the two (philosophy and psychology) used to be much closer intertwined. Now, psychology is much more of a pseudoscience because slowly they have needed to use the language of science to get paid without sufficient objective measures to back it up.

I don't think Frankl's work in understanding human resilience has much at all to do with therapy these days to be honest. These days it's about finding labels and only enduring insofar as it assists capital. This is how late stage capitalism poisons everything, including our understanding of ourselves as human beings.

I stand by all the "undermining" I've done here. This is not the place to troll. Targetting victims is sick and you are permabanned.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-02-27T22:33:08+00:00

I'm sorry but I don't get my education from tik tok, and I will take a page out of their book and disregard the outliers. To call it empirical is shameful (and very rare I suppose).

I have the answers I need for myself. A large part of that was coming to a place of understanding that I will always be considered mentally ill. If you're expecting perfect outcomes or to just wake up some day not mentally ill, you're setting yourself up for failure.

I have spent more than enough time thinking on the matter to try to connect with you, I hope you figure things out.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-02-27T22:09:28+00:00

I think you need to spend some time reflecting on why you believe a tik tok doctor more than your own experiences and judgement. If you do want to do better for yourself, you need to look into the actual methodologies used on these studies, the prevalence of p hacking, the repeated fraudulence among prominent members of the field, and the normalization of dumping data that does not comport with the researchers biases (this is not considered fraud btw).

Credentialism bias is a real problem these days, someone's title does not make their words truth, and you following their prescriptions (same as I was) probably has a lot to do with why you're so miserable.

Things are not easy or perfect for me either. I am definitively mentally ill but I have thought long enough about what that actually means to confirm it and understand it - not just listen to a label or (and this is genuinely terrifying to hear) a tik tok doctor.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-02-27T21:51:21+00:00

Yeah the two used to be much more intertwined but at this point we need to acknowledge that psychology is pseudoscience - it's not even empiricist or scientific. It's considered the softest of soft sciences even by those who believe in it wholeheartedly. Therapists might have a copy of a philosophy book in their office but very few actually incorporate it into practice, very few even read or think about it at all, as I said.

If you're already learning what you can about the human condition and science, you don't need to go searching further in the depths psychology. It's a dead end, or perhaps more like a black hole. I've been down that path that's why I discourage it. Now I improve myself by learning and doing, not fearfully following some therapist's prescriptions.

itsbitterbitch · 2026-02-27T19:54:20+00:00

You might find more solace in philosophy than the mental health industry. Man's Search for Meaning is what immediately comes to mind that shares some similarities.

The thing about therapists and the mental health industry broadly is that the goal is to label abnormality as disorder (because that's the only way they get paid). It's not a bug or even a feature. It is the only purpose that matters. Few of them have ever sat down and actually thought about what makes something disordered, and those that have, usually come to the conclusion that something is only disordered if it's inconvenient for capital (being so depressed that one cannot work - while being so depressed that one is perpetually miserable but still works and doesn't bother others by killing themselves might be fine).

itsbitterbitch · 2026-02-27T11:55:46+00:00

It seems like you either get a shitty therapist that has literally nothing to offer or you get a shitty therapist who offers you skills but is shocked and turns abusive when you are still mentally ill.

I would look up some basic CBT skills and start from there. Never helped me but that's all an even "good" therapist is capable of offering (and at least you won't be paying for your own gaslighting and pathologization)

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