Brain Study Suggests Traumatic Memories Are Processed as Present Experience
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
In the book, he notes the prevailing theory that our daily happenings remain on a sort of temporary scratchpad. As we sleep we sort, discard, process as necessary. Trauma however, is too big, too hard to process naturally. So, it stays on that daily scratch pad. Always with you. Every day, the same as if it were happening today. No relief, no dissipation of the emotional charge. Emdr therapy while walking to facilitate both hemispheres of your brain working together, is his prescription.
The book/methodology I can honestly say saved my life and gave me a life, a future. A way to cope with things that were driving me crazy. Everyone I've given a copy to has deeply thanked me later. Please, if you have anything weighing on you, give the book a look. It's only like 70 pages.
1. Having nightmares that wake you up 2. Using sleeping pills 3. Using Alcohol to sleep
I’ve found that dreaming about the trauma/loss can soften the emotions over time
That's done, Hartman theorizes, and I forgot the level of basis in empirics he has, by doing anything that facilitates both sides of your brain working together. That's easiest done by walking, since you really are forcing both sides to communicate to facilitate the motion. Then thinking and focusing on the trauma/loss basically mimics the processing done during that rem processing.
It really helped me think about the issues as healthily as they could be, and it severely diminished the constant presence of them in my thoughts. I hope it helps you.
1. Walk 2. Think of traumatic or challneging thing 3. Rapidly dart eyes left to right and rinse/repeat for a while 4. Profit?
1. Any movement that utilizes both halves of your brain/body. Walking is just easiest and the one he chooses. In therapy I've had something as simple as alternatively tapping my hands on my thighs. The point is to be using both sides of your brain. I've found walking works best personally.
2. Think of traumatic thing/event. Really focus on it at the front of your mind. The idea is that while using both sides of your brain walking, and keeping the idea at the forefront of your mind can sort of manually force the processing of the trauma. I have to note it works best (in my experience) with more acute trauma. Complex trauma is harder to keep in the same mental box while you're processing.
3. Unneeded. The walking is what facilitates the idea behind the eye movement. Utilizing both sides of your brain basically.
4. Yeah, the idea is to force the processing. Eventually the sort of "charge" with the memory/event dissipates as you begin to better be able to think about and handle the event.
4b I should note being in therapy helps too, as in general how best to think about the trauma can be difficult. For me though, I'd had plenty of therapy and had the tools, the method helped me actually do the "work" of the processing. YMMV.
Assuming you reach the threshold level (i.e. you're outside your comfort zone), and stay there, a habituation happens, because your brain adjusts to the situation.
In case of fear, you basically think about the proverbial spider so long, that the brain realizes "hmm, it's been 30 minutes, so maybe it won't annihilate me"? (Again, you need to actually feel the fear to the point of being uncomfortable.)
(Of course I don't know your specific case, and also I'm not a professional.)
Walking is just the easiest and something almost everyone can do. In therapy I've had it be something as simple as tapping each thigh with my hands alternatively.