EMDR For Addiction

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a therapeutic breakthrough that can treat an array of PTSD, addiction, and anxiety-diagnosed conditions. EMDR for anxiety, addiction, and other related disorders may be the most effective way of treating and reversing the course of your struggles.

EMDR therapy can empower people with anxiety and help them keep their stress levels at a minimum. This is why EMDR for anxiety-related trauma is highly recommended for its established effectiveness. EMDR therapy will change your life if you allow it to. 

Science now has the answer for altering the trajectory of your recovery and stress-relieving progress. By scientifically reprocessing your memories by visually stimulating specific eye patterns, you will view traumas in a positive light.

What Exactly is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR in essence retrains your mind, emotions, and visuals to perceive and process traumas or addictions in a different light. It is not erasing the memory, but rather erasing the negative emotion and anxiety related to the trauma.

To understand how this is possible, It’s important to first understand how memories, emotions, and vision are intertwined. Fascinatingly, scientists have found that patterns of eye movement directly associate with human recollections of past trauma. This visual pattern impulsively revives the trauma and intense emotion we associate with that trauma. Recalling a memory tells the brain to trigger specific eye movements that bring these memories and emotions to life again.

These eye movements are beyond our control and are unnoticeable. You cannot remove the memory. You can, however, through medical breakthroughs, train your emotions and perceptions tied to these eye patterns. Treatment of EMDR for anxiety, addictions, and PTSD proves the ability to disconnect negative emotions tied to these memories. 

Stress is induced and created by all forms of conditions. Thus, for anxiety therapy, EMDR can be the key to resolving your underlying struggles. Any form of EMDR for anxiety-related conditions will lift those burdens, considering the direct relation between trauma and anxiety.

The most encouraging part of EMDR is that no medication is necessary. This type of therapy is solely dependent upon the stimulation of your visuals.

How Does EMDR for Anxiety and Stress-Related Traumas Work?

For anxiety, EMDR addresses trauma and how to disconnect the negative anxiety and emotion connected with that trauma. Scientific studies concur that when a traumatic incident occurs, memory is stored in the form of images, thoughts, and emotions. However, at some point during memory storage, the process is disrupted, leaving behind only the initial images and emotions.

How Do I Know EMDR Really Works?

EMDR for anxiety, addiction, and PTSD, is a highly recommended treatment by the World Health Organization for its known efficacy. In addition, numerous studies, analyses, and cross-examinations by doctors confirm EMDR’s effectiveness through clinical trials. Such trials and studies have become public records with EMDR’s overwhelmingly positive impact on therapy success.

What Are the Different Phases of EMDR Therapy?

There are eight phases of eye movement desensitization reprocessing. Each stage is equally vital and beneficial for your overall progress. Reprogramming your brain to process memory is a specific scientific process that directly relates to your eye patterns. 

These steps to follow are what make EMDR possible through training these eye patterns to store memory differently. Your EMDR doctor will know how long and at what pace each stage of your therapy should last.

Historic Notation and Treatment Assessment

Probably the most integral step of EMDR therapy is for your doctor to get to know you and your traumatic history. In turn, this enables your doctor to better assess how to cater the following steps to accommodate your therapeutic needs.

In this stage of EMDR Therapy, it is vital not to suppress any traumatic events and how they affected you. Your doctor needs to know the emotions and thoughts tied to these events as equally important as the events themselves. Hold nothing back. An EMDR expert is there to help you without judgment and with all the compassion your situation requires.

Preparation

After getting to know you and your history, your doctor will outline what to expect in relation to your conditions and trauma history.

This is the phase where your doctor will outline the believed root source of your symptoms. Stemming from this, the doctor will specify the necessary steps in how to process trauma differently from here on out. This may entail breathing techniques and self-control methods, among other factors for training. This stage is meant to prep you for the coming treatment customized toward your unique therapy needs.

Evaluation

In this phase of EMDR therapy, your doctor evaluates the memory that prompts the source of your emotional struggle or turmoil. Once understood, these triggers can be altered through eye stimulation as directed by your therapist. This leads into this next and life-altering phase of EMDR therapy for anxiety-related traumas.

Desensitization

This is the introductory phase of your therapist teaching you how to train your brain how to disconnect trauma from the associated emotional trigger. This consists of your doctor honing your vision on an image that induces a negative thought or emotion. 

Whilst honing in on this image, you will be instructed to perform bilateral eye movements that specifically stimulate memory retention. These simulations are done in 25-second intricacies, followed by a deep breath and in-depth testament of your experience. The type and extent of necessary eye stimulation vary depending on the severity of the trauma, among other factors.

Thought Implementation

In this phase of EMDR therapy, you and your doctor instill the positive belief system that you’ve been developing throughout the previous four phases. More specifically, they help you institute this newly acquired positive thought process to replace the negative thought. For illustration’s sake, thoughts of regret tied to a traumatic experience would be replaced by positive reinforcement. 

The elapsed time of this stage is not set in stone as it is dependent upon the individual. The progress of this stage relies on anxiety reduction and low long you adapt to more positive feelings associated with traumas. This is how a doctor trains you and your brain to replace the negative emotions associated with trauma with these positive thought implementations.

We stress EMDR therapy for anxiety because of its effectiveness in severing the ties between your negative thoughts and emotions tied to your traumatic history.

Body Scan Analysis

Following thought implementation, your doctor will monitor your blood pressure, pulse, muscle tension, and brain activity. This monitoring allows for accuracy in detecting stress levels as your doctor asks you to retell the traumatic instances for evaluation.

If any negative emotional indicators are detected in association with the trauma, further bilateral eye movement sessions will be required. If further sessions are needed, this does not mean you have failed. This only further exemplifies that EMDR therapy for your anxiety and emotion-related trauma is working. At this stage, you’ve almost entirely allowed your negative emotions and anxiety to be detached from the memory. Further sessions only mean you’re that much closer to full peace of mind. 

Closure

In this phase, trauma therapy is no longer necessary on a consistent basis. Through magnifying the instilled anxiety suppression techniques, your doctor will instruct you to notate emotional disruption frequency between sessions.

By this point, your altered mental processing through eye pattern exercises has instituted a positive and accurate mindset. This is where you see how far you’ve come. This phase is the most free-minded and enjoyable phase for anxiety therapy. At this stage, your therapist becomes your coach in helping you manage your anxiety on your own. EMDR can bring you to this peak of closure you’ve sought for so long.

Re-assessment

In this final assessment stage of EMDR therapy, your doctor re-evaluates you based on your progress and the overall efficiency of the treatment. Your doctor will reassess your condition to determine whether future sessions are necessary.

EMDR for Addiction Recovery

EMDR for addiction treatment works the same way as it does for anxiety or stress-causing traumatizations. EMDR takes the craving emotion connected to the thought, smell, or image of your stronghold and erases it.

 For addiction, EMDR has found most substance abuse issues are directly linked to trauma. These traumas may not even be fully known or understood until extracted by a caring therapist. 

Through doctor-instructed eye movements, he will train your eye and brain patterns to detach this desirable thought of substance abuse. More importantly, it replaces that craving with a healthier and exponential positivity that removes all desire to indulge. If you struggle with addiction, EMDR therapy may be the most productive method to freeing you from your strongholds.

The Bottom Line

If you have the desire to remove and replace anxiety, stress, and emotional strains that trouble you, EMDR therapy for your anxiety, addiction, and life struggles is the key to unlocking the greatest joys in life. Unlock the doors in your life that have been sealed so long by a struggle that EMDR can help you win. 

Harmony Ridge Recovery Center professionals have the compassion needed to help you soar above your traumatic experiences. Contact Harmony Ridge Recovery Center now to begin the process that will change your life for the better today.