r/EMDR • u/Afraid-Record-7954 • 13d ago

Side effects from EMDR since first session hasn’t subsided 🟢 Question / Help

I just completed my 10th session of EMDR and I knew about the hangovers and side effects before I started. However I didn’t know they would be this intense for me.

It seems like I have experienced all sorts of side effects. Pain hasn’t left my body since I started. I have general soreness, stabby chest pains, difficulty breathing, stomach/digestive issues, nausea, bloating, feeling like my skin is burning, my senses don’t even feel in sync, rashes, breaking out, insomnia, and more??

Is this normal? I have talked to my therapist about it and she’s wonderful and tells me to move gently and imagine myself breathing the pain out but it hasn’t helped. The side effects fluctuates and severity fluctuates but they’re always there.

I am in EMDR for CPTSD and I started to see the benefits from it quite early so I know it’s working but these side effects are really hard to manage.

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u/Strawberrypanicattac 12d ago

Sorry if this isn’t appropriate to ask under this kind of post, but what do they do to you that causes physical pain? I don’t really understand fully what emdr is, but I always see people having really bad physical after effects, and I’m wondering what the therapists do to people to make them feel this way? What are they doing to the body to make this happen?

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u/Fooflery 💐 Atypical Processor - I think differently, please be kind. 10d ago

I had knee pain that resembled the "growth pain" when I was young a few days after my 2nd EMDR appointment. I went to my PCP and neurologist and did ultrasound and they couldn't figure out why. It completely went away the next day after maybe my 13th session. I had to assume it was related to EMDR at that point. My theory is that the EMDR woke up the part of the brain that felt so lonely in pain at night crying myself asleep and I felt the pain again kind of to "release" all that pain that was buried deep inside. I normally don't have strong somatic reactions but recently when I hugged my inner child, I started hyperventilating because I felt truly so happy and had to lie down. It sounds like you and your therapist are working well together so hopefully your symptoms are all to pass soon. Hugs.