Anxiety sometimes develops after a frightening, painful, or overwhelming experience. Even though the event is over, the brain and body can continue responding as though the danger is still present. A car accident may leave someone terrified of driving. A frightening medical experience may lead to intense health anxiety. An assault may cause someone to feel unsafe around strangers or in certain locations. Memories, images, sounds, physical sensations, or situations that resemble the original experience can trigger anxiety long after the actual danger has passed. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of psychotherapy designed to help people process distressing experiences so that memories of the past have less power over their emotions in the present.
Traumatic memories can feel different from ordinary memories. You can remember an upsetting event from years ago and know intellectually that it is over, yet your body may react as if it is happening again. Your heart may race, your muscles may tighten, your stomach may feel unsettled, and you may experience an intense urge to escape. Some people experience intrusive memories, nightmares, or flashbacks, while others become anxious whenever something reminds them of what happened. As a result, they may begin avoiding people, places, activities, conversations, or situations associated with the traumatic experience.
During EMDR, a therapist helps the person briefly focus on aspects of a distressing memory while simultaneously engaging in what is known as bilateral stimulation. This commonly involves moving the eyes from side to side by following the therapist’s fingers or another visual target. Alternating sounds or taps may also be used. The person is not expected to erase the memory or convince themselves that the event wasn’t upsetting. Instead, EMDR is intended to help the brain process the memory so that recalling it becomes less emotionally and physically distressing.
As the memory is processed, the person’s response to it may begin to change. An image that once produced overwhelming fear may become less vivid or disturbing. Physical anxiety may decrease, and beliefs connected to the trauma, such as “I’m not safe,” “I’m helpless,” or “Something terrible is going to happen again, ”may lose some of their strength. The person can still remember what happened, but the memory increasingly feels like something that happened in the past rather than a danger occurring in the present.
EMDR has been studied most extensively as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and it may also be helpful when anxiety is strongly connected to distressing or traumatic experiences. For people whose anxiety continues to be fueled by experiences from the past, EMDR can help reduce the emotional impact of those memories so they no longer exert the same influence over life in the present.
