u/AggressiveCraft6010

I’m 3 months into emdr and these 3 months have been awful for my weight loss. I’ve lost 85lbs recently after i healthed a binge eating disorder and I’ve gained 5lbs back in the last few months. I have about I have about 70lbs for a healthy bmi. It’s freaking me out because I’m more hungry all the time and I want to eat rubbish, I feel too tired to go to the gym often and to the same intensity as I did before. I still stick to my lower calorie meals but my emdr is making me want to eat higher calorie foods, especially in the evening. Has anyone got any advice for this?

3 months into emdr for severe childhood abuse (sexual, physical, emotional and incestual abuse). I have made a number of very positive realisations and my therapist said I process things very quickly. After sessions I feel so fatigued, I’m napping everyday. I want to be alone all the time. I feel weird around others and I’m struggling to mask it. I’m alone in my bed with my rabbit constantly whereas I used to be so outgoing. I feel emotionally depleted and sad all of the time. I’m still functioning, I work full time, I go to the gym regularly (fatigue dependant) and I have a good life. But I feel like I’m going through life in an emdr daze.
Just needed to get this off my chest

I’ve been doing emdr for 2 months, I’m mostly struggling with crazy fatigue. I was addicted to a gaba drug called Phenibut for a while and I had just come off it when I started emdr, however I then relapsed soon after. I take about 2g a day and am trying to reduce however the main thing I think it’s doing to me is to not make me so emotional, however even before taking it I wasn’t very emotional. It otherwise does not really affect me much, I don’t get high at all, I am trying to come off it but it’s hard with the fatigue. I work full time so it’s hard to find time to be able to reduce myself. I have reduced and stopped it a number of times so I don’t need medical intervention. My therapist doesn’t know about my relapse, I feel like I’m not stuck in a lie. She does know about my addiction history though. My main symptom is bad fatigue after sessions, I’m worried that it’s because I’m not very emotional so it’s coming out in physical symptoms. I want to tell her however I’m worried she’s going to see me as a liar, or she will refuse to work with me until I get sober and that will leave me fatigued without improvement and leave a target though unprocessed. I’m worried I have permanently destroyed myself. Emdr has been helpful however, I’ve been able to stop ruminating and I’ve made a number of epiphanies. Ideally emdr could continue while I reduce myself and can be honest with her

Edit: upon reflection, it does not make me emotion less. I have experienced many ups and downs from it

I’ve been doing emdr for 2 months, I’m mostly struggling with crazy fatigue. I was addicted to a gaba drug called Phenibut for a while and I had just come off it when I started emdr, however I then relapsed soon after. I take about 2g a day and am trying to reduce however the main thing I think it’s doing to me is to not make me so emotional, however even before taking it I wasn’t very emotional. It otherwise does not really affect me much, I don’t get high at all, I am trying to come off it but it’s hard with the fatigue. I work full time so it’s hard to find time to be able to reduce myself. I have reduced and stopped it a number of times so I don’t need medical intervention. My therapist doesn’t know about my relapse, I feel like I’m not stuck in a lie. She does know about my addiction history though. My main symptom is bad fatigue after sessions, I’m worried that it’s because I’m not very emotional so it’s coming out in physical symptoms. I want to tell her however I’m worried she’s going to see me as a liar, or she will refuse to work with me until I get sober and that will leave me fatigued without improvement and leave a target though unprocessed. I’m worried I have permanently destroyed myself. Emdr has been helpful however, I’ve been able to stop ruminating and I’ve made a number of epiphanies. Ideally emdr could continue while I reduce myself and can be honest with her

I’ve been doing emdr for about 2 months. My biggest issue is the fatigue, I’m having naps everyday and I often struggle at the gym, I used to go 5 days a week now it is more like 4 times. The last session really ramped up my fatigue, I needed days off work where I lay in bed and taking 2-3 naps a day. I’ve barely gone to the gym. The fatigue got a bit better after 1 week but then I think I had a breakthrough on my own and it’s back, bad. Is this normal levels of fatigue? I’m worried that I will never be the same again. It’s pretty significant trauma I’m processing and I’m not a very emotional person so I feel like the processing is mostly coming out in physical symptoms

I’m doing emdr for some pretty significant life long traumas. I’ve been doing it 3x a month for almost two months. Things haven’t been as bad as I expected emotionally but physically it’s awful. In incredibly fatigue. I don’t sleep amazingly but my night sleep has slightly increased but in the day I have to nap up to 3x some days, usually 1-2 times a day but even then I’m sometimes too fatigued to do anything even when I’ve had a nap. Sometimes I feel too fatigued to walk far distances some days. I’ve lost 80lbs with gym and exercise and I struggle with keeping my 4-5 day a week gym routine, I either can manage the gym or can’t some days, no in between. My fatigue normally starts 2 days after emdr and it’s combined with cramping of the neck, jaw or shoulders. Is this normal?

I’ve been doing emdr since early June, I’ve had about 6 sessions. I’ve had pretty significant life long trauma however it has not been as bad as I thought thus far. My main symptom is the fatigue. The fatigue normally hits about 2 days after. I work full time. I need to have a nap everyday and I have never been a nap person and the naps really disrupt my day, some days short distances are too tiring to manage. I go to the gym 4 days a week, I used to do 5 but I’m just so tired all of the time and sometimes I don’t go. Any advise?

My best friend of almost 10 years became psychotic in my flat randomly 2 - 3 years ago. The last 2 years consisted of multiple lengthy hospital stays for psychosis, multiple police interactions, subsequent breakdowns of relationships. He was very scary. I checked on him all the time and would visit him in hospital regularly. Now he’s on the right meds, he’s stable however he’s not right. He has severe self neglect, he smells awful. I was a ward nurse for a number of years so I can cope with bad smells, but he smells terrible. I’ve tried to help him in many way and support him with therapy but he declines. He’s not been there for me when I’ve needed him.

I developed ptsd from his psychosis and I’m currently undergoing emdr for this, along with other traumas. I used to be a regular poster on this sub asking for help however in the last year, things have got better. I’ve developed a good career, I’m on a fitness journey, I was binge eating to cope with my feelings when he was unwell and gained a lot of weight but I’ve lost 80lbs. I’ve got a lot of new friends.

As bad as it sounds, I’m ready to leave him behind. We can’t hang out like we used to, I can’t go to his place due to the self neglect. He can’t come in my car, come to my home, go on trips and meet my friends because of the self neglect smell. The smell is very significant, whenever I’m out with him people stare at us. And every time we hang out, he is stagnant in his life when I’m doing all this amazing stuff and it makes me feel guilty and sad for him. He used to not message me at all but now he’s messaging me constantly to try and find a time to hang out. We don’t have a friendship anymore because I became a carer for him a long time ago. I loved him before he was unwell but things have just changed. He doesn’t have many friends other than me. Any advice?

In the last 7 months I went from 270+ lbs to 188lbs through diet and excersises (30, 155cm). At the start my resting heart rate was 70-80s, now it’s in the 50s because of how fit I am. In the last 4 months I went from metabolic age from 37 to 23. I know metabolic rate doesn’t mean anything really but it’s a nice improvement. I could barely walk when I started and now I’m onto 35+minutes in the stair master at level 7, 5 times a week. I have no cardiac condition so it’s a nice proof of a change in my health

I’m 30 now. I was into agre when I was young but i pushed it down for years due to trauma. More recently I met a guy that helped bring little me out again. She felt so seen and so cared for. It has been casual for a couple of months now and I wouldn’t want to date him as we are not compatible. More recently he hasn’t been responding to my messages much, he’s genuinely really busy with his work but I refuse to believe he’s too busy to respond. Whilst I know he has no responsibility to text me back, little me is feeling rejected. She’s been able to come out for the first time in a long long time and she is feeling unwanted. I’m not sure what to do, I kind of wanna take a break from this. I don’t know if my feelings a valid either. I’m worried if I say anything, he will end things and then little me will not be able to come out again.

I’ve done 3 sessions of endr. The first and second session was okay after but the middle was brutal. I’ve been through a lot of trauma but I think I am well adjusted considering. I’m running out of negative thoughts to try and process, which is the way me and my emdr therapist work on. I’ve processed 2 negative beliefs in 3 sessions. My issue is, if I don’t have any negative beliefs yet I still have multiple traumatic memories to process, what is the step going forward as considering my history, I need more than just 3 sessions.

I’ve just woke up from a nightmare so sorry if this is all over the place.

I had some pretty severe abuse as a child and I am on my first full session of emdr. I had one session a couple months back which was fine, after a few weeks I realised I no longer ruminated on my trauma and I was more open to being around others. I had one full session about 5 days ago. I’ve felt fatigued and just the normal symptoms which is all manageable. The main issue is the deep deep depression. Suicidal ideation is bad and whilst I would never act upon it, I cannot stop thinking about it. It feels like life is not worth living and it’s all so pointless. I feel so alone but I don’t want to see or speak to anyone. I want to use drugs all the time and I will have a drink (not to intoxication) every evening. I think about self harming. I’m not even depressed about anything specific, I just feel devastatingly sad. I lie in bed and stare at a wall thinking about how unhappy I am.

I don’t know if I can do this for god knows how long I need to do it for.

I am still functioning very well on the outside, I am doing well at my job and continuing at the gym despite finding it harder from fatigue but I just can’t stop the deep sadness. Please someone tell me it gets easier the more sessions you do.

I’ve just started emdr less than 2 days ago. I usually go to the gym 5 days a week, 35 minutes of stair master and then weight training. I realise now that I need to be a bit less high intensity with my workouts but I’m currently struggling with even a couple minutes. I’m worried this will be a long term issue as I do emdr especially as I used exercise to lose 75lbs. At what point did the gym get a bit easier to manage? It’s also made me horribly affected by my body image like the treadmill is right by the mirror and I can’t bear to look at myself whereas I was not like that before, in fact quite the opposite

30 years old female. Cptsd from all types of abuse from my father and just had my first full emdr session. I had one mini session about 1 month ago which was completely fine, in fact I left there feeling good and we were gonna wait some time before a full as I was going away. I noticed many life improvements over this time. Today I had my first full session and it’s hit me like a tonne of bricks. I feel so fatigued, so fatigued that I only managed 5 minutes at the gym before leaving and I’m too tired to walk. I’m crying often when I usually never cry. I feel so sad even though I’ve just come back from holiday where I legitimately had the best week of my life, to where I’m getting suicidal ideation and self harm thoughts, although would not act upon them. Most strong feeling is the feeling of being hideous. I can’t stop thinking about how hideous I am. I know I’m not though usually and I always get compliments on the way I look but I can’t stop thinking about how fat, ugly and hideous I am. How no one will love me because of the way I look. How unfair it is that this man had caused my life to be hell for the fist 27 years. I don’t know if I can cope with this for multiple sessions.

I’m 29, female, 5ft 1 and went from 270 to 195 from November 2025 naturally. I expected people to be nicer to me when I lost weight. I’ve always thought I was relatively quite attractive as a bigger girl cos I have a nice face. Since losing weight so quickly it’s messing with my head. Everyone is nicer to you and respects you. People are happy to speak to you. Men will just start chatting to you or they will look at you like an object

I look at myself and I still see me at 270lbs. My body image is awful, I compare myself to everyone around me and I assume I’m the biggest in the room when I’m not. I’m constantly body checking. I don’t recognise myself in pictures. I’m constantly thinking about my weight, the trauma of being so morbidly obese from a binge eating disorder I feel like I had no control over. I’m constantly thinking about my loose skin and the surgery I’m gonna get.

I’m losing weight healthily with gym and diet, albeit quickly. I’ve always had a binge eating disorder, but I feel like more recently I almost feel like this is developing into something more obsessive or restrictive? People notice that I’ve been more grumpy recently. Anyone else experienced similar?

I’m 29, female. My best friend of almost 10 years developed psychosis 2 years ago. What came after that was me having to care for him, multiple friendship breakdowns due to it, binge eating to manage my trauma and I’m covering the trauma in emdr. He was extremely scary and he could be violent.

2 years on he’s stable, on the right medication. Main issue is the self neglect. He gets his clothes washed for him either by his mum or the hospital when he was last hospitalised. He goes easily 6 months wearing the same unwashed clothes. He’s under adult social care for his self neglect in his flat. The smell is very strong. I’m pretty put together and when I’m out with him, it looks like I’m dating a homeless man. And although peoples opinions shouldn’t matter, the stared affect me. I’ve spoken to him about this a number of times. I have told him he cannot come into my new car as the smell is distracting on the road, however I’ve driven him a couple times for more emergency related issues. I have had to not invite him on holidays because the smell is so significant. He himself washes, but he does not wash his clothes. I am constantly encouraging him or giving him new clothes to wear.

In the last year I’ve grown apart from him. I’ve worked really hard to find new friends and I’m very active now. I’ve been really avoiding him because I can’t cope with the smell. I can’t invite him to things with my new friends because of the smell. The smell affects my interactions with him because when I’m around him, it’s hard to think of anything else. I feel guilty about it, he is very grateful about me having to care for him but regardless, I just can’t cope with it. Any advice?

I had one season of emdr 6 days ago. We only did a very small session as I was not ready to open the sexual abuse box until after my holiday. I felt good about the session and I felt light and happy. when I left the place. I restart in a month. I’ve felt fine until today. I’m super brain fogged, I feel so tired even though I slept well for me. I feel weird. I am more unhappy about my body. Super dissociated. I don’t feel normal. Is this post emdr symptoms. I’m at work and I’m really struggling. I’m wondering if this is because my period may start soon but I just feel like it’s different. I feel on the verge of crying when I literally never cry