r/longtermTRE

I’ve been having the worst few weeks of my life releasing toxic shame. It feels incredibly physically painful where my fascial tension is, like it‘s trying to rip itself apart, and I’m afraid of reaching out to people I know for help because I feel like I’m going to say or do something wrong, or that I’m going to get rejected and abandoned. Every awkward pause or look makes me wither with shame. The thoughts are very convincing, and even grounding and knowing that I am releasing old shame isn’t helping me not get sucked in to the narrative. If anyone has any advice with riding out the shame, please share. Thank you 🙏🏼

For a while i have been tremoring in one area (right hip), but it always feels like im not able to tremor to my full potential. Like an itch i cant scratch.

Since this has been going on for a while and is frustrating, im thinking of getting a professional to adjust/stretch/massage the area.

Has anyone had success with such an approach? What kind of treatment was it? ( I am thinking maybe physiotherapist or osteopath though i dont even know what id tell them).

Edit: to everyone saying to listen to my body - guys, i am, that's the point. My body feels like it wants to release more but can't. Just like an itch is a body sensation. My body feels like it wants someone to dig their nails into my hip socket.

If you're looking for a technique of a nervous system regulation, grounding, integrating or simply finding a healthy balance in life then the most obvious and sometimes overlooked way is being close with a friendly human being and spending some time together. When we share a touch, sit closely, hug, gently rub our arms or share a laugh or other emotion, our nervous systems recalibrate. It lowers stress hormones like cortisol and boosts feel-good chemicals like oxytocin and dopamine. This process slows your heart rate, lowers your blood pressure, and shifts your body from a state of alert into deep rest and safety.

A presence of a supportive friend is a perfect moment to be vulnerable and take off our armour. Unwillingness to reveal the experiences and share the feelings is a common byproduct of a trauma and hacks our healing journey. We should pay attention to that and not get stuck in a habit of keeping the mouth shut. Being an introvert has nothing to do with it.

Then there's all things erotic, but beyond a simple penetration and orgasm. Complementing each other, having a slow touching and massaging session before the main intercourse is hugely beneficial. And then sleep or just a nap in each other's arms.

When we talk, let's not just focus on the words. We need to see our faces, look into the eyes, hear the tone of voice. Look at the hands and whole body movement. And learn to enjoy it. We need to enjoy each other just like a good dog enjoys when we're back home and expresses it without a shame and then wants to be close to us. We're very much the same in this regard.

I just wanted to share some thoughts and hope it helps a bit.

Had two massive emotional releases on back to back days recently. For clarity, I am not practicing TRE right now and haven’t attempted it once in over several months. Despite that these releases showed up.

First day was anger/rage. Second day was sadness. I know some of it was my own expression of these emotions but the majority, on each day, felt foreign to me, like they weren’t my own feelings.

Specifically on the second day while crying and purging all this sadness I said probably over 30 times over the course of this purging, which lasted well over and hour, “we are sorry”. I kept saying that. I didn’t see very vivid images during this but I saw something but couldn’t make out what it was or what it was directly tied to. I was conscious of what was going on but the entire time I felt like I was a mouthpiece for a bunch of other people.

Has anyone directly experienced something similar?

Hey y’all,

I posted before with having trouble getting overwhelmed with the emotions and feeling like I couldn’t integrate properly, especially with having a high stress job.

Two weeks or so ago I started dramatically increasing my integration amount, per some of you guys’ responses.

I’ve been doing at least 20 minutes in the morning and 20 before bed of corpse pose or constructive rest (depending on whether the tremoring will stop). I just do a mindfulness meditation and follow my breath, gently bringing it back when I get off on some thought train.

I also am only weightlifting very light weight and doing walking on an incline more.

My energy’s dramatically improved and I haven’t gotten headaches or anything until today (since I worked through the weekend and haven’t had as much downtime). Still, the burnout feeling isn’t nearly as bad as it was and I’ve been able to tremor longer and longer every few days comfortably.

Just wanted to share the update of what’s worked for me!

Hi,

I tried a follow along TRE with Dr Berceli vid and my results arent the same as what people (in the comments ) saying.

First, I did not shake until towards the end of the video. Second even though I kept going on longer (since my shaking started later) I didn’t feel relaxed or emotional. I just felt irritated then kinda angry and wanted to punch something. Later when I checked the comments people were saying they felt relaxed, emotional, “bawling my eyes out”, etc.

Is this normal? What does feeling angry mean here?

For context, I have AuDHD and CPTSD and I am very bad at standing up for myself. I basically freeze or fawn at the slightest intimidation. My freezing is at comically awkward levels as I just stare at the ground while a person is bullying me, hoping for it to end. I feel this is also blocking me from doing my creative projects as it’s a form of self expression. I feel like I’m always waiting for a trial and punishment. I heard EMDR helps and am looking for a good therapist but meanwhile I want to do more things to help myself while I’m home.

Do any of yall have any recommendations for well explained follow-along videos to get over freezing and fawning (mainly freezing)?

I have practiced TRE and psoas streatching for a while, and I just discovered that magnesium and anti-inflamatory diet helps a lot for integration.

That's why I'd like you guys to share supplements and diet ideas that helped you on your TRE journey.

It can be very usefull for plenty of poeple.

Hi everyone, I just started TRE a few weeks ago and would appreciate some input just in terms of how I'm doing so far and if my pacing sounds about right.

I'm in a good place mentally but have pretty significant and long term muscle guarding throughout my body.

I started off with sessions of about twenty minutes daily (which i now realize was too much) for about four days. I experienced significant tremoring more or less from the start, starting in the legs and then moving to my pelvic region and abdomen. Sessions have always left me feeling good, i.e. now relaxed, quicker to laugh etc. However, I found that the next day or two I felt quite shaky and fragile.

I am now doing 15 minute sessions every three days. I still feel a bit shaky and fragile in the days after a session but it's not too bad, although it does make me feel a bit uneasy.

I'm happy enough with my current practice, but I'm wondering about two things in particular. First, maybe my sessions are still too long and I should cut back? I like to keep them long because this way the throwing goes up towards my back, and shoulders, and most of my pain is concentrated in my shoulder and neck. So I'm kind of desperate to relieve the muscle tension there.

Second, and relatedly, perhaps shorter, daily sessions would be better? Say 10 minutes a day?

After many years of trying everything to feel better, for the first time I've found something that actually seems to be having an effect. So I'm keen to get it right.

Also, if there is anyone on here from Ireland please say hi.

Sorry for the long post!

Hi dear fellow TRE people,

I think I had a breakthrough today. I started TRE in June last year with my provider/therapist. I did it consistently 4-5 times a week a couple of minutes for 8 months. Due to my nervous system I took it easier for a while and since a couple of weeks I do it mostly during my therapy sessions.

Today, it started off slowly in the legs and then when my therapist put pressure on my left shoulder, my upper body started to shake intensely on all kind of ways as well es my left shoulder. Not sure what that all means, but I guess it's a breakthrough and great.

Not sure if that means something, maybe someone has an idea and would like to share it.

Hugs to all of you!

Edit: spelling and question

Hi,
I want to know if one goes for therapies like biodynamic craniosacral therapy, somatic experiencing or Tre , is it safe to do gentle yoga and gentle pranayam along with it daily? I know the somatic practices are conducted by the therapist weekly, biweekly, monthly , but can there be a clash? As sometimes after the session the body will start releasing after 48 hours or after a week and needs time to complete stress response. Doing an activity like pranayama can suppress in the name of regulation something that wants to come out. A therapist’s advice would be the best on it
Thanks :)

I never thought that the body has a rhythm of its own until I learned about Pendulation technique. When we are in stress or trauma, our body gets locked and stay in that state for long or sometimes permanently. External issues breaks the rhythm of our body and forgets to get out of that tensed state. Moving between tension and relief is crucial, so body can learn getting out of the tensed state is also possible.

Or do you just wait 2 days and hope for the best and learn by trial and error if it was too soon?

Edited to add: and should integration feel like anything in particular? Did my first proper session yesterday. Felt a little sad in the evening but that was easily attributable to something that had happened in the day, and today I've felt entirely the same as normal

I've just done my first session with 10 minutes of tremor time. As soon as the tremors started I felt very pleasurable sensations in my penis and it got erect. The sensations persisted throughout the whole session. I'm wondering if this is normal or maybe I am doing something wrong?

Hello everyone, I’m a first time user of this stuff I did one 15 minuite session for my first go had ALOT of shaking going on but after felt no difference ( I thought emotions came out instantly) so I did it the next day for another 15

It was about 48 hours after that then it seemed to of triggered the emotions or it was just coincidence as I now know the emotions are a delayed onset, but it’s been around 3 days now and I just feel so empty and hopeless, also feel really really spaced out from reality like I’m just a shell it’s a really unpleasant feeling, I’m also very sort of anxious, it’s like my brain isn’t getting the emotions but my body is physically feeling them. I just have an awful sadness feeling in my chest. Seem to be getting really worrying violent images in my head almost feels like someone has jumped in my body these last few days it’s not nice at all.Did I over do it for a first time user? And when will this stuff pass? Thank you🙏

So, is it normal to spontaneously tremor? I mean, I'm not trying to do a session, intentionally, and I can feel the tremors kick in, wether sitting, standing, laying. The tremors seem so close to the surface for me, kicking in with the merest of thoughts and the most casual of tune-ins? Is this something that happens in the beginning for some people?

I've been doing TRE since January of this year. I feel like entering the plateau era, where I can feel lots of fascia unwinding along my back, psoas and abdominal/diaphragm areas. However, I've read that it's healthier to take this part slow and let your body have more rest than previous tremors situations.

My problem here is that my abdominal area CONSTANTLY wants to shake, even if I just laugh or cough I can feel my abdomen itching to tremor like my body's life is on the line.

Sometimes I just let it go and it just tremors, often for even longer than an hour. I'm not sure what to do, it's difficult to suppress or to make it stop once it gets going. I want to listen to my body, but I also get the effects of overdoing it often. How should I proceed here? It's like my body is begging to get these abdominal charges out but I also don't want to be catatonic for days at a time. My executive dysfunction on some days is so bad it's difficult to do anything besides shower and lay around. I try to spend time integrating, staying present in the moment, but even when at rest I feel the pull to tremor.

I know it's not great to focus on the cause of the tremor charges, but it's mostly near the navel area so I'm curious if this has to do with infancy trauma from being a C-section baby. I keep having dreams about parental abandonment despite having grown up with obsessive helicopter parents and don't have any clear memories of moments of abandonment.

I guess the main issue here is that the need to tremor in that area is so profound and intense that it's causing me distress in such a way where I just want to tremor constantly and get it out/over with so I can stop feeling the need to do it constantly, lol. Probably not a great way to think about it but it's exhausting to manage it with time for integration.

Would love to share some breakthroughs I had today. I did my 2nd TRE session last night, stopped tremoring right at the edge of when it began to feel a bit uncomfortable. This morning, I immediately noticed several things:

1. My tinnitus is significantly quieter this morning. I've always had on and off tinnitus, but recently getting on an SSRI for my depression/anxiety caused the high-pitched tone to be there nonstop.
2. I made casual small talk with my mother and felt so happy I was able to allow myself to do this. A lot of my CPTSD trauma has to do with resentment against my parents, so this was a major breakthrough. Previously I was so anxious of being in the same space as them that I mostly locked myself in my room to avoid contact.

My SSRI is still currently too low of a dose to be effective at treating my depression. I'm on a sub-therapeutic starting dose because of sensitivity with meds in the past, so I'm pretty convinced this behavioural breakthrough is due to the TRE releasing some active blockages. I wasn't expecting it to work so fast and I'm mostly shocked that I never discovered this practice earlier, would have saved me a lot of grief.

The wiki instructions sound like all tremoring should happen while in the position of lying on your back either in butterfly pose or with your knees together and up. I do feel tremoring in these positions but the wiki says once the tremors start, just relax, and I don't feel like I can relax into those positions. I want to lay my legs flat, but if I do that, the tremors stop. Am I doing something wrong here?

V new to this! When in the butterfly pose my legs definitely do start shaking, I would definitely describe this as a tremor feeling, but also associate it with muscles just shaking because they're in a fatiguing position, same as if you held your arms out straight holding heavy weights for a prolonged time and they start getting wobbly. Is this the right thing, or are the tremors something different?

What kind of music do you use during TRE sessions (if you use any at all)? Have you noticed any effect from the music?