#brainspotting

[wahroh]

So don't be closed minded.

[tundrakatiebean]

I’m looking for some opinions/thoughts about something from people with CFS and/or fibromyalgia (especially if you also have psychiatric level trauma I’ll explain)

I’m looking into brainspotting which is kind of an offbranch of EDRM that’s used to treat trauma. Brainspotting was created by David Grant when he altered EDRM treatment in his patients and became a training process in 2003. There’s some differing opinions on whether this is a legitimate treatment or not (which has been true of basically any psychiatric treatment when it’s relatively young).

BUT David Grant claims that he’s been able to treat physical ailments with this method and specifically mentions fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue (also whiplash and head injuries) which strikes me as suspect. It’s pretty well known that folks with childhood trauma are more likely to developed certain physical illnesses like fibromyalgia and CFS but I’m curious about how people with those diagnoses view this treatment and these claims.

[kuntya]

Update: Brainspotting is real.

I have no idea why or how, but today, I got my first ever glimpse of life without executive dysfunction.

[workinprogress14]

In 2023, I started seeing a therapist for the first time. It was all talk therapy, CBT kinda stuff. Did that for a year with relatively little improvement, but when she suggested I check into a mental hospital for evaluation, I switched to a new counselor.

So, 2024, I start seeing my new counselor. We did some EMDR work, but it did NOT go well. It brought up a level of anger in me that was scary and felt uncontrollable. Additionally I had a miscarriage, so there was that trauma to address too, and after a year going to her I just felt stuck.

So last week I tried out a new therapist, a guy this time. I just wanted a total change, really looking for the polar opposite of what I’d had before in a counselor. All of my long lasting or deep friendships tend to be with men, so a male therapist just kinda feels right for me, even though I’m working through miscarriages and sexual trauma. My new therapist’s specialty is brain-spotting. I just had my first session of it on Monday and wow. I SOBBED in this dude’s office, and I’ve never been able to cry with a therapist before. It’s really refreshing to feel optimistic about therapy. It’s good to feel like I’m finally making a little progress again

[tomyfriend]

Brainspotting = staring off into space as a form of coping

[greasy-bangs]

starting brainspotting with my therapist this week - kind of nervous but kind of excited. :)

[dissociativediscourse]

4 and 27 for the ask game

i just did 27 but!

4. How do you experience communication from parts?

it depends on my state of mind and who it is, to be honest. if i’m really out of it, rapid switching especially, sometimes we’ll argue out loud. i’ve had a system friend point out and describe alters to me that she didn’t know about but that were completely on point, some that i didn’t even realize were around during one of these episodes and it was crazy to me. my partner’s good at noticing the differences as well. generally, if there are others very very close, they just might comment on something someone else says out loud, covertly or overtly. lots of arguing with myself 😅

otherwise, i sometimes get “memes”/infographics (not exactly but i call them that) that involve mental images/vibes/words to communicate things, but even more commonly i’ll hear something repeating in a “brain voice/thought voice” that doesn’t sound like my own, that kind of gets louder until/sometimes as i pay attention to it. sometimes a couple others in particular like to make up little songs that honestly help what they’re saying come up more clearly. it’s like i mentally hear (not physically) a tune and it comes with general sounds, and the more i focus on it the more i can “carve out” the words from it.

generally the more i focus on it, the easier it is to understand, but sometimes it does work where if i focus too much/think down a certain path, it’ll just fade and i’ll forget. one thing that helps is letting my eyes drift where they naturally go towards when i focus on it and maybe covering an eye, switching between them to test what works best. i learned that in brainspotting therapy, actually, which is a form of eye movement based trauma therapy that differs from emdr in quite a few ways!

[system-of-a-feather]

Brainspotting Logs (Part 1/?)

So I haven’t been posting much on here other than reblogs and all, but we (I as a part specifically) have started a new treatment / intervention method called brainspotting. There is a lot of stuff to it, but in the most butchered and quick way possible, its a form of treatment kinda similar to EMDR in that it targets emotions / the amygdala without requiring excessive talking and thus is helpful for trauma, but due to brainspotting being less... overwhelming, it is a little better for people with C-PTSD and DID. Don’t take this as a scientific description since I’m just kinda explaining it off the top of my head and all but like, we started it.

It was a lot better than I expected and like, up until it we had a few anxiety attacks and a panic attack or two due to the thought of thinking about trauma. Turns out we weren’t going to get thrown deep into trauma waters immediately which is good. 

Benefits wise, it was more effective than talk therapy. For me specifically, I struggle with talk therapy because I am very very good at talking about things, but not talking about my stuff. So often talk therapy with me is usually me unintentionally burning time on things that are related to but not at all involving my trauma. Brainspotting really lessens the number of opportunities I had to derail or dance around topics since the amount of talking was minimal so, it ended up getting to the point / root of the issue much faster and better

Other than that on day one is was pretty fine. Afterwards I was a bit mentally tired and slowly got a headache, but it was effective

THAT BEING SAID, today I am so painfully and excessively more emotional and reactive which is an expected side effect and it’s honestly kind of really annoying XD It’s not so bad that it is all consuming and I can’t balance it out with my “logical mind” and cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, but GOD do I hate the feeling of anxiety, loneliness, and longing in my body.

It’s an overall good because honestly, I’m very very bad with my emotions and at this point, I’m glad to feel something other than my like 2 default emotions and still be able to like... handle them but god. Bitch ass amygdala be awake I guess.

Anyways, first of many logs to brainspotting experiences. If you don’t wanna see this come up I’ll be tagging them as #Feathers Brainspotting so feel free to block that.

-Riku (Host)