How often does it happen that a seemingly he althy and prosperous person becomes isolated, becomes aggressive or, on the contrary, falls into a state of absolute indifference to everything that happens around. And who has not felt the pressure of an impending depression? This is digging into yourself, breakdowns on others for no particular reason, a feeling of endless loneliness, panic attacks or constant anxiety, loss of interest in life, low self-esteem and much more.
Problems?
But there are more serious psychological problems - the consequences of physical abuse, childhood trauma, unhappy love, loss of loved ones, disasters, accidents, humiliation, pressure and many other mental wounds. These injuries cannot be cured with ointment, plaster, or plaster. It is not customary to talk about them with relatives and friends. And in general, in our country, engaging in mental he alth is considered almost indecent. But if you want to improve your life, find peace and happiness, develop, learn how to achieve your goals and be in harmony with yourself and the world around you, you should start by solving your personal problems.problems. Today there is a proven and effective psychological technique that can be used even at home on your own without he alth risks and wasting time looking for a personal psychotherapist.
DDG method (decryption)
F. Shapiro (USA) at the end of the twentieth century, almost by accident, developed and began to apply in her practice a method that helps people in difficult life situations. She called it "eye movement desensitization and processing." The essence of the method is to reduce the intensity of anxiety from stress by focusing on the rhythmic movements of the eyeballs.
It is interesting that this approach to solving many psychological problems is not initially built on scientific assumptions, but rather arises from personal observations. The difficult experience Francine Shapiro experienced (cancer, shattered dreams, loss of loved ones) and the almost accidentally found way out of stress led to the discovery of this technique. Assumptions about the reason for the effectiveness of the method appeared much later, after long-term observation of patients and obtaining numerous positive results.
What is the method
During therapy, the psychiatrist makes movements with his hand (or pointer), which the patient must clearly follow. While observing the movements, it is necessary to immerse yourself in memories or imagine a disturbing situation, mentally talk with yourself or the person with whom the conflict has arisen (the course of these thoughts is controlled by the doctor, it all depends on the problem thatneeds to be resolved). At first, the sensations are extremely unpleasant, but after about 30 minutes of the first session, panic attacks and fear end and more positive thinking comes to replace it, everything suddenly falls into place, anger goes away and memories no longer bring such pain. To consolidate the result, the procedure is usually carried out several times.
Why it works
The main hypothesis, confirming why the method works, is the idea that there is some kind of not fully understood mechanism for processing any incoming information. Stress, fear, pressure - all this knocks down this mechanism and does not allow it to work fully. And the event that caused psychological trauma remains unprocessed or is not processed to the end. Repetitive eye movements magically adjust the work of this system and mechanically force the psyche to process old information. After this procedure, memories gradually fade, acquiring a neutral color.
Since a person produces similar rapid eye movements only in sleep (during the REM phase), it is assumed that it is this mechanism that reproduces the EMDR method in reality. The decoding of the reason can be any, the only important thing is that it really works.
Where apply
Most often, the EMDR method is used to recover from participation in hostilities, after violence, that is, for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorders. I also often recommend using this type of psychotherapeutic effect forrecovering from physical injuries, dealing with phobias, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
Russian doctor DPDH Kovalev recommends literature and videos. This allows for mild disorders to conduct sessions at home. However, F. Shapiro herself strongly did not recommend conducting EMDR sessions on her own and considered it necessary to have a professional psychotherapist or psychologist.
Method advantages
Speed is one of the main advantages. Usually the number of sessions can be from 1 to 2 (in simple cases) to 6-16 (for severe and neglected situations). Note that for the treatment of PTSD during conventional psychotherapy sessions, it is necessary to visit a doctor twice a week for at least 6 months, with the possible prescription of medications.
The next plus is the lack of medication. There are no risks. In the worst case, the method simply will not bring results.
No patient resistance. Very often, the doctor has to "dig" for a long time to get to the bottom of the problem in ordinary sessions. If you use the DPDH method, the decoding of the therapist is practically not required. During the control of eye movements, the client is either silent and only mentally lives the situation, or answers questions more relaxed and truthful, since part of the consciousness is occupied. Therefore, the patient does not have resistance and fear of a negative assessment by the psychotherapist.
Another plus is the ability to conduct EMDR sessions on your own or with the help of friends and relatives.
Safety
This is nothypnosis, the method does not affect the psyche in any way. Since the client is fully conscious and under the additional control of the doctor, something cannot easily go wrong. The patient can always stop the session if he is not ready to experience the events again today. And the therapist will definitely notice if the level of anxiety is too high, and will help to work on yourself more efficiently and quickly.
The whole procedure is carried out according to the protocol, it is perfected and standardized by leading experts in the field of psychological counseling. This provides additional security and guarantees results.
DDG on your own
Before you start a session at home without the help of a specialist, you must:
- create an atmosphere - remove all unnecessary and tune in to dedicate these 30-90 minutes to yourself;
- find a special video for working out eye movements (it's more convenient if it's just a dot moving along a certain amplitude on a dark screen);
- before starting work, you need to remember in detail or imagine a situation, a person, fear or pain - everything that worries today.
Then you can turn on the video and follow the dot on the screen/pointer/pen cap with your eyes, without moving your head, throughout the session. Think about an exciting situation, mentally ask yourself questions and look for answers, get angry if you want to, try to understand what really happened and that now it does not threaten in any way, determine what goals are today and whatto achieve them you need to do tomorrow.
DDG on your own is not that difficult. And although this technique is still practically not used in our country and is not even included in the standards for the treatment of PTSD, the experience of doctors in Israel, the USA, Great Britain, numerous studies using magnetic resonance imaging prove its effectiveness and safety even for home use.
