Posted by daisym on December 26, 2005, at 2:05:49
In reply to Is this what normal people do?, posted by happyflower on December 25, 2005, at 18:49:19
I'm not sure I'm the right person to try to answer this because often I feel anything *but* normal...
I don't think anyone sustains intense emotions for significant periods of time. There is an ebb and flow to it. A memory may cause flooding and it feels overwhelming and scary. But when you talk about it, examine it, and sit with it for awhile, the intensity tends to fade a little. And I think sharing anything scary makes it less so because then you aren't alone with it anymore.
It seems reasonable to me that you would feel better after talking things over with your therapist. Has whatever triggered the memory and the dreams been resolved?
I also think it is normal to compartmentalize painful feelings and memories. This way you can move back into your daily life and keep this "thing" over here in the corner until you have the space or energy to look at it again. So it wouldn't surprise me if the intense emotions came back while you were in session. It also seems very normal to me that you wouldn't want to revisit something painful. But I know from experience you need to process it a number of times in order to be done with it.
Good luck with the EMDR!
poster:daisym
thread:592124
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20051216/msgs/592194.html