DBR induces anxiety attacks.

[GoSlash27]

All,
 Every time I do a DBR session, I find myself in a constant state of anxiety afterwards for days. It's like a slow adrenaline leak. It screws up my sleep, my ability to concentrate, and my appetite.

 Is this common? Is this going to happen every time?

 Best,
-Slashy

[Chart]

Hey GoSlash, I have done three sessions of DBR and didn't have the reaction you just described. For me it was very positive during and after. I had a great sense of relief each time. But as with all the techniques I've tried, the effects were not permanent and my anxiety and flashbacks always returned. I stopped for financial reasons. (I can only afford self-techniques for the moment, but nonetheless I like the control aspect of doing things on my own.) That being said, I have applied for therapeutic aid (I'm in France) and that will start in a month or so. That'll be without cost, but also I'll have zero choice of my therapist. And I'm preparing myself to get someone without much knowledge of current trauma treatment techniques in the US and Canada. Certainly no knowledge of the term Cptsd... I've found one therapist in France who knows the term, and she's  German! (That's the dbr therapist I had... video sessions... 75€ a session (Sorry I'm monologuing!)

I'm gonna suggest an idea regarding your anxiety being provoked by the DBR. But please take this as something with only the experience of personal work. I've not studied anything psychological formally. That being said, here's an idea: Maybe you are going too fast. I found the dbr I did really intense, but I always dealt with memories that I had already worked on, sometimes even worked on a lot. Are these new memories? New triggers? Things that didn't really trigger in the past? If this is the case then you're dealing with A LOT of stuff all at once. So your right brain might be overloaded. Hence the strong anxiety reactions. Maybe talk with your dbr therapist and see if there are things to do to "ease" the follow-up intensity.

But! and again this is just my opinion, the anxiety is also indicating some pretty strong "movement". And personally I take that as a good sign.

But (again), as Harry says, "A man's got to know his limitations..." Too much is too much and we each have to decide what we can take. Cptsd is no time to start feeling macho. I've just found myself curled up in a fœtal position sucking my hands and sobbing uncontrollably too many times to take any more extreme risks with my IC.

For me it's the turtle philosophy: slow but steady is gonna get me where I want to be. (A lot of people on the forum have told me the same as well.)

Hope that can help. Sending a bucket of support! -chart

[GoSlash27]

Chart,
"Are these new memories? New triggers? Things that didn't really trigger in the past? If this is the case then you're dealing with A LOT of stuff all at once. So your right brain might be overloaded. Hence the strong anxiety reactions."
 Every time I do this, it unlocks new memories, but they're innocuous. Memories that I *use* to start the session are recent, but directly tied to either the trauma itself or results of it.
" Maybe talk with your dbr therapist and see if there are things to do to "ease" the follow-up intensity. "
 Yeah, I plan on doing that this week.

Thanks,
-Slashy

[Kizzie]

I find therapy seems to work best when it is titrated and you have learned the skills to tolerate what comes up so perhaps your T is going too fast and hard? I have not done DBT but if it's causing all that anxiety then perhaps you need to talk with your T about slowing down or switching to a different approach. In the end it's your choice.

[Papa Coco]

Slashy,

I've never experienced DBR therapy. I had to look it up on Google just now to even see what it is. My first thought is: If the events caused a traumatic response when they happened the first time, then it makes sense to me that they would initiate a similar traumatic response when they start to come out of hiding.'

We hide away our memories because our brains don't think we can handle the trauma when it happens. So when we take those memories out of their hiding place, they might bring that trauma out with them??? These are just my own personal theories.

I liked Chart's suggestion to take it slow. If we can take our trauma triggers out slowly, we can deal with them in a more controlled timeline. If we try too hard and take out too many trauma triggers at once, it might just retraumatize us all over again.

THESE ARE ONLY MY PERSONAL CURIOUSITIES: I am not an expert on how trauma heals. I'm just another survivor trying to make sense of a series of triggers that don't seem to heal as quickly as I would like them to.

[GoSlash27]

All,
 I think I've identified the root of the problem. I stumbled across this short video today regarding DBR:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYSpCbH2S6g

 I definitely recognize the process of addressing the 'orienting' response, but we haven't focused on the 'shock' response at all. I have felt and noticed the shock in these sessions (it's quite severe) but we haven't focused on it in context.
 If I understand this video correctly, it's just as important.
 So I go home after the session with the shock unaddressed and with the anticipation of the panic attack that is surely to follow, but with no way to process it on my own.
 Pretty sure that's what's going on. 

 I'll discuss it with my T on Thursday and see if we can make some changes.
 
 

[Kizzie]

That sounds like it could be it Slashy.  When I had EMDR the first two times, the T did not do any grounding work with me and I was really badly triggered and did not try it again for several years.  I found a good EMDR T then and it went quite well. 

What my take away from these experiences says is that it's important for us to know something about the approach/model the T is using.

[Papa Coco]

That's a good thought, that you're focus is not aimed more on the shock end of it.

I can say that my therapist is focused very, very intently on the shock end of it. That used to frustrate me, because I wanted to know how it happened. In a way, I wanted to know what past events to blame today's distresses on. I felt like I needed to know the details so I could "intellectually" control and repair the damage.

But he would tell me it was not important that I ever remember any of the abuse at all. That the true healing wasn't really helped by knowing the details of how it happened. He has always believed that healing is in addressing how it's affecting me today. In fact, when I come to his office in a triggered state, he says those are the days when we can do the best work. And if I become triggered while I'm in his office, he immediately focuses on the shock end of it. While I'm triggered, my damaged IFS parts are more accessible, and we are better able to work with them for better healing.

I now see how his theory has benefitted me. I've stopped feeling any need at all to find out what happened and how it caused my lifelong Emotional Distresses. I now see that when he and I can talk with the broken parts within me, we are able to help each one of them heal. It's important that we know how they are suffering, but it's not so important that we know how it started.

It's been helpful for me. I'm not frustrated anymore about wondering how this all happened. It's making it easier for me today to live in the present moment, whereas I've always been firmly stuck in the past. I feel like I've been able to forgive a LOT of people who I no longer am angry at. It turns out that it didn't serve me to focus on how it happened. It does serve me to focus on how to love the IFS parts who are still with me today.