Can EMDR Therapy Help With Anxiety?

Anxiety is the most common mental condition in the United States, plaguing 40 million adults every year. It can be broadly defined as excessive worry without a rational cause. Anxiety can be extremely distressing to the person experiencing it, thus significantly reducing their quality of life. There are many treatments for anxiety out there, from medication to therapy to yoga, but which one of them is best for you? Keep reading to find out.

What Causes Anxiety?

Anxiety is often a genetic condition, but that does not mean that it is untreatable or inevitable. It does mean that you are more likely to develop anxiety if it runs in your family. Anxiety causes the body to produce elevated levels of adrenaline and cortisol, which can lead to chronic illnesses. Generally, causes of anxiety can be broken down into two categories: negative thoughts and biological threat responses.

Top-Down Anxiety

Negative thoughts lead to top-down anxiety, so named because it comes from our thinking brain (the neocortex) and down into the body. Pessimism, guilt, and perfectionism are common in top-down anxiety, which results from constant mental rumination.

Bottom-Up Anxiety

Bottom-up anxiety originates in the lower or “lizard” part of the brain – the one outside of our conscious control and is a reaction to something this part of the brain perceives as mortal danger. With bottom-up anxiety, people are easily startled and can’t think clearly when anxious.

What Are The Different Types of Anxiety?

Anxiety comes in many “flavors.” While all types of anxiety have both components, top-down anxiety can be divided into generalized, social, and obsessive-compulsive anxiety, and bottom-up consists of panic, phobia, and traumatic anxiety.

Generalized Anxiety

This is what most people think of as anxiety: a seemingly unexplained feeling of dread and a near-constant sense of being on edge. Worrying about the past (“Did I turn off the stove?”), the present (“The car is going to crash!”) and the future (“I’ll surely fail that exam.”) is a feature of generalized anxiety.

Social Anxiety

Living in constant fear of having to interact with other humans is referred to as social anxiety. It is characterized by worrying about being judged, disliked, or embarrassed in social settings. People with social anxiety usually feel incredibly self-conscious and avoid putting themselves in situations where they have to interact with others, especially strangers.

Obsessive-Compulsive Anxiety

Obsessive-compulsive anxiety refers to having unwanted thoughts and behaviors arising out of fear of something bad happening. Being obsessed with germs and constantly washing your hands is a sign of obsessive-compulsive anxiety. People with this type of anxiety have to repeat these “rituals” or face an increasing sense of panic.

Panic

Panic is an episode of intense anxiety that comes on unexpectedly and repeatedly. It may be accompanied by chest pain, increased heart rate, shortness of breath, or intestinal distress. People who get panic attacks live in constant fear of having another one as it produces a feeling of having a heart attack.

Phobic Anxiety

Phobic anxiety refers to having a phobia, or an irrational fear of an object, a particular setting, or a person/animal. Anything can serve as a cause of phobia as it is usually formed after having a negative experience with the object of fear, no matter how benign. For example, cibophobia is a fear of bread, and anthophobia is a fear of flowers.

Traumatic Anxiety

Traumatic anxiety, common in posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD, is a result of experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event. The event does not have to be objectively life-threatening, only to be seen as such by the victim. For example, bullying is usually not a life-or-death situation, but it can lead to PTSD and traumatic anxiety.

What Are Some Anxiety Treatments?

Just like anxiety itself, anxiety treatments can be broken down into top-down and bottom-up approaches. Top-down treatments, like cognitive behavioral therapy or acceptance and commitment therapy focus on changing your negative thoughts or helping you “unhook” from them.

Bottom-up anxiety treatments include using the body as a vessel for healing. Sensorimotor therapy, somatic experiencing, and yoga are examples of bottom-up treatments. Unsurprisingly, best results tend to come from combining the two approaches, which is accomplished with EMDR therapy.

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy is a treatment that uses eye movements along with other types of stimulation to ease distressing symptoms. EMDR therapy focuses on sensations in the body and on thoughts and beliefs, treating anxiety from top down and bottom up at the same time.

How Can EMDR Therapy Help with Anxiety?

Originally developed for treating trauma and PTSD, EMDR has now been shown to be an effective anxiety treatment. EMDR begins by exploring your history of anxiety and related memories in detail and continues with gradually desensitizing you to these memories and installing new, positive beliefs about yourself.

Sounds too good to be true? EMDR therapy is one of the better-researched treatments out there and is recognized by the World Health Organization, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Psychiatric Association and many other national and international organizations.

Can EMDR Therapy Help with All Types of Anxiety?

EMDR therapy has been shown to work for panic, phobias, PTSD, performance anxiety, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and even “existential angst,” which is common in today’s day and age. Once again, because of its focus on both body and mind, EMDR therapy seems to address all causes of anxiety at once, successfully bringing a feeling of peace to those who use it.

What Is It Like to Get EMDR Therapy for Anxiety?

The Setup

As mentioned, an EMDR therapist will begin by getting a full history of memories at the root of your anxiety. Can’t remember anything specific? Don’t worry, the EMDR therapist has tools and training to help you identify important points in time that set anxiety in motion.

Often, you will first develop some positive coping techniques in EMDR therapy before delving into processing those distressing memories. These involve creating a container for negative sensations and a calm place where you can escape stress.

The Processing

Once you are ready to dive in, your EMDR therapist will ask you to focus on an image, an emotion, a body sensation, and a thought while directing you to move your eyes side to side or activating buzzers held in each hand, depending on the kind of stimulation you prefer.

You will not need to go into detail about each memory, which could be embarrassing and distressing on its own. You only have to share the worst image that comes to mind and the feelings in your body as you think of that image. That is a lot less invasive than some other therapies that require you to talk extensively about disturbing memories and thoughts.

The Results

While outcomes of treatment can never be guaranteed, you can typically expect to feel calmer, more at peace, and more confident following several successful EMDR therapy sessions. You will start developing positive thoughts and beliefs about yourself and future situations you may be in. That feeling of dread will likely be replaced by a pleasant lightness and a more optimistic outlook on life.

And those distressing memories? You will still remember them, but you will no longer be disturbed by them. Whether it was a terrifying encounter with a threat to life or an embarrassing social faux pas, worrying about it will no longer be a regular part of your day. You will be able to move on without being stuck in the past. A peaceful neutrality will replace anxiety and dread.

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Want to try it for yourself? We offer EMDR therapy both in-person and online - please reach out for details.