People with anxiety are often met with messages to “just calm down” or “you’re overthinking it.” If you’ve heard this before, you already know how unhelpful or even frustrating it can be. Anxiety isn’t something you can turn on and off. For many teens and young adults, anxiety is more than a general nervousness. It takes over your body, sending you through a loop of worries and making it hard to stay present in your daily life.
EMDR is a tool that can help manage anxiety, exploring it on a deeper level and teaching you how to breathe through stressful moments.
What Does Anxiety Feel Like?
Anxiety shows up differently for each person. You may experience a racing heart rate before taking a test. Maybe you replay conversations over and over again from days ago, convincing yourself you said something wrong. It might just be a low hum of dread that you can’t explain, but it interferes with your normal life.
The common thing among these experiences is an overactive threat response. Your brain has been trained to believe that the world isn’t safe. So it stays on guard, always scanning the room for danger, even when no immediate threat is present. It becomes exhausting and takes a toll on your overall well-being. Positive thinking alone won’t shift the processes going on in your brain.
What Is EMDR and How Can It Help?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy approach that was originally used to treat trauma and PTSD. In practice, it’s been found to be effective for anxiety, especially that which is rooted in past experiences, as opposed to present situational circumstances.
When something stressful happens, the brain stores those memories ineffectively, causing them to become stuck. Any memory of the event remains raw and holds an emotional charge that controls you in a sense. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, generally side-to-side eye movements or tapping, to help the brain reprocess those stuck memories so their emotional charge lessens.
EMDR differs from traditional talk therapy methods, focusing more on helping your nervous system close the loop of the stress response.
Why EMDR Works Well for Anxious Teens and Young Adults
Anxiety is pretty common in young people, often tied to specific experiences. It could be a harsh comment from a caregiver or a social situation that went poorly. It could be the result of a relationship that delivered a blow to your sense of self-worth. Any of these situations can influence how you interact with your environment long after they’ve happened.
EMDR can help dive down to the root of your anxiety. It looks beyond just giving you coping skills to manage your symptoms in the moment. By targeting the underlying memories and beliefs that are fueling anxiety, it shifts the treatment course a bit.
If you’ve explored other therapy approaches before or haven’t seen the benefits you were hoping for, EMDR is a good alternative way to tap into areas that talk therapy alone couldn’t quite reach.
What to Expect
EMDR isn’t necessarily a fast fix for your symptoms, but it does work on a shorter scale compared to other methods. Early sessions are about building rapport and feeling safe in your therapy environment. You’ll work with your therapist to identify the specific memories that you’d like to target during the process. The actual reprocessing work happens gradually and at a pace that you’re comfortable with.
Ready to Learn More About EMDR?
If anxiety has been taking control of your well-being, you don’t have to continue to struggle alone. EMDR can help you get to the root of what’s driving it and make productive shifts in your daily life. Browse our site for more information and reach out to discuss anxiety therapy or EMDR therapy at Care Concepts.