Alcohol and drug addiction often stem from a traumatic experience. When someone experiences a traumatic incident, they may attempt to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol in order to rid themselves of the pain they may be experiencing. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, therapy can help to alleviate the emotional pain and other mental health issues a person may be experiencing due to trauma. In turn, when EMDR therapy treats the underlying mental health issue, drug and alcohol addictions can be eliminated.

Our therapists and counselors at Seacrest Recovery Center understand the need for a dual-diagnosis approach to treating alcohol and drug addiction. Clients who have underlying mental health issues may have turned to drugs and alcohol to treat these issues, like depression and anxiety. Often, depression and anxiety can be caused by a traumatic event that has occurred. Many times, our veterans come home suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and turn to drugs or alcohol to help alleviate the negative emotions they are experiencing. EMDR can help reduce those negative emotions and treat the depression and anxiety they are causing.

Addiction recovery has been, unfortunately, a revolving door for some people. Traumatic events that have occurred in the past can block true recovery for some clients. EMDR therapy can remove this trauma roadblock and allow clients to achieve lifelong recovery from their additions.

When a traumatic event occurs, the event can be relieved over and over through thoughts and memories. EMDR therapy helps people to stop reliving the traumatic event through images, scents, and feelings. The event is not removed from the memory, but the effect is that it is less upsetting.

EMDR therapy encompasses different phases of treatment. Although EMDR therapy patients typically notice a faster recovery than those in traditional therapy, the length of the therapy varies between clients. The amount of time it takes for a successful outcome is dependent on when the trauma occurred, the severity of the trauma, and the length of time the event has been causing issues.

The first sessions of EMDR establish a client’s history and install a safe place to go in the client’s memory using the bilateral eye movement. A resource or skill is also chosen from a list by the client to be installed using the eye movement. These first sessions will facilitate the later sessions in removing the negative thoughts associated with the trauma.

During an EMDR session, clients are asked to focus on a disturbing memory. They are asked to identify a negative belief they have about themselves in connection with the memory. Clients are then asked to identify a positive belief they would like to have attached to this memory. Clients are asked to attend to the memory as a whole, in short doses, while moving their eyes from side to side, usually watching the therapist’s finger, or turning toward a quiet noise on each side. The new, positive beliefs are then encompassed into the client’s thoughts. A typical session lasts an hour.

EMDR is believed to work in the same way REM dream induced sleep does. Dreams are thought to be a method the brain uses to work through stressors and anxieties. EMDR uses similar eye movement to work through trauma while conscious, instead of sleeping.

EMDR seeks to help with past events, current circumstances, and future goals. By eliminating the negative beliefs associated with past trauma, the effects of this trauma on current thoughts and feelings is lessened and the client is free to have positive feelings in the future.

When the negative effects of trauma are eliminated for our clients, their outlook for recovery becomes that much brighter. EMDR therapy can help our clients remove this roadblock and alleviate the need for a negative coping mechanism, like drugs and alcohol.

Our facility, located in South Florida, employs therapists specialized in using EMDR treatment to assist in alcohol and drug abuse recovery. Seacrest Recovery Center is a small, private facility that accepts many private health insurance plans.