Can EMDR Cause Temporary Anxiety?

Can EMDR Cause Temporary Anxiety?

Short Answer: Yes. It is possible to feel temporarily anxious during or after an EMDR session. EMDR often involves focusing on experiences that already bring up uncomfortable thoughts or feelings, so some anxiety can naturally come up as you work through them. For most people, this is temporary. Other people feel calmer during or after EMDR and do not notice any temporary increase in anxiety at all.

Key Takeaways

• Some people notice temporary anxiety during or after EMDR, while others do not.
• Anxiety can come up because EMDR asks you to briefly focus on material that already feels upsetting or stressful.
• A temporary increase in anxiety does not automatically mean the session went badly or that EMDR is making your anxiety worse overall.
• You can slow down, pause, or stop if the level of discomfort is more than you want to continue with.
• Temporary anxiety during a session is different from an overall increase in anxiety.

Why Anxiety Can Come Up During EMDR

EMDR involves bringing a distressing memory, thought, image, feeling, or body sensation to mind while using bilateral stimulation. Depending on what you choose to focus on, some anxiety can naturally be present because the material itself is associated with stress or fear.

For example, if you are working with a memory of an embarrassing event, a frightening experience, a painful breakup, or a situation that still makes you nervous, thinking about it can briefly bring some of those feelings closer to the surface. The anxiety is not necessarily a new reaction caused by EMDR. It can be part of the emotional response already connected with the experience.

EMDR is structured differently from simply sitting with an upsetting memory. Your attention moves between the target and the bilateral stimulation, with repeated opportunities to notice what changes. The level of distress can rise, fall, or shift as the process continues.

Temporary Anxiety Does Not Happen to Everyone

Temporary anxiety is not something everyone experiences during EMDR. People respond differently.

Some people notice anxiety while focusing on a difficult target. Some notice other emotions instead. Others feel relatively calm throughout the session or notice their distress decreasing fairly quickly.

There is no required emotional reaction that shows EMDR is working. You do not need to become anxious, cry, feel intensely emotional, or have a dramatic response for a session to be meaningful.

Can Anxiety Continue After the Session?

Sometimes a person can still feel a little unsettled or anxious after an EMDR session. This can happen when the material they were working on is still on their mind or when the session brought attention to feelings they had not been thinking about immediately beforehand.

That does not mean the anxiety will keep increasing. The feeling can ease once attention returns to normal activities and the immediate emotional intensity of the session passes.

If you notice anxiety after a session, it can help to distinguish between a temporary emotional response and your overall pattern of anxiety. Feeling more anxious for a short period after focusing on something distressing is different from concluding that EMDR has made your anxiety worse in general.

What Temporary Anxiety Can Feel Like

Temporary anxiety does not have to be dramatic. It can be as simple as feeling a little tense, restless, nervous, or more aware of the memory you were working on.

You might notice that your thoughts are moving quickly or that you feel more emotionally alert for a while. If anxiety was already part of the issue you were addressing, you might simply notice it more clearly during the session because your attention is focused on it.

EMDR involves paying attention to internal experiences, so thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations that were already present can become easier to notice during the session.

The intensity can also vary within the same session. You might notice anxiety when you first bring something to mind, feel it settle as your attention shifts, and then notice it again when another part of the experience comes up. These changes do not have to follow a predictable pattern. What you notice can depend on the particular memory, thought, or situation you are focusing on and how strongly it affects you at that moment.

Does Feeling Anxious Mean You Chose the Wrong Memory?

Not necessarily. A memory can matter precisely because it still brings up some emotion. Feeling anxiety when you focus on it does not automatically mean you made a poor choice.

At the same time, you are not required to keep working with a target simply because you started. If the material feels more difficult than you want to work on at that moment, you can pause, choose something less intense, or return to it another time.

What to Do If Anxiety Comes Up During a Session

First, notice what is happening without assuming that something has gone wrong. Anxiety is an emotion, and noticing it during work on an anxiety-linked memory can be understandable.

If the feeling remains manageable, you may choose to continue and see how it changes. EMDR sessions are designed around repeatedly checking what you notice rather than forcing a particular response.

If you do not want to continue at that level of discomfort, slow down or pause.

The goal is not to tolerate as much anxiety as possible. The goal is to work with the material at a pace that feels manageable to you.

Anxiety Can Change During an EMDR Session

Anxiety does not always stay at the same level throughout an EMDR session. You might notice it increase for a while when you focus on something upsetting, then decrease or change as you continue working with it.

You may also notice that the feeling itself changes. Something that initially feels like anxiety might shift into sadness, anger, relief, or a different thought or memory. In other cases, the anxiety simply becomes less intense.

You do not need to make any particular reaction happen. The useful thing is to notice what comes up and how it changes as you move through the process.

What If You Already Have Anxiety?

Having anxiety does not mean you need to avoid EMDR. In fact, anxiety can itself be one of the reasons someone chooses to use EMDR.

Anxiety can be connected with past experiences, current situations, or worries about what might happen in the future. EMDR can work with the experiences and beliefs that contribute to those reactions.

If you begin a session already feeling anxious, it can be useful to notice your starting level rather than assuming any anxiety you experience afterward was created by the session. This gives you a more accurate sense of whether the feeling changed as you worked through the target.

Anxiety Does Not Have to Disappear During the Session

Anxiety does not have to disappear completely for the experience to change. You might still feel some nervousness while noticing that the memory feels less immediate, a thought seems less convincing, or a situation feels easier to think about.

The change may be gradual rather than dramatic. You do not need to reach a particular emotional state or end every session feeling completely calm. What matters more is noticing how your response to the material changes as you work with it.

Temporary Anxiety Versus an Overall Increase in Anxiety

A short-term emotional reaction and a lasting change are not the same thing.

If you think about a situation that normally makes you nervous, your anxiety might rise while you focus on it and decrease afterward. That temporary rise reflects what you were feeling in that moment. It does not by itself mean your general anxiety has increased.

Over time, it can be more useful to notice whether the memory or situation feels less charged and whether the thoughts, feelings, or body sensations connected with it are changing.

You Do Not Need to Push Through Anxiety

There can be a temptation to think that more discomfort means more progress. EMDR does not require that approach.

You can work at a pace that allows you to stay engaged without turning the session into an endurance test.

This flexibility is useful whether EMDR is done in a therapist's office, online, or through a self-guided program. The purpose is to process the material, not to prove that you can tolerate a certain amount of anxiety.

What If the Anxiety Is About EMDR Itself?

Sometimes the anxiety is not mainly about the memory. You might simply feel nervous because EMDR is new to you or because you are unsure what to expect.

That kind of nervousness does not mean you will have a difficult session. Starting with a manageable target can help you become familiar with the process without choosing the most emotionally charged experience you can think of.

As you become more familiar with how a session works, the uncertainty around the process itself can become less important. You can then make decisions based on what you actually experience rather than on what you imagined might happen beforehand.

Conclusion

EMDR can sometimes bring up temporary anxiety, particularly when you are focusing on a memory or situation that already carries fear, stress, or worry. Other people do not experience this and may instead notice their anxiety decreasing during the session.

A short-lived increase in anxiety does not automatically mean EMDR has made your anxiety worse. It can simply reflect the material receiving your attention at that moment.