Aside from these concerns, there is the problem of the steps it omits from a patient’s recovery process, especially for those patients whose trauma was such that it has caused deep-seated emotional problems and behavioural abnormalities. An essential part of dealing with these memories is coming to an understanding of how they have impacted one’s present day behaviour.
I have been undergoing E.M.D.R. therapy for the past year or so in an effort to mitigate the damages of extensive childhood sexual abuse. Each time my therapist and I have dealt with a specific memory or flashback, the process of working through it has uncovered clues to why I am a certain way or where behaviours come from.
By understanding these ways of being are reactions to events in the past, I have learnt to recognize they are no longer appropriate to my situation and can safely discard them. As long as I was experiencing the memories of being raped, part of me would still believe that I still needed to act like those were my circumstances. It has only been by working through the memories that I have been able to change that mindset.
If at some point a patient is just given this drug to diminish the memories but does nothing to process the information, they are only doing half the work required for a full recovery. You won't know how these memories have affected your day-to-day existence if you just walk away from them. You are still the same person who was experiencing the flashbacks and really no further ahead then before you took the drug.
There are no shortcuts to mental and emotional health. I worry that a pill like this will tempt people into believing they will be able to solve all the problems caused by traumas in their past just by taking it once or twice. This is an unrealistic and false expectation (and hope) to be giving people.
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