I don’t get it.
EMDR is a therapy for PTSD. Anecdotally, people have reported that when going through it, they get flashbacks as their body processes the traumatic events. Basically, despite being well aware that the traumatic event is not occurring in the moment, their body is reacting exactly as if it were. Therefore, while going through EMDR, the person rides the flashback until the body burns out the memory and learns that the reaction is not necessary or helpful.
Burning in my brain. I can feel the flames.
trauma trigger warning
That’s actually from the lyrics of the song Ride the Lightning by Metallica. The song is about a person that committed a crime and is sentenced to death via the electric chair. The association here is that cognitively, PTSD is kept in place by the guilt of the person for their belief that they somehow caused the traumatic event. For example, a person that was hit by a car that ran a red light, may blame themselves for not being more vigilant through intersections since they were aware that cars sometimes run the light. As another example, a person that was SA’d may think that they should have never agreed to be alone with the assailant, said no more strongly, or fought them off harder. Complicating things further, they may feel that they wanted to be SA’d because their body felt pleasure from the sexual stimulation despite not wanting the experience to begin with, then continued a relationship with the perpetrator to make it “okay”. But, the body remembers. Since they feel guilty, the punishment is deserved.
The burning in the brain in the song is from the electricity. The burning in the brain from the meme is the overwhelming thoughts and beliefs ruminating constantly. The feeling of flames in the song is from the electricity running through the person. The feeling of flames in the meme are from the flashback of the body re-experiencing the memory as if were occurring again.
