Hello Hello!
Every dissociative trauma survivor I know has little ones in their system who feel afraid at night. And they have plenty of reasons for their fear, especially since so much trauma happens at night time.
Because of all that night time trauma, for years and years, their night time fears, and bedtime fears are high. In fact, it can feel so scary, that even when there is no real harm, the fear can still be great big giant huge huge huge.
Big people may call that PTSD, flashbacks and anxiety — kids call it scared!!
So today, I’ve decided to read a short Winnie the Pooh story that tells of a time when Piglet was afraid during the night. Little tiny Piglet was too scared to sleep.
I think that probably your precious little ones might appreciate this story.
Take a look at this video on YouTube, Night Time Mystery Story, with Pooh and Piglet
Do your kids relate to that story?
Have they ever felt like that?
Have your little ones needed help to fall asleep at night?
I hope you and your littles find the story comforting. They may listen to it over and over again if they do. 😀
I absolutely believe that everyone needs to be able to sleep safely and peacefully.
What do you do to help your inner kids feel safe at night?
It’s so very important to take time to explore their fears, and talk with them. Comfort them. Help them. Address the problems with positive solutions in any way you can.
Do you read to your littles, or let them read? As you can see, I certainly think that’s a good thing to do with them, for sure.
Cheers for more fun sleepy time stories!
I wish you and your littles the very best in your healing journey.
Warmly,
Kathy
Copyright © 2008-2018 Kathy Broady MSW and Discussing Dissociation
I like it. I never here Pooh stories. I don’t here the words I just listen. I don’t want to tell anyone I listen. No one shud know I’m here.
Very perfect timing. Thanks Kathy. Today’ was extra hard. Very grateful. (((Hug)))
Thank you our inner parts scared they’re scared cause of evil coming at nightimes. Windows are scary too cause of stuff weve seen in the past.
Hi Selah,
I am so sorry that you are scared at nighttime. Our little ones are scared too. They have special blankets and stuffies that they go to bed with. And, they have a safe place – their sunshine tent – where they can go and feel safe. Maybe you can make a safe place for you with no windows lots of light so you do not have to be afraid of the dark.
You can keep coming here too. This is a safe place.
ME+WE
11/12/18
Hi ME+WE,
My writings will trigger, please be careful. <3
Apparently i wasn't there when we wrote the former reaction. *sigh*
I knew it was hard to come up with our nickname, but didn't see it as being switched…which looks like it…
The response actually tells me stuff from the past.
I've always been terrified of walking upstairs, looking outside of a window when it was dark or being "seen" when we're going somewhere and someone sees us going a certain place.
Made me run harder to hide and try not to make any noise when we tried to get-away while fleeing in our garden afraid of people knowing our home, telling anything just because they saw us and they could read our minds and sense our then-present day pain.
When i got upstairs i always ran up, trying to prevent any "ghosts" catching up on us, scared of being caught and hurt again.
And in every home i've lived i've had at least one place to hide from people who would see me in my house.
Everywhere where doors or windows are and light shines through i have to be in the shadow to prevent being caught.
And then the thing with windows besides this….i've seen things i shouldn't have been able to see, but that are living horrormovies, stuff sra related. (once saw a wolf like thing from the dark stuff)
I still run from people i see on the street, still have my curtains closed as soon as it gets dark, can't stand looking outside when it's dark, afraid of what might be there lurking in the dark and still wake up at night and start praying because i feel scared.
You tell this place is safe to come and i do feel so at some point, but…if people want they can find out and that could be harmful for me when it's not the right person.
Although i do feel Kathy created a nice place for us to be at.
Thanks for that Kathy! <3
Hi Selah,
Well, someone in your system needed to talk and I am very glad that they felt safe to do so here. I have had insiders post on only a few occasions although when I read my comments on the website I do see others popping in and out. Sometimes that is really scary especially if you are trying to conceal your DID. I have found a few close f2f friends who I can be open with, KenKen my DID BFF who I email privately with stuff because she just “knows” and my friends here. I find it a great relief to have a few outlets for my insiders to speak their truth. It makes them less scared and anxious I find. Also, it allows me to set boundaries of where it is safe for them to come out and they listen because I am not shutting them down completely.
Oh wow do I relate to the dark, blinds closed and stairs. All big triggers for me too. I am always closing the blinds even in the daytime if I am dressing or jumping in the shower. We are on a big piece of land with no houses in close proximity so there isn’t someone right on top of us but still … I get panicky and anxious. My husband teases me and asks me if I think that a plane is going to fly by and look in. But, it is hard to undo the programing that was placed on us at an early age. Facing these fears with a professional is the solution that I find the best. Then, at other times, I think that maybe just letting some things be is okay too if they do not negatively impact my life too much. Just so much to sort through eh?
This is a safe place I feel Selah. I have a lot of folks who do not know about my DID including my family. I think that it would be just out-of-this-world crazy if they were ever to come here and then figure out who I am. They were not that interested in my stuff back then so why would they care now?
Just take it slow and easy Selah. Maybe ask your insider about their posting and see what they may want you to hear/know. They obviously had a need to say that they were scared
Sending positive energy your way and gentle hugs of your folks are okay with them.
ME+WE
11/13/18
som tims that man usd to red to me to help me go to slep
he dont ene more
he be to bizy watch the nuws
mabe i can be brav and ask him agan
We are going to listen to this again today. Because we love Winnie the Pooh! We saw the new Christopher Robin movie yesterday. It was so good! There were a couple of sad parts. But the whole movie did be so happy and such a good story. And the ending was so sweet! We don’t ever going to leave our stuffed animals behind or get too old for them. We still sleep with some. They make us feel better at night. That’s the good part of having DID. We don’t ever get too old to have fun with kid stuff. And Winnie the Pooh movies. and listening to stories.
Nope. Not happening. But, good that people like it.
thank you I like it
Hi hi hi Hannah !
It’s so good to hear from you. !!! 🙂
I’m glad you liked the story. Please make sure all those other kids know they can listen to the videos too, okay?
And please tell all of everybody and your puppy that I said hi. 🙂
Waving with big smiles,
Kathy
🙂
We saw this just as we are settling in for the night. It was actually scary for my little one. She is so scared of windows, and wind, and night. We often wake in the night and have trauma nightmares, and we have such scary dreams. We had abuse from toddler to high school and we have not faced everything yet. We used to lock our door at night b/c we were waiting for him to come and we were scared. We will want to talk about this more to the new T. We will be alone for 10 days when our spouse is gone, so we must have a plan to deal with the sleeping issue. Dr had to give us sleeping pills and ativan for anxiety, we will use these if we need to. Nighttime is scary for us. One of our parts is telling me, “the abuser is not here, he can’t hurt you, we are safe now” We are safe. We are safe now…
Thank you, Kathy.
If “kindness trumps violence” perhaps it is also true that it can trump fear. Maybe being kinder to myself and this inner tribe will help with sleep. Sleep is a terrible battle for me and it makes it hard to cope when I am in a chronic state of exhaustion.
Two things have helped me a lot. I will listen to a guided meditation (I like Meditation Oasis Podcast) because her voice is soothing and the meditations are gentle. I also will listen to meditation music, especially ones in a certain Hz. Certain tones I find very soothing and calming.
The hard part for me in going to sleep is that I can’t shut my brain off. My mind racetracks from one thing to another and the chatter inside… ugh. I can go from fear to feeling mad to utterly depressed in about 10 minutes…and then back around again. It’s exhausting. It’s like being in a room full of people and they are all having trouble sleeping and they are all mad/scared/upset/fearful for different reasons. Sometimes coloring will help calm things down or writing in my journal or knitting. I can’t watch TV really…it’s too many voices on top of the voices that are already chattering away.
I would love to read something that talks about calming inner chatter.
Oh wow … how timely Kathy. I am having major issues sleeping. I have sleeping pills prescribed by the doctor but I really do not want to use them. Sleep is restless at best, elusive a lot of the time. Night time does bring out the shadows and that means fear and pain. Listening to your story REALLY helped my little ones (especially as we prepare for a big doctor’s appointment tomorrow … major stressful for the little ones for a lot of different reasons). Thank you so very much for doing this and posting it for us all. I think that I will keep this story at the ready for my little ones to watch when I cannot fall asleep or when I wake up in the night and cannot go back to sleep (both of which happen a lot). I do not want to dwell on the negative here but just acknowledge it.
So, the positive things that I do that help me and the little ones get to sleep/stay asleep.
* make sure that I watch something happy on TV before I try and go to sleep (no heavy dramas)
* distract myself with games on my iPad (like card games) that are mindless and I can do until I really feel tired and ready to drop off to sleep
* don’t go to bed until I am really, really tired (often I start my sleep in a chair in the living room)
* leave a light on in the hall so it is not totally dark in the bedroom
* have a warm drink before bed — somehow this warms and soothes my insides and insiders
* sing lullabies to my little ones
* read happy stories or look at happy pictures (usually animals) in bed on my iPad
* I try to meditate to calm my mind and/or do a progressive muscle relaxation to relax my body
* hold my little ones and tell them that I am there and that nothing will hurt them
* have one of my boy insiders watch over the little girls (the little ones trust their big brother to watch over them and to make sure that no one comes to hurt them)
* I have a couple of stuffed animals on my night stand that are close enough so that at any time in the night they can reach out and touch them or hold them if they want to
* focus on the clock ticking in the room to stay grounded to the here and now
* try not to have negative thoughts creep in although this one is really hard to do (I go back to concentrating on the clock ticking or count cars driving by or think about all of the happy things that happened that day, etc.)
* make sure I have an extra pillow to hug or hide behind — I especially like the cold side of the pillow
To be honest, I am not great at any of this. I try, I really, really try but this is a hard one for sure. I know that I am not alone here. I look forward to hearing strategies that others use for getting to sleep and staying asleep.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Kathy. You are so very kind, thoughtful and caring in offering, not just a great forum for trustworthy information and dialogue, but actual tools to help us cope. I so very much appreciate your care and attention to our little ones. You lead by example and show such compassion for them that I know that my little ones simply adore you. 🙂
Piglet always works wonders within our system to, we have a piglet all in one too.
Hello tattooed multiple,
Welcome to Discussing Dissociation, and thank you for your fun comment. It’s always good to hear when piglet has been helpful. Piglet is great! 🙂
Warmly,
Kathy
I like that