In situations where dissociative survivors feel like they don’t lose time, it can be helpful to ask a lot of questions about how they experience life, time, recall, etc. There are a wide variety of reasons why systems get so tightly shut down from switching, (or from the appearance of switching), so it really depends on what else is going on. There could be other ways that the insiders are coming out, and for … [Read more...]
I Had a Great Time – Thanks for Asking
. *** trigger warning for dissociative trauma survivors *** The collage and the material discussed in this blog is emotionally intense and could be triggering. Please be sure that you are in a safe place before reading further. . Trauma survivors with dissociative identity disorder often have to live a double life. There is the public face, full of pretty smiles and general surface chatter that says “I’m fine”, … [Read more...]
Split Decisions
When you have Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID or DID/MPD), and you’re thinking as a multiple personality -- thus having a multitude of different thoughts at once time -- it can be very difficult to make decisions. How do survivors with DID ever make up their minds? How do survivors with DID decide whose opinion to follow? How do survivors with DID ever decide what is best for … [Read more...]
Now I have lost my father…
“So thanks to all of this therapy, I have lost my father.” “You haven’t lost your father….You did lose the father that you thought you had…” “OK, I get it. I didn’t have the perfect dad…. And my therapy has successfully shattered my romanticized image of my narcissistic father. Is that how you would say it?” “I would say, the patient, born to a depressed mother, idealized her father so as to not feel completely … [Read more...]
One Life to Live and Jessica’s Integration
Multiplicity has made it into the Soap Opera world. On the soap opera, "One Life to Live", the character named Jessica Buchanan has Dissociative Identity Disorder. In earlier episodes, Jessica spent a fair bit of time in an inpatient hospital unit addressing her trauma, her grief, etc. According to Jessica, she resolved her difficult emotional issues and dealt with her internal system conflicts so … [Read more...]