Emotional abuse. This is a complicated topic. It's a topic I've tried to explain to many dissociative trauma survivors many many times. The concept of emotional abuse can be hard to grasp. This is because the trauma survivor often internalizes the perpetrator's offensive verbage, believing it to be true. But it's not true. Not at all. In this article, I will describe one example of the dynamic of a … [Read more...]
United States of Tara is Integrated Now? Really?
So here we go again. The second season of the Showtime series "United States of Tara" starring the Emmy Award winner Toni Collette has begun. The first season was full of controversial episodes, and most of the survivor population with dissociative identity disorder was disappointed and angered by the series. Even though some of the best-known trauma psychiatrists were allegedly acting as advisors for the show, … [Read more...]
Being Hated, Feeling Hated, Overcoming Self-Hatred
Practically every dissociative trauma survivor that I have spoken to has said to me that at some point in time or another, they have felt hated, truly hated. What's worse, they didn't feel hated by strangers -- they felt hated by their loved ones. These trauma survivors felt hated by their mothers, their fathers, their siblings, their spouses, their children, their friends. They felt hatred from the … [Read more...]
What if you don’t like being Multiple?
This week, the readers here have posted a wide variety of reactions to the idea that being multiple could have benefits. If you haven't yet read all the comments on that blog, please do so. They are very interesting. When people have DID/MPD, they have experienced life as a multiple since their childhood. It is their norm - basically the only way of life they know. Multiples typically have not experienced … [Read more...]