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 … [Read more...]
10 Truths for Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse
I've written a fair bit about childhood sexual abuse. Children are young, small, and without resources. Grasping the innocence of those children is easily seen and understood. As adults, trauma survivors can more easily grasp the complex dynamics of being forced into abusive dynamics when still a small, young child. But for some folks, trauma and abuse doesn't stop in childhood. It may have started in childhood, … [Read more...]
Turning Self-Injury into Self-Soothing
Self-injury is a problem all too common for trauma survivors with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID / MPD) or Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). For that matter, self-injury (SI) is an issue for other populations of people as well. This discussion will focus more on the effects of trauma and abuse and how self-injury can be addressed effectively. However, because self-injury is actually a very … [Read more...]
US of Tara – Sexual Confusion, Misconduct, and Acting-Out
. Oh boy. I didn’t have a chance to watch or write about last week’s episode of Showtime’s United States of Tara, so before the series got too much further, I thought I’d bring up the topic. First of all – it’s now really clear to me what people were referring to as triggering about episode two. The sudden sexual explicitness would be triggering to a lot of trauma survivors. If you haven’t yet seen this episode, … [Read more...]
Picturing the Healing Process for Dissociative Identity Disorder
This set of picture-postcards demonstrates a passage through time for a trauma survivor with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID / MPD). These pictures show different phases of the dissociative healing process, and illustrate how healing occurs. Notice that they move from a more shattered, painful, chaotic place to a calmer, structured, organized place. Where there is originally nothing but a fragmented … [Read more...]