July 31, 2010

Do Dissociative Trauma Survivors Actually Lose Time?

Posted in Child Alters, DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Internal Communication, therapy, Therapy Homework Ideas, United States of Tara tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 9:35 pm by Kathy Broady


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One of the diagnostic criteria for dissociative identity disorder is experiencing amnesia or lost time.  While losing time may seem like an obvious hole in your every day life, it really might not be as obvious as it seems it could be.

For dissociative trauma survivors, the sliding of time is a normal everyday way of life.  It just is how it is, and time feels very different for DID survivors than it does for other people.  Dissociative survivors may or may not pay attention to the minutes that are gone, or the hours that have slid quietly by.  They are very used to the ebb and flow, and unless there is reason to pay specific attention to the idea of lost time, they may not really be genuinely aware of how much time they lose.

Every dissociative survivor I have met has recognized specific periods of lost time in his or her life.  Sometimes, multiples think they do not lose much time, but with a few detailed questions, it can soon enough be shown that there are very clear gaps in memory and awareness of regular life events.  There will be everyday type things that they know they should know, but they don’t.

Some multiples will notice big chunks of time that seem to be gone.  It will be 2 pm, and then suddenly, it’s 9 pm, and the survivor has no awareness of what happened during those seven hours.  Those hours are considered lost time because they feel completely lost and unaccounted for.  The host parts don’t remember what happened.  If they look around, they might get some clues about what may have happened, but for the most part, it feels like time completely jumped seven hours ahead.  Time feels lost to them because there is basically no information and no awareness about what happened.

Other times, DID survivors will feel like they are mostly aware of everything that happens through their day, but their ability to remember what happened yesterday, or even to remember what happened this morning, or an hour ago is extremely limited.  This is a different kind of lost time in that the recall is so nonexistent that it becomes the same as lost time since the survivor has next to no idea what happened.

In both of these situations, time is being quantified from the perspective of the front host personality.  Time loss can include other parts of the system as well, but the questions about lost time are typically addressed towards the host.  This is an important distinction to remember.

Because you see, even though time feels lost to the front host personality, in all reality, time is not lost at all.

Yes, you read that right.  Time is actually not lost. Time has not actually gone away.  The DID survivor’s day is not shorter than everyone else’s day.  Time has not disappeared in the way that it feels.

While we use the term “lost time” all the time, that is actually not what happens.  In fact, no one with DID actually loses any time at all.

So where does the time go?

Actually, what happens is that the dissociative trauma survivors have switched to another part.

Yep, they’ve just switched.

Switching.  Shifting from one part or another.  “Transitioning” as US of Tara called it.

That’s all that happened.  You’ve switched!

The hours of time can be completely accounted for if you know who was out and what they were doing.  Time itself isn’t missing.  What is missing is having the awareness or knowledge about who in your system was out doing what.

So when the host or front personalities are completely unaware of life events, and there is no knowledge of what has happened, they have simply switched to someone else in their system who is out and doing all kinds of things. The body is likely up and active, and any number of things could be happening.  Someone inside the system will know exactly what happened between 2 pm and 9 pm!

For there to be “lost time”, this switch occurs with parts that are so dissociated and separated from the host personalities that the host personalities are not aware of what happened.

Actually, this kind of time loss / lack of awareness can happen between any part of the system with any other part of the system.  Many of the insiders may not be at all aware of what the host personalities are doing either.  Part of the reason for time distortion, triggers, and flashbacks is connected to the insiders not being aware of the outside life in the current day, place, or time.

Sometimes the lost time between these parts are just from not paying attention.  For example, one set of parts can simply be daydreaming or drifting off, and simply not concentrating enough to be aware.  Maybe they were choosing to have an internal nap or be otherwise internally occupied. However, if they actually tried to be aware of what was happening in the outside world, they may fully well have known exactly what happened during that lost time.  Or with a little effort, they may have been able to get close enough to the front of the body to be aware enough to see, or hear, or know.

Other times, the dissociative walls / amnesiac walls are much thicker and less penetrable.  In these situations, one set of parts does not want the others inside to know what is happening, and the blocks put between them are strong and absolute.  Parts from within the internal system are specifically dividing themselves away from everyone else so everyone inside is not aware.  If you have parts that are specifically hiding their activities from the rest of everyone else, this is an important issue to address in your therapy.

In my opinion, integration is not necessary for successful stable functioning.  But, eliminating time loss and/or periods of unknown switching is important for exactly those reasons.  It is ok that everyone within has their chance to do what they need to do, but it is also important to build the communication around what is happening.  You all share the same life.  Being more aware of what happens in that life is important.

So the next time you want to know what happened during that chunk of time that you don’t remember, ask inside.  Ask who knows about it.  Ask who was out, or who saw what happened. There will be someone inside that knows exactly what was happening during that chunk of “missing time”.  You might need to work on increasing your internal communication with those parts, but once you know the others in your system, that time loss will decrease.

Even if the time loss is happens, but if you know who is out, that can help with knowing what happened.  The more you know your whole system of insiders, the less unaccounted for time you will have.

Once again I’ll say, internal communication is the central core of treatment for dissociative identity disorder.

If you want to know what is going on, talk to each other!!!

__________

By:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

Copyright © 2008-2010 Kathy Broady LCSW and Discussing Dissociation

March 20, 2010

The Changing of the Seasons

Posted in Depression, DID Education, Dissociative Identity Disorder, emotional pain, Mind Control, Ritual Abuse, Self Injury, Therapy and Counseling tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 12:25 am by Kathy Broady


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This weekend is another season change.

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be the first day of spring.

The first day of spring, the first day of summer, the first day of autumn, and the first day of winter are all significant and difficult days for many trauma survivors with dissociative identity disorder (DID / MPD).

Because these dates are a little obscure, and the reasons for the trouble may not be obvious, many DID survivors may not understand why they have difficulties on these dates.  I’m not going to go into great detail for why these dates are difficult, I just want to state that they often are.

Please check with your therapist, especially if you find yourself struggling this weekend.   Have you noticed any of the following symptoms:

  • Stronger, more frequent pulls towards self-injury or self-destructive thoughts, or even suicidal ideation
  • Isolating or withdrawing from people that care about you
  • Feeling darker on the inside
  • Feeling different, as if something on the inside is changing
  • Feeling like your system is shifting to another set of insiders
  • Finding yourself with more missing time, or more episodes of amnesia
  • Seeing new parts inside, or at least other parts that are less familiar to you
  • Pulls to have contact with people who are not always the safest of people
  • Intense flashbacks or body memories
  • Depression, or disinterest in your normal daily activities
  • Increased fear, anxiety, tension, feelings of conflict, etc.

The equinox dates (first days of spring and autumn) and the solstice dates (first days of summer and winter) are difficult weekends for lots of survivors.

There will be reasons for your reaction to these weekends.  Talk further with your therapist about what is going on for you.

In the meantime, do a lot of grounding techniques.  Work hard to stay connected to the here and now, and stay with people you know to be safe.  Try to enjoy the sunshine, stay warm, and let yourself stay busy with activities that you know are positive.

———-

By:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

Copyright © 2008-2010 Kathy Broady LCSW and Discussing Dissociation

July 4, 2009

20 Signs of Unresolved Trauma

Posted in Depression, DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, mental health, Self Injury, therapy, Trauma tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 8:14 pm by Kathy Broady


Many people enter the therapy process with minimal awareness of their trauma history.  When the trauma survivors are dissociative, they have the ability to block out an awareness of their trauma.  They may know that their family had problems, or that their family was dysfunctional, etc, but they may believe they were never abused.

However, blocking out conscious awareness of trauma does not mean that the survivors have no effects of that trauma.  Using denial and dissociative skills does not mean that the abuse did not happen.  Denial means that the person simply is refusing to acknowledge or accept the fact that they were traumatized.  They are pretending they were not hurt, when they were actually hurt very badly.

Even if the memories of abuse are hidden from the survivor’s awareness, blocked trauma / unresolved trauma creates very noticeable and obvious symptoms that can be easily seen in their every day lives.

People will enter therapy aware of some of the following symptoms, but they may not realize these complications are suggestive of unresolved trauma issues:

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1. Addictive behaviors – excessively turning to drugs, alcohol, sex, shopping, gambling as a way to push difficult emotions and upsetting trauma content further away.

2. An inability to tolerate conflicts with others – having a fear of conflict, running from conflict, avoiding conflict, maintaining skewed perceptions of conflict

3. An inability to tolerate intense feelings, preferring to avoid feeling by any number of ways

4. An innate belief that they are bad, worthless, without value or importance

5. Black and white thinking, all or nothing thinking, even if this approach ends up harming themselves

6. Chronic and repeated suicidal thoughts and feelings

7. Disorganized attachment patterns – having a variety of short but intense relationships, refusing to have any relationships, dysfunctional relationships, frequent love/hate relationships

8. Dissociation, spacing out, losing time, missing time, feeling like you are two completely different people (or more than two)

9. Eating disorders – anorexia, bulimia, obesity, etc

10. Excessive sense of self-blame – taking on inappropriate responsibility as if everything is their fault, making excessive apologies

11. Inappropriate attachments to mother figures or father figures, even with dysfunctional or unhealthy people

12. Intense anxiety and repeated panic attacks

13. Intrusive thoughts, upsetting visual images, flashbacks, body memories / unexplained body pain, or distressing nightmares

14. Ongoing, chronic depression

15. Repeatedly acting from a victim role in current day relationships

16. Repeatedly taking on the rescuer role, even when inappropriate to do so

17. Self-harm, self-mutilation, self-injury, self-destruction

18. Suicidal actions and behaviors, failed attempts to suicide

19. Taking the perpetrator role / angry aggressor in relationships

20. Unexplained but intense fears of people, places, things

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These same symptoms can be applied for survivors already working in therapy.  Attending regular therapy does not mean the clients have resolved their trauma issues or that they are even working in that general direction.  Many therapy clients will continue to deny, dissociate, and refuse to look at their trauma even if they are aware of their daily struggles.

If you are experiencing a number of the symptoms listed above, ask yourself if you are truly ready to address your trauma issues, or if you find it more comfortable to continue living with these struggles.

Is it harder to face how you were abused and who abused you?  Or is it harder to live a life full of depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, troubled relationships, extreme fears, physical pain, and addictions?

Running from your trauma history will not help you feel better.  In the short-run, you might not have to face the issues, but the cost in the long-run of unresolved trauma weighs more heavily than you might suspect.

Your life can be better than it is.

Be brave – face your trauma issues!

__________

By:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

April 10, 2009

Difficult Holiday Times

Posted in Dissociative Identity Disorder tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 11:45 am by Kathy Broady


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For many dissociative trauma survivors, various holidays and times of year are more difficult than other days.  Some survivors may know they typically have a difficult time at the change of seasons, or when Easter-time comes, for example, but they may not have the memories or internal information to understand why they consistently have a difficult time at that time of year.

  • Are you struggling more now that Easter is here?
  • Does Good Friday have any specific meaning for you?
  • Does Passover have specific meaning for you?
  • Do you consistently have trouble with functioning at this time of year?
  • Do you remember anything that would make this hard time make sense?

When survivors with DID/MPD are sitting on unprocessed memories and their system is separated by strong dissociative walls, the host of the system may have absolutely no awareness of why certain times of year are more difficult than others.  The host might know that there are consistently difficult times.  They might have an acute awareness that they “hate this time of year” but they still might not have an answer for “why” certain times of year are more difficult than others.  Host alters, fronts of the dissociative system, can be aware of the side effects of having a hard time, but still not have any explanation for what it’s about.

  • Do you find yourself switching more than usual?
  • Are you missing more time, even in small chunks? What about in big chunks?
  • Are you experiencing more headaches, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, flashbacks?
  • Are you seeing flashes of images, or fleeting snippets of pictures that don’t quite make sense?
  • Do you feel unsettled or jittery?
  • Do you feel confusion and time distortion, as if it is another time than 2009?
  • Are you extra sensitive to certain smells, sounds, lights, and movements?
  • Is there more noise, commotion, chaos, and activity coming from deep within your system?
  • Do you feel not quite like yourself, as if there are others standing nearby to you, affecting you?
  • Do you feel more suicidal or more vulnerable to self-injury, self-harm, and self-destruction?

If you are experiencing these type of symptoms, and yet have no answer for why these things are happening, you really can do something to help solve the mystery.

Any guesses for what to do?

Do you want to know why you are having such a difficult time?

My answer to that is to ask inside.  Listen to what your insiders are telling you.  There will be someone inside your system that knows why this time of year is so difficult.  You might have insiders that have been particularly split off to handle situations from this time of year, so if you can find who that is, you will get some answers for what is going on.

Frequently, my interpretation of the above listed symptoms is that the dissociative walls – amnesiac walls — that previously blocked you completely from an awareness of what happened, is now starting to crumble.  What was once kept from you, is now starting to seep into your awareness.  For whatever reason, the dissociative wall is starting to weaken, and you are getting bits of information passed to you from others deeper within your system.  Maybe they want you to know?  Maybe they need your help?  Maybe they are ready to begin sharing their story with you?

  • Are you willing to help the others in your system that have experienced such difficult times?
  • Are you going to turn your back on those ones in your system that are hurting and struggling?
  • Are you going to continue to deny their existence because their life story is so completely different than yours?
  • Are you determined to strengthen your dissociative walls?  Or are you willing to lower those dissociative walls?

Understanding your life, your symptoms, your history, your struggles, etc all go back to having good internal communication.  As you talk to your inside people, and ask them what THEY know about what is going on, you will get the answers you are looking for.

Someone inside will know why this time of year is difficult.
Someone inside will be able to explain what those flashbacks and picture flashes are about.
Someone inside will know why you are so sensitive to certain smells, sounds, movements, voices, etc.

The majority of the answers for why you are struggling are contained within yourself, within your internal system.  Talking to the people in your system that are on the other side of the dissociative wall will give you a ton of answers to what is happening.   Whether you are willing to listen to them or not, or believe them or not, is a totally different issue, but if you want to know why you are struggling, you can find out.

Lots of times, it will be because certain insiders are struggling, and their depression, or their fear, or their anxiety, or their panic, or their PTSD flashbacks will be overflowing onto you.

If you are not sure why you are having a hard time at this holiday season, look inside to find the part / parts of you that have direct knowledge of those hard times, and go from there.

You can do it.

If your insiders are brave enough to start telling you about their struggles, be brave enough to listen to them.

__________

By:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

March 7, 2009

Getting Back Those Lost, Missing Chunks of Time

Posted in DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, mental health, therapy, Therapy and Counseling, Trauma, trauma therapist tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 10:23 am by Kathy Broady


Many dissociative trauma survivors have issues with time.

Sometimes the past sneaks up into the present.  Sometimes the present disappears.  Sometimes there are two time zones (or more) occurring at the same time.  Sometimes there are huge gaps in time.  Sometimes time stands still.

It can be confusing to say the least.

  • Have you ever had a flashback from some year gone by overwhelm your current day?
  • Have you ever been overwhelmed by such huge feelings that for them to make any sense, they must have roots in something much deeper than your current-day conflict?
  • Have you ever woken up in the current day and wondered where you were?
  • Have you ever lost hours of time, with no awareness of what happened, and no explanation of what you have been doing?

Losing time can be very difficult. Many folks with DID get understandably upset when this happens — struggling with the after effects of their behavior, left confused, bewildered, possibly angry, waking to their plans being destroyed, their relationships damaged, their money spent, their body feeling weird, their day interrupted. Most singletons cannot even begin to fathom what life would be like with so many missing gaps in time.

There is a huge sense of loss of control when there is lost time.  Is the amnesia that is covering that lost time still important?  Is it covering up some huge secret that the host of the system cannot know about? Or is it just an old habit – an old familiar way of life, and nothing to worry about?   Either way, the not-knowing, and the apparent “not being allowed to know” what happened in one’s own life can understandably be very upsetting for many people.

Sometimes the effects of lost time are minimal, barely noticeable — maybe a small bruise, or scratch that came from nowhere, or a change of clothes, or maybe you’re simply sitting in a different place than you last were.  Lots of people with dissociative disorders are so used to losing time that they don’t even notice it anymore.  Switching and the coming and going are so normal for them, and the covering for a “bad memory” are just natural parts of the day.  In fact, it can be so natural, that many people with DID/MPD are firmly convinced that they don’t lose any time at all.  However, a close examination of that belief can usually prove otherwise, but that is not an uncommon initial assumption.

Sometimes lost time cause a lot of anxiety and panic, and sometimes the effects are quite devastating. The host of the system may have no awareness that one of the insiders participated in a sexual activity the night before, but the host might be able to feel body pain and stiffness, and just not have an explanation for that.  The daytime alters may not have realized that “the body” is now pregnant, and they may not absolutely no idea who the father is.  Or the host of the system may have no idea how the car got wrecked.  The dayside people can see the damage done to the car, but might not have any awareness of what happened.  Or maybe they have absolutely no idea why their spouse and children are so angry with them.  Maybe they don’t remember being involved in a knockdown drag-out argument last night where the spouse and the children were repeatedly insulted, ridiculed, and denigrated.

Sometimes something good has happened – ie: where another part has had the courage to do something that you hadn’t been able to manage.  The house may suddenly look cleaner and more organized, or the kids have been helped with their homework.  “Good news” isn’t as frequently blocked from awareness, but it can certainly happen.  And sometimes, inside system parts can purposefully block the awareness of someone else inside so they can give them a nice surprise.  Insider parts can buy nice prezzies for each other, keeping the others unaware of what they are getting for Christmas or Hanukkah, for example.

However, for dissociative trauma survivors, the original foundational reasons for losing time were long ago based on avoiding or escaping the direct involvement in something terrible.  While blocking out the awareness of events during their original occurrence was incredibly helpful at that initial traumatic point in time, as a person’s safety increases, and as their dissociative walls decrease, those hidden chunks of lost time often re-surface later in the form of PTSD, flashbacks, body memories, etc.

As repeated patterns of managing traumatic incidents become set and solidified within the dissociative splits, the amnesia between those alters and others inside just simply stay in place.  In those original traumatic moments, those insiders were created with dissociative walls firmly intact, purposefully preventing the other system parts from knowing what happened. That same “missing time” protection stays in place until the dissociative person begins to address why it was necessary for them to have that chunk of time hidden from their life in the first place.

Think about the most recent incident or two where you lost time.  Part of the healing process is getting more connected with those periods of lost time.  Don’t just comfortably sail past the fact that you don’t know what happened in the middle of the afternoon, or that you have no earthly idea where you were last night.  Work at that.

These missing gaps of time are pieces of your life that hold valuable information.  I can promise you, your body didn’t just cease to exist while you were dissociatively “away” on a mental vacation.  Something was happening with some of your parts, and someone was doing something.  You might not been out and involved in life during that period of time, but I can guarantee that someone in your system knows exactly what was happening.  They were there instead of you.

The terms “missing time” or “lost time” are actually misnomers.  The time didn’t get lost.  The time is not gone. The person dissociated away from time — someone else in your system was out instead of you.  If you don’t know what happened, then you dissociated away and you have not yet talked to your internal system about who was out instead of you.  By talking to the others in your dissociative system, you can find out exactly what happened in that “lost time”.

The question is whether or not you would like to know what happened while you were away.  Do you want to remember what happened in those missing gaps of time in your childhood?  Do you want to know what happened in those missing gaps of time last week?  Are you willing to ask your insiders to tell you about their time in the body and their time out in the world?

Becoming less dissociative, less DID/MPD, more integrated, more whole means knowing about ALL the missing gaps of time – the good news, and the not so good news.  If you cannot integrate what happened in your own life, you certainly cannot integrate with your other alters inside.  If you cannot sit with the emotions and feelings that you had during the difficult times in your life, you certainly cannot integrate with the inside parts that contain those feelings.

Overcoming the amnesia and time loss means that you must communicate actively with the others in your system.  Yep, we’re back to system communication once again.  Talk to your internal people – they can tell you exactly what happened while you were away.

Work hard to figure out what has happened in your life.  Be willing to remember what happened in those missing chunks of time.  Don’t comfortably skip over the details that you conveniently dissociated away – go back and really work at learning what happened in your own life.

Here are some questions to ask yourself and your internal system after you notice some missing time:

  • What happened?  Do you have any guess or sense whatsoever of what happened? What was happening right before you lost time and what is the first thing you noticed when you got back, grounded and connected to the current day?
  • How did you feel?  How did you feel emotionally before you left?  How do you emotionally feel now?
  • How does the body feel now?  What is different from before?
  • What did you do to recover the information in the time that went “missing”?  What clues did you find to help fill in the gaps for you?  Look around the house or your car.  Does anything look different?
  • Did you know who in your system was “out” while you were not out?  Who can you ask internally?  Who saw what?  Even if your insiders did not see what happened in the outside world, did they notice any internal movement?  What changes and interactions were happening within the inside world while you were away?  Did anyone see anyone else “walk by”?
  • If you get a sense of who was out, can you talk to that part of yourself without losing time? Have you been able to work more with the others in your system to lesson the likelihood of this happening again??
  • If someone else in your system was caught in a memory or a flashback, do you want to know about it?  Are you willing to hear their story about their trauma?  Are you willing to sit with them and deal with their pain?

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Are you brave enough to know what happened while you were away?

Are you genuinely serious enough about your healing to want to know what happened while you were away?

Are you ready to claim all the different aspects of what has happened in your life?

You can get back all the information that was allegedly lost during that missing time.

You can truly know what happened.
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__________

By:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

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