November 28, 2009

I’m Thankful for the Readers of this Blog

Posted in Borderline Personality Disorder, DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, emotional pain, Friends of Multiples, Online Therapy, therapy, Therapy Homework Ideas, Trauma, trauma therapist tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 5:23 pm by Kathy Broady


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It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in the US, and besides the wonderful traditional family meal and pleasant times with my kids, this time frame reminds me of something else.

Discussing Dissociation has been up and visible for nearly one year now.  Yep, in a few days, it will be a year already!

Wow.  Where has the time gone??!!!

There is truth to the saying that time flies, or is it because time flies when you’re having fun … or maybe I’m just getting older, lol.

Anyway, I’m being silly, but I do want to say today how much I appreciate all of you that have been readers here at this blog.  The number of faithful, returning readers has been utterly amazing to me. If you look back through all the pages, you’ll see well over a thousand excellent comments from a wide variety of the readers.  Wow!  The input you all have made in this blog has brought it to life and given it a life-filled energy that I certainly couldn’t create on my own.

For the way each and every one of you have contributed to the positive, educational nature of this blog, I sincerely thank you.  I truly appreciate your involvement, your thoughts, your comments, your questions.  You’ve helped to make this little site a safe, comfortable community for dissociative trauma survivors. I think it’s a job well done, and once again, I do sincerely thank you for your part in this process.  Writing a blog wouldn’t be nearly so fun without hearing comments from the readers!  You all rock!

Many of you have questioned why I started this blog in the first place.  The original reason is not as mysterious or worrisome as some of you may have thought.  It’s a widely stated and highly recommended common practice for therapists to use blogs for marketing purposes.  Marketing experts recommend to write what you know about, and to respond to the comments you receive.  Blogs get quickly listed in search engines, and they are an easy, economical way for your target audience to get to know you, and to see what you do, and to become more familiar with the work that you do.  It’s a simple as that.  Check the blogosphere for blogs by therapists.  You’ll see that most therapists write about their fields of work the same as I do.

I just happen to know about a very specialized topic – dissociative identity disorder.  And my readers are a very distinct but wonderful population – dissociative trauma survivors or trauma therapists.  (There aren’t very many of us out here — it’s no wonder that we are congregating together!)  And yes, practically all of my blog articles have been very specific to DID, not that the topics couldn’t also apply to other populations, but the point of this blog is to “discuss dissociation” so I do tailor my articles to being about dissociative disorders, and the DID population.  There’s no mystery there, lol.  I think I’ve said that pretty upfront.

But something much bigger has been happening besides my having found a very effective marketing tool.

With all the positive sharing and support that has been created here, this blog has provided a deep sense of hope and healing for so many people.  Having that absolute knowing that others are progressing along their healing journey as well, many survivors don’t have to feel so very alone.  You might learn things from my articles, but you can also learn from each other, the same as I learn from you as well.  It’s a wonderful circle of positive, helpful information, and that in itself is priceless.

Building a sense of safety, knowing you are not alone in your struggles, and learning from others who have been there too provide emotional foundations that so very crucial to healing and can augment your therapeutic process.  Please remember, this blog is in no means a substitute for actual therapy, but it does provide a lot of educational support for survivors working on their own healing, or for therapists learning about working DID / MPD.

Again, you all have immensely helped to create that healing, informative atmosphere, and I am grateful for that.

We have to create and protect places of healing.

Even survivor-led blogs such as the truly incredible BTC blog have become targets for destruction by the “hazing / flaming / insaniacs” of the world.  Do we really want the haters and gossipers to take over and ruin all the places of healing and support?  How sad is this?!!

I know that you know there are predators and perpetrators out there in the world.  For some of you, your abuse stopped years ago.  For some of you, you are still smack dab in the middle of fighting your abusers.  Some of you are being hassled and manipulated by internet predators (whether you know it or not), and some of you are safely away from any direct attack from anyone.  No matter where you are in your life, there are abusers and predators out there in the world, (including those wolves in sheep’s clothing hiding within the dissociative population itself), so the importance of having safe retreats amongst all the danger and destruction is more important than you might realize.

Those of you that feel the loss of BTC’s blog can understand what I’m talking about.  It’s a real shame that abusive people continue to ruin the good places and run off the good people.  I think that is a tragedy.  But it happens.

  • Are you one that sits back quietly, doing nothing even though you see others destroying places of support?
  • Do you believe the lies and negative gossip spread about helpers and healers?
  • Are you so angry from your own abuse that you are willing to take that out on people who have helped you?

Surely the survivor population can see through the manipulations of abusers.  You are adults now – you can start seeing through the tricks that are being played out there.  Please remember to think for yourself the next time you hear some negative hogwash about someone who has dared to be a helper / healer.  You can take a stand against that.

Complacency only allows abuse to continue.

Trauma survivors, I encourage you to ban together in protection of your valued and positive healing resources.

So many of you grew up without any safety or comfort or support.  You learned to pull deep within yourself or to block out the world entirely.  You survived it alone.

But it doesn’t have to be that way anymore.

Most of you are still learning about how important and helpful it is to have places of safe connection, genuine relationship, and gentle bonding.   It may be scary to be around people, but building a positive, healing, trustworthy community is a way of overcoming the need to be isolated in order to avoid abuse.

Again, I challenge you to protect your places of healing.  Protect those that are your helpers.  Stand firm around your leaders that fight against abuse.

Don’t fall into the trap of complacency or destructive participation.

Your healing resources are depending on that.

———-

By:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

Copyright © 2008-2010 Kathy Broady LCSW and Discussing Dissociation

February 15, 2009

DID Trauma Survivors and Getting Support from Other People – or not

Posted in DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, mental health, Self Injury, therapy, Therapy and Counseling, Trauma tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 2:31 pm by Kathy Broady


As the show, “United States of Tara” is gradually starting to demonstrate, survivors with Dissociative Identity Disorder have friends and family members that offer varying levels of support:

  • Those that find dissociative trauma survivors to be really good, kind, decent, and wonderful people, and will stand by them faithfully.
  • Those that genuinely love and support and accept them even though the DID survivors can be all kinds of weird and “nutty” and difficult.
  • Those that get angry and upset with them because DID survivors can be all kinds of weird and “nutty” and difficult.
  • Those that believe and support the trauma and abuse history of the DID survivor.
  • Those that do not believe that the DID survivor was abused at all.
  • Those that believe the multiplicity, are comfortable with a variety of alter parts presenting, acknowledge the switching as a very real thing and a natural part of DIDer’s life.
  • Those that don’t believe the multiplicity is real, accuse the DIDers of just play-acting, and don’t recognize the other parts even when they are there.
  • Those that initially say they will be a friend, only to totally reject, leave, or abandon the dissociative person when things get complicated or difficult.

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So far, the Showtime Series has not adequately addressed the issues involving trauma and abuse.  It also has not shown any young child parts (teenage parts are very different than child parts).  Have you met a multiple that didn’t have child parts?  I most certainly have not.  I don’t know if the series will get into those serious elements of dissociation or not, but it is a critical element in normal life with DID.  How the friends and family members treat the DIDer’s child parts is often an extremely accurate barometer of how supportive and accepting that person will be for the DIDer over all.

It is, of course, the most helpful if the friends and family members of the dissociative survivors are gentle, accepting, kind, and understanding.  And sometimes, that is the case.  There are some wonderfully supportive spouses, parents, and children out there.  They make the healing process so much easier by contributing with their comfort, faithful assistance, gentle patience, and reassurance.

Unfortunately, all too often dissociative survivors continue to be alone and isolated, even abused and neglected within their own families.

Spouses often feel angry, ripped off, frustrated with all the added relationship complications.  They might feel like they are left picking up the pieces, and overloaded with more than their fair share of the household work and parenting.  It’s often hard for spouses to have patience for all the complications caused by the dissociative disorder and the survivor’s trauma history because of the heavy load it creates for them.

Extended family members are all too often filled with the perpetrators and original abusers.  Most perpetrators that engaged in violence so extreme as to split a child are not ever going to become a positive support for the DIDer.

Children of dissociative people can certainly be loving and accepting of the different sides of the DIDer, but the external children cannot be the main source of emotional support or the emotional care-taker for the trauma survivor.  If dissociative parents put too much emphasis on their own needs, hurts, and wants, and keep their own struggles as the bigger focus in front of the external children, those external children will be left emotionally neglected and will most likely become angry, resentful, spiteful, and hateful towards their dissociative parent.

And as much as dissociative survivors may not want to admit that they can be more difficult than average to live with, it is generally true.

What can a DID person do to facilitate their getting more support from others?

  • Be genuinely appreciative – recognize even the smallest of kindness from someone and thank them.  Thank them each time they give something of value to you.  Nobody likes to be taken for granted, and if you have the attitude that these favors are “owed” to you, you will soon find yourself alone.
  • Communicate what is going on for you.  Often, others will be more willing to give if they understand why it is necessary or important.  Don’t assume that they will automatically understand why you need certain things.  Tell them, and explain it in a way that they can understand.
  • Be determined to do as much as possible for yourself on your own.  Yes, your trauma history has left big gaping wounds, but the more you meet your own needs and find ways to resolve those issues without “taking from” or “pulling on” others, the more genuine your friendships can be.
  • Reciprocate kindness.  When someone takes the time and effort to be supportive of you, be sure to return the favor by doing supportive things for them as well.  If you are taking, taking, taking more than you are giving, the relationship will either die or explode in your face.
  • Get professional support when your emotional needs become too heavy for your friends and family members.  For example, friends and family members may very well pull away from you if you lean on them too heavily during intense times – ie: during extended or repeated times of suicidal feelings, episodes involving self-injury, or flashbacks.  These heavy, intense issues belong in the therapeutic context and not between you and your support people.
  • Build your support options so you are not putting too much pressure on one or two people to support you through the hard times.  The more support options you have, the less likely any one individual support person will feel burnt out or overloaded by how much you lean on them.
  • Remember that is it more important for you to learn how to emotionally support yourself and your internal system than it is to teach (force) someone else to support you.
  • Take time to enjoy everyday “normal” experiences with your support people.  Put your trauma issues aside, and do something that is pleasant and enjoyable to everyone.

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Remember the old adage:  To have a friend, be a friend.

__________

By:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

January 12, 2009

Using Collage as a Way of Communicating

Posted in DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Internal Communication, mental health, Therapy Homework Ideas tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 11:58 pm by Kathy Broady


Creating a collage is another way of allowing your internal system parts to tell more about themselves.

Pictures can be a powerful way of communicating.  And a collage – a collection of pictures – can tell a lifetime of stories.

Most trauma survivors were repeatedly told by their abusers, “Do not tell”. Violence, threats, abuse, and pain often accompanied these rules.  How many times did you hear “don’t say anything to anyone” or “don’t talk about this” or “you better stay quiet”?  All of those directives involve restrictions on being able to talk.  Years later, even in the safety of therapy, the intimidation of the no-talk rules can still feel as powerful and real as ever.

One important aspect of healing and therapy is learning to work around the negative, confining rules and those scary points that keep people stuck.  If some of your parts are too scared to tell what happened, maybe they could show what happened instead.  Pictures can be a way of communicating when talking is a hindrance.

A picture paints a thousand words!

Sometimes writing is too complicated and can also be “against the rules,” especially in the early days of treatment.   Thinking creatively, you can work around these rules too.  Typing, for example, is actually different from writing.  Cutting out printed words is also different from writing.  Using stencils, stickers, and rubber stamps are also ways to show wording without having to write.

Collage allows the artist to show a mixture of pictures and words to tell stories without officially breaking no-talk and no-write rules.  Collages can be made with a specific topic in mind, or they can be another useful format for the system descriptions.

To create your collage, use a variety of magazines, newspapers, advertisements, and telephone books, etc. Look through these printed materials and cut or tear out any picture, word, or phrase that seems relevant.

If you are sufficiently computer savvy, you can also create a collage from computer pictures.  The web certainly has a wide variety of images available for collage purposes.  If you can copy-paste and arrange pictures on a document, you can create an incredible collage without so much as lifting a piece of paper.

Let your internal system help pick out these pictures and words, and pay close attention to their interest in selecting pictures, even if you are not sure why they want that particular one. It is very important to not edit or limit the choices of pictures made by your insiders – let them pick whatever pictures they relate to.  Each of your parts will have their own things to say, and everyone inside will relate to pictures in a very different way.

Don’t be alarmed or hesitant if you don’t understand why some of the pictures are selected. Chances are, you won’t understand the meaning of all the items picked.  That’s ok – that means your insiders are getting ready to tell more about life from their own perspective.  Be open to this new information – getting new communication is a big part of why this exercise is helpful.  Besides, as you get to know the insiders that selected those pictures, and as the time is right, they will tell you the relevance and meaning of all their selections.  If your insiders are picking pictures they relate to, they are completing the assignment, and that is a good thing.  Don’t interfere!

Even though you might want to know why the various collage pictures are being selected, be very careful not to push your insiders to talk about everything at once. Not only will that put the others on the spot, and potentially chase them away from the assignment, but you could also easily overload and overwhelm yourself if you start demanding explanations for every picture or phrase that is selected. Select the pictures from a comfortable emotional distance and save the “talking time” for later.  There will be plenty enough time on different days for your system members to explain their choices to you.

If you find that lots of your parts are doing this exercise at once, you can either make different piles for the pictures that belong to different folks, or just cut out everything you see and separate the piles of pictures into themes at a later point. I have known people to be working on dozens of tiny collages all at the same time. I have also known people to assemble gigantic collages on huge poster boards. Use whatever style works for best for you!  The important point is that your parts are creatively showing you what has deep meaning for them.

The purpose of the collage is to provide another way to tell without telling. Using groupings of pictures and cut out words or phrases can help to say things that you are not allowed to say directly. Any form of expression is helpful in the therapeutic process, even if some of it stays unclear for a long while.

Another added benefit to this exercise is that you will get to know your system parts better. You might recognize patterns for who leans towards what type of pictures. You might hear a new voice that you don’t recognize insisting on a picture that has absolutely no relevance to you.

Collage work can help with the processing of traumatic memories. You might see entire story-lines displayed right in front of you in the groupings of magazine pictures. You might develop a greater awareness for who in your system dealt with what types of abusive situations.

Tending to everyone, listening, and allowing everyone in your system to have an unedited say in picture selection is important.  As with any exercise that includes your whole system, it can lead to greater trust, system cooperation, and internal connection.

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By:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

January 4, 2009

Internal Communication – The Core of Treatment for Dissociative Identity Disorder, part 1

Posted in DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Internal Communication, mental health tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 4:16 pm by Kathy Broady


I ended my last post with this paragraph:

Focus first on relationship building with your parts.  Get to know them.  Talk to them.  Learn their names.  Overcome your fears of who they are.  Appreciate their strengths.  Develop friendships with them.  I guarantee that your overall stability will greatly improve as you are more connected with your internal system on a genuinely friendly, caring basis.


In my opinion, developing good internal communication is the core of the treatment work for Dissociative Identity Disorder.  If you cannot or do not talk well with your other internal parts, you will not be able to complete your healing work effectively, thoroughly or sufficiently.

Imagine going to your place of employment and not being able to speak with any of your co-workers.  How well would businesses work with that approach?  Have you ever been to a big department store?  Imagine if the employees couldn’t speak with each other for days-weeks-years at a time.  That store as a whole would find it extremely difficult to manage busy days, or to handle simple, basic operations.  It would crumble.  Even if all the employees continued doing their own jobs perfectly — if they are not communicating with anyone else in the store, then the store as a whole would be less effective.  It would likely go out of business sooner than later.

Dissociative systems cannot function without internal communication any better than large department stores can function without internal communication.

If you don’t talk to your inner people, and if your various insiders do not speak with each other, none of you are going to function as well as you could.

Also, if you run your system with an attitude similar to Hitler’s, that’s not going to work so well either.  Approaching your insiders as inferiors or nuisances that you want to kill off, or dispose of, or get rid of in some way will not be helpful.  As our real-life example has shown, this type of dictatorship and abuse leads to tragedies like genocide and world wars.  Don’t go there with your internal world.  Treat your inner people with kindness and respect.

I promise you that every single one of your insiders has value, importance, strengths, and significance.  You might not understand who they are at this point in time.  And when you don’t know the positive value held by each person inside, that’s a big clue that you have some therapy work to do.

Allowing your system to stay scattered, chaotic, disorganized, and messy will not help your stability or ability to function.  Keeping with the store metaphor, who wants to shop in a cluttered, disorganized, messy store?  Can you find anything?  Does it take twice as long to find the things you need?  And are some items just impossible to find without taking huge chunks of extra time?

Permanently blocking your internal system behind walls or curtains or an unexplored blackness is not helpful either.  I realize that all DIDer’s have dissociative walls and barriers already — walls that could have easily been there for years.  That is the nature of DID/MPD.  It’s the initial point of having a dissociative disorder — surviving by using those same dissociative walls to separate yourself from yourself and from the situations and feelings that were too conflictual, too painful, too difficult, etc.  In the here and now, the treatment goal is to gradually lower and remove those barriers between your system people, and certainly not to create more walls or to support more distance between everyone.

Internal communication is the key to doing this work.

Doing your system work — meeting each other, getting to know each other, will in itself create a greater sense of order and structure within.  More of you will know who can do what, where the other parts are, and how they got there.  It won’t feel so strange or unknown to you.  Insiders can become friends with each other instead of being strangers separated from each other.  Even though there are additional steps to take, start by encouraging everyone in your system to be willing to see, meet, and greet as many others as possible.  You all need to know who you have in there.

My next post — Internal Communication, part 2 — will list specific ideas for how to develop communication within your system.

For today, in preparation to do this work, please think about the following:

  • How willing are you to speak to your insiders?
  • How willing are you to listen to your insiders?
  • If you are afraid of some of your inside people, what are you willing to say to them?
  • If some of your insiders have experienced a different life than you have, are you willing to listen to them?
  • What will you do if someone says something you don’t want to hear?
  • What will you do if your insiders squabble and argue with each other?
  • How will you handle it if certain insiders hurt others within your system?  What if they are hurting child parts?  What if they attempt to hurt you?
  • What if meeting the others folks inside means learning that you were more hurt and abused than you realized?  How will you handle that?
  • What are your thoughts and feelings about finding new insiders — ones that you didn’t realize you had?
  • Do you know how to speak to child parts?  How will your address them if you see that they are hurting emotionally or physically?

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You can do this.  Your healing depends on your talking with your internal system.

__________

By:

Kathy Broady, LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com


December 31, 2008

25 Ways to Avoid Self-Injury and Prevent Self-Harm

Posted in DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, mental health, Self Injury, sexual abuse tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 6:17 am by Kathy Broady


Survivors of sexual abuse often struggle with self-injury (SI).

Survivors often use dissociative walls to contain and separate intense emotions from themselves.  This allows them to stay numb, and to not feel.  They can split off their unmanageable, uncomfortable, or conflicting feelings into other parts of themselves, as frequently seen in dissociative identity disorder (DID/MPD).

As those dissociative walls begin to crumble, allowing more emotions and feelings to emerge, survivors often want to maintain or regain that sense of numbness and emotional distance.  They will use various forms of self-harm to re-create more distance from feelings.

However, purposeful self-injury and self-destruction creates a myriad of other complications.  There are a number of reasons why trauma survivors hurt themselves, and hundreds of different ways to do it.  I will discuss some of these topics in blogs to come.

For now, the following is a list of 25 ideas of activities to do when the urgency of self-harm is there.  These ideas do not necessarily address the issues fueling the SI, but they can be a helpful distraction during an acute crisis point.  If you complete a handful of these ideas when you start feeling compulsions to SI, you might find that you can work past the danger point and get yourself into a more stable place.

Remember — Safety First!  (that includes safety from yourself as well)

When you are in the immediate danger of harming yourself, try at least five or six of the following ideas.  However, do as many as you need to get past the urgency to self-harm.

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  1. Call a friend or two and talk to them about anything – the weather, politics, the news, old times, new recipes, etc.  Distract yourself, and enjoy the company.
  2. Watch a movie or two, or three, or however many it takes till you get past the urge to SI. Promise yourself that you will watch movies until you feel safe again.
  3. Write about your feelings in your journal. Write a poem out about your feelings.
  4. Scrub the house from top to bottom.  Distracting yourself with tedious tasks, paying close attention to details can give you a different focus for the energy you are feeling.
  5. Get out the hottest jar of salsa and add jalapeno pepper or red chili peppers, and dig in. It might burn your mouth or make your eyes water and your nose run to eat this, but it won’t scar or cause actual harm.
  6. Draw or paint on paper what you want to do to yourself.  Draw or paint a second picture showing why you want to do this.  Draw or paint a third picture showing how you wish you were feeling.
  7. Play with, pet, hold, or hug your pet.  Find comfort and soothe yourself with the company of your dog and cat instead turning to pain or injury.
  8. Take a walk or exercise.  The physical release of energy is helpful.
  9. Plant a small garden.  Creating something nice, making something pretty to look at, and tending to something alive can put you into a different frame of mind.
  10. Take a bath or shower.  Let the water soothe you and help release your stress. Talking out loud or crying in the shower helps get the pain out that is locked inside you.  Let the stress rinse off and send it “down the drain” away from you.
  11. Draw on yourself with a red marker instead of cutting.
  12. Put a rubber band on your wrist and snap it when you think of hurting yourself.
  13. Hit a pillow over and over and over till you tire yourself out or the thoughts go away.  Speak or cry while you are doing this, if you can.
  14. Listen to soothing music (or scream to angry music).
  15. Read your favorite book, or read a new book from your favorite author.
  16. Watch something really funny on TV – use comedy and laughter as a release.
  17. Play games online.  Computer games can be monotonous, trancey-hypnotic, time-consuming, and calming.
  18. Work on web pages or any other big task that requires your attention.
  19. Sleep, just have to complete shut down.  Let the time pass, and hopefully when you wake up, the intensity of the emotion will have subsided.
  20. For those with DID / MPD, go to the safe place you have created inside.  Visualize nice things, comforting things, favorite things.  Allow yourself to be surrounded by good things in life, even if it exists only in your internal world at that moment.
  21. Snuggle under your favorite blanket in a safe, private, secure place, and allow the feelings to surface.  Cry, shake, feel, breathe.  Let yourself experience and feel your feelings.
  22. Think of all the people who have ever had good, kind thoughts of you.  Imagine each of them standing with you, holding hands and being with you.  Allow them to offer comfort and support to you, even via your own thoughts.  Write letters of appreciation to them.
  23. Play the guitar or piano and play out your feelings through the music. Write a song about your feelings.  Sing out loud with your favorite CD’s.  If you find a song that fits just right, play it over and over and over.
  24. Close your eyes and visualize yourself on vacation, far away from your stress. If you love the beach, for example, picture yourself walking at your favorite time of the day, barefoot along the shore, feeling the cool breeze across your face, listening to the waves coming and going, watching the sea gulls fly, picking up sea shells. Imagine yourself walking in the warm clear water, swimming with the dolphins, being totally safe.
  25. Eat a healthy snack (not too sugary), have a cup of herbal tea, or a glass of milk.  Avoid caffeine.  Nibble on saltine crackers.  Challenge yourself to take 50 nibbles or more on each cracker

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Stay Safe!

__________

by:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

December 27, 2008

Being Kind to Your Internal System

Posted in DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, therapy tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 11:55 pm by Kathy Broady


Hey everyone…

Thanks for coming back and reading more of the Discussing Dissociation blog.  It’s exciting to see the number of site viewers growing each week – I think you all must be spreading the news!  I appreciate all of you who have already become regular readers, and thanks for telling your friends.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about giving- making- creating- providing new and positive experiences for your internal child parts, I want to encourage all the multiples here to expand that idea to include your whole system on an even wider scale.  This idea applies to non-multiples too, of course, but since we are “discussing dissociation” here, I’m going to write about these idea within the context of DID / MPD.

I have found that most dissociative trauma survivors have a fair bit of trouble understanding how to be genuinely kind to their inside people. It is very similar to being nice, and kind, and accepting towards outside people, but the effort gets directed to your own insiders instead of outside people.

I could explore the many different reasons for this.  Is it because your family treated you so poorly?   Were you so hideously neglected that taking care of yourself is truly a skill you have yet to learn?  Is it because you truly believe you don’t deserve anything nice?  Is it that you are full of self-hatred that you won’t be kind to yourself?  Is that you are so angry at anyone (everyone?) that it is easier or essential to take it out on yourself?  I don’t know.  I’ll leave those questions with you to think about.

For now, I want to focus on what kind things you actually do for your internal system.

  • What do you do to be nice to your inside people?  What did you do this week?
  • What do you do to show the others in your system appreciation and kindness?
  • What do you do to encourage them through the hard parts of therapy work?

Think about all the different kinds of things you can do for your people on the inside. Your internal world — your internal landscape — is totally your own world.  It belongs to you and only you and your internal system.  You and your insiders control that inner world.  You all can truly make a huge impact by doing nice, kind, gentle, supportive, and comforting things for each other in there on that level.  Even if you can’t afford to buy things in the external world, you can do things for free on the inside worlds.  Your inner world can be a true haven and a place that is comfortable and “just right”.

When you can see the others inside, and when you listen to them, and pay attention to each other, you will be able to recognize their needs and then do something about it to make their day better.  Taking better care of your insiders will have a huge impact on your life, your system work, your healing process, and your external world.

One of the biggest keys to your overall healing depends on how YOU all treat your own system and internal parts. Do you support each other inside? Do you take the time to be kind to each other inside? Do you comfort each other inside? What do you do to help each other inside?  Do you treat each other with respect?  Are you trustworthy with each other?

For those that are DID, I believe that one of the most significant therapy goals is doing INTERNAL self care. Look at your others inside — share blankets and stuffies with them. Give them hugs, sit quietly with them. Meet their needs, clean up the messes, give them clean clothes to wear, and a quiet safe place to rest. If your inside world stays chaotic and unkept, neglected or dangerous, then how on earth are you going to feel safe or ok in the outside world? Start by addressing things in your own world, and let it ripple out from there.

The more folks learn to be there for their own selves, the less they will depend on their therapist, or spouse, or any other outside person to “take care” of them. The more you can take care of your own selves, the less it matters if someone else is busy or away for a few days. The more you take care of your own selves, the more you will feel GOOD about yourself and your ability to handle life.

Here are more questions to think about:

  • What is the nicest thing that someone in your system could do for you?
  • What are some of the most meaningful things you could do for them?
  • How do you show the hurting ones that you have compassion for them?
  • How do you show your little ones that you will protect them and keep them safe?
  • What kinds of things can you do for your insiders to show them that you will help to take care of them and tend to their needs?
  • How does your system respond when you are kind and attentive to them vs. being neglectful and angry towards them?

.

This is an important topic — your thoughts and/or comments are welcome.

__________

by:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

December 23, 2008

10 Qualities Therapists Recognize in Good Clients, part 2

Posted in DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, mental health, therapy tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 7:15 pm by Kathy Broady


Hello to all my Readers,

I hope this day finds you doing well.

The first part of this article certainly caused a little stir, and maybe raised a few eyebrows along the way.  Please know, my intention in posting these blogs is not to offend anyone.  If you have any questions or concerns about anything I’ve posted, please comment and let me know what you’re thinking!  And here’s a big Thank You! to the folks who did comment to the “Part 1″ post.  I appreciate that.

Let me try framing the context of this article.  In previous blog posts, we’ve been discussing questions to ask a new therapist.  This article is, in some ways, a follow-up to that idea, because these are the kinds of things a therapist is going to be thinking about / assessing in new clients as they arrive at their door.  These are also the strengths that you want to emphasize when you are meeting a new therapist.

If you approach your therapy keeping these qualities in mind, you will honestly find that more therapists will stay interested in working with you for the long haul.  That is not to say you have to be perfect.  Who is???!  It means, work on these things.  Be mindful of them.  Developing these strengths will make you a better person overall, and that is very much the goal of therapy.

These qualities, in my opinion, have nothing to do with mental illness.  I have worked with some very disturbed people with huge issues, and yet, they possessed these qualities, and they made huge progess in their healing.  I’ve also seen some folks who appeared to be rather high-functioning, and yet, they did not, or could not grasp some of these basic ideas.

I agree with the brave soul who commented that these qualities are an important part of everyday life.  The more that survivors strive to incorporate these strengths into their approach to everything, the better.  Your self esteem will improve, your self-dignity will be solid, and people around you will appreciate you more.

I don’t expect every trauma survivor to have a solid grasp on these qualities, but I do hope every trauma survivor strives to.

Intermingle these strengths into your life everywhere that you can.  You’ll be glad you did!

And here is part 2 of the article, “10 Qualities Therapists Recognize in Good Clients”:

6. Honesty and Trustworthiness

  • Are you willing to be honest with yourself?
  • Are you willing to lie to your therapist, or hide information, or lie by omission?
  • Do you gossip and tell lies behind people’s backs?
  • Do you gossip about your therapist?
  • Do you lie to your inside parts?  Does anyone in your system try to trick or deceive the others in your system?

Therapeutic relationships are built on honesty and trust.  Your therapist will need to know you possess these qualities as well.

7. Loyalty

  • Will you treat your friends and family members with kindness and respect even if they have done things you do not like?
  • Will you loyally protect your internal system from predators and perpetrators, putting the safety of your inside parts as a priority?
  • Are you loyal to your therapeutic process and will you keep clear boundaries around the therapeutic process?
  • Will you respect your therapist’s trust in you to the same degree that you expect your therapist to respect your trust in them?
  • If you and your therapist experience a conflict, where do you look to resolve that? Do you expect to resolve the conflict within the context of therapy, or will you spread the conflict outside the therapeutic relationship and draw others into it?

Your therapist and support team can be your greatest allies in your healing journey.  However, a deep level of mutual respect is expected and needed in order to progress in therapy.  It is crucial that you thoroughly differentiate the “good guys” from the “bad guys”.  Therapists understand the concepts of transference and projection, and they will work with you in those tender moments, but there will be limits to that. I can promise you, your helpers do not want to be thrown under the bus any more than anyone else.

8. Creativity

  • Are you determined to do the same things over and over again?
  • Are you open to trying new options?
  • Can you think outside of the box instead of being boxed in?
  • Do you help to problem-solve the various dilemmas that surface?
  • Will you work on ways to reach even the most difficult of insiders?  Even if this involves several failed attempts before you successfully connect with these parts?

We’ve all heard the saying, “the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again, expecting to get different results.”    A huge part of the healing process is learning new things and doing different things.

9. Gratitude and Appreciation

  • Do you appreciate what people do for you?
  • Do you recognize when someone is doing something for you?
  • Do you thank them for helping you?
  • In relationships, do you overlook smaller imperfections in appreciation of bigger strengths?
  • Do you thank others in your dissociative internal system for the ways they have helped you to survive through the years?  Do you recognize their strengths and talents in the current day?

Gratitude and appreciation are key elements of any healthy relationship.  Don’t take the goodness of others for granted.  Be thankful for what you receive from others.

10.  Safety

  • Are you a safe person?
  • Do you use threats of violence, or threats of harm to others, or threats of emotional blackmail, or threats of any kind to destroy or control other people or to get your own way?
  • Do you threaten self-harm or suicide as a way to manipulate others or to get your own way?
  • Are you willing to hurt yourself or someone else in order to get your way, including others in your internal system?
  • How far is “too far” to go to get what you want or prove you are “right”?  Do you think there is such a thing as “too far”?

Therapists will model safe behavior.  If you are acting in ways that are unsafe for yourself or manipulative of those around you, your therapist will set boundaries with you — just as you should set boundaries with someone who is unsafe in your direction.

If you follow these guidelines, you will have a much better relationship with your therapist and others around you.   If you are looking for a new therapist, remember that the more you can genuinely offer in the areas listed above, the more those therapists will view you as a client with potential — and the more positive potential you demonstrate in these areas of your life, the greater interest more therapists will have in working with you.  It goes to your advantage, your healing, your self-respect, and the amount of respect others will feel toward you to learn these things.

All people, including trauma survivors with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID/MPD), can claim these strengths as their own.  Work hard to be a “good person” in your therapy, and you’ll be amazed at how much difference this can make in your relationship with your therapist and with your system.  Remember:

Maintain your stability the best you can.
Be dependable in what you do, and do what you say you will do.
Maintain your motivation and your willingness to work hard.
Be courageous, even when it is scary.
Stay clear and upfront about your personal responsibilities.
Be honest and trustworthy at all times.
Stay loyal to your helpers.
Be creative in the hard times.
Have gratitude and appreciation for the good things and good people.
And be a safe person.  Be safe for yourself, and be safe for others.

You can do it.  I’m just sure of it.

__________

by:

Kathy Broady LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

December 5, 2008

Why do I work as a trauma therapist?

Posted in DID Education, DID/MPD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, mental health, sexual abuse, therapy, Therapy and Counseling, Trauma, trauma therapist tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 11:11 pm by Kathy Broady


Why do I work as a trauma therapist?

I’ve been told it would be soooo much easier and less stressful and probably more lucrative to sell shoes.

However, I have devotedly worked with trauma survivors and their loved ones for over 20 years.

During this time, I have come to appreciate the depth of pain, the atrocious injuries, the years of dysfunction, the heartbreaking losses, and the overwhelming grief caused solely from severe childhood abuse. I have seen the sweet faces of abused children – they are so tiny and innocent, yet their torture has been incomprehensible. I have heard the heart-wrenching cries of mothers whose children were stolen – theirs is a nightmare of deception by perpetrators. And this purposeful destruction of children – it leads to a sorrow beyond words.

My utmost admiration goes to the ones who have fought against these evils on the very front line. Because of your courage to defy the most vicious cruelties of this world, I dare to join you and participate in the fight against the destruction of our children. I will continue to support and encourage such brave souls who have chosen to tell about the hidden atrocities. I absolutely admire those that refuse to continue years of destruction onto the next generation of children.

Deliberate crimes of abuse must be stopped. Innocent lives are being destroyed. The cost to individuals, to families, and to society is just too huge to ignore. This war is ugly. It is even dangerous. Fighting against child abuse can leave some people beaten to death. Nonetheless, it is not in vain. I have seen many tiny sparks of tortured lives grow and blossom even from that most horrid starting place.

Yes, I have seen people move past that horrible, traumatized dying place. I have seen their flickers of life and joy flourish to become a daily reality. I have seen the most tattered souls offer beautiful bits of comfort to the shattered soul sitting beside them. I have heard poetry and heart-filled music that makes a roomful of everyone burst into smiles. I have seen sparkling eyes and bouncy steps as children run in play-filled laughter. I have seen healing evolve even after everyone else had given up.

The journey required to heal from childhood trauma is tangled, incredible, painful, exciting, torturous, exhilarating, exhausting, and rewarding. My hat goes out to anyone that chooses to heal from their trauma, and to anyone who chooses to stand supportively beside a trauma survivor. For all of these heroes, the healing journey is beyond difficult. It is grueling and agonizing.  Healing consumes enormous amounts of energy, time, and resources. It seems to take as much strength to survive the healing process as it did to survive the original abuse itself.

Yet these survivors, these amazing people, continually demonstrate an insatiable need to find healing, comfort, freedom, truth, and peace. Their need is so strong and so compelling, that these brave souls seem required to travel this road, whether they quickly reach their goals or not. I wonder: How have they survived the sheer ugliness of the torture and kept such precious beauty in themselves?  Every single time a trauma survivor brings laughter and joy to my day, I am reminded of the strength and the pure resilience of life. I feel love in a world full of hatred. I am reminded how I believe that good can prevail. I am reminded that there is hope. I see their healing, their comfort, their freedom, their truth, and their peace. Yes, trauma survivors are truly amazing people.

And, their road is long – very long. It’s often a lonely road, as most of the others in the world can’t seem to tolerate the intensity, the pain, or the confusion for very many days. Step by step, day after day, I encourage and support each and every one of you survivors out there to stay on your journey to a safe and meaningful life. The road does lead to healing. There is comfort. There is freedom. There is truth, and there is peace. Your pieces may still be scattered everywhere, but your life’s puzzles can be solved on your journey. Stick with it. Life really can be beautiful. It can be worth it.

Thank you for coming to this blog. Thank you for reading and learning about sexual abuse, a most devastating and criminal global issue. Please feel free to browse around my various websites as much as you like, and if you are kind, you are welcome to come back often.

And maybe we can work together to diminish the effects of child abuse.

I stand for the children.

Do you?

__________

by:

Kathy Broady, LCSW

www.AbuseConsultants.com

www.SurvivorForum.com

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