My Story: Integrating from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

I have received so much positive feedback about my series on Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) that I have decided to continue writing on this topic. I have received comments and questions about integration. I went back through my journal and found something I posted on Isurvive back in July of 2005. I had recently recovered [...]

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Integration after Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Integration is the way to heal from DID. While many people find ways to live successfully as “multiples” by teaching their alter parts how to “share,” choosing to stay a multiple means choosing to stay separate. Alter parts are created through self-rejection. The only true way to heal is through self-love, and self-love comes from [...]

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID): Types of Alter Parts

I have heard Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) described as a “create your own disorder” disorder, so it can manifest in many ways. Unless a person’s experience meets the criteria laid out in the DSM-IV for DID, the person is not diagnosed with DID, even though her multiple system might be just as complex. Those situations [...]

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Alter Parts

One of the biggest misconceptions about Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is that the person has two or more “people” sharing a body. This is not correct. Instead, the person has compartmentalized her memories and emotions to such a degree that they feel foreign or as if they are “not me.” Every separate part is a [...]

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Profile of a Person with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Thanks to Hollywood’s portrayal of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder), most people think of a person with DID as “crazy” with a mental illness in which they are completely unpredictable. One person who read Truddi Chase’s book, When Rabbit Howls, commented about how amazed she was that Truddi was able [...]

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Recovery from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

I am going to spend this week focusing on Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly knows as Multiple Personality Disorder. For some reason, this topic is harder for me to talk about, especially because I have some off-line friends who know about this personal blog but do not know about my history with DID. (I guess [...]

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Night Terrors after Child Abuse

Many people who suffered child abuse struggle with night terrors. Unfortunately, that is my story, too. I still remember my first night terror back in college. I awoke as an anxious mess in the safety of my dorm, but I could not even cry about it without waking up my roommate. The night terror haunted [...]

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Child Abuse by Mother: “She Did the Best She Could”

Nothing gets my blood boiling faster than to hear people make sweeping generalizations about the overall “goodness” of mothers. Fathers can be piles of manure, but all mothers are presumed to have “done the best they could.” That is a bunch of BS, and I cannot help but rise to the bait whenever this is [...]

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Grieving Losses after Mother-Daughter Sexual Abuse

In my last post, No Big “Bomb” in Letter from Mother/Abuser, I shared that my mother/abuser wrote me a letter in the hopes of getting us to reconcile. That is not going to happen until she takes responsibility for the pain she inflicted and allowed others to inflict upon me. She was the common denominator [...]

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No Big “Bomb” in Letter from Mother/Abuser

I have written quite a bit about mother-daughter sexual abuse and specifically about my confused feelings toward my mother. I have neither seen nor talked to my mother since December 2003 (by my choice). My mother would like to change this, but I am not ready. Honestly, I don’t know if I will ever be [...]

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