Dreams of Working through Issues of Child Abuse

Even after doing all of the hard work of healing from child abuse and being in a place where I consider myself “healed,” I still sometimes have dreams about issues that arose from the child abuse. They are always intense, and I wake up feeling “off” in the morning. Once upon a time, those kinds [...]

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), Co-presence, and Alter Parts in Conflict

Oftentimes, the alter parts of people with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) find themselves in conflict with one another. While movies like the remake of the movie Sybil give the impression that each alter part must “take a turn” being “out,” that was not my experience. Yes, there were many times that my host personality completely [...]

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), Integration, and Accessing Talents

When I watched the remake of the movie Sybil, I found it interesting that Sybil’s host personality became upset about one of her alter parts being very talented in playing the piano while the host personality did not have that talent. The same thing happened to me, only with me, it was singing. Before integration [...]

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Integrating From Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Recovering Memories

Before I integrated from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), my memory was like Swiss cheese. I had a few vivid memories from my childhood, but they all involved my younger sister and me playing together without anybody else around. I have a few vivid memories from elementary school and can even tell you the name of [...]

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Switching

I recently went on a weekend getaway with five friends from high school. The woman with whom I shared a hotel room (R) was my closest friend in high school. R has always been extremely perceptive. While I always liked her, I would sometimes gets nervous around her in high school because I feared that [...]

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Magnetism

On my post Contrasting My DID Integration Experience with Sybil’s, a reader left the following comment: Please keep writing the personal experience stuff – it is so much more useful and informative from someone who as been there. – Emily This week, I will focus on more of the “personal experience stuff” that relates to [...]

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Choosing a Therapist after Child Abuse

If you have a history of child abuse, then you need a therapist. Period. Healing from child abuse is incredibly grueling, and you are at risk for self-injuring or attempting suicide if you try to heal without the guidance of a therapist. You do not have to see a therapist forever. I saw mine weekly [...]

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Pondering Forgiveness after Child Abuse

I have written a few times about forgiveness after child abuse. Forgiveness is such a huge stumbling block for many adult survivors of child abuse. I have heard many say that if forgiveness is required in order to heal from child abuse, then they will never fully heal. I first approached the idea of forgiveness [...]

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and “Hearing Voices”

A reader recently told me that she questioned her diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (DID) because she does not “hear voices.” Many people have the misconception that people with dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder) “hear voices.” They do not. People with mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, sometimes “hear voices,” but that [...]

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Is Ritual Abuse Really “Satanic”?

As a person who suffered from several years of ritual abuse, I take issue with including the word “satanic” in the descriptor. (Many online discussions of ritual abuse use the initials “SRA” for satanic ritual abuse.) I never refer to what I went through as “satanic ritual abuse.” As soon as you throw around the [...]

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