Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID): Should I Integrate?

To integrate or not to integrate – that is the question for many people diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID) or other forms of dissociative disorders. Is there a right or wrong answer to the question, “Should I integrate?” You will likely get a different answer to this question depending upon who you ask. Before [...]

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Losing Control of Bodily Functions during Flashbacks

One particularly distressing part of working through flashbacks involves your body losing control. If you are dealing with a particularly traumatizing memory, your body might lose control during the present just as it did when the traumatizing event took place. Your bladder or bowels might empty, or you might find yourself vomiting. This is all [...]

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Connecting the Emotion Back to the Source

On my blog entry entitled Words of Wisdom from “The Shack”: The Beauty and Pain of Emotions, a reader posted the following comment: My therapist and I were just talking about this today. She says that the emotion has to be linked to the memory before healing can happen. It helps me to try to [...]

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Multiple “People” Inside

When I was in high school, my teacher showed the class the movie The Three Faces of Eve, which is about one of the first documented cases of dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder. In this movie, the narrator talked about how three women were sharing one body. At the end [...]

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Exciting New Resource for Animal Rape Survivors

I have shared before that the article I have written on this blog with the most page views is one entitled Recovering from Childhood Animal Rape. That one blog entry has had over 6,000 views. I also wrote an article for eHow.com entitled How to Heal from Animal Rape. That one article has had over [...]

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Security Questions after Child Abuse

I know I have mentioned this before, but I am going to revisit the issue. I hate security questions. You know the ones I am talking about – What is your mother’s maiden name? What street did you live on as a child? Yes, I understand the need for them, but can’t at least some [...]

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Resiliency in Grief after Child Abuse

As I shared recently, my beloved 16-year-old beagle passed away. I was heartbroken all that day and spent many hours crying and grieving his loss. By the next day, I was okay. In fact, I was even able to appreciate the ways in which my life was easier, such as not having to administer two [...]

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Psychological “Picking” after Child Abuse

On my blog entry entitled Aftereffects of Childhood Abuse: Picking, a reader posted the following comment: Do you think picking can be a verbal thing also? I remember being told by my parents and ex partners that I would often “pick” at them. Psychologically pick things apart that were most times relatively minor things. And [...]

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Ties Between Physical Illness and Emotional Distress after Child Abuse

On my blog entry entitled Full Moon & Easter – What a Combination!, a reader posted the following comment: At the same time, I’ve been feeling really physically ill. I saw a commercial for Easter products on tv and I blurted out to my husband, “I can’t wait for Easter to be over.” I was [...]

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Spiritual or Religious Abuse as Part of Child Abuse

******* Religious triggers ******** I have not really talked about spiritual abuse on this blog. However, after reading Blue Orchid’s comment on this blog entry, I realized that there are probably many more of us out there who suffered from spiritual or religious abuse, so we need to talk about this topic. What exactly is [...]

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