For those of you with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), how many of you have trouble wearing a watch? My sister (who does not have DID but who has been diagnosed with severe PTSD) has never been able to wear a watch. Within a day or two, the watch will stop. She can replace the battery, but that one will die within a day or two as well. She has finally given up and carries a pocket watch on her purse. (She cannot even carry it in her pocket, or the watch will stop.) Now that she has a cell phone, she mostly uses the time on it.
Now here is the really freaky part – My sister is “magnetic.” She used to do “bar tricks” for people. She would pick up a knife, hold it for a few minutes, and then use the knife to pick up paperclips. How bizarre is that?
When I read the book When Rabbit Howls, I was fascinated by the multiple references to Truddi Chase’ watches malfunctioning. It made me think about my sister, but I did not make the connection back then. (This was before I started recovering memories of the child abuse.)
I never had a problem wearing a watch until I started having flashbacks. Since then, whenever I am in a period of intense healing, my watch is likely to malfunction. As someone who is obsessed with being on time, that can be very annoying.
I even tried to replace my watch, but I found that newer watches are even worse. I make some run fast and others run slow. The only watch I can wear is one that I received as a high school graduation present back in the 1980’s. Even that one fritzes out on me when I am about to deal with some heavy duty stuff.
The last time was a few months ago. The battery place checked the battery and said it was completely fine, even though my watch was running slowly. It has been working fine ever since (probably because I started dealing with my latest round of intensity). — It just happened again! I wrote this blog yesterday. Today, I found out some bad news. I cried hard, and my watched slowed down.
The weirdest thing my watch has ever done is slow down by exactly one hour. It was on a Saturday a couple of years ago. I wound up being an hour late somewhere. I never suspected that my watch was “off” because the minute hand matched what I saw on various clocks throughout the day. I feared I was losing time and reset the watch, but I came to recognize that this was just another one of these weird things that I get to deal with in my life.
Do any of you have malfunctioning watch stories to share? I would love to hear them.
Related Topic:
Trauma Tuesday: Body Magnetism
Photo credit: Faith Allen
Blooming Lotus 
I have problems with watches and battery run clocks too. Digital ones plugged into the wall are fine. My cell phone is fine. I go through batteries like hotcakes. I have started buying the really cheap watches that cost $9.99 or less because batteries are $10 and I come out cheaper that way. I figured it was just some weird magnetic quirk of my body though. Never been diagnosed DID, but I do have some pretty intense dissociative traits. And do have PTSD.
i dont know about the watchs not working but i am always wanting to know the time but i just dont like the feeling at all of the watch being on my body. i had been tied up so much i dont think i want anything on my wrist for days.. I must have my cell with me all the time its like a safety net for me.. i use it for the time which i do check a lot, but also i use it to know if someone takes me again i call for help, maybe someone will rescue me this time.
Hi Zoe, my name is Kim I am new here and a blogger
here as well.
I was really touched by what you wrote about being
tide up. I just wanted to say that I am so sorry you had
to endure such horror. I have never experienced this
before but my heart really goes out to you. You are a
true survivor.
I will be forever grateful to Faith, her
website and completely honest and candid articles,
not to mention the others who share their experiences.
This is the first time in my life that I feel understood
and there are others who can explain and help me withpray this very complex disorder. I pray that you find safety
with whomever you are with and wherever you are.
Fondly,
Kim:)
Yes, Faith . . . I am hard on watches as well . . same story with them dying, speeding up and slowing down . . . it has happened my entire life.
Same thing with electronics . . . I can blow out the power supply of radios and computers by just touching them if I’m wound too tightly.
Same thing with lightbulbs . . when my emotions are intense, two, three or four bulbs will blow in my living area within a couple of days.
Since everything is energy, including emotions, it makes sense!
– Marie (Coming Out of the Trees)
http://mmaaggnnaa.wordpress.com/
The only watch I own is an old fashioned wind up one. I stopped wearing it because I could never remember to wind it on time, and I’m not much for jewelry. It took me ages to get used to wearing my wedding ring. I believe it’s possible, what you’re talking about, but haven’t had a watch near me enough to test it out. The energy stuff I can relate to though. Anything to do with directing body energy (reiki, therapeutic touch, tai chi, chi gong) I can do easily and well even when I wasn’t much in my body.
SDW
Huh, and I thought it was just a family trait. I stopped wearing watches a few years ago. While I never connected their stopping or slowing to flashback intensity, now that you mention it, I might get a cheap watch just to test this idea out.
The times that my watches have stopped in the past I did connect it to how much energy I was releasing – once after I attended a high energy rock concert where I danced and screamed, etc. Another time a watch stopped when at the wedding reception of a college friend where I danced, and danced.
I am always getting zapped by metal handles in the grocery’s freezer section, no matter what time of year. I just chalked it up to higher magnetism- not the social variety, alas.
My abuser has the same problem with watches and freezer handles. I thought it was genetic or something. Maybe he does have DID. Would explain alot then, if I care to think about it at all anymore.
Thanks for mentioning this!
i can’t wear watches [ battery or dial ]because they keep stopping or losing time [ a bit like me ! ]. also i am always giving people little electric shocks when i touch them with my fingers or when i kiss my husband. and my clothes are charged sometimes when i take them off – eg my woollen singlet will send sparks or flashes off when i am peeling it off.
nb: i don’t use a hair dryer and my clothes do not go in the clothes dryer or near an electric hetaer so that is not the explanation. like zoe, i don’t like watches anyway because they remind me of being tied up at my wrists and therefore freak me out a bit. my maternal grandmother had the same problem with watches and also she was considered able to channel spirits – she would hold a pen and zone out and writing not her won would be produced – i think she was maybe dissociating and an alter coming through but my family say she was fae [ spiritual ].
I’ve never liked to wear watches, so I have no idea if my body messes them up or not. However, my father is detrimental to sensitive electronics. He goes to change a hard drive, and it will blow. Or he’ll touch a computer and something about it will fry. When I lived at home, I had to back everything up constantly, because my father would need to completely reformat my computer or get a new hard drive/motherboard on a regular basis. Since I left home, in six years, I’ve only had to do that once. It’s just something about his touch, it messes up the computer. I don’t believe he’s dissociative, though, he just has a high amount of static electricity in his body.
As for me, I am very sensitive to electronics, but in an auditory sense. If I walk into a TV studio, or a room filled with computers, or TVs, or a lot of electric equipment, I cringe, because I can hear this weird super-high pitched sound. No one else I know can hear it, but I do. I can tell if the TV got left on, without even looking at it, because I can hear the high-pitched sound it makes. Being in a TV studio will eventually make me sick, with nausea and a headache, from the sound.
to midge : i hear that as well. it is very annoying. people used to tell me it was tinnitus but it is only near electronics and if i stand by the meter box where power enters the house.
Me too, I hear that stuff. One time I was in a golf course gift shop and I could hear their alarm sensors, hurt my ears so much I had to get out of there!
Hmmm… I don’t know that people with DID or PTSD are more prone than others to wreck havoc with watches and such. I’ve had a cheapo digital watch for years and worked fine. But then I’ve had others that kept dying on me. Who knows. Most cheap watches cost about $.50 to make and the batteries are probably old to begin with.
Anyway, like someone else said, I couldn’t wear anything on my wrist. I always felt like someone was grabbing me. This is why I sometimes don’t like to wear my wedding band.
But since I’ve got a cellphone, I’ve used that for time keeping.
Paul
Hi, Paul.
I did not know this, either, until I read “When Rabbit Howls” and then started healing myself and “woke up to” my sister’s and my abuse.
I know very few people with magnetism issues, but it sure seems common with our demographic. I don’t think it is a coincidence. I suspect it has to do with all of the extra work our brains are doing to run from and/or heal from trauma.
– Faith
I never wear watches because they don’t feel right to me so I’m not sure what would happen. I use my cell phone for the time. But I do zap some electronics. I also get zapped by most everything I touch and the zap is deep enough to hurt my bones. I am always nervous pumping gas into my car.
Hey Faith,
I do have a couple of stories. Only one about watch malfunction.
My dad had a really bad childhood, then he was a medic in WWII, so he had lots of PTSD and was a very intense person. He could not wear watches because he the time would always change. I don’t remember if he lost or gained time. I also thing they would break a lot.
The other story is about a friend who has such a strong energy field, she blows up motherboards. Srsly. Her work has to provide her with detachable keyboards or else she will burn out any computer she works on. I believe she’s been known to take down a whole system on a bad day. If I hadn’t seen it, I would NOT believe it, but it’s true.
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I found this entry and was fascinated; my mother and I are both survivors, though her experiences were from mostly from before my birth. For all of our lives, we have never been able to wear watches. We joke about being “part fae” and having “echoes” of some long lost magic in us that makes time run wrong.
I do not have DID, though I have a form of mental illness myself. I believe that for myself, I will continue to embrace this idea of being just a little too magical for this world, but I also appreciate the consideration that something else might have had a bearing on it.
what the heck is this?
what a random thing lol. i’m almost at a loss for words right now!
i have a pretty nice watch that i just love (a citizen watch i got years ago made of titanium).
when i bought it, i was in one of the biggest highs of my life (i enrolled in college, i even completed the first 3 days! xP) but then i got involved in drugs and just made a complete mess of myself.
i finally got out of that situation, and moved back with my parents.
the watch was only about a year old. . .but every couple of days it’d be off by anywhere from 15-45 mins.
it really annoyed the heck out of me. i mean sometimes it’d go for weeks without being off (slowing down, never “sped” up).
i took it in to get cleaned and a new battery, and it’d still go off.
i don’t know what happened, but that was about 4 years ago. my watch has been fine since.
except for yesterday lol.
it’s been a bad week for me, and just randomly yesterday it was about 15 minutes off again.
i’ve never put any thought into this really. it always annoys me as i really do love this watch, and it represents one of the best times of my life (no matter how short lived it was). . .and i spent quite a bit of money (more then i really should’ve lol) on it so i expect it to work. especially after i have it professionally cleaned, and a jeweler to put a new battery in it.
lol but wow, what a random post.
it’s soooo weird that others have had the same problem.
it makes me wonder.
lol i hope you’re not getting e-mails to each of the comments i’m making to all your old posts Faith. i’m reading quite a bit here tonight, and there’s just so many things you have to say that i relate to.
Hi, Twitch.
I do get emails for each, which is good because I want to read all of your comments. :0)
– Faith
(((((((FAITH))))))) <<.<"
I'm happy to see you've still got this blog up and running!
Part of my healing process and my getting better has been trying to 'relate' to others (something I've had a heck of a hard time with). . .reading posts by you like this one, that just 'click' for me, have been so helpful to me!
There's strength in numbers, and it can feel very empowering to know that you're not alone! That you don't have to struggle on your own!
lol sorry for the long comment! xP
((((((((((((((FAITH))))))))))))))
lol wow xP I had SOOO much more typed up then in the above comment! No idea what happened to the rest of the comment haha!
In a nutshell I just pretty much said that I’m still wearing the same watch and it’s kept perfect time for me since my last comment here. . .until recently. It’s been losing between 1-2 hours the last few weeks.
I talked to my therapist in a support group I goto (which she runs) about it, and one of the ladies that goes who has D.I.D. says she can’t wear watches because they always stop on her.
It’s funny because as soon as I talked about my watch issues in the group. . .the watch started to get better! lol. . .instead of it losing 2 hours, it was only losing 10-15 minutes. . .now over the last couple of days it’s been holding perfect time again!
I’ve also noticed that my watch only starts slowing down on me, when I’m having issues with dissociating.
I went through 4 rounds of pretty instense chemo (for testicular cancer) over the summer, and during the last round of the chemo I felt a definite “shift”. . .I just woke up and vividly realized I was no longer the same person I was when I first started the chemo. . .that I was now a completely different person.
“Waking up” into my life like this has happened a few times over the years that I can remember. The biggest frustration about these times, is I always forget who people in my life are. I’ll see a face (or a name if it’s someone I know online) and just completely have no idea why I’m suppose to know them. . .all I know is I “should” know them, and they seem like they use to be an important person in my life.
It’s frustrating because they’ll start talking to me like we’re close. . .but I honestly don’t know who the heck they are, or why I’m suppose to be close to them. I have NO idea who I’m suppose to be with them lol.
No wonder I don’t have many friends! 😛 😛
So yeah. . .it was after this switch that my watch started to act up on me this time.
(((((((FAIT)))))))
Hi, twitch.
How funny! I was wondering why you apologized for a “long” comment for your first one. LOL I don’t have a limit on the length of comments. :0)
I actually had to buy a new watch. I felt like I should have a funeral for the old one! I found one that does work. I can’t remember when I bought it — I think it was this year, though. If it was, it will be interesting to see how it survives the holiday season since that is historically a rough time of year for me. I chose a watch as similar as I could fine — same brand, general style, etc. So far, so good.
– Faith
I noticed that people were responding as early as 6 months ago so I’m going to give it a try.
* I cannot wear watches,I run down the batteries in everything…Kindle, iphone, computer etc. very, very quickly. I used to have seizures when I was a teenager until my late twenties, have ADD and in my mid-twenties had tumor removed from my thyroid.
I have 5 brothers and sisters…
*.the youngest has frequent migraines, is ADD and also stops watches, phones, etc..
* two of his 3 children have ADD..one is EXTREMELY severe (ie., couldn’t focus long enough to recognize me or talk to me until he was put on medication at the age of 6 and then acknowleged me.) Both also have Autism, and I think their father (my brother) shows some of those characteristics. Both of his children run down batteries.
*My sisters (twins, one has passed) are schizophrenic. Only one could wear a watch without killing the battery.
* My oldest son is ADD and has severe anixiety and major depression disorder. My youngest son is ADD. Neither one of them can keep their phones charged and the youngest has to change the batteries in his xbox360 controller. The older son has to use a flip phone and talk with it on speaker so it doesn’t ‘short’ out and the battery will last more than a week.
I think all of this, including DID are related. I am looking into a device that I know helped a friends step daugher who has DID(I don’t know if she can wear a watch or carry a phone) you might be interested..it will be shown on show The Doctors sometime in the near future. http://www.baudenergetics.com It works with the sonic waves (acoustical waves) in our brains. It is something to look into.
Hi, Donna.
Thanks for posting. :0)
I read all comments, even when they are posted on “old” blog entries. As I have healed, I don’t mess up my watch as often, but if I feel something very intensely, I can still sometimes zap the battery. Yikes!
~ Faith