Peer Support for Abuse Survivors
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DID & HealingOn Site ArticlesRelapse Prevention WorksheetRecovering from abuse takes time. It is important to remember that recovery doesn’t occur perfectly for anyone and there will be relapses during the recovery process. This is normal and it is to be expected. A Relapse Prevention Plan is something that may be helpful to you in preventing a relapse. more>> Creating And Enhancing Your Personal Support It is important to think about what help or support you need and make a list of those whom you trust to turn to. Dividing your requests for support between different people can ensure that you receive a helpful diversity of care. It will also prevent burning out one ally whom you have to lean on too much or too often. more >> Containment/Boundaries Having boundaries is a normal activity that survivors can have difficulty with. Boundaries are about your relationship with distance, time, space, emotions and thoughts. Having conscious boundaries is being able to know and decide when, where and with whom you merge. It is also being able to determine and vary the degree of limits you establish. Not being able to stand up for yourself, say no or refuse to give over something you don’t want to, are all boundary issues. more >> The Process Of Recovery From Abuse The process of recovery from abuse is long, demanding and very individual. It requires and deserves much support and safety from other people. When one has been abused, remembering your past is discovering who you are. Recovery involves accepting, understanding and releasing feelings. It entails connecting behavior, thoughts and feelings both in the past and in the present. Recovery is learning about choice, learning how to take care of yourself and learning that it is OK to take care of yourself. It is learning about choice. more >> Self Nurture Some soothing words and some soothing deeds. more >> Multiple Personality Gift I am an adult survivor of Satanic Ritual Abuse and am gifted with Multiple Personalities. Inside me are a variety of little kids, teenagers, and adults. Before understanding and accepting my inside family, I felt badly about them, thought I must be crazy, or maybe had some kind of disease. As I have met and developed a caring, respectful relationship with the members of my inside family, they have begun to accept me as the head of the household and we are learning to appreciate the gift we are to each other. more >> Association — The Key To Recovery Association seems like such a simple concept. How many times has your therapist urged you to find the connection between an event and your response to it, saying that therein will lie the clue to your healing? That’s a pretty straightforward instruction. But how many times have you, faced with such a task, been at a total loss as to what to do? more >> Integration Metaphors Integration work does not require any rites of passage – many multiples report that it can occur seemingly spontaneously. without the intervention of the therapist or the rest of the system. Having said this, it can be comforting to the system, the integrating self, and the therapist, if the act of consolidation is assisted in some way. more >> Mapping Your System Two words used frequently by multiples to describe their experience of MPD, especially early in the healing journey, are chaos and confusion. Many are skeptical when they are told that everything about their inner self-system was designed for a logical reason. But in fact it is true in most cases that the systems of multiples are masterworks of mental engineering. more >> On Being A Proper Multiple When most people think about what it means to be multiple, they go immediately to the “classic” cases of early MPD documentation – multiples like Sybil and Eve White/Black, who demonstrated extremely pronounced changes between their different personalities, accompanied by profound dissociative amnesia. For example, upon switching, they would insist on being called another name and make little or no secret of being a separate entity from the former inhabitant of the body. more >> Poly-Fragmented Multiplicity The average number of alter selves within a multiple system is thirteen, but some multiples have many times more than that. A few years ago, those with twenty-plus selves were known as “super-multiples”. These days, however, therapists are being graced with the presence of more of their clients’ selves. The number now required to be considered “extra” in the multiple stakes is 100-plus, and it is know by the more clinical term “poly-fragmented MPD(DID).” more >> Reclaiming Triggers Many of the triggers which disrupt the lives of survivors are apparently innocuous, everyday items – for example, certain colors, animals, music, people (eg men with facial hair). Because of this, it is crucial that survivors find ways to deal with these triggers so they are not constantly vulnerable to flashbacks, dissociation, or having a panic attack. more >> Switching These days, therapists understand that multiplicity is a condition of great secrecy, and most switching between alter selves is difficult to detect, at least initially. Therefore they have become more alert, and so better able to diagnose MPD even when it is covert. Unfortunately, though, the popular perception of personality switches as being dramatic and cliche continues. more >> Switching – Early Warning Signs One of the most common fears of multiples is that they will switch inappropriately in public. Not only is this embarrassing at times and hard to explain to those who do not know the survivor is multiple, it can also be dangerous. For these reasons, it is important to develop awareness of how to recognize the early warning signals of switching and have a variety of techniques for avoiding switching when necessary. more >> Using Your Dissociative Skills In Healing The point of therapy is not to retraumatize yourself! In fact, experienced therapists agree that keeping yourself to a gentle pace throughout your recovery work is essential. more >> System Mediation Mediation is when a neutral third party helps two or more conflicting groups to come to agreement. Another term for it is “assisted negotiation”. If you are multiple, you may be constantly attempting (and failing!) to negotiate with each other as you face a constellation of differing opinions about everything from what clothes to wear in the morning to whether or not you should stay in therapy. more >> MPD & Journaling Journaling is the basic form of communication among the parts of the system. It can be in the form of written communication, it can be in the form of art media, it can be, if necessary, in the form of a tape-recorded conversation among parts of the system. more >> MPD & Imagery Imagery is using the imagination to create a picture in the mind as an aid to using a specific coping skill. This mental picture may include color, sound, texture, scent, taste, or feelings and emotions. more >> Helping Your System Find or Make Safe Places For All Parts Ideas to help all parts of the system to work together on finding and creating safe places inside. more >> TOP Off Site Articles“Effective Parts Work” Overview and TechniquesPeter K. Gerlach, MSW  2003“Childhood Trauma and Dissociation in Adulthood” Barbara Apgar 1999“Multiple Personalities: A Multiple Choice Examination” S.M. Berry Dissociative Psychopathology, Non-epileptic Seizures, and Neurology Richard J Brown & Michael R. Trimble 2000“Memories of Childhood Abuse: Dissociation, Amnesia, and Corroboration” James A. Chu, M.D., et al 1999“Multiple Personality Disorder” Richard J. Corelli, M.D. “A Review of Visual/Kinesthetic Disassociation in the Treatment of Post traumatic Disorders: Theory, Efficacy and Practice Recommendations” Anne M. Dietrich, M.A. “The Effects of DID On Children of Trauma Survivors” Esther Giller, Director – Sidran Foundation 1995“Multiple Personalities: Some Psychoanalytic Listening Perspectives” Lawrence E. Hedges 1994“Guidelines for Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder” International Society For the Study of Dissociation 1997“Dissociation” Lee Hardiman Marsh 1999“Multiple Personality Disorder: Multiple Selves and Structural Interactionism” Lee Hardiman Marsh 1991“Multiple Personality Disorder and Consciousness Restructuring Process” Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney, M.A. 2000“A Patient with Dissociative Identity Disorder ‘Switches’ in the Emergency Room” René J. Muller, Ph.D. 1998“The Dissociative Child: Afterward” Joyanna L. Silberg, Ph.D. 1998TOP MPD/DID Organizations
Books for Survivors
See more books on Dissociative Identity Disorder. TOP
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 Last edited: 01/02/03.
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