quote:

What I found interesting from my training is that whatever developmental stage a truama occurs in, it creates a block in the normal learning cycle. So for instance, until a trauma is resolved, it can slow down an individual's growth for that particular stage of development


interesting! especially with 'little' (that is, younger insiders) around. it makes total sense i think. they aren't very trusting, and quite fearful of being hurt.

scott

I found this interesting too. One reason is because besides the fact that it helps make DID more understandable to people who dont understand it but also from the basic fact or feeling that I have is that while us 'singletons' don't have others present inside, we sitll have developmental wounds that accumalate and show themselves as dysfunctions in adults...

My question is How does one reclaim that.... realize what is dysfunctional, finding the insignt to recognize it and how to change it to stop the negative effects of it...> Kinda like the whole core beleifs things when negative are ussualy things that were started off or developed from traumas and inflitrate life but it's hard to find out about them within you and than once you do.... it's frustrating because, at least for me, I wonder... gee, what ELSE is going on that I didn't know about before.

I think of that AG said about accepting the 'not so pretty parts' and I feel this is something that goes into the part of recognizing things left over from issues but how does one reach the epiphamy to recognize it! ...

quote:

(I'm currently writing an article about being triggered)

Are you posting this article here?? I hope so. I find the topic an interesting one. Learning how one figures out when they are being triggered, how to look at it and how they are resolved in relation to body therapy interests me...

quote:

... was curious if it eases up at all? Does it get worse over time? I was also wondering if you got another therapist?

Well, I have a chronic underlying level of pain that is always there and I have pretty much adapted to. Than there are increases and decreases varriant on any number of things.... nutrition, weather, mood, activity, randomness.... With the morphine and antiseizure type medications, I find that things are much more tollerable. There are times when I have increases in pain and don't necessarily realize it physically but I get very emotionally out of sorts at times and will realize it's because my regular level is not being controlled well. I start feeling very sensitive and irritable. My overall pain and disability level has definately worsened over my childhood/adolescense and now. In some ways, i cope better with my wheelchair because positioning is a major deal for me. Having good support does help my pain stay more stable. With JRA which is now being called JIA- Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, is a autoimmune disease but it can have remissions. It tends to be a relapsing/remitting disease. Because I have multiple illnesses that cause the pain It's hard to determine at times what will happen. I do think that it doesn't necessarilly have to get worse but its always the possibility.

In terms of a therapist... no. For now until sometime in June, I can call my psychiatrist if i need to chat but from the time line im starting to recognize at this clinic, I probably won't have a new therapist assigned to my case until Late July or middle of August.

I wish i could choose but im saying one thing... this time, im following my instinct and if i feel not right than im asking for someone else! I pray this doesn't happen again though because i feel it's disrtupting my personal journey.

I feel constantly mad at the point that I dont have insurance or money to hire my own therapist. There are actually two new therapist like practically accross the street from where I live now! Both with their LCSW and PhD. Im curious if they have their PhD in psychology or social work but whatever the case, they are so close, I can actually phjysically WALK to their office. Also, in the town next to me, according to some somatic therapy website I went to, there is a level II or something like that somatic therapist there and I just wish I could check them out. Near by... ugh... but no, ZI have to travel on a bus, leaving 2 hours in advanced to go to aclinic that assigns me someone. Of course, I can't complain b/c at LEAST i have access to therapy and my meds for virtually free and hey.. my first year there, I had an AWESOME therapisti but for now, im on my own and its hateful becausse I am really REALLY feeling stressed out about problems in my life and yeh.. blah. In fact, I called my psychiatrist voice mail to leave a messsage but come to find out, she is out of town and won't be back until the 23rd. So blah.. it sucks but such is life.

quote:

It's less triggering...there's that word again...especially until folks are ready to reconcile the fact that they've likely been traumatized by their early experience.

I love that term as well as developmental traumas which I know Dr Levine uses in waking the tiger and Ive seen it from mmm.. a Dr Herman... can't think of her first nbame but she is one who talks a lot about c-PTSD or chronic PTSD which hasn't yet been put in the DSM as a distinct form from regular PTSD although I hear it is going to be this time around.

I have to say that it is more acceptable a term.... funny how much words can help... I have an incredibly hard time saying I expereinced child abuse from both of my parents and mayne some rather awkward issues outside of them but I have a horrible time accepting that because of the fact that I did have a lot of what I believe is true love and care from both of my parents esp my mom and so it seems so harsh and difficult. I feel almost sickening resistance to saying i was abused by them and somehow 'developmental trauma' is just Soooooo much easier to accept. And of course my personal one is being a Butterfly warrior over dark times as i refer to my journey and the dark times/ages which are the times i expereinced those developmental gaps. I wonder how many others feel that way.... have such a hard time with saying the4y were abusedf and so on.. why is it hard ... Being a human is complicated... .lol....

quote:

The stage of development theory that I find really useful in this regards is the Bodynamic system. It's body-based and emotion-based. It addresses things like autonomy, need, will structure etc. all the stuff that typically shows up in therapy.

Do you have more information on this? I will try to do a little reading on it.. Im curious... well always...

Anyways, thanks for your concern and I don't mind answerring most questions. Feel free to ask... im always well most times out to try and help people understand chronic pain, illness and all of that stuff if I can...

Butterfly Flying

Thanks for sharing this Butterfly...it's wonderful that despite all this, you are out there engaging with the world, learning, and doing what you can to heal. BTW, I think you should be grumpy as much as you like...maybe even exaggerate it...sometimes this helps me to feel better when I'm in a funk.

I posted the article. It might not answer all your questions...I'm leaving some for my eCourse. Here it is:
Being Triggered

I found a link to the Bodynamics also. This might help answer a question you had earlier about recognizing our developmental gaps...if I understood you correctly. When I first learned about Bodynamics I was bowled over. It helped me to conceive this site, that is, making therapy about making your life bigger, and not just about dealing with symptoms. People don't realize all the ways we hold ourselves back and how these things can change via therapy. Bodynamics

I'm truly sorry to hear about your claim,

Take care,

Shrinklady

Excellent article... I really appreciate how you normalize the expereince of them since they are something that is really quite activating in relation to trauma... it's nice to see them as something that everyone has for good, for bad. I knew that before but reading it like this helps.

How do triggers lead to disscoation? I assume that's the whole coping subconscious arena there...

I will check out the bodydynamics link a bit latter

thanks so much

Oh, boy that's a biggy too. Uhm, okay this might be the long way around it. Someone else could probably put it together more succinctly...

Dissociation comes online any time the charge in the body is too high for the nervous system to manage. It numbs sensory information and reduces the left brain's capacity to form thoughts. It's like the computer is shutting down non-essential operations to protect important files. You may already know about this but just for clarification. These days there's a lot of people walking around in a dissociative state with no awareness of it. The brain has adapted and that's now their "norm"...but I'm going off here.

In other words, triggers flood the nervous system and move it into a dissociative state.

The important aspect is that dissociation is on a continuum. At the milder end of the continuum it actually might feel as if we're just relaxed. At the stronger end, when the trigger is big we might feel agitation or anxiety. This is when even the dissociation isn't numbing out our symptoms. The charge is too high to contain.

Now, the higher the activation in the body the easily one is triggered by remotely-related stimuli (i.e. events, ojects etc. in the environment). Activation is like a measure for how much the primitive brain has learned from experience that the world is dangerous. So for example, an individual with a sexual abuse history with high activation (she hasen't done much work on herself yet) is easily triggered by these remotely related stimuli. For example, by billboard ads, magazines, televisions shows etc. anything reminescent of how woman are sexualized. (Understand that this response will vary from one individual to another). So she's getting triggered all the time. This will make if very difficult for her to remain in her body.

But let's say she goes to therapy and works on some stuff. Eventually, these things no longer trigger her abuse. But on any given day, she might encounter a guy who reminds her of her history...she get's triggered. She can feel the activation in her body (e.g. shoulders thense, gut in a knot) but because she has done so much work on herself, her nervous system can contain it. She doesn't dissociate (at least to any large degree)...and a she remains in therapy to reduce that too. Happy ending!

Let me know if you have any questions,

Shrinklady

perfect explantion.. makes a lot of sense to me. I think you should add this to your topic on dissociation or triggers or something.. a subpart? I dont know... it's very good and explains a lot and makes sense...

Also random ethics question. I don't know what it's like in Canada and I'm sure it differs from the personal feelings of one therapist to another but I thought I would ask your thoughts on this. I have been in pretty difficult circimstances of late. The disability decison, insurance issues, etc and it really gutted me pretty badly for a few days. I felt quite severely activated and in need of support. It seems like I couldn't find any. I called some close friends, called my psychiatrist who did call back but wasn't very usefuk to me, even ended up calling a crisis line but they werent too interested because I wasnt quite suicidal. They sent me to call another counseling place and I went ahead and gave them a call but that did not work out either. In last moment desperation, I decided to call my ex therapist. Now had she terminated with me, I would know that woudn't be appropriate but I thought since I terminated with her and I dont know, I assumed it might be okay to call her. I said i had hit a wall, didnt know who else to call, had called anyone else I could think of but nothing was working out and had hoped she might call me if this is okay to do. Well she never called me. I feel more than a little stupid now for calling but mostly I feel rather hurt because I dont know if I did something wrong or if it's just her and her ways. I didnt call her supervisor... i guess that is the one other person I didnt call but that is because last time I called her, it took forever for her to get back and thought Adrine might call me since I was feeling in such a rut. But she didnt. I'm rather appaled because I would like to think that any of my therapist I have worked with would never leave a client even a ex client hanging like that for any reason unless they were like some boundary breaking client or something like that.

I thought maybne you might have some professional insight on this because I'm just purely confused, hurt, feeling kinda dumb for calling and angry as well.

reaching out is nver a dumb thing. crisis lines suck LOL I phoned one once also but it was of little help. you can always phone us... sent you our #
hugs
robin/scott

Thank you Robin/Scott

BW,
Sorry I've been MIA. Bad sinus infection/asthma attack followed by an out of town trip. I can't believe you're therapist didn't call you back, although I do think it provides a lot of affirmation for your decision to quit. If this is the way she is behaving, I doubt she would have done you any good as a therapist. I'm sorry you feel so alone though, I know how difficult that can be.
AG

WB AG... been wondering where you have been.

Hope you're feeling better. I have asthma aslo... a real bugger!!!

Hope your trip was good!

Well... haha.. I feel bad now for talking about my ex therapist as she did finally call me back yesterday (Monday) afternoon around 3pm and she did appologize for not getting back sooner being busy and all. I finally said "well you aren't obligated to me since I'm not your client anyways" .... cut to the chase people! LOL. I think she wanted/tried to balk at that but I cut her off before she could cause I KNOW it's true. We had a pleasent conversation and I'm doing better than I was last week anyways so it didnt matter as much to me but I'm glad she did call back b/c it was creating issues with me that she didnt like what does all of that actually mean??? Argh.... do therapists realize what major impact they can have on their clients??...

She also told me that until she leaves in July that if things get out of control.. I can call her but she just might take a bit to get back cause it's harder for her to return calls.

I thought that was a nice offer.

So at least she did call back eventually.