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Yesterday was hard. My wife got frustrated, and used some pretty strong language to express it. "I'm done, I can't take it anymore," was the highlight, with "Done" and "No more" repeated a few times. I handled it really well. Listened, was supportive, didn't lose my composure, didn't have to...

Try thinking about something sad when you want to put the brakes on. It can also be really useful to say the words "I feel really angry" - this helps you feel like you did something about the feeling, without having to be physical about it.

I struggled with this for a few years. My therapist was asking me to do what I only do with my close friends. Given that friendship is a two-way street, surely they should open up to me? I eventually realized that my therapist is not my friend. They are many good and wonderful things, but I...

I've been experimenting with asserting myself more, and it's been working pretty well. There are a bunch of different ways that things can be handled, and matching them to situations can be tricky. There are no hard-and-fast rules. Try to be gentle. Try to be direct - don't rely on them to...

@Dswan , it sounds like you're doing the right things. He sounds very confused, and it seems like his pain levels went up when the pregnancy went wrong. The way he copes with pain is causing problems, however. He's saying that he wants to make an effort. He might make progress, and will...

You're scared, you're hurting, and you feel like something might be wrong with your mental functions. That's a very good set of reasons for seeing a therapist. The only other thing I can think of is that it would seem useful to tidy up your desk. If that feels really difficult, then that's...

In its simplest form, 'association' is when things connect to each other. 'Dissociation' is disconnecting things, breaking their associations. "I'm not talking to you anymore" is a very common form of dissociation between people, when it occurs between parts of the same person, it can be a bad...

I'm not sure that PTSD is inconsistent with "Imbalanced energy fields" - I'm also not convinced that "Imbalanced energy fields" is a particularly precise diagnosis.

Nobody really knows how EMDR works, but we believe that it modifies something about how memory is stored. So, if you're planning to testify in court, then anything that might allow a lawyer to cast doubt on your testimony would be a bad thing. My experience is that EMDR has connected things...

I'm tempted to give this idea a try. I've had some practice at feeling sad, and while it used to incapacitate me for ages, it typically ends in less than an hour. But the longer I leave it without cleaning it out, the more tangled, difficult, and painful the buildup gets. Sadness becomes...

The best joy and satisfaction I get comes from being around other people in positive ways. Relaxed fun is great, so is helping people. If you're able to rest (to not really do anything) then that's really good.

It's also worth noting that therapists (and many others) are specifically trained to handle suicidal thoughts. It's likely that your therapist would be pleased by the fact that you feel able to talk about this difficult stuff.

My view: DID is a compound fracture, while PTSD is a single fault line. So, in a sense, DID includes PTSD. It makes sense for a person diagnosed with PTSD (there's a crack there) to have it revised to DID (there's a bunch of cracks, including some that are very hard to spot).

It can be very hard to tell the difference between CPTSD and DID. Especially since CPTSD is a descriptive label, and not a formal diagnosis. DID is a complex form of dissociation, while PTSD is a simple form of dissociation. So CPTSD might be DID. But it might also be some other complexity...

Just to clarify what I'm saying there - I think there's something very useful about saying "I have X disorder, which means that when I do Y, it might not be a good thing." What doesn't seem useful to me is "I did Y, and it wasn't good. Was the reason problem A, B, or C?" I can understand the...

Everybody dissociates, it's a very important part of the mind's ability to handle emergencies. Similarly, the experience of an 'internal conversation between personalities' is normal. I'm diagnosed with DID because my personalities went to war with each other and kept secrets from each other...

There's a few of us here with a DID diagnosis. I'm currently working pretty directly with my anger, which has me reluctant to interact here; I get scared of my temper. Treatment for DID has been extremely painful for me, and I think it tends to be that way for others, too. Learning to accept...

I don't think it's especially helpful to link the thinking and feeling to a pathology. I think it is helpful to say "I'm pushing my friend away, and I can see that it isn't really in my long-term interests." I think it would be especially useful to say that to your therapist.

@shimmerz , that first link doesn't seem right to me. My understanding (based on reading The Haunted Self) is that you don't have an ANP to start with, you have an NP to start with. Not an "Apparently Normal Part" but a "Normal Part". An ANP looks normal, but something is missing. In PTSD, the...

Whoever wrote that post appears normal to me (on the forums). Apparently normal, at least.

I found this a little confusing, so I scrolled up and read your previous comment. I still don't see why you're apologizing! If we've fought before, then I don't remember it. I do get offended relatively easily when people seem to be threatening to stop folks from getting help, but that's not a...

It sounds uncomfortable. He sounds like he is well educated, but doesn't understand how the little things influence (and potentially overshadow) the big things. He doesn't seem to understand customer service very well (not uncommon among the highly educated). Everyone has a combination of...

My brain was fractured due to emotional neglect. I match the OP pretty well, but there was no alcoholism in my family. So I guess I had it easier, when it comes to measuring the size of one trauma against another. The vast majority of people here have had it 'objectively worse' than me. And...

I think it'll take at least 5 or 6 repeats before I'm doing it without difficulty. When the difficulty drops really sharply, it tends to be because I've dissociated from the difficulty instead of actually resolving it. But to your most important point: Yes, I expect that things will continue to...

I find food really difficult. Deciding what to eat, preparing it and enjoying it; these are constant struggles for me. As a child, I was proud of my ability to cook, and it was a largely positive interaction with my parents. In the process of realising that I needed to get out, I dissociated...