Does Anyone Know Of Any Good Books For Helping With Dissociation?

[Hashi]

As for visualisations of people being around me....

Not even people! Not human beings.... just... beings.

I should have said that I ignore her suggested visualisations. I've always made up my own anyway. I wouldn't want that to put anyone off the book Invisible Heroes itself or Naparstek's approach, which I think is very valuable. I just wanted to give a warning to go carefully with this stuff. But I recommend the essential ideas.

I do a lot of visualisation about staying present. For me, doing grounding exercises like finding things of a particular colour, stating my name, how old I am, where I am in the present etc... those things are helpful when I've started dissociating, but I do a lot of visualisation not to dissociate in the first place.

I've been wondering whether to suggest this book in this thread. Maybe I will, then people can look it up and make up their own minds. It's Psychic Protection by William Bloom. I found it not perfect, for me. But it was the ONLY book that I found partly useful. He gives approaches for staying grounded generally, like imagining the relationship between your feet and the ground, and always identifying the direction that home is in. I liked these. I also understood from this book, for the first time, what psychic protection was all about. I couldn't relate to the specifics of it, which were a lot about protecting yourself from other people's negative energy. But I got the general idea. Even though I'd say a significant amount of the book wasn't relevant to me, I still found it one of the most useful books I've read, because I was able to adapt the general ideas.

@Abstract, how strange about the video.

I've never thought of Invisible Heroes as a compassionate book. I see it as an intuitive one. But then I'm very mixed up about compassion. If compassion is an issue then I imagine any self help book about trauma would be difficult, especially given the combination of compassion with reality. Hmmm...

 

[Abstract]

beings.

:nailbiting: I wouldn't be doing that one!

I am very good at taking concepts and using what will work for me and leaving the rest. I tend to not get stuck down in detail that isn't helpful. If there is a core issue that gets right up my nose then that is a little different but sometimes even then I can find a way to bypass it.

Very strange about the video. I am glad to find it again. Feels like coming full circle in some senses and looking at it graphically shows up how different I now am and the enormous amount I have learnt since then. There is sadness and regret about all the years I didn't know but that is OK.

I really am not sure if compassion is the right term. Maybe it is more a case of it being personal and "real" rather than dryer and more academic. I am a bit overly avoidant in general as at the start I didn't know how to pace myself and threw myself into it ending up in a total state. I am constantly stuck by needing to be able to function at work and when it gets to a point I really struggle. So I may be OK and be being overly cautious but I am so because of how strong my last reaction was.

I think it was you that first mentioned visualisations to me. At that point I thought I didn't do them and said that as I didn't label them that way but I do use them a lot and had for a while. I even did an NLP course on them. I found them useful so would like to know much more. I have been meaning to start a thread about the subject. What would be good is to have a book that discusses visualisations for trauma but with less touching on trauma and personal stories and more practical information.

Psychic Protection sounds like it may well do the job. ? I do a couple of the things they mention already which is a good sign. Very aware of protecting myself from negative energy as I absorb things easily.

I looked at Invisable Heroes again and I can see the value in it. It made me feel physically sick just flipping through what amazon allowed me and I still feel that way but there you go. Maybe this is about my denial more than anything else and I just need to bite the bullet. I struggle to tell what is too much avoidance and what is sensible self aware pacing.

Thanks again.

@IWILLBESKINNY how are you doing? I am hoping our discussions are relevant to you too. Let me know if not.

 

[Abstract]

Can anyone advise me on which book to purchase with Invisible Heroes? There is one that has a white and purple cover and another that is blue with white writing. The purple one seems to date a little later but I am not sure if there is any difference between the two. Thanks.