Emptiness After "integrating" A Split

[MissInvisible]

My guess is, given your lack of coping skills and such, even if this part was truly integrated she will make a come-back

It's probably sad and strange, but I hope so! I feel lost without her!:cry:

 

[WhisperingUnicorn]

Aw @MissInvisible .. :hug: if you accept!

If she's truly integrated, she isn't "gone" .. and if she's just "hiding", she isn't "gone" :)

I like that @BuckarooBanzai was willing to be more "blunt" on the point of:

A therapist should neither help nor encourage you to integrate a part until

....

I would like to be so blunt, but I hesitate to represent such an emphatic thing. I do know what is working for my husband, but I tiptoe around trying to say what's working for us "should" work for everyone else. But yes, I agree completely - Integration is ..

best initiated and completed by the alters themselves.

..

Wishing you well in your journey!

~WU

 

[7Cs]

In my view, this is another way of re-traumatizing, and/or forcing a part into "hiding" - we've seen too many examples of someone thinking they've "integrated" but in fact, that part just went silent and hid inside, because it wasn't "safe" for them to be out

This is what I was thinking as well.

 

[7Cs]

I need to work on developing healthy coping skills before mine are taken away

:(

I don't think that recovering from and healing from PTSD should involve any taking away, only letting go and accepting and embracing. You've already had so much taken away from you. I think that part of you probably got scared and went into hiding. Talking gently to that part of you and letting it know that it is important and you will never let it go, that it is a part of you and always will be, may bring it back out. And this is the truth. Integration is a melding of you and your part/ parts, not a letting go of. You couldn't get rid of it if you wanted to... it is you! :D

 

[BuckarooBanzai]

It's probably sad and strange, but I hope so! I feel lost without her!

No, it's really neither sad nor strange.

When I finally integrated all of my alters, there were some I dearly missed. True, they all became more 'me', so I technically didn't lose them, but it sure felt like I did.

For instance, I had a little puppy alter. I sure loved having him around. After he was integrated, I could no longer talk to him and get his ruff ruff replies. I still miss him. There are others I miss, too.

So, although the integration was a positive experience, I did feel a bit alone inside at first. It felt strange not to hear the internal talking and even weirder not to be able to converse with all of them.

I'm used to this now, though.

 

[katz]

I feel like I'm so far out of my depth with this stuff. I never would have imagined that I had sp...

You need to develop some coping skills before you go any further. I would think that the T knows that.

Hugs to you. (( ))