Just because your t mentioned "parts" doesn't mean that you have DID. "Parts" is a paradigm for thinking about the human personality that is extremely helpful for lots of people (it has been transformational for me even though I'm still in the thick of it). We are all made up of parts that exist within our larger self. The larger self, or core self, (or Buddha nature if you will) is that inviolable, expansive, creative, compassionate, etc. self that gets obscured by parts that have been hurt in some way and are carrying the hurt still. So we get all mixed up with those parts. I think about "intrusive memories" as being a little mixed up with a part, and "flashbacks" as being a LOT mixed up with a part. Both are the only ways our parts have to communicate with our larger self.
I think (for people further down the healing path than I am) people can use their strategies for staying in their larger selves and listen to their parts and give them what they need. For me, much of the time, if a part is trying to communicate (through pain, or emotion, or body memory, etc.), I have other parts that jump into the fray and everything gets so scrambled that I lose a sense of my larger self and find it really difficult to implement any of the grounding strategies I know to keep me in the present. Figuring out how to drag oneself (albeit gently, which I'm not good at) back into the present moment seems to be the key to all of this healing process. Because if you can stay in the present moment and reassure all your parts that you are safe and strong and can take care of yourself, you can calm them and heal them so they aren't so frantic to communicate with you about their freak-outs, and so you won't be paralyzed with fear when they do.
There are many approaches to staying present...all of them relate to becoming aware of your senses in the now...feeling into your body (feet on the floor, butt in the chair, breath moving in and out, what you're hearing now, what you're seeing now, what you're smelling now). When I grumble about how slow the healing process is, and how much I'm struggling even though I'm trying so hard to do mindful breathing and movement, my therapist keeps saying, "It's a practice." And he's right. It is what all people who meditate say. And if you practice about a million times a day, it does gradually start to make a difference. The hard part is tuning into your larger self and learning what it feels like in your body when you're tuned into that part.
I don't know what it's like for anyone else, but the biggest bit of progress I've made in the past year+ of all this therapy and meditation and bodywork is learning what I feel like when I am in my larger self. And it feels great. I wish it would happen more, and I'm told that if I keep up this practice and the therapy, it will happen more. It's just a long slog.
