Dissociation World

Dissociation exists on a continuum with these everyday symptoms at one end and at the other more severe symptoms such as amnesia and identity alteration. At this end dissociation is often described as ‘going away’ as the sufferer voluntarily leaves their own body. These severe symptoms usually indicate a dissociative disorder especially if they are persistent, difficult to control and affect the sufferer’s everyday life.

There are five dissociative disorders:

1. Dissociative Amnesia – this is indicated when there is an inability to recall important personal information

2. Dissociative Fugue – this refers to the situation where a sufferer finds themselves in a place with no memory of getting there and sometimes with no knowledge of who they are.

3. Depersonalisation Disorder – this is a recurrent feeling of being detached from yourself or your feelings.

4. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) – previously known as multiple personality disorder this is characterised by the existence of two or more separate identities within one person who are able to take control.

5. Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (DDNOS) – this often precedes a diagnosis of DID and is used until a definitive diagnosis of DID is able to be made.

Causes

Although dissociation is a common experience those with an actual dissociative disorder almost universally have a background of childhood trauma especially sexual and physical abuse. Over 99% of those diagnosed with DID have a history of prolonged and severe childhood sexual abuse usually with an early age of onset (before the age of eight) and the abuser being one or more of the child’s caregivers. There has been no genetic link indicated. This is probably because everybody is capable of dissociation as a young child but few people are in the situation of having to use it on a regular basis. This regular usage as a defence leads to the ability to dissociate being retained into adulthood and therefore leads directly to dissociative disorders.

There are a few cases where dissociative disorders have developed after a single trauma and they have been observed in those kept in captivity for long periods of time. Little is currently known about the phenomenon of dissociation itself. It is currently considered to be a highly creative and intelligent defence and a ‘trick of the imagination’. However newer studies have shown that dissociation is a biological phenomenon – brain imaging has shown that associative pathways in the brain are shut down during the dissociative experience. This suggests that the dissociative experiences may well be ‘real’ as opposed to imaginative.

Link to the excellent site is in the banner...

Cutting and Self-Injury

By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

January 5, 2009

This entry may be triggering or difficult to read for some people.

Self-injury behavior is something that is more common than many people realize. (In one study by researchers at Brown University of high school students, 46 percent had injured themselves in the past year on multiple occasions.) It is often misunderstood, not just by the lay public, but also by the mental health professionals who ostensibly should know what self-injury it is and how best to treat it.

Self-injury is used by people as over-drinking is used by others — to drown out emotional pain with something else. In the case of self-injury, that something else is physical pain. It focuses your attention and takes your mind off of your emotional pain, if only for a little while.

Cutting is the most common form of self-injury — making skin-deep cuts on one’s arms, wrists, or less noticeable areas on one’s body. The cuts are not meant to cause permanent damage or harm, nor are they meant as a suicidal gesture. The cuts are the means to an end themselves — they provide a source of immediate but non-serious physical pain (as long as they are allowed to heal cleanly). Other forms of self-injury include burning, or keeping old wounds open or inviting infection in them to keep them painful.

The people with the most severe self-injury behavior often can think of little else as they go through their day — it becomes something more than just a way to deal with emotional pain, it becomes its own obsession, as it did with Becki, a person who self-injured and is profiled in an article that appeared online in Newsweek last week:

Becki describes it as an obsessive battle, and one she often lost. At her worst, she says she spent every hour living and breathing self-injury. She dreamed about it. She’d think about it at school. She bought every book published on it. She searched for self-injury Websites, and compiled what she found into a 13-page Website of her own. “I was cutting 10-plus times a day, and still, if I didn’t do it, I would feel like I was missing something,” she says.

Newsweek’s article is a fairly good read on self-injury and self-harm, describing what self-injury is, using Becki as a case study, and brings us up-to-date on treatment options and the latest research into self-injury. If nothing else, it helps bring this behavior out into the open more, helping people understand that it is not something that one should be ashamed of and that it can be treated.

As the article notes, self-injury isn’t recognized as a mental disorder by itself. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be treated. Treatment usually is done through psychotherapy, and focuses on helping the person identify their own triggers for self-injurious behavior, and find alternative methods for helping them deal with the emotional pain in their life.

Read the full article: Why She Cuts (Potentially Triggering)

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central and has been writing about mental health and psychology issues online since 1992.

Wordless Wednesday

Journals

It seems to me that those who live with Self Harm, addiction or Mental Health are some of the most creative people I know. Maybe due to life experience, maybe due to introspection, maybe due to their unique view of the world.

I have always kept journals and diarys, some date back to when I was 16. Most reflect where my mind was at any given time, some so black, some with hope, some I look at and think 'my God, did I write that' , some with sketches, some with poetry,but it is my nature to write.

I recommend writing, scrapping,painting, doodling to work through things, but also with caution. Sometimes when we write where we are at, it can be pages of negative thoughts & images, of ourselves and the world. If you constantly go back and read these, you are reinforcing a negative view. Those I have written like this and I can be my worst enemy, I now write often just on a scrap of paper and I put awayin my 'black folder' (symbolic eh), never to be read again. Those thoughts are valid at the time, and I need to get them out but I consiously dont fill my head with them.

I keep a positive journal, I fill it with scraps I find in magazines, quotes from on-line, compliments people have given me. This can be as simple as someone saying 'I like your shirt' gradually and often slowly I fill each book. Ive even asked those close to me to write something positive in it.

Your blog can be an online journal but again caution. Others may read it and reinforce a negative view. Some may read it whom you dont intend, work colleagues, siblings, friends and take the wrong slant on it. Remember the net is a public domain.

If writing is not your forte, paint, draw, its not about being Michaelangelo this is purely for your expression. I did a quick search and here are some sites to get you started;

Soul Collage
Journals & Papers
Facing Us (has an online wellness book)

Just For You

Despite (or because of) the credit crisis, the war in Iraq, people passing, what he/she did or didn't say, relationships ending, the world tilting on it's axis, it being "that time of the day/month/year/life", the normal run-of-the-mill-stress-of-life ...

Just stop for a moment.

Breathe.

Breathe again.

Have a hug.
Give yourself one if there is no-one else around.
Take this one.

Animal Assisted Therapy

Pets & Mental Health.

"In today's highly specialized and complex society, modern Man comes into contact with more people in one day than our ancestors did in a lifetime. It has become necessary to speed up the process of attachments, and it is more difficult to develop meaningful relationships....Loneliness is not knowing others: it is not being known by others....Dogs permit their owners to be themselves so that they can risk self-disclosure and form attachments."
--- Judy Harris

Animals in a home may serve as a talisman against loneliness and depression. They may add a sense of safety and protection. They may encourage physical activity and social interaction with one's neighbors. They can be outlets of hobbies and opportunities for club interests. They may be the substitutes for children absent. The responsibilities and daily rituals of care may provide a touchstone of reality. They may divert one's cares and troubles. They are socially-acceptable conversation pieces and opportunities for touching.

There is greater "plasticity" in pet/human relationships than in most human/human relationships: rules regulating roles in parental, sibling, marital and friendship relationships are more socially structured and codified.

Pets may serve as a "clock," providing a sense of order and a daily ritual for people. Pets may give us a realistic, naturalistic touchstone, a baseline of animal behavior against which we can sometimes compare our own troubles and put our own lives into perspective:

Pets have frequently been described as non-threatening and non-judgmental companions. "The unambivalent nature of the exchange of affection between people and animals differs from exchanges with close family members and other relatives. Pets are a source of comfort that can be scheduled on demand of the owner, in almost any quantity, without bargaining or supplication," argued researchers Aaron Katcher and Erika Friedmann.

"Perhaps the most important health-related aspect of the human-animal relationship is play," said Robert Fagen of the University of Pennsylvania. "Animals that play are healthier and frequently live longer than those that don't. I would be willing to bet that interacting with an animal makes a person more sensitive in relationships with other human.

The presence of pets in a household seems to contribute to the development of children's trust and self-esteem. Pets have also been observed to contribute to the development of ego strength in people in institutions.

Source: Animal Therapy.Net

Image: Abbey & Chelsea

What If I Told You ...

Tip #1

Prepare ahead of time for your appointments

I keep a special folder (bright colour so I won't lose it so easily) just for my psychiatrist and therapy appointments. I put anything I want to show them such as information about medicines I want to know about, programs I want to get into, or poems & journalling I wrote. I also put my list of questions I always have built up since my last appointment. Of course I bring my "Healing Calendar" where I chart my daily sleep, mood and medicine intake. By having this folder I usually get to cover everything I want to ask while I am with my doctor instead of walking out and 2 minutes after the appointment saying," Oh no, I wanted to ask.....!!!" Then have to wait another month or two before I can ask him.

[Facing Us.Org]

See Me ...

See me, is a media campaign in Scotland to stop the stigma associated with mental health. This clip was one that was broadcast in that country. This coincides with the UK, 'Just Like Me' campaign.

Media

Lesbians more likely to self-harm

Britain’s lesbian and bisexual women are significantly more likely to self-harm and to abuse drink and drugs than the wider female population, a major new study has revealed.
Matt Aston

18 June 2008

The research, conducted by De Montfort University and Sigma Research, also found that its 6,000 lesbian and bisexual respondents faced exclusion from routine testing for cervical cancer.

The study suggests that the National Health Service is failing to identify specific healthcare needs among Britain’s 1.8 million lesbians, with half reporting a recent negative experience.

The NHS is also failing to address specific mental health needs that many women still experience as a result of discrimination.

In February, Health Secretary Alan Johnson spoke about eradicating just this kind of health inequality, saying that “genuine equality will be achieved not by providing the same service for everyone but by delivering the same outcome for everyone, recognising the diverse needs of different communities and individuals and responding appropriately to those needs.

”The complete version of this story appears in the new copy of the Pink Paper, available from 26 June.

Source: news.PinkPaper.com