Dissociation Link

Volume 1, Issue 2
Sarah K Reece

20 December 2011
Ed. Sarah K Reece

Bridges wont be running on the 30th Dec

MIFSA will be closing for a few days over the holiday season, so as a result our weekly group Bridges wont be running on between Christmas and the New Year. Please do NOT come on the 30th of December! MIFSA as a whole will be closed from the 26th to the 30th of December, with all programs, activity centre's etc closed during this time. This time of year can be rough for some people, and unfortunately service providers need a break too, which can leave us lacking a bit of support. Please talk to Sarah, Cary or Ben if youre feeling concerned about this. You can email us at sarahk@mifsa.org cary@mifsa.org ben@mifsa.org Or call on (08) 8378 4100 Please take good care of yourselves over the holiday season, many local community centers and salvos do offer Christmas lunches or events if youre feeling a bit lonely and looking for some company. Just a reminder again that all the help-lines will still be open 24hrs over the holiday season. They may or may not understand dissociation specific issues, its always your choice whether to tell them about these, but they can still provide support around stress, medication issues, anxiety, depression etc. Lifeline:13 11 14 Suicide Call Back:1300 659 467 ACIS Emergency:13 14 65 Carers SA: 1800 242 636 There are two chat rooms you may find helpful online: www.fortrefuge.com www.mhchat.org

Inside this issue:

Developing Resources Mindshare

Understanding DID Getting gung-ho about treatment

Bridges starts again on January 6th and continues every week as usual from there. Remember its an open group so theres no pressure to come, drop by as often as you find helpful.

Bridges Christmas catch up!

Were having a festive Christmassy Bridges this Friday, 23rd December with everyone bringing a nibble or drink to share, so if you experience dissociation and/or multiplicity, please consider bringing a plate along and celebrate wrapping up 2011 with us.

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Dissociation Link

Developing resources for Dissociation

Progress continues in this area, which is very encouraging. Sarah and Cary presented a talk about managing dissociation at the national Mental Health conference earlier this year. Weve just heard that the 3,000 word paper we submitted based on our talk, Grounding as Management of Dissociative Experiences has been accepted for publication in the TheMHS 2011 Book of Proceedings in the Recommended Reading section. Thats a much wider audience hearing about what dissociation can feel like, how important an individual approach is to managing it, and that people can live well and recover from severe dissociation. Great news! Sarah will also be giving two talks at the Voices Vic 2012 Conference in Melbourne, February 2324th. The first is based on personal experience Dissociation and Voices, the second shares about the two Mifsa groups; Sound Minds (for people who experience voices) and Bridges, Beyond Voices: the broader relevance of the voice hearer group model with fellow peer worker Jenny Benham. Go to prahranmission.org.au for more information. We are planning more talks for 2012 and will keep you posted. For now, mark Friday, February 17th in your diary. We have been getting more requests from people with an interest in dissociation who would like to attend Bridges. Weve had to turn these down to keep Bridges a safe peer environment, but we are very aware of the need for carers, family, staff and other people to have a chance to get together, share information and resources, and ask questions. So the 17th is being planned for an afternoon tea type event that will be open to everyone, even if youre just curious about dissociative issues. Well give updates on what dissociative resources weve produced so far and where were heading next, and invite sharing and input from all of you. More details to come! Wed love to see you there.

the 17th Feb is being planned for an afternoon tea type event that will be open to everyone

Contribute to Mindshare
Mindshare is a new online Mental Health community, and they're very keen to hear from other people who live with or care for someone with a mental illness. www.mindshare.org.au The site has a regular blog from guest bloggers - including Sarah! There's also an area for creative content such as artwork, music, and poetry. They have an area called Consumer Resources which includes current news, events and articles. Worth keeping an eye on as new content is being added frequently. So, if you've been wanting to share wanting to share your story or experiences with dissociation with a wider audience, a short story, some thoughts you'd like to write into a blog post, or art you could photograph, why not submit it? You can ask to have your work put up under a pen name if you'd prefer to remain anonymous. You can read the instructions for how to submit your work at the page called Get Involved, if anything's not clear, give them a call and they'll help you out. Very friendly people. :)

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Understanding DID by Lonnie

How does it work in there? I came up with an analogy that I think works pretty well and want to share it here so it may help others to get a better grasp of how a D.I.D. brain can work. Imagine a Combi Van, grab a handful of people and put them in the van. One of those people will drive the van, one may sit next to them. The passenger may just watch where they are going of maybe give directions. They may even pull the steering wheel to try and get the driver to go where they want. The rest of the people are in the back of the van. Depending on where they are sitting and if the can see out the windows they may or may not be aware of what is going on and where they are going. They may yell to the driver to go somewhere or slow down. Then right at the back of the van, you may have one or two fast asleep totally unaware of what is happening and where they are going. There may not really even be aware that there are others in the van. At various times throughout lifes journey different people may want to drive, or have a greater say in what they do or where they go. They may chose to swap seats with the driver and the driver may be tired and go have a sleep at the back. I am sure you are getting the picture. The Combi van is obviously the mind/body and the people are the Alters. Depending on what is happening they may be relaxing at the back, or acting like kids in the back of the car. All wanting their voice to be heard on what they think should be happening. It can get pretty noisy in there and chaotic, and good luck to the driver with all that going on. Not everyone with DID hears all the chaos but I think this is a pretty good description of how my situation works and from what I hear form others, it suits them too. I hope that has given you a better understanding of how we work.

It can get pretty noisy in there and chaotic, and good luck to the driver with all that going on.

Getting gung-ho about treatment by Sarah K

There's a lot of room for different approaches to recovery from mental illness. Some people love affirmations, others write journals, some use humour... Something I've noticed doesn't seem to work well very often is an aggressive approach to getting rid of dissociation. Some folks, once they've discovered what it is, get very keen about helping people to never dissociate. This dubious goal rather concerns me. Firstly, my personal approach to mental illness is about focusing on what I want rather than what I don't. I mean, (one of) my goals is to have a passionate, meaningful life, one in which I can participate as fully as possible. My goal is not to get rid of dissociation. They sound similar but really they're not. Certainly, being crippled by aspects of mental illness is something to work on, but it's in pursuit of a higher goal. It is never the focus in and of itself. What does this mean? It means whenever my dissociation is low enough for me to enjoy life, I'm not sitting in therapy trying to get rid of the last of it, I'm painting! I'm down at the beach, out with friends, reading books, having a life. Every chance I get. These experiences give me the sustenance I need to get through bad times, they build my self esteem, give me hope, a sense of control over my own life, great comfort and joy. This is what it's all about. I don't mind limping a little, and I know that a great deal of the healing and recovery we need happens in normal life, in everyday relationships, in art and running and writing and standing in the rain.
cont pg 4

Volume 1, Issue 2

Page 4

Getting gung-ho about treatment

from pg 3

Focusing on getting rid of a symptom like dissociation sets the stage for power struggles, for making assumptions about what is healthy, and for a 'russian roulette' of symptom swapping. Dissociation for many people serves as a protective mechanism. Think of it as a fuse blowing in a house with dangerous wiring. You don't wire over the fuse, or you risk burning down the house. You sort out the wiring problems so the house is safe, then you work on resetting the fuse. Good therapy always starts with helping people feel safe, and swapping out harmful coping mechanisms with healthy ones. You don't just start kicking crutches out. Therapists can become very frustrated with highly dissociative clients, thinking that if they could get rid of the dissociation, then they could get some 'real' therapy done. Trying to beat down dissociative defences with an anxious client is likely make them worse. If therapy is perceived as a threat, the mind will con-

tinue to put all it's energy into disconnecting as much as possible, using any method it can come up with. Not only can dissociation be protective, but the current definitions are so broad that getting rid of it entirely doesn't sound like a good goal to me. If any form of disconnection from the present moment is defined as a form of dissociation, then we need some. We need space to daydream, time to get lost in our thoughts, in books or films. This is not black and white 'dissociation bad', 'connection good'. In order to focus deeply, we disconnect from distractions around us. Creative people often describe this lack of awareness when they are deeply involved in their work. It's healthy, inspiring, magic. This can be called 'flow', or being 'in the zone', absolutely immersed in your task. Experiences of flow are thought to be highly protective against depression and anxiety. Some theories about hypnotic states are that we are all going into and out of different states throughout

our days, without even noticing. We disconnect from events around us to ruminate and process thoughts and feelings, drive on auto-pilot, focus intensely during a stressful conversation, warm to friends and 'come out of ourselves' in their company, all the time changing our level of awareness of things going on around us and inside us. There can be a natural kind of rhythm to this process, we can have our own cycles of energy and focus, times when we are most focused externally and others when we are most aware of our inner lives. In some of these states we are very receptive, taking in deeply the things we say to ourselves, at others we have all our psychological defences up. The thought of holding up a life where none of these things happen as the goal to strive for is horrifying to me. I value being able to disconnect from the day to day to find a place my heart soars. While I loathe being lost in severe dissociation, unable to see, feel, smell or taste, I also hate

We need space to daydream, time to get lost in our thoughts, in books or films

the 'flatland' of a totally symptom free life that somehow keeps being set up as the goal for people like me. A little madness is not a bad thing, a little dissociation that frees us to dream, likewise. The goal is about freedom, hope, peace, meaning, love, connection, art... being human. Even our weaknesses and limitations can be part of that goal. What I need when I'm lost and trying to find my way back isn't someone trying to carve dissociation out of me like a tumour. I need to find a way back, like coaxing a terrified creature to come out of the dark. The right person holding my hand can be enough to bring me home. Standing in a thunderstorm can be the intense sense of connection I need for a mind in flight to re-inhabit my body. Sometimes everyday life doesn't have a strong enough call, it's the song of the sublime that reminds me of who I am. It's poems that make me cry and music that makes me feel safe and books that are paper receptacles for my shattered heart. These things that remind me that I am human, that I want to be alive, and that the world is deeper, sadder, richer and stranger than we think.