Voltar

Recovery is not so much a dream at it is a plan.

healing recovery mental-illness mental-health

society has an embarrassing history of denial

em Living with the Reality of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Campaigning Voices
abuse slavery denial holocaust trauma society-denial slave-trade slavery-quotes denial-of-abuse

There is a slave trade still in this country—yes, the real and horrific sex and human trafficking trade run by organised criminal gangs, which is appalling and must be stopped. But there's the hidden slavery too of children exploited and used within their own families, within organised and ritual abuse.

em Living with the Reality of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Campaigning Voices
abuse incest childhood-abuse society-denial trafficking child-sexual-abuse sex-slave human-trafficking ritual-abuse sex-trafficking abusive-parents organized-abuse institutional-abuse ritualistic-abuse denial-of-abuse abusive-families hidden-pain child-sex-ring sex-slavery child-sexual-exploitation ritualistic-child-abuse debian hidden-abuse ritualistic-sexual-abuse sexual-explain

And if we do speak out, we risk rejection and ridicule. I had a best friend once, the kind that you go shopping with and watch films with, the kind you go on holiday with and rescue when her car breaks down on the A1. Shortly after my diagnosis, I told her I had DID. I haven't seen her since. The stench and rankness of a socially unacceptable mental health disorder seems to have driven her away.

em Living with the Reality of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Campaigning Voices
abandonment shame prejudice denial rejection fake-friends mental-illness mental-health ridicule mentally-ill dissociation society-denial mental-health-stigma socially-unacceptable mental-illness-stigma dissociative-identity-disorder dissociative-disorder psychiatric-disorders social-rejection

In the same way that the women's movement of the seventies and eighties brought rape and incest into public consciousness, we can do the same with the causes and reality of dissociation and multiplicity.

em Living with the Reality of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Campaigning Voices
incest child-abuse mental-health survivors abuse-survivors dissociation multiplicity mental-health-stigma require child-sexual-abuse multiple-personalities trauma-survivors multiple-personality-disorder dissociative-identity-disorder dissociative-disorders

Denial is our very real, personal response to our own trauma. But denial is the normative response to trauma—by everyone. Society may deny that anything bad ever happened to us. It may deny that DID exists. But that doesn't mean to say it's right. All it says is that like global warming, our histories and our stories are an "inconvenient truth".͏

em Living with the Reality of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Campaigning Voices
inconvenient denial global-warming trauma dissociation child-abuse-survivors dissociative-identity-disorder inconvenient-truth associate-denial it-wasn-t-that-bad

Triggers are like little psychic explosions that crash through avoidance and bring the dissociated, avoided trauma suddenly, unexpectedly, back into consciousness.

trauma trigger post-traumatic-stress-disorder ptsd traumatized triggers dissociated flashback

It was that culture of denial that allowed my abuse to take place to start with. Did you know that it wasn't until 1984 that the Department of Health added the category of "sexual abuse" to its list of harms that can befall children? When I was being raped and made pregnant at the age of 11, it wasn't just my own dissociative process that told me that it wasn't happening; it was society too. "We don't have a category for that. Computer says no."͏

em Living with the Reality of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Campaigning Voices
incest denial dissociative society-denial childhood-sexual-abuse child-sexual-abuse child-rape child-protection abuse-deniers denial-of-abuse chosen-ignorance department-of-health inconvenient-truth denying-reality

The happy family is a myth for many.

child-abuse neglect dysfunctional-families childhood-abuse child-abuse-survivors dysfunctional-family complex-ptsd abusive-parents abusive-mother complex-trauma abusive-father abusive-father-s disorganized-attachment happy-families happy-family perfect-childhood