A. T. W - Got Parts?

Got parts? : an insiders guide to managing life successfully with dissociative identity disorder

Copyright 2005 ATW and Loving Healing Press. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

First Edition: January 2005

ISBN-10: 1932690042

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication Data

W., A.T.

Got parts? : an insiders guide to managing life successfully with dissociative identity disorder / by A.T.W.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-10 1-932690-03-4

1. Multiple personality. 2. Post-traumatic stress disorder. 3. Life Change events--Psychological aspects. 4. Incest--Psychological aspects. 5. Adult child sexual abuse victims--rehabilitation. I. Title.

RC569.5 .M8 2005

616.85236 -- dc22 2004096989

Distributed by:

Baker & Taylor

Published by:

Loving Healing Press

5145 Pontiac Trail

Ann Arbor, MI 48105

USA

http://www.LovingHealing.com or

Fax +1 734 663 6861

Loving Healing Press

~~ Dedication ~~

This book is dedicated to all those whose suffering though trauma and wounding has resulted in fragmenting of self into separate selves multiple personalities.

It is our hope that the ideas contained within these pages will help you to feel courage and hope, and to come to find ways of managing your diagnosis, and the circumstances of your lifeand to heal, rebuild and reclaim your life.

~~ Disclaimer ~~

The ideas, concepts, phrasing, wordings, and lay-definitions contained in this book are ones used by myself, my System, my therapist, and various persons from my DID groups, past and present.

This work is not intended to be a scholarly compendium, but is, rather, a lay-accounting of what has been helpful on our personal path of trauma recovery, and re-integration of alter personalities.

Information in this book is neither intended to supersede medical advice, nor to replace professional counsel by a qualified mental-health clinician or therapist.

About our Series Editor, Robert Rich, Ph.D.

Loving Healing Press is pleased to announce Robert Rich, Ph.D. as Series Editor for the New Horizons in Therapy Series. This exciting new series plans to bring you the best of person-centered therapies in practical application, theory, and self-help formats.

Robert Rich, M.Sc., Ph.D., M.A.P.S., A.A.S.H. is a highly experienced counseling psychologist. His web site www.anxietyanddepression-help.com is a storehouse of helpful information for people suffering from almost any way we can make ourselves and each other unhappy.

Bob is also a multiple award-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and a professional editor. His writing is displayed at www.bobswriting.com. You are advised not to visit him there unless you have the time to get lost for a while.

Two of his books are tools for psychological self-help: Anger and Anxiety: Be in Charge of your Emotions and Control Phobias and Personally Speaking: Single Session Email Therapy with Dr Bob Rich. However, his philosophy and psychological knowledge come through in all his writing, which is perhaps why three of his books have won international awards, and he has won many minor prizes. Dr. Rich currently resides in Wombat Hollow in Australia.

~~ Acknowledgements ~~

Over the years, there were many folks who befriended us, and whose support, guidance, expertise, insights, and experiences were instrumental in enabling us to get to where we are todayguess maybe you could say that sometimes it takes a village to help a System. In this attempt to give acknowledgement, if we have missed anyone, we humbly apologize. Please know your name is written in our heart.

Thanks go to John A. Newberg, M. Div., who went above and beyond the call to travel with us to the end of the beginning; and to Richard F. (Rick) Ritter, MSW, and Laurie Rainey Schmidt, MSour wingmen, (and sometime tag-team of Bad Cop/Good Cop). There are no words adequate to our depth of feeling for you.

With her wisdom, her quiet, fearless spirit, generosity, compassionate patience, and willingness to learn with us along the way, Laurie has become treasured and invaluable friend, teacher, spiritual guide, and role model.

Rick Ritters counseling-consulting practice, Stress Operations Group, Inc., was where we were first diagnosed with multiple personalities. Ricks skill in working with trauma survivors of all sorts, and his unique model of re-integration of alter personalities have been the cornerstone of our healing work. The ideas in got parts? are a compilation of Ricks, and of the many DID clients he has worked with over the last twenty-five years. The result is an amalgam so homogenous and smooth, that it is difficult to know exactly what idea came from whom

and in this spirit, thanks go also to those persons from our DID groupspast and presentwho walk beside us, leaving courageous footprints for others to follow. You have raged with us, cried with us, laughed with us, inspired us, pushed us beyond what we believed were our limits, sat in the silence with us, listened compassionately and tirelessly, and offered equally your ideas, your own stories of pain and healing, and your friendship. We have learned so much from all of you including from some who have lived the hard truths that come from choosing to not do the work.

Thanks go to Allison, John, Jan, Leigh, Suzie, Kim, Amanda, Jan, Jo, A., Laura, Angie, Elizabeth, Mike, Kim, Rebecca, Bobbie, Kathy, Genny, Rebecca, Rita, Katie, D., Kristine, Tammy, Gina, Josh, Leanne

You may never know the long-range impact-for-good of your life on others whom you may never meet.

Thanks go to Patrick and Janet, for caring about our safety and supporting us, and to Phyllis, Sunny, and James, who helped to facilitate our leaving our desperate situation.

Gratitude is also extended to Shirley and Tina (among others) of the YWCA Womens Shelter Self-Sufficiency Program for the initial safe place to live when we got out, and for all we learned there.

In spite of a number of folks along the way, some of them folks in the medical and mental health community, some in agencies and in bureaucratic positions, others whom we thought were our friendswho, by way of their own fears, prejudices, and carefully guarded ignorance, and their own wounded and un-healed psyches, impeded, even sabotaged our getting help and our progress

there were others who behaved decently, compassionately, generously.

Thanks go to the many kind souls we have met along the way, who have made the way a little less lonely, a little less dark. Heather, Renee, Helen-Clare, Tom, Nathan, Fritz, Nancy, Tanya, Jenny, Laura, Amanda, and Judy, are only a few I hope you know who you are.