Link: Dissociative disorders and social justice

[sonia]

Nora Samaran hits another one out of the park in Out of the Attic: Dissociative Disorders and Social Justice.

An available solution when other strategies of protection or escape are not possible, when caregivers who you depend on for survival are the ones causing the harm, or are themselves experiencing overwhelming danger, is to ‘decide’ that the part of the self experiencing this overwhelming shame and terror is not-you. When this happens while the brain is still quite plastic, the neurochemical effects of shame and terror can literally wall off the neural networks involved in this overwhelming experience. They freeze in the state of trauma, and continue to operate in intense distress, but out of the consciousness of the child, who can then go on in the unbearable situation.

Also,

It is pretty important when understanding dissociative disorder to understand it is, and talk about it as, a normal part of human experience. There is nothing esoteric or rare or mystical about it. In fact, people with the disorder may already believe that parts of them are ‘subhuman’ or shamed out of deserving to be part of the circle of human bonds; it is important not to reify this distorted belief.

It's long. Totally worth reading. But if you're in a hurry you can skip to Handouts/Take-Away.