somatoform symptoms

You are definitely dissociating rather than grounding yourself. If you can find a somatic experiencing group anywhere near you, that could help. One of my therapists also recommended doing any sort of movement therapy, Alexander technique, etc. For self help or in conjunction with a therapist, Peter Levine's books are very good.

A body psychotherapist pays very close attention to the patient's body language, any movements, tension, etc., rather than working mainly on a cognitive level. The therapist will be alert to any facial expressions or tone of voice or other cues that seem incongruent with the verbal expressions. The therapist will ask you to check your body and report any sensations, including such things as localized numbness or differences of temperature. Any and all of these phenomena may turn out to be important clues, trailheads leading to buried trauma.

Una+ wrote:A body psychotherapist pays very close attention to the patient's body language, any movements, tension, etc., rather than working mainly on a cognitive level. The therapist will be alert to any facial expressions or tone of voice or other cues that seem incongruent with the verbal expressions. The therapist will ask you to check your body and report any sensations, including such things as localized numbness or differences of temperature. Any and all of these phenomena may turn out to be important clues, trailheads leading to buried trauma.

This is what the book Body Memories was all about. I had read it in hopes of finding out what my Pseudoseizures are.

So Question: I think this will also help Oaktree....

What is the difference between Body Memories, Pseudoseizures, and jerks and spasms associated with DID.

My Psudeoseizures seems to be when an altered is startled, which occurs as soon as they come out and any tiny noise is made, so it seems like its' when switching. After the alter is use to being out I can finally get to the point where I feel the twinge to seize, but suppress it.

What I am wondering is that in people that don't have hundreds to thousands of alters but just have a handful, if these are not actually the same thing, but the those with fewer alters, the alters are simply use to be out more.

Also, what about the Somatoform symptoms. Una, you mentioned once that after integrating something healed. I have so many Somatoform symptoms - I think. It's hard to tell.

This is just a wild thought, so it might be totally off base. I have not dived into the literature on this.

I was just reading through the ISSTD Treatment Guideslines and saw this on this topic, so posting it...

"Somatoform Comorbidity in DID
Historically speaking, somatoform disorders and dissociative disorders have been linked through the concept of hysteria and until the DSM–III were conceptualized as having similar underlying processes or mechanisms.

The DSM–III committee placed somatoform and dissociative disorders in separate categories, although this decision has been challenged (R. J. Brown, Cardeña, Nijenhuis, ¸Sar, & Van der Hart, 2007).

The International Classification of Diseases–9 (World Health Organization, 1977), however, continued to conceptualize these disorders as sharing an underlying relationship. The same is true for the International Classification of Diseases–10 (World Health Organization, 1992), which includes dissociative disorders of movement and sensation rather than conversion disorders.

High rates of somatization and somatoform disorders are found in DID patients.

Nijenhuis (1999) has characterized many of these types of symptoms as somatoform dissociation. Common somatoform symptoms in DID patients are quite varied and can include abdominal pain, pelvic pain, joint pain, face and head pain, lump in the throat, back pain, non-epileptic seizures, and pseudo-asthma, among others.

Somatoform dissociation may explain the high rates of childhood maltreatment, particularly sexual abuse, found in patients with somatization disorder (Briquet’s Syndrome), somatoform pain disorder, hypochondriasis, and conversion disorder, particularly non-epileptic seizures (Barsky, Wool, Barnett, & Cleary, 1994; Bowman & Markand, 1996; Goodwin & Attias, 1999; Litwin & Cardeña, 2000; Loewenstein, 1990, 2002; Loewenstein & Goodwin, 1999; McCauley et al.,
1997; Morrison"

http://www.isst-d.org/default.asp?contentID=49

I just ran onto this and have not read it yet. I have a whole pile of work to do today before I can, but the author is van der Kolk, so to me it can be trusted.

Enjoy! It's 21 pages including references.

http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage ... olk%20.pdf

THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE:
Memory and the evolving psychobiology of post traumatic stress
by Bessel van der Kolk

For more than a century, ever since people's responses to overwhelming experiences were first
systematically explored, it has been noted that the psychological effects of trauma are expressed
as changes in the biological stress response. In 1889, Pierre Janet (1), postulated that intense
emotional reactions make events traumatic by interfering with the integration of the experience into existing memory schemes. Intense emotions, Janet thought, cause memories of particular events to be dissociated from consciousness, and to be stored, instead, as visceral sensations (anxiety and panic), or as visual images (nightmares and flashbacks). Janet also observed that traumatized patients seemed to react to reminders of the trauma with emergency responses that had been relevant to the original threat, but that had no bearing on current experience. He noted that victims had trouble learning from experience: unable to put the trauma behind them, their energies were absorbed by keeping their emotions under control at the expense of paying attention to current exigencies. They became fixated upon the past, in some cases by being obsessed with the trauma, but more often by behaving and feeling like they were traumatized over and over again without being able to locate the origins of these feelings (2,3).

Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD.
Harvard Medical School
HRI Trauma Center
227 Babcock Street
Boston, MA 02146

Movement therapy sounds interesting. I found this information which sounded the most reliable I could easily find:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-movement-therapy.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-be ... herapy.htm
Interesting because I tend to say the only place/time where I can feel completely myself is at a certain party (or whatever that's called) that I go to once in a while. It's really the only place where I can freely express myself. I wouldn't be surprised if it was therapeutic in some way. (It also helps everyone does it, so you have to put a lot effort in it before people are going to think you're weird )

I'll first put effort in finding a new therapist who is specialized in dissociative disorders (dissociative-identity/topic110958.html). After that, I may look into this. (It's really nothing important right now. It happens sometimes when I'm stressed, but it's rare. Most days it doesn't happen at all.)

Una+ wrote:Any and all of these phenomena may turn out to be important clues, trailheads leading to buried trauma.

That's something to keep in mind. Again, I have other priorities now but I'll talk about it.

sev0n wrote:My Psudeoseizures seems to be when an altered is startled, which occurs as soon as they come out and any tiny noise is made, so it seems like its' when switching.

Interesting. I've suspected before it was related to switching. (And I think I hear a confirmation somewhere.)

I've not seen those treatment guidelines before. Thanks! And thanks for that other paper. It sounds interesting.

The 2011 ISSTD Treatment Guidelines is often considered to be the current consensus of experts on the topic of DID.

Did you notice all the authors on that 70 plus page report?
Guidelines is as follows: International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. (2011). [Chu J. A, Dell P. F, van der Hart O, Cardeña E, Barach P. M, Somer E, Loewenstein R. J, Brand B, Golston, J. C, Courtois C. A, Bowman E. S, Classen C, Dorahy M, Sar V,Gelinas J, Fine C.G ,Paulsen S., Kluft R. P, Dalenberg C. J, Jacobson-Levy M, Nijenhuis E, Boon S, Chefetz R, Middleton W, Ross C. A, Howell E, Goodwin G, Coons P. M, Frankel A. S, Steele K, Gold S. N, Gast U., Young L. M, Twombly J.]. Guidelines for treating dissociative
identity disorder in adults, third revision. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 12, 115–187

Link to this magnificent and up to date document!
http://www.isst-d.org/downloads/GUIDELI ... ED2011.pdf