mute alter

I have a mute alter and I don't know what to do really. Do you have any mute alter(s) and how does it work for you?

I can see her (it's a girl) on the inside. She has long brown hair and brown eyes. She rocks back and forth and sometimes she hits herself.

She is really scared. Scared of people hurting her. And when she's out she has trouble getting me, or any other alter that can talk, back. Sometimes I can feel that she's near the surface and almost fronting and I panic a bit because I don't want her to take over. idk should I let her? It's not that I don't want her to be there, I accept her and try to listen to her as I listen to any other alter and try to make them feel accepted, but it's hard when she front because she can't communicate with anyone. well, she writes. but for some reason I feel ashamed when she's fronting. probably because I know that people around me doesn't know what to do really. idk.

- the host

Hi little. I have a mute alter also. She is also handicapped, apparently, from the hips down. Its unreal. What is good is that she writes. I let her write until she is done. In my head, she she communicates with the other alters too by writing in the air with her fingers and everyone can see and hear her words. its kind of weird but it works. She comes out in therapy when things are bothering her so I don't mind. but sorry, I don't have that problem yet of my alters coming out in public. My advice to you is keep a notepad and a pen on you or in your purse so she can communicate with someone. That is how she communicates with my T during therapy. She writes down what she wants to say on the pad and presents it to my T to read. I hope this helps.

teikay wrote:Hi little. I have a mute alter also. She is also handicapped, apparently, from the hips down. Its unreal. What is good is that she writes. I let her write until she is done. In my head, she she communicates with the other alters too by writing in the air with her fingers and everyone can see and hear her words. its kind of weird but it works. She comes out in therapy when things are bothering her so I don't mind. but sorry, I don't have that problem yet of my alters coming out in public. My advice to you is keep a notepad and a pen on you or in your purse so she can communicate with someone. That is how she communicates with my T during therapy. She writes down what she wants to say on the pad and presents it to my T to read. I hope this helps.

Thank you!

- the host

We thought ninchen was mute (and unable to move) for almost 15 years. For her, what prevented her from being able to speak was paralyzing fear. It wasn't just a matter of teaching her it was safe/ok to speak. She needed a medication to reduce physiological hyper-arousal. Prazosin. It's not a psych med i.e. it doesn't affect the brain (emotions like fear and stress); just the body - so like tension, feeling sick/nauseous, lump in the throat/choking feeling, it minimizes stress-induced dissociative responses, etc. It's easily tolerated and has a short half-life. We would take it before trauma T, and ninchen suddenly started fronting and doing the work she needed to do. She was so brave

I understand the fear of somebody else fronting when their behaviour would be deemed inappropriate by others who don't understand what's going on. Let her out when it's safe to do so (i.e. in T, or when the body is alone); welcome her to take time in the body.

Hope some of this helps..

niva wrote:We thought ninchen was mute (and unable to move) for almost 15 years. For her, what prevented her from being able to speak was paralyzing fear. It wasn't just a matter of teaching her it was safe/ok to speak. She needed a medication to reduce physiological hyper-arousal. Prazosin. It's not a psych med i.e. it doesn't affect the brain (emotions like fear and stress); just the body - so like tension, feeling sick/nauseous, lump in the throat/choking feeling, it minimizes stress-induced dissociative responses, etc. It's easily tolerated and has a short half-life. We would take it before trauma T, and ninchen suddenly started fronting and doing the work she needed to do. She was so brave

I understand the fear of somebody else fronting when their behaviour would be deemed inappropriate by others who don't understand what's going on. Let her out when it's safe to do so (i.e. in T, or when the body is alone); welcome her to take time in the body.

Hope some of this helps..

Thanks for sharing! I'll do that.

- the host

Hi all,

Big N: Good to see you. Hope you and yours are well.

Little: About half of our inside kids and a few of our teens do not speak. Your situation reminds us of what several of our littles have experienced. Three or four of them can identify easily with what you wrote.

teikay: We have an 18-month-old in our system, ginger, who originally presented as wearing leg braces and being unable to stand up. When the body was that age, we spent several months having to wear a pair of shoes that connected to each other with a bar. This was supposedly to correct problems with at least one of our feet not positioning itself correctly when we walked.

It's not surprising that having to wear this device was instrumental in bringing about one or more members of our system. The irony is that the problem with our right foot was never corrected. It still often lands incorrectly if we don't pay attention and step deliberately. And it developed a bunion that often causes our right foot to hurt if we wear any shoes other than slippers or sturdy running shoes.

As for ginger, we got her a walker on the inside. Not the kind of baby bouncing device on wheels that outside babies use--but a real walker, scaled for her use. She's very happy about having it.

MDs

Long story short... I had a breakdown, an alter became present that is "selectively mute" I say selectively because obviously I can talk. I was hospitalized for a couple of weeks. They tried to give me drugs, I felt like I was on a street corner with a couple of dealers telling me the best uppers and downers to take. A week later, after being at home I tried to contact the mute alter. She is incredibly sad, I worked out she has what I call "colour associations" ie certain colours represent certain things to her: red-no/danger blue-fairness green-safe/yes grey-grey areas. I tried to be co-conscious with her but its very difficult because its easy to over power her. I feel sad for her. Her sadness is overwhelming. We all felt we wanted herr to have more time in the body but shes mute, very sad and she has no thoughts other than images of self harm. So she's quite distubing on the one hand but on the other shes very calm and quiet. I have a BS psycology appointment next week, I am going to try to get funding to see a specialist dissiciative therapist but its unlikely becuase they will see the psycologist as adequate. Anyway I googled it, found this and I have a mute alter.

There is one similar in the sunflower system. Quiet, sad, self harm thoughts. We found out that she really likes painting and it helps her be more expressive. The color associations you mentioned made me think this one in yourall's system may also appreciate an artistic expression. In our case, she didn't feel capable of asking, but when offered, she gladly accepted.

We do not have any little that we are aware of, but a friend has some littles including a non-verbal one. She communicates through gestures and drawings.

Your little sounds like she is in a lot of distress. Have you tried reaching out to her in the headspace and giving her things or words that could be used for comfort? A teddy bear, a shield, paper and crayons so she can draw to express herself... We're sure you'll figure something out to help her

Ethan doesn't speak at all, the only word he ever said was his name. He doesn't know how to write, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't really know how to use words in general. He understands them, but that's all, just like someone would understand another language without being able to talk in that language.

We communicate a lot with small noises, emotions and images, but the emotion he feels the most is, like your little, sadness. When I found him, he was crying all the time and always felt abandoned. Now, few years later and with the help of us, he can be happy sometimes, but he's generally neutral or sad. The only thing that really makes him happy is our cat, because she's the only outside being who always answer to the noises he makes.