Nightime Ramblings Lead to Therapy Musings

It’s a little after 3am. I woke up, thanks to Zoi (Zoey), to take her out at about 1:30-1:45 A.M. I tried not to be too grumpy with her as she did a very brief pee and then took forever to poop but she finally realized I was serious and went poop without too much grumpiness from me. I just wanted her to go out and do her business, especially since she was so insistent that she needed to go. The problem is that usually when I’m awakened in the middle of the night or way to freaking early in the morning (like 5-6-7am) we end up awake for several hours before we can fall back asleep. Hence my grumpiness at her taking long because the longer she takes, the harder it is for us to just go back to bed. Anyway, such is life with a dog, and we have to say she is incredibly adorable and lovable!

So we had a bowl of cereal, skimmed for interesting articles in the tiny local newspaper that is really more like a newsletter that I found awaiting in the driveway after taking Zoi out. Then we went online and tried to look up some new anti-depressant that we could only remember the name partially of but had seen on a tv advertisement the day before. It’s Pristiq in case anyone is curious. And now we’re here trying to write something, even though nothing of value has really been said.

I guess for value sake we can say that we’ve discovered in the past few days that talking and telling and communicating things in our head (as if we’re writing a journal entry) in 3rd person about stuff with the neighbor boy is proving to be helpful and most recently tonight as we fell asleep, it is also proving to uncover additional information. Of course there is always the cynical and disbelieving and questioning parts of what if such and such is being made up or adjusted to what our psyche can handle or what we want to believe, etc., but I think what’s being shared is true and valid as there is a connection to my heart and what some of us know for sure is absolutely how it is whereas other stuff is pieces filled in and we’re pretty sure that’s how it is. Just someone inside always seems to have to take the role of being so utterly critical and self-hating and anything deeply negative that is needed.

We’re sounding pretty general and some inside are sure we’re sounding really fake and making stuff up and stuff but really it is because of how cryptic we’re being about things. Part of it is that it is still hard to really talk about certain things and part of it is that we’re really pretty tired and don’t feel like getting into the whole topic and starting a long journal entry about it.

The other thing is that we had therapy today, err, yesterday (Tuesday), and it turned out to be about some present day stuff that is really stressing our system out and causing a lot of anxiety. It was supposed to have been time for some others inside to have a ‘release’ of their pain and time for them to share since they didn’t get that Saturday either. So the buildup had been coming. Now it is really hard as there are internal reactions to what took place or rather what didn’t take place in therapy today. However, out of that, some interesting things came about towards the end of therapy.

1) Those inside awaiting their turn basically said something to the effect that “Something is always more important than their pain.” “Their pain is never important enough or enough of a priority.” I’m not quoting this correctly at all, but the gist is there and it was poignant the way they said it. I have it on tape and so I just have to review it and find it and update that here.

2) We realized (again for the ??? time) that we really need to listen to those whose requests are practically whispers or barely there for things. We’ve been hearing ever so quietly and ever so faintly and not at all loud or insistent or so obnoxious that we have to do something about it, the request to have on hand blank paper and crayons as part of our therapy stuff that we bring to therapy and lay out on the floor with us. We sit on the floor pretty regularly as this is just something weird that helps us get in touch with the inside easier (well, sometimes anyway… much more so than sitting on a couch or chair). They need to see and have available for them to get to easily the paper and crayons in case they come forward and need a way to communicate.

3) This then sort of brings back the point which we’ve become aware of in the past, but somehow today we just really got it on a different level or something was different and we heard them on a deeper level and perhaps more so with love and nurturing and respect that we haven’t in the past… anyway, something different transpired today, ever so briefly as we wrapped up therapy today. The realization and discussion with Kathy that many in our system value our therapy time and value talking and utilizing therapy time as much as possible in that way (or listening to our therapist’s feedback). So when insiders who are hurting and in pain take a long time to come forward and then take a long time to talk, others inside decide that they aren’t going to come forward, aren’t going to talk or say anything of usefulness, and so others inside take steps to get their agenda met and not waste therapy time (THANKS SO FUCKING MUCH BITCH ALYSA THERAPIST FOR THAT LOVELY FUCKING THING WE SO EVER CAN’T SEEM TO GET OUT OF OUR HEAD) and basically try to make use of every minute that we have in therapy talking about stuff, processing stuff. However, this takes away the whole point of others being able to just sit and ‘be’ and to ‘be in their pain’ and for Kathy to be a witness to their pain, even if they don’t say anything right away or even if they don’t know how to say anything or what to say. It is sort of like we realized on a deeper level, perhaps an emotional level instead of just a yah, yah, intellectual level, ok, but blah blah blah intellectual level, kind of thing that we need to work really hard at stepping as far back as we can so that others inside can come forward and just be and just have a witness to their pain, no matter how wasteful of therapy it may seem to us (since they aren’t saying anything, don’t seem to plan or have anything to say, etc.) and of course the crazy thing of all (and yet so duh and not crazy and again, duhhh) is that the further we step back, the more they will have to say I’m sure. It’s just if we can’t pick up anything from L.J. who is or might be picking up stuff from them (so it is very indirect) then we make assumptions, and the thing is, L.J. has been known whether purposefully or unconsciously or the data may simply be marked as sealed and stuff, that even if L.J. gets info or pieces, it will not translate over to us when we scan her for info she is picking up. So we make assumptions on false information due to the amnesia blocks and information blocks and others inside and ourselves make it harder for those in pain to push forward and us out of the way (unless they are majorly triggered by something).

We should note that we had a therapist years ago (before Wendy in fact) that told us on numerous occasions that we were “wasting our therapy time,” “wasting therapy time.” Oh and she wanted us to “tell her about our pain,” (she said this a lot too very closely associated with us wasting our therapy time when we failed to do so) but every time we tried to tell her about our pain, we did it wrong and we were wasting therapy time and we couldn’t figure out how to do it or what she wanted and we just didn’t know how to do that and she didn’t really help us figure out how or whatever. All I know is there was a time after having been told this repeatedly over many sessions, that we felt at the end that we had really done hard work in therapy and we really believed we had made progress in “not wasting our therapy time” and truly felt and believed we had done hard work and then we were told, once again before we left that session (after what we believed to have been hard work and telling her our pain) that we had wasted our therapy time.

So anyway, unfortunately this piece of shit garbage has followed us for years and years and has been a constant pain in the ass problem that has carried over with us with every therapist we’ve had since then. We just don’t know how to let this issue go– it really affected us greatly and I suppose it traumatized us because we have regular anxiety over it. Even after all those years with Wendy, we’d still have this shit come up while doing work with Wendy—worries and anxiety and needing reassurance from Wendy, etc. We’ve decided recently that we need to confront Alysa again about it as we think we may have forgotten this piece to confront her on (we confronted her once while seeing Wendy) because there was a lengthy list of shit that she did that greatly affected our system in very negative ways. Anyway, we’re going to confront Alysa again in the near future and do our damndest to find a way to let this stupid fucking bullshit piece of crap fucking bitchy unethical in our opinion stupid fuck therapist comment to let it go. Even if we were not doing therapy “right” or not making progress according to her, she could have fucking spoken to us about it in a professional manner instead of saying the crap she said and she said it way too fucking much and devalued our attempts and efforts and work we were trying to do in therapy. Excuse us for not knowing how to do therapy right enough for you bitch Alysa.

Shit. Apparently some inside still have a ton of anger at her about this and perhaps other stuff. Damn. I had no idea there was still so much anger and nasty words still left towards her. Anytime she’s come up with other therapists, other parts who are far more pc will speak of her and mention casually or matter of factly or sometimes with emphasis that we had a negative experience and some things were said and done that were hurtful (and at times brief examples are given), but wow, never anything as nasty as what has just been written here.

We had some other points to write about in regards to therapy insights and awareness and thoughts about stuff that transpired in therapy yesterday but we’ve gotten so far off track and just too tired to try and bring those thoughts back after a lot of searching inside and even after we get them, we’d have to write them down and this is long enough as it is.

Bleh. Such is some middle of the night writings. I guess we’re gonna try and go back to sleep. We’ll see how that goes.

Julies and whomever else here cuz there sure were a bunch around at different times

“Have To Get The Sad Out Of Us”

Just needed to share something, however short it may be. We had therapy earlier today and we showed her a collage that gives a general system overview in many ways. We have also been talking a little bit the last several weeks (i think several weeks, not sure) of various things relating to this neighbor boy who abused us. We discussed inside a little bit earlier today as we thought about writing a journal entry, and I thought we might say his first name, but apparently we’re not going to just yet. At any rate, we’ve begun providing some general history of things we’ve known about for a long time, but haven’t fully processed to some kind of healing state.

I questioned and pondered aloud the time before last when I saw Kathy (therapist) as to how does one know and distinguish between a memory that is healed and unpleasant memories that are a part of my past. I am not even coming close to the way I originally phrased it, but that’s the general gist of it, and honestly, it sounds utterly stupid to me now as I type it… like it should just be a duh thing, but it isn’t. At least not the way we were phrasing and wondering about it when we spoke with Kathy.

So we are making slow progress I suppose and are trying to carve out a pathway and plan in our healing as we partake along this new path and new journey of therapy with Kathy. We spoke a lot about the shame and badness that we have and how it is particularly attached to any of the abuse in any way (indirect or direct) by the neighbor boy. We left therapy fairly triggered with a lot of emotions and things close by, along with the us and usz groups very close. They wrote a letter to Kathy and one of the things that was stated in the letter was something about “having to get the sad out of usz.” For some reason it just spoke volumes to me, in that it was something so precious and heart breaking in the way it was worded and shared by the younger ones. I can’t quite put it fully into words, but it touched me and many others inside.

So we are embarking along a journey to “get the sad out of us” and one of those things we’re realizing (once again many times over) is that we need to write down in every detail that we can the various memories we have that surround the abuse and any piece relating indirectly or directly to it. We have a lot of pieces that provide information on what happened and the dynamics with our family and what kind of impact it had on us. I don’t know… I keep feeling like I’m not expressing myself in the way that I need or want to do so.

We’re fighting through the blocks we’ve been having with writing. We’re also continuing to work on a way to have greater access to our computer or one of Sean’s work laptops so that we can continue to push forward in journaling as well as working on our website, etc.

So this note is longer than I thought, but shorter than what all we really need to say ultimately.

Julie/s

we are

we are here.  we are alive.  we are exhausted.  we are drained.  we are okay, yet not, yet okay.  we simply are just are.  we are.

we think to write here but the energy doesn’t come and something seems to keep us from writing as well.  we thought of just making this a place to write snippets of thoughts or ideas or things that have crossed our minds or has happened lately.  and yet we don’t write anything, perhaps in the overwhelming ideas of having to write more than a sentence or two about any particular thing, especially the anxiety of leaving out details.  and the irony that detailing things causes the overwhelmed aspect and lack of energy for writing. and of course the anxiety and things of leaving out information and leaving it unclear, unfinished, not thorough, not wholly and completely accurate in that it doesn’t provide the complete picture.

we’ve thought of writing and changing things to focus more of our writing coming from us to us and to disengage more from thinking of our readers and make this more of a journal from us to us and less from us to us and readers.  thinking and remembering and relaying things to ourselves and at times to readers is often on a continuum.  we desire to go back to more of writing for us and pretending there aren’t readers and yet glad that there are all at the same time.  it’s so strange and convoluted and confusing.  all of it is.

seems stupid and we feel so bad and stupid.  for what? just being i guess.  just writing this much.  not sure we stand behind all that has been written.  it’s like writing and saying things but so unsure of what we’re saying and expressing.  not sure that it is us and what we’re really feeling and thinking deep down.  it feels so subject to change or so unstable or something.

so we will come here again in some time, hopefully in less time than we’ve taken lately, and peek and speak beyond the shadows.  it’s been such a very long week.

us, others, and some julies around.  sort of don’t know and feel unknown.