I have been here on Psych central for many years now, those that know me understand what my posts mean even when they are not worded exactly the way they think they should be. Translators are not perfect. they are cold, formal and sometimes put the wrong words in, or turn things into gobble dee gook that no one can understand. Then there are my actual words are different than most people, I grew up in a place where one word means many things and sometimes different than other places, I also have an education that can sometimes drive people a bit nuts.

there are some new people here and some longer time ones that may not remember a few of my tips in understanding my posts which means my posts may upset them....

so for the new people and a review for others that may be having a problem with my posts....

first.... usually when I post I quote the person I am directing my post to or I place the members name with in my reply... if you dont see the quote or the name or havent made a reply in the thread then obviously my post is not directed to you but to those participating in the thread.

Occasionally on busy days I will use quick reply. but again my posts are directed to either the original poster, the quoted person or to an issue that is being discussed in the thread so again if you are just reading and not participating in a thread then of course my post is not directed to you or about you. (its so easy to assume a post is about each other when in fact it isnt, on sites like this)

Second.... no you did not miss my post the first time around. I like having an extra pair of eyes, extra point of view for me to consider, on my posts. Im a busy mom, wife and career woman who sometimes has a bad or off day. I dont want my bad days affecting anyone here. it just takes longer for my posts to go through to the boards because i like having that help of extra eyes on my posts. this is not a reflection of those reading or the site,

third....I use the ignore feature. so please understand my lack of responses / replies to someone is no reflection on whether I believe them or whether I feel they have or dont have a problem.

I have many reasons why I use the ignore feature, one being someone has asked me to place them on ignore, another being I may be having a hard day, another may be that I have noticed my posts tend to trigger someone so I have placed them on my ignore as a reminder to ......me....... not to post to them, and yes I do use the ignore feature when I encounter posts or posters that happen to trigger my emotions.

my fighting and lashing out at others is not right in my opinion so rather than fighting with someone here I choose to use my ignore list and leave the other person to taking care of their self.

forth... I am not an expert here, I make this clear in my posts by using statements about how my own life is, my own problems are and suggest who I am replying to, contact their own treatment providers.

my posts do sometimes go into more formal information about disorders. this is because I have those disorders, those problems or know friends and family with those problems.

but that formal information that is sometimes in my posts is not anything that no one can find on their own either through their own internet search, visiting their local public library, or contacting their own treatment providers.

for example you can find all kinds of definitions, diagnostics, case studies, blogs, mental health websites on the internet but you can not find present Supplemental Updates about a mental disorder on the internet, for this contacting treatment providers who can use their credentials to access that information. there are also many websites out there that contain books, worksheets and other stuff people with mental disorders find helpful which contacting a treatment provider is very helpful.

sometimes my posts will contain a statement of proof........

by proof I mean statistical data, demographics , case studies, research studies, Supplemental Updates, the national census reports.... those kinds of things.

most of which can be found with a visit to a local public library reference department and those that cant be found publicly are found through a persons own treatment provider.

So you see when I say there is proof I am not saying anyone here is or isnt who and what they say they are.

I am saying there is a document somewhere that states that which I am posting about.

where possible I do supply where I found the proof (the document) if because of site rules I am unable to state the exact proof wording and location I point the person in the direction where they can find that document.

example someone recently asked me to supply my proof and because I knew I could not quote the proof here, I explained to the person how to locate that document on their own.

now for some definitions of some words in my posts that get new people upset sometimes...

Dissociation/ dissociate.... I use this word to mean many things.....

Switching alters, feeling numb, feeling spaced out, loss of time, basically any dissociation problem. its like a cover all word here where I live.

Triggers....when I use this word, it means something good or bad has happened to cause dissociation, dissociating to happen.

examples of positive triggers.....

eating a piece of cake can cause me to feel numb and spaced out.
nothing is wrong with the cake and there are no bad memories associated with the cake, its just that sometimes doing something good like eating a piece of cake will make me feel my dissociation symptoms.

going up to the mountains and hiking up a particular mountain will cause me to have my dissociation symptoms. not because there is anything wrong or bad happened, just because I am so excited and full of happy/ good emotions that suddenly my mind shuts down.

I used to not know how to sew. I was all thumbs when it came to sewing. theres nothing wrong or upsetting associated with sewing, in fact I love hand sewn crafts.

Before I was integrated any time I needed to sew something, this would cause me to have my dissociation symptoms/ switch and an alter would do that for me. now that I'm integrated i can sew.

these are all examples of positive triggers..... the need to sew when I could not do it, the excitement and high happy emotions of hiking, the eating a piece of cake. there is nothing wrong with them they just cause me to dissociate and used to be what would cause me to switch alters whether I asked my alters to help me or not.

on the other side of this are negative triggers like
bad memories,
bad events in my life,
stress
being worried
pain

the list was endless of bad things that would cause me to dissociate and switch alters.

so you see my statement that dissociation is trigger related or my saying dissociation is an automatic reaction to a trigger is not in any way saying someone is or isnt how they are, its quite the opposite its all inclusive, it includes everyone and every thing how ever and who ever they may be..

where I am located we use all inclusive terms / definitions.

And lastly when in doubt it is ok to ask me what I mean or to clarify my post for you.