It's holding me back from getting better. I got to get it out of me-it's torturing me and driving me crazy.

Please, someone tell me if you've successfully ERADICATED one from your system.

Help

Here are some articles about introjects by a friend of mine who is a therapist
Introjects | Discussing Dissociation
There are several places on there to find info about working with introjects.

Thanks, Starry.

Do/did you have one?

Have several

[Katetal]

What is an introject?

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by skies

It's holding me back from getting better. I got to get it out of me-it's torturing me and driving me crazy.

Please, someone tell me if you've successfully ERADICATED one from your system.

Help

I never got ...rid of... or as you call it eradicated any of my alters including those that were DID type introjects..... and did not even try....

you see here in NY and with in my culture the belief system is that alters can not die, be killed off and do not "leave"

here the belief system is that a person is born as one whole person.

then through the use of dissociation while undergoing extreme trauma at a very young age, everything/each part (memories /emotions/events /.... everything that makes up a persons personality) in that whole persons mind....breaks off or as some here on psych central call it ...splits / gets walled off/ gets dissociated...because that whole person can not handle the extreme trauma at such a young age.

then each of those parts of the whole persons personality become a alternate personality with their own way of being, their own jobs, purposes, reasons for being.

example when I was born to my biological mother and father I was one whole person. As one whole person I had one whole personality....everything that made up who I was, what type of person I was. my parents and siblings tell me I was a happy baby, smiled, cried, giggled, got angry, expressed emotions as a toddler, I liked carrots, hated peas, played with all kinds of toys, had definite likes and dislikes, liked playing dress up, liked all kinds of clothing...

then I was abused physically, emotionally and sexually before the age of 5.

then the aware self could no longer express emotions remember abuse events ....but when I was dissociated those emotions, remember abuse events..... were with in what is called alternate personality known as red (anger) Sunny (happy) Thelma (sexualized/adventurist) Rainy (depressed, crier) Nellie (introject, alternate personality that took on the job, purpose reason for being /role of my abuser)....(these are not the actual names of my alternate personalities just named them that for illustrating my point..

through treatment for my problems and learning how to handle my problems, once I was able to do that those alternate personalities integrated/merged back with me to become one whole person again....

none of my alters were lost, gotten rid of, killed off or as you say eradicated....everything that was each of my alternate personalities became me.

the result of this was that when ever I felt the ....urge to harm myself (what used to be walled off into an alternate personality) I could now make the choice to do harm to myself or not, I could choose to act on that urge or not. just like if I get angry (what used to be the alter Red) I can now choose to get angry or not, show my anger or not, ....

so how did my treatment providers and I handle the introject before I was integrated....inpatient care when ever any of my alternate personalities were being a danger to me, the other alters or anyone else.

my suggestion if you have an introject that is doing harm to yourself or others contact your treatment providers. they are the only ones that can tell you what is best for you to do for your treatment plans and your mental and physical health....

here all we can do is share our stories/let you know whether we have had the same problem and what we and our own treatment providers do about the same problem based on the laws of our own location, treatment options in our own locations and what our own treatment plans are...

I personally do not go according to what I find on the internet about what to do because it can lead to being more harmful then good or against the law in my location or against the treatment plans my treatment providers have me on...

examples of some things I have found on the internet about introjects and how to handle them...

some say talk with them,
make boundaries/ rules
call them out
listen to them,
comfort them,
find out why they want to harm you,
hide the item of choice for doing harm
give them this or that...

well in my location calling out of alters is against the ethics/mental health rules, maknig rules, setting boundaries would not work because they took on the role of my abusers thats what their job/purpose reason for being created was, no rules/boundaries/toys and what not was going to change them. listen, comfort them...you cant do that while you are being stabbed, punched, and what ever else because the introject is the one in control of the body not the aware self they are just doing what they were created to do. hiding the object of choice for doing harm does no good because anything and everything can be used to harm someone... if they cant find the knife theres always a fork or spoon, stick, glass or plate or plastic object to break into a sharp point....even paper gives cuts if needed and paper cuts hurt like heck.

my point is only you and your treatment providers can say what type of introjects you have and how to best handle the situaitons they put you in....

my suggestion if this continues to bother you contact your treatment providers. they can help you to be safe and help you to learn what you need to to have peace of mind.

Amandalouise-

Thanks for sharing all of that with me. Wow, you've come along way.

I have talked with my therapist about this as he's my only treatment provider. It's just that when i'm in the moment (and this time it was off/on for days), it's so extreme and crazy and scary to feel like 'someone else' is in control of me. And it had me trapped. We'll just have to talk about this again and again I suppose.

T doesn't call them 'alters' or treat it that way. For me, he thinks we should talk about the memories (even if they are just emotional or body memories) that caused it. He said that my mom was psychotic at times, which is why it gets so terrifying.

It was very helpful hearing about your experiences. I am sorry that you went through all of that. But it's good to hear how everything got integrated.

Originally Posted by Katetal

What is an introject?

Think of it in this context first - Introjection is sort of the opposite of projection. With psychological projection, you take aspects of your inner world and project it unto reality/the outer world. With introjection, you take from the outer world and inject it into your internal reality/experience. They are the inverse of one another.

An introject, as I used the term, is a concept from Object Relations theory, which I think originated from Melanie Klein. It's internalizing the 'essence' of your parent (usually the mother). People who had 'good enough' parents internalize good aspects of their caregiver, which helps their sense of self develop. For example, internalizing your mother comforting you would provide you with the ability to self-soothe as an adult. If your mother was scary, abuse, or even ill so neglected you, you can grow up without the ability to self-soothe. Like others here, I never developed the ability to self-soothe on my own....

It's said that infants--who don't have emotional or cognitive maturity developed yet-- can't distinguish between the inner and outer world. For example, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference from having a headache (that came from within/internally) and an object falling on its head (from external source). Same with significant people around it. Because the baby can't distinguish what emotions are hers and the others yet (there is no psychological boundary/sense of self developed yet), she can internalize the emotions and experiences of the caregiver/mother as being her own. And I internalized some scary things from my mother...e.g., her wanting me to die, sadistic, abusive, etc.

I guess what makes it dissociative is that it feels like a separate person from myself-when i'm aware of it, it really feels like I'm possessed by it-held hostage-and my real self has no control of me. Back then, it literally was separate as it was my mother, so it makes sense to me that it feels this way.

Psychoanalysis - Melanie Klein And Object Relations - Infant, World, Objects, and Anxieties - JRank Articles

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Katetal

What is an introject?

in the most simple terms an introject is a part of a persons personality that takes on the role of that persons abuser...

you know how when you were a kid you played a game where you copied a friend word for word...

friend...Im going to go swimming
me.....Im going to go swimming
friend ....hey stop it
me....hey stop it
friend...thats not funny
me thats not funny
friend ...I said stop it
me ...I said stop it....

well an introject type personality copies someone who has a negative impact on another....

example maybe a parent was constantly putting their child down, name calling and stuff... in the childs mind their personality gets affected to where a part of their personality starts name calling and such the same as the abusive mother did...

this can happen with no mental disorders and it can happen with any number of mental disorders. it isnt limited to having dissociative disorders.

the trick is to know whether it is part of a persons mental disorder...if so the treatment for that mental disorder will determine how to handle that situation...

example my introject was a DID alternate personality type introject. the treatment for that was the same for any of my other dissociative problems....my learning how to handle my problems, learning how to use grounding rather than dissociating and that I did not deserve to be abused the way my abusers had done to me and that it was ok for me to tell about those abuses. since my introjects job was to abuse me in the same way my abusers did in order to prevent me from telling, when that introjects job/purpose/reason for being was no longer needed to ensure my survival and handle things like telling, that introject merged with me to become one whole person with me again...

Another example someone I know who has depression had an introject that took on the role of her husband telling her she was no good, lazy, and such because her depression kept her isolated, unable to cope with day to day things. the fix for this kind of introject was this person being put on antidepressants. once the antidepressants started working, she was able to function normally again so there was no need for an introject to be calling her lazy and such. that introject just was gone one day.

another example someone I know with psychosis had an introject personality that would cause her to believe it was time to die, but with anti psychotic meds there was no need for that introject personality so it just faded back until the next psychotic episode.

if you think you have an introject contact your treatment providers. they can assess you for mental disorders and physical health problems and normal problems that may be causing this introject to be part of your life and treat you for it.

[lifelies]

*may trigger*
I don't think you can erradicate an alter... The most you could do is to integrate it with another alter - but I'm not really educated on that matter.
Our system has a few introjects: Christine (introjects mom's rage), Allie (introjects dad's mood unstability and its effects towards us) and Justin (introjects both parents' "never enough" obsessive/abusive thoughts).
In our system we've learnt that the best way to cope with destructive alters (or introjects) is to stop fighting them...
Cheers,
Lana