so who has system areas for the littles

places where they can go and have fun and be happy when they are not out.

as i believe i mentioned in the daily check-in thread, we have the bouncy kangaroo ride, and quite a few of the littles (alicia especially) has her own room designed

michelle, who originally was a lady who just liked musicals is now mommy to some of the littles- and she reads to them and stuff

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by shattered sanity

so who has system areas for the littles

places where they can go and have fun and be happy when they are not out.

as i believe i mentioned in the daily check-in thread, we have the bouncy kangaroo ride, and quite a few of the littles (alicia especially) has her own room designed

michelle, who originally was a lady who just liked musicals is now mommy to some of the littles- and she reads to them and stuff

I had many young alters but we did not have a playroom or area in my mind for them to play....until....my therapist suggested we all have a safe spot through using guided visualization.

each of my alters had their own way of being their own jobs, purposes reasons for being created, what they could and could not do, how much control they had and much more (in other words their own sense of agency).

because of this kind of internal system when my alters were in control they did what ever they were able to do...ie when rainy was in control if it was part of her sense of agency she would find a real playground and go play on it, if thelma wanted to go for a plane ride she went to the airport and rented a ride on a charter plane, if red wanted to ride the supermarket monster looking coin ride she would get on the mechanical monster, put a quarter in the slot and ride.

one of my therapists did a relaxation\stress reduction exercise with me where through deep relaxation we ....imagined.....a safe spot that anyone (body born or altered) can think about and day dream about and self sooth when needed. some of my alters refused to use this safe spot because it wasnt something real, they could not ....really\actually....... run and play unless they had control of the body, they knew the difference between reality and imagined\daydreaming\mental play since reality testing remains intact. for some having to imagine \pretend they were playing caused more fighting and wanting more control over the body then their sense of agency allowed them to have.

I also had a few young alters that were stuck in their own time frames. example ones sense of agency was to hold the memory of being lost in the mine shafts. therefore any time she took control she was still trying to make her way out of the mine shafts. since it was dark in the mine shafts part of her sense of agency was blindness \seeing nothing but darkness. due to her sense of agency that was her reality. At first we thought this alter was psychotic (hallucinating\delusional) but over time we discovered since the mine shafts were a real place and that I had been lost in them and she was created to hold that memory, she was just reliving the memories that she held. in time she was no longer needed to hold those trauma filled memories and integrated\became one with me. since she was perpetually stuck in this one situation she never was able to incorporate daydreaming\visualizing a mental safe spot for playing.

the end result of this create a mental safe spot in therapy for me was that each continued to take control of the body when ever I was triggered\ dissociated and when they were in control they continued doing what their sense of agency was. if it included things like playing then they did that when in control of the body.

that said I do know some people who were able to daydream \ imagine \ visualize play rooms for their alters and their alters were satisfied with the mental rather than or in conjunction with real playing, they still knew what was real playing and what was their imaginings\ daydreaming type play due to reality testing remains intact.

Our littles don't want to be seen, stay hidden and hide. They fear being. They are best kept in the dark and not exposed to notice. But they quip up every now and then when we come up on McDonalds or Toy's R Us. They have caused us to gain a few pounds.

Originally Posted by AlwaysChanging2

Our littles don't want to be seen, stay hidden and hide. They fear being. They are best kept in the dark and not exposed to notice. But they quip up every now and then when we come up on McDonalds or Toy's R Us. They have caused us to gain a few pounds.

that certainly makes sense

hugs

bouncy, bouncy, bouncy kangaroo,

bouncy, bouncy, bouncy kangaroo

bouncy, bouncy, bouncy kangaroo

(okay we just wanted to sing it, sorry)

[Fuzzybear]

Originally Posted by AlwaysChanging2

Our littles don't want to be seen, stay hidden and hide. They fear being. They are best kept in the dark and not exposed to notice. But they quip up every now and then when we come up on McDonalds or Toy's R Us. They have caused us to gain a few pounds.

we are developing a new peppa pig area

our littles love peppa pig..

[Luce]

We once had the most amazing and vivid dream about our system structure and while we recognize it was a 'dream' and not an objective reality we have held on to this dream as a way of making sense of our internal organization.
And yes, there was a safe area where the littles could hang out and be taken care of by the internal helpers. Interestingly we couldn't see inside this area 'because it was only for the littles' (and the ones that nurture them). So it is safe from us meddling adults ones too.

Originally Posted by Luce

We once had the most amazing and vivid dream about our system structure and while we recognize it was a 'dream' and not an objective reality we have held on to this dream as a way of making sense of our internal organization.
And yes, there was a safe area where the littles could hang out and be taken care of by the internal helpers. Interestingly we couldn't see inside this area 'because it was only for the littles' (and the ones that nurture them). So it is safe from us meddling adults ones too.

interesting

we also have internal helpers

mommy michelle being 1 of them

she looks after alicia and cathy- sometimes bethany

[Luce]

We had lots of internal helpers. Lots of the really traumatized ones had their own counterpart who soothed them. They were fragment type one-purpose-only self-bits that didn't do anything else. (or imagination, lol!)
Whatever. They helped.

Originally Posted by Luce

We had lots of internal helpers. Lots of the really traumatized ones had their own counterpart who soothed them. They were fragment type one-purpose-only self-bits that didn't do anything else. (or imagination, lol!)
Whatever. They helped.

oink oink

we did it..

peppa pig area

can you believe that our littles are worried that they've almost seen every episode of peppa pig?. (their's about 140, i think)

i remember myself seeing about maybe 20

thinking of buying them a peppa pig dvd and the lion guard- will both keep them amused

[Luce]

I bet they will like that.

Originally Posted by Luce

I bet they will like that.

the lion guard isn't out until september (and even then only a select few episodes)

but i can start with peppa pig

[kecanoe]

Creating a safe place within my system has not worked for me. Instead I imagine littles going out into nature. I love to camp, so I can often use a campfire image as a safe place. I also have a bear cave where they can go hide and stay undetected and safe.

[confusedbyself]

Ok, this is kinda going the opposite direction of what you are saying, but everyone here seems like they might be able to give thought. My t used guided imagery to try to create a safe area inside myself and the only time it helped was when I started to freak out a bitime with the demon feelings coming after me and he moved me behind him in a corner in the visualization and said he had a protected suit on and they couldn't hurt himeither. That was the ONLY thing that has ever brought a moments piece. I say this because everyone still made the safe room, but it doesn't do it for me and it's always felt like I don't want to 'help' or 'let' anyone feel better. He talked a couple weeks ago about trying to 'age' when I feel regressed to a very young place. He said to imaginemail being anice older child, then teenagr, then adult and that just seemed like the craziest thing in the world. First thought was that I can't just MAKE my inside get older and then I was filled with something horrible like hate that was just an overwhelming feeling that the last thing I want to do is make these things inside me haapier. I don't even want to associate with them, and even said I hate them. Now I have not been diagnosed did, complex ptsd as last I heard, but I do see some of the kids in me aND like somebody else said, for the most part they are scared and hiding. That being said, they don't want anything more to do with me then I want to do with them, but I know the want to feel safe because I can feel something inside longing for my t to put me behind him and cover me in the corner again where nothing bad can reach us.

Did anyone start out hating everything going on inside you and change to wanting them to be happy or was it always that way with you Littles wanting to play and have fun? As I have said beforecently on here, I don't know what is truly wrong with me, but something sure is.

[Luce]

Hey confused. When our host one first found out about the others she hated it. She wanted them to go away, she wanted them to not to be real, she hated every single thing about them, especially the kid ones. She would have happily killed them off if she could!!!
It isnt that way anymore tho.
I know what you mean about not being able to make anyone get older. Of course you can't! They are what they are and they are that way for a reason. They are not gonna change just because some person says hey, you should, grow older. Nu-uh.
Anyways, it took a long time for the hosty one to get to accept what was going on. It took about 10 years for her to feel kindness to one particular inside kid.

[confusedbyself]

Originally Posted by Luce

Hey confused. When our host one first found out about the others she hated it. She wanted them to go away, she wanted them to not to be real, she hated every single thing about them, especially the kid ones. She would have happily killed them off if she could!!!
It isnt that way anymore tho.
I know what you mean about not being able to make anyone get older. Of course you can't! They are what they are and they are that way for a reason. They are not gonna change just because some person says hey, you should, grow older. Nu-uh.
Anyways, it took a long time for the hosty one to get to accept what was going on. It took about 10 years for her to feel kindness to one particular inside kid.

Thank you so much luce.... and I didn't mean to hychack the direction of this thread, just seemed you all might get it. My t hasn't said DID is the issue and I don't know if it is or not, but everything going is so hard and confusing to try to explain to him, I don't know if the uncertainty is in me or in my attempts to explain what doesn't make sense anywhere.

I have read many posts about the 'take overs' and internal playgrounds and blackouts (beginning to wonder on this a bit now though as I am realizing more and more conversations I have blown off to bad memory when people have mentioned big things... just talked to my mother about a road trip that apparently was a week long and was so bad for me it involved me refusing to drive home with the same person I went with. My mother said I was practically distraught over the entire thing and the only thing I remember is a vague idea of going to see my brother graduate from military, which was the point of trip... but no membrane if anything about it and I was 30, not a kid).. .... and so I thought most of those things that specify this issuedon't happen to me, but so so many other things just really fit, except I hate everything about me and don't want them happy, so I wondered.

I sure appreciate your insight especially tonight as it's a super bad day and nite right now.

[Luce]

Awww, sorry your having a hard time.

That story about forgetting the car trip is the kind of thing we would forget too. You know you should remember if that happened the way people said it did, but you really just don't. What can you do?

our littles were (still are a little) scared of 1 of the big insiders

having internal helpers have really helped with that though- and they are now a little safer

[Luce]

Internal helpers are awesome!!!