Happy Birthday!
Tomorrow is my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! My husband will take me out to dinner and my children will call to wish me the best. This is a celebration of the day I was born.
Our Real Birthday?
When is our birthday, really, when we are people with many parts? Is it when our body was born? When the first split occurred? When our created selves built amnesic walls around themselves for protection?
Is it our birthday when we first became aware of our multiple selves? When the first memories began to reshape who we thought we were? When we were first diagnosed with a new label and tag line?
Or is it our birthday after we’ve spent years of hard work healing the scars of abuse and finally coming to peace, whether as one or as many?
Milestones
All of these are milestones in the life of people with dissociative disorders. As we have multiple parts, it seems only right to have multiple days of birth to remember, mourn, and celebrate.
Rebirth
I dedicated my memoir, Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory, to my therapist who, I said, “helped me give birth to myself.” (Full disclosure: she doesn’t accept that accolade and says it was due to “all your hard work, Lyn.”) Whether to my credit, hers, or both, I experienced our work together as a sort of “rebirth”, creating a new me, or claiming the me I always was but couldn’t access.
Gratitude
Today, I feel such gratitude for the person I’ve become and the life I now live. I wish that for you someday, too. Beyond the incredible pain, terror, and chaos is a world that is waiting for you filled with love, peace, and hope. As you struggle through your dissociative darkness, remember you are meant to be whole. You are giving birth … to yourself. Happy Birthday!
Self-Care
You can claim any day you wish as your birthday, as often as you like during the year!
When you are having a good day, Happy Birthday!
When you gain a new insight, Happy Birthday!
When you come out on the other side of a trigger, Happy Birthday!
Congratulate yourself for surviving and treat yourself to something happy, today, no matter what day it is. Happy Birthday to you!
Invitation
Check out my website at www.lynbarrett.com where you can download my free ebook called DID Unpacked and receive a free weekly newsletter. My memoir, Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory will be released on December 1, 2021. Our new Dissociative Writers website is filled with writing opportunities to explore.
What is the most important milestone you want to celebrate? Share in the Comments below.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14a