Tuesday, February 12, 2008

still having a hard time, and a question

so things are still hard. i guess it's to be expected. or something.

therapy today... very switchy in the first part of the session. as in, i know at least three of us were out, possibly more, but not sure how many my therapist noticed (it's a kind of switching i guess happens a lot in my system--where a bunch of us are cycling through, and we're all more or less aware of what the conversation is, but no one is there for more than a few minutes at a time, so we all just kind of cover it up so things look ok). i know jamie was out for a bit, and ellis, and grace. me too... don't think i have a name? i know i'm not one of those three, and i know i'm not rynn, and i know i'm not one of the little kids. but not sure who that leaves. maybe there's a list somewhere and i can find out. i know i've been around before. i've probably said i was ellis or jamie, or even one of the adults. i don't know. just used to thinking i'm someone else, i guess.

still very switchy. my eyes keep crossing... i think that's evidence of parts coming in and out?

so there was that.

there's also the fact that a new little was out in therapy. not precisely new, except she doesn't have a name yet. but she's one of the "nonnys" we've felt (the "nonnys" are the ones who aren't giving names yet). did some water color paintings, and then talked for a while about religious stuff. that's where the question comes in.

(trigger warning for religious stuff)

anyone have experience helping a little, or an actual little kid, deal with the kind of stuff that comes out of being raised in a really fundamentalist christian church? you know, the whole if you don't follow every single rule of the church then you are going to hell, and people will tempt you down false paths and try to get you to stray and don't read anything the church doesn't approve of, and things like the chronicles of narnia are on the "bad" list because they lead people down false paths and talk about magic.

kid also has some of the experience of physical and sexual abuse, at least, i overheard one of the others saying to her that "that stuff" was bad, even if someone says it was helping her to not give in to satan because she had to learn how not to respond to temptation.

she doesn't want to listen to the rest of us, because anyone who says that the churches she went to are wrong is clearly just trying to lead her astray. going down false paths, stuff like that. giving into worldly temptation.

trying to find things that aren't forbidden by her religious beliefs. wanting toys seems to be evidence of being "worldly." tv is definitely sinning. don't have any "approved" books....

wish she were willing to listen to the rest of us, but we're clearly tainted by sin, because we think that perhaps god doesn't want little kids to suffer. not to mention things like being a lesbian, or the fact that to the extent we practice religion, it's either paganism or judaism.

so there's that going on. plus the body is having a lot of memories (by that i mean, anyone who really gets into the body starts having body memories... combo of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and being force fed, rarely all at once, but in random variations). plus a couple of older ones having memories of physical abuse, both bullying and at home. plus littler ones remembering abuse too.

just wish it would let up for a while.

5 comments:

Medicoglia, RN said...

Maybe give the little one something to think about (in a gentle way). God loves us all right? God created us right? If he wanted perfection as a requirement for being in Heaven...then why didn't he create us perfect? If he loves us, why would he require that we never have any fun at all? It will be a very long haul to help this little one understand. One thing that might help is to have her talk to a paster/reverend/priest that is from a more accepting denomination (like MCC maybe?)Eassier said than done, I know.

Jigsaw Analogy said...

thanks. not sure how to work through this. i was a little surprised to realize this part has so many issues, because the youngest part i was *previously* aware of who cared about religious stuff at all (michelle, who is 8) is able to see things more that way--that god doesn't have to just be what they said in the churches she went to.

she read the chronicles of narnia and stuff by madeleine l'engle, which allowed her to be more comfortable with a broader version of christianity; the little one i'm dealing with now, though, believed the churches we went to when they condemned even those books for being sinful. i mean, these churches condemned christian music for being too worldly and sinful.

a friend of mine suggested looking into methods of deprogramming from cults... gonna keep thinking about all of this.

Anonymous said...

in a lot of ways this issue doesn't seem that different than some other issues we might have - where i understand something, but another little person in here doesn't understand at all. Or a little one has all these fears that i don't have. but in this case, the 'issue' happens to be about religion.....

i will say though, that our beliefs are a HUGE thing for us. and i don't REALLY think that this is a trite issue. it would be a big deal for us too. i'm only pointing out that in a broad sense, maybe it's not that different than some other things we experience (like one little person freaking out over fires and trains while the others don't at all) - and maybe it can be dealt with in a similar way. don't know.

seems like it usually takes a lot of time for one who's held certain fears and beliefs, to let go and change........ just like the rest of us i guess....... change takes us some time........ and that's ok with us.

Medicoglia, RN said...

I tend to agree with your friend. Of course I can't say what happened in your specific church because I wasn't there, but RA can be any religion/denomination/no religion...a lot of people don't realize that. I was in a fundimentalist church (by choice) from 15-16...I left by choice also. Many of the things that happened there could easily be RA if taken any further than they were or if the child was already fragile. And it sounds to me like your church took it a little further than mine did. We were aloud to wear pants and make-up, dancing was frowned on but not completely forbidden and "Christian rock" was encouraged. The church also didn't have any issues with us (Erika) being a cheerleader.

The other thing that comes to mind is that "programming" doesn't have to be formal to happen. Another word for programming is brain washing.

Medicoglia, RN said...

Oh!! Something else I thought of...how old is this little one? Black and white thinking is a stage of development and a child in that stage would say something is one way or an opposite way bt nothing in between. We have one at that stage and she is spending a LOT of time with T "growing up"...her age hasn't changed at all but T is working with her specifically to bring her to the next step of development so she can begin to see that the "leader people" are actually "bad people".