In therapy we talked about the unfinished image “Both of Us”, drawn by Robert over a two day period. We spent a lot of time on it because it drew us into a discussion about being co-conscious and more integrated. My emotions are more integrated and more identifiable.
I showed him 4 drawings total. Three of the drawings were done by Robert. When Robert draws himself in work, it is important to him for Dr. D to see the image of Robert. He doesn’t want to be overlooked or looked through. To be ignored and overlooked is painful for anyone.
We talked about the colors and why I use certain colors. We talked about how different it is that Robert used yellow on the face in his drawing. We don’t do yellow at all. Hate yellow. Of course he asked why and I just told him. My mother’s mattress had yellow flowers on it. There were too many times I had my face buried in that yellow and that’s all I could see. I hate that color to touch me now. I use it in art to mean negative things. For it to touch his face tells me there’s some sort of guilt or maybe flashbacks that he is dealing with. Yellow in art is explained on my art therapy page. It’s also interesting that the pants worn by the girl in the upper left corner is wearing yellow pants. This just doesn’t happen, not even in art.
The image to the side was drawn by Michelle in pencil. Dr. D noted that the people are in typical fashion from what I used to draw. He says the people have a look of despair and trauma on their faces. It’s funny, I don’t set out to make my images look this way. I just start drawing what I feel. I think its the same for others inside. Everyone just draws what they feel. The painting or coloring in is according to our color chart that we’ve had for who knows how long.
We discussed how it feels to have a 12 year old alter around who doesn’t want to be called anything but her own name and doesn’t want to be mistaken for Faith.
Dr. D called Michelle the last hold out, then laughed. Yeah. Everyone else is on board with knowing and understanding what it means to have DID. We know how we got here and why we have DID but this one kid ain’t havin’ it. She can’t accept that she is not separate. She hasn’t yet learned that what she does affects the rest of us and what we do affects her. We’re a system….. We take care of each other.
She wants her own sketchbook but we won’t let her do it. She draws and paints in the community book just like everyone else.
There’s guilt associated with ‘causing’ us to feel anxious whenever she’s around. Her anxiety is always very, very high.
Speaking of high, Dr. D and I discussed differences in artwork when I’m high. He asked if there’s a difference in noise level in my head when I’m high. Yes. I can hear the alter personalities clearer so it feels louder at times with pot, but there’s also a calm that covers us all. It works out well if I eat it. I had it in hot chocolate the other day. Turns out that homemade honey cake with weed is pretty good. That one was new for me.
Last but not least, Michelle got her snails in the mail today. How totally cool is that! All the way from Greece! She keeps saying, I would have been happy even if they’d been from across the street but no one had snails that they were selling locally. I think it’s totally cool that they’re from Greece. It just sort of happened that way and I’m glad it did.
Jordan
