We are always looking for new resources to share with you, and today we have a great resource for parents with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read this book, but I sure didn’t expect that it would bring tears to my eyes. It was this page that really got me:
“When bad stuff happens to people, it’s called trauma. And sometimes trauma can be so bad that some people can’t survive. But other times, especially with little kids, something really amazing happens inside their brains. To help a little kid survive a really horrible trauma, they might develop helpers inside their mind. It’s kind of like an imaginary friend, but these helpers are a lot more than just imaginary friends. They’re heroes.”
Tracy takes something very complex and puts it into language that kids can understand. But more importantly, she makes the parenting survivor a hero, not a victim in this story. And that kind of recognition of how strong we are to have survived, that is the part that made me cry. I love this framing of the survivor’s journey.
Here is some more information from the publisher:
How many times have adult children of parents with DID wished they had some sort of help as children learning to cope with their parent’s unusual behavior? Thanks to Tracy Werner, a wife and mother living with DID, children today have such a resource. When Tracy was diagnosed with DID and she began exploring what that meant, she had to do it while still maintaining her job as a full-time mom. The role that secrets played in contributing to her trauma as a child and her consequent diagnosis prompted her to begin the journey of lifting the veil, not only for herself, but for her children as well. Tracy believes in the capacity of children to understand, accept, and process such complicated things as mental illness, and so she looked for resources to help her talk about her own DID with her children. Finding none, she embarked on a journey to document her own process of talking with her children. From this journey emerged the outstanding resource, A Different Kind of Super Hero. This work of truth-telling and trust is the best resource a child could begin with to start a conversation with Mom or Dad about the unusual behavior they may have observed in their parent. Written in the voice of one of her children, A Different Kind of Super Hero gently tells the story of Tracy’s DID as it appeared to her child. It begins with unusual observations and progresses to difficult questions and eventually acceptance and a loving embrace. The world of mental illness is a little more informed thanks to Tracy Werner and A Different Kind of Super Hero. Her courage, capacity for trust, and confidence in the ability of children to understand and accept have made her the perfect author for such a groundbreaking work as A Different Kind of Super Hero.
About the Author:
Tracy Werner is a wife and mother of 4 children ages 10, 13, 16 and 20. Her passion is to empower parents and children to talk about the challenges and rewards of living in a family with a DID parent. She also hopes that by giving children an avenue to ask questions and have meaningful conversations, future generations will no longer feel the stigma surrounding mental health challenges.
Purchase the book here: www.adifferentkindofsuperhero.com
Parenting with PTSD 