A little bit of normal in my childhood

So why am I a multiple? That's pretty easy. I was severely abused as a child. Did I know I was abused as a child? Not for a really long time. I thought what happened behind closed doors at my house was normal. Now this isn't the stuff that made me multiple. This is the normal stuff for my family.

I keep saying how thankful I am to Oprah but it's true. Do you now what it's like to be watching a talk show and have them saying that things you grew up with are child abuse? Well, I do. I swear Oprah is where I heard that tying up and gagging children is child abuse. So here's a little basic history from my childhood home.

My mother could NOT stand crying! It made her crazy and I really mean crazy, screaming, yelling, grabbing, shaking, beating, choking crazy. My mother tied and gagged small children to teach them not to cry.

I remember her tying up my brother, Patrick when he was only two. Tied him to a chair, then when he began to cry she stuffed a sock in his mouth. She didn't let him go until long after he had fallen asleep that way. Patrick doesn't remember it, but everyone else in the family does. Like I said, it was normal in my house.

She told us it was his fault because he wouldn't do what he was told. After I started therapy I learned that she was just justifying her behavior and teaching us the rules she wanted us to live by. I also learned that she tied up and gagged my children as well.

Of course, she taught us that the neighbors couldn't be trusted. That we should never tell them anything about what happened inside our house. If we did, someone might come and take all of us away. That would prove that she was a bad mother and make her cry. We sure didn't want her to cry. She was dangerous when she would cry!

multiple personality disorder MPD dissoicative Identity disorder did