"mitten man"he who prowls looking for his quarry
fabric, hair, antique buttons, hand knitted mittens from turkey, bone, photograph eye
Have you ever had them?
I started getting them at 16, these stabbing pains in my private parts that would make me wince and double over. They would last only a few seconds. Sometimes I would get 10 or 15 a day. I assumed I had been physically damaged due to the abuse but doctors never said anything and I was too embarrassed to ask. Over time they got less, and I learned to just live with it. By the time I got married and came to America they had become rare and when they did happen I just took a deep breath and let it pass. It wasn't until I was in my late thirties that I learned that it was PTSD.
I started getting them at 16, these stabbing pains in my private parts that would make me wince and double over. They would last only a few seconds. Sometimes I would get 10 or 15 a day. I assumed I had been physically damaged due to the abuse but doctors never said anything and I was too embarrassed to ask. Over time they got less, and I learned to just live with it. By the time I got married and came to America they had become rare and when they did happen I just took a deep breath and let it pass. It wasn't until I was in my late thirties that I learned that it was PTSD.
Here is how the Sidran Institute explains body memory
"This popularly-used term is actually a misnomer. The body does not have neurons capable of remembering; only the brain does. The term refers to body sensations that symbolically or literally captures some aspect of the trauma. Sensory impulses are recorded in the parietal lobes of the brain, and these remembrances of bodily sensations can be felt when similar occurrences or cues restimulate the stored memories.(Lenore Terr, M.D., personal correspondence, 31 August 1994). For example, a person who was raped may later experience pelvic pain similar to that experienced at the time of the event. This type of bodily sensation may occur in any sensory mode: tactile, taste, smell, kinesthetic, or sight.
See also somatic memory."
"This popularly-used term is actually a misnomer. The body does not have neurons capable of remembering; only the brain does. The term refers to body sensations that symbolically or literally captures some aspect of the trauma. Sensory impulses are recorded in the parietal lobes of the brain, and these remembrances of bodily sensations can be felt when similar occurrences or cues restimulate the stored memories.(Lenore Terr, M.D., personal correspondence, 31 August 1994). For example, a person who was raped may later experience pelvic pain similar to that experienced at the time of the event. This type of bodily sensation may occur in any sensory mode: tactile, taste, smell, kinesthetic, or sight.
See also somatic memory."
I think many people don't understand that recovering from abuse isn't just a matter of getting over it, sometimes we don't even know how it impacts us. Nobody ever told me there was such a thing as body memories and so I suffered quietly for years.
There is no need to suffer quietly nowadays.
If you are victim of abuse and recognize these symptoms please contact RAINN, a national network for victims of abuse full of information and links.
There is no need to suffer quietly nowadays.
If you are victim of abuse and recognize these symptoms please contact RAINN, a national network for victims of abuse full of information and links.
