Dizygotic (DZ) womb twin survivors - born grieving (and thoughts on 9/11)

Dizygotic (DZ) womb twin survivors are the children who suffer an unexplained melancholy; who find it hard to deal with the death of others, particularly family members or very dear friends.

Death and mourning
This womb twin type is characterised by emotional intensity and a concern with death. This is not at all surprising if we consider that the formative experience is of being in a very intense, intimate relationship and the first learned experience is of death of the Other. In later life DZ womb twin survivors
will inevitably be confronted with death or loss once more and at that point the hidden memory of loss will be triggered. The most traumatic bereavement for a DZ womb twin survivor is the death of a person or animal with which they have had a very close bond and intimate  relationship. Faced with this "Oh, no! Not again!" experience they may find it hard to cope without some emotional support and seek help. Bereavement counselling is of great value to  DZ womb twin survivors. In the private intimacy of the counselling relationship they are able to grieve intensely. It may not be death that does it: divorce, disability and redundancy are all losses that can trigger deep distress, despair and depression.

I was writing this blog when an email came in telling me about a new post written by Monica, who runs the US blog. This was timely, because it is about death. It uses the metaphor of the destruction of the twin towers in New York (where Monica lives - she saw the towers burn and fall...)  to describe the feelings of the womb twin survivor.

I have put it in the stories section of my web site, so it doesn't get lost among the hundreds of posts on this blog. But here is a taster:

My twin baby vanished

On this forum Mums discuss their pregnancies. This Mum  said "I had Vanishing Twin Syndrome at my 16 week ultrasound nothing was left at all.. mine happened at 8 weeks... I am now a proud momma to a baby girl.. I still think about the other one sometimes.. I will probably tell her someday that she had a twin..."

The bereavement of mothers who lose one twin is not often considered, as this article shows:-

How Mothers Cope with the Death of a Twin or Higher Multiple

Obesity and womb twin survivors

I have often thought that food addiction is linked to being a womb twin survivor.  In fact I found food addiction first,  in 1987, and when I began to explore the psychology behind my food addiction I found my own womb twin many years later in 2002.

I  watched the Tv show "Too fat for fifteen" and heard Georgia Davis describe herself as a food addict, and how her  addiction began with the death of her father when she was 5 - which she has never recovered from -.



She went to a US fat camp and lost half her body weight, and appeared on TV transformed and beautiful. She was absolutely determined to lose weight and stuck at it with enormous strength of character. A great girl!!



Now the weight is coming back, because this " treatment" didnt get to the root of the problem.


Georgia Davis weighs 28 stone
She left her home in Aberdare, south Wales, for North Carolina in the USA to attend the £3,600-a-month Wellspring Academy and managed to slim down to 18st.
But now she is back to 28st and has pleaded for help after claiming that her weight gain is “out of control”.
“Please help me, someone,” she told The Sun. “I know this is my fault but it’s out of control.
“It was my choice to return to my family and not continue my treatment in the US. But now I know it was like putting a heroin addict back in a chemist shop.”
Since returning to the UK in June last year she has been caring for her 55-year-old mother, Lesley, who suffers from a heart condition, and her 70-year-old father, Arthur, who has lung cancer.
“I knew it was going to be hard when I came back but it was a lot harder than I ever imagined.
“Eating in the US was in a controlled environment and everything was put on a plate for me.
“Around eight weeks after returning from camp I drifted off the plan. I felt really alone. My parents weren’t doing it with me at home and my friends weren’t doing it at college so there was no motivation to continue.”
The teenager said that her local health authority had not done enough to help her, adding: “I know I have no one to blame except myself but I don’t know how to change things. I would really like some help.
“My addiction to food is no different to drugs or alcohol. Those people get help from the NHS.”
John Gordon, a spokesman for Wellspring said the academy would welcome her back if she decided to return.

Addiction to food is being totally ignored by the health authorities because they dont understand it. I believe that by studying the psychological effects of losing your co twin before birth we may find some answers.

See my  food addiction blog for more.