Important post

Tributes to Althea Hayton

Althea Hayton, founder of Womb Twin, passed away peacefully on August 13 (sorry for the delay in posting this news on the blog). We are all ...

Showing posts with label self-destruct. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-destruct. Show all posts

Friday, October 28, 2011

Narcissus: a life self-sabotage

There is one person who is highly narcissistic and has been featured in TV programmes because of his extreme narcissism and his name is Sam.

He lives a life of self sabotage, yet he survives because he knows he is the Alpha Survivor and superior to all other beings in the Dream of the womb wherein he lives.....
So, no matter what serendipity, what lucky circumstance, what blessing I shall receive - I will always strive with blind fury to deflect them, to deform, to ruin. And being the talented person that I am - I will succeed spectacularly.
I have lived in fairy tales come true all my life. I was adopted by a billionaire, an admiring student of mine became Minister of Finance and summoned me to his side, I was given millions to invest and have been the subject of many other miracles - but I was and am intent on bringing myself to biblical destitution and devastation.

Perhaps in this - in the belief that I have the omnipotence to conspire against a universe that constantly smiles upon me - lies the real magic of my thinking. The day I stop resisting my endowments and my good fortune is the day I die.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Healing (5) Self-inflicted pain

I am torn between the wish to escape the pain and the loyalty that keeps me here by your side. Remembering causes pain, so it is logical to forget. but I can’t help remembering, because the Dream is here with me now. It is with me always, and you are there in the Dream. You are alive with me now but you are dying now; you are gone now and I am alone now and will be forever. You are always with me and yet you are gone forever. But if I keep the pain alive then you will still be there. So I will keep the Dream alive in my pain and keep you near me always.
Womb twin survivors inflict pain upon themselves, either by abusing their own body or becoming the victim to others who are then allowed to abuse them. The specific chosen method of self abuse is in fact a coded message that comes straight out of the Dream of the womb. The pain is loss and grief and the feeling of being abandoned in a world where no one cares.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Emptness inside (2) self injury

Yesterday we looked at addiction as an expression of emptiness inside.  Another way to fill the emptiness is to fill it, not with reward and happiness, but with secret pain and shame.

This is an extract from a self injury site:
One of the most common factors connected to SI is shame. ‘Shame is a powerful emotion, able to alter thoughts, feelings, and even behaviors.’ Any shame or embarrassment that comes from SI can have a big effect on all parts of a self-injurers life such as friendships, school, and job performance. Also, shame is often a feeling that precedes SI, coming from events that happened earlier in the individual’s life. As has been stated earlier there is a obvious relationship between self-injury and child abuse. For many self-injurers, SI-ing is connected with a traumatic childhood. Feelings of shame and embarrassment often follow the traumas they have experienced. Many people who have been abused feel that it is their fault, that they somehow encouraged, initiated, or/and deserved the abuse. 

Monday, February 21, 2011

Chapter 21: Self sabotage

 Self-sabotage is so widespread that one could consider it a general human failing or part of the human condition.  Viewed objectively however, in the process of self-sabotage foolish acts are willingly carried out that deliberately dismantle the very foundation of a successful project.
These acts are deliberate, conscious and inappropriate choices.  They are not instinctual or genetically imprinted.  The motive behind these choices is mysterious.  If you are a womb twin survivor you will already be aware of how you sabotage your life but you may not be clear about why you do it.  Once the idea that self-defeating behaviour is driven by survivor guilt is in place, then it makes perfect sense that you would not feel allowed to succeed, to have riches, good fortune or even personal happiness.


I have been searching for something all my life but I don’t know what it is

The search for the lost twin can take many forms.  It may be a desperate and lonely quest in search of some vague an ineffable Someone or Something.  There are womb twin survivors to be found in far-flung places of the world, a long way from home.  They only stay a while in any place and soon move on: they have not been home for years.  In the vast continent of North America, a certain proportion of people choose to take to the road.  They are always on the move while the rest are happy to stay at home.  Could this restless group be the womb twin survivors?  They may have been inspired by the ever-elusive American Dream but how much is this endless journey an echo of another Dream from long ago before birth?  It is a long journey to Somewhere, but it has within it a kind of circularity.  Wherever you are, you are still searching, stuck in your Dream of the Womb.  Perhaps you are a womb twin survivor who has travelled far from home for reasons you do not quite understand.  Perhaps your journeying provides a mode of expression for a deep and painful sense
of longing that is never satisfied.  You can make your home anywhere but you never belong.  You make sure of that by always moving on. It is a fruitless search, seeking Someone who can never be found.  The search may take you into a series of relationships, as you seek out that mysterious, pre-birth twin bond that feels so essential to your well-being.  In turn, even after many years, each relationship will prove a disappointment, for it can never replace the intimate bond that is your template for all relationships in your life.

Some people feel as if they are searching for themselves.  They imagine that they only partly exist in this world.  Perhaps you are a womb twin survivor and feel this way.  If so, you may be in search of a missing part of yourself, which is your lost twin.  If you do not understand that, you will continue to sabotage your life by never accepting the world and your life as it is.

All my life I have felt restless and unsettled
One way to cope with psychological distress is to avoid thinking about it by being busy.  Frenetic activity, constant changes of job, moving house every year and moving from one relationship to another are all signs of being restlessness and unsettled.

Constant, restless movement is like a journey that always turns in upon itself.  As much as you try to avoid the pain, it dogs your footsteps and you never seem to move forward.  If you are a womb twin survivor and you have always been restless, then staying in the same place or continuing to do the same thing for a long time may seem somehow wrong.  The desire to keep moving may arise out of a deep, inner doubt about your ability to take root and grow.

Never finding a place to settle may be in your Dream of the Womb.  You might carry a memory of one or more embryos that never managed to implant properly in the womb wall.  This could be why you cannot allow yourself to take root and grow.  You find it hard to slow down, remain in the same place and stay in the same job for a long time.  To be static may seem unthinkable to you at the moment, like a living death, but consider how little you allow yourself to develop.  A rolling stone may indeed gather no moss but it is the static stones that are strongest and are chosen to build our greatest monuments.  A restlessness of character may be related to trying hard to control events, stop bad things happening to people and keep people happy.  It can be related to a vague sense of dread that a Bad Thing is about to happen, which is straight out of your Dream of the Womb.  The Bad Thing is the death of your twin.  Your foetal assumption is, after a while, the Bad Thing will start to happen and you live that out as your womb script.  Naturally enough, after the initial joys of any new experience, your familiar sense of restlessness begins to increase, along with a vague sense of dread.  Yet again, your Dream is realized.  You move on, leaving behind an unfinished project, an unrealized dream and possibly also some very disappointed colleagues, who are sad to see you go.  Meanwhile, in the far distance is a mysterious, hidden place where everything is fresh and new:  that is what keeps you on the move.

More about this book [here]

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Self defeating behaviour

(An excerpt from my new book:)

Womb twin survivors have a vast range of self-defeating ways to choose from to sabotage their lives, drive their most intimate relationships to destruction, or both. Self-defeating behaviour is essentially selfish, but subjectively it doesn’t feel that way: the results can be favourable but only for a while. The end result is usually negative and can be devastating.

This kind of behaviour has been included among the symptoms of schizophrenia and it has even been suggested that a new “Self-defeating Personality Disorder” be created, for high levels of distress and personal impairment are involved in this set of attitudes. A study among psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in the USA and Britain found that a very large number of patients were presenting with this set of symptoms, for which the only diagnosis available was “personality disorder not previously specified.” The clinicians may be mystified, but for womb twin survivors there is a perfectly normal and reasonable explanation: this is a specific re-enactment of a pre-birth tragedy. A great deal of personal happiness and fulfillment is being deliberately sacrificed in memory of a lost twin.

If you are a womb twin survivor, it may help you to know that there are good reasons why you have chosen one kind of self-defeating behaviour over another. A personal study of the particular way you have chosen to sabotage your life will take you straight back to the womb and give you a clear rendition of what went on in the womb all those years ago, as we shall see. You survived but your twin didn’t, that seems to be the crucial issue.  However, there is a bit more to it than that.

Want help with this? Contact me today. 

Sunday, September 20, 2009

A typical wombtwin survivor

This is a typical response to the questionnaire.


After reading your site, it just makes perfect sense. I always wanted to be a twin, right from a small child; I've always had a fascination with twins. Twins definitely run in my family.


When my mother was pregnant with me, there were problems with her blood and she was hospitalised. I was a month premature and very small. After my birth, I had several severe illnesses. All my life I've had problems with food as well - one other aspect that is mentioned here. I've always been a very picky eater, refusing to try new foods, and in my teens had eating disorders.


I've always been searching for something without knowing what. Throughout my teenage years I withdrew and was very depressed, self-harmed (cutting and burning myself), and developed severe anxiety. When things go wrong I struggle to keep level-headed. I often have difficult relationships with others; they are usually very intense. I much prefer to have close, intimate friendships with few people rather than many acquaintances, but I have always felt alone.


I'm not autistic (to my knowledge), but I have symptoms. I'm an extreme perfectionist, setting myself goals that I'm always surprised to reach. My intelligence has always been significantly above average. I've always been a dreamer, although I am very good at empathy and extremely perceptive.


Do you feel this way? If you do, what other reasons may there be for these feelings? All reasonable suggestions welcomed.


Sunday, December 14, 2008

Resistance

Well, I have had two very revealing adventures today with regard to resistance - the psychological kind. That is the kind of stuff therapists meet all the time: it's the unstinting loyalty to, and absolute cooperation with, maintaining the status quo - to continue wantonly along the road to self-destruct and refuse to let anyone even imply that this chosen road is anything other than totally intelligent and appropriate in the circumstances.

A dear friend from long ago, who was a wonderful wordsmith (no doubt still is; I don't hear from him any more, but I shall celebrate his talents here) once decribed his therapy to me:

One of the enlightening moments in my therapy was to understand and to embrace, personally and not just intellectually, the concept of responsibility - the pyschotherapeutic responsibility for oneself and one's condition. I may not have been responsible for the way I was, but I was responsible for dealing with that from now on. Sitting on the pity pot, being a victim, is not efficacious.

But to find the way, mired as one is in so much encrusted, unyielding, hardset, behavioral grime, is not easy. It generally needs a guide, a wise voice who can point out small-step stepping stones along a way. Therapy was of course a revelation. It was an archaeological exercise. Scrape away carborundum-hard crud here, chisel diamond-tough dross away there, get down to a shard of real value lying buried, embedded in the matrix of time; tease it out, or not; go somewhere else; chip away more; see if that loosens the grip here. Build up a detailed picture, replete with revelation and realisation. That stuff is hard. It requires work.

Yes it is hard. Diamond-hard.

So if the person concerned is absolutely determined to remain on the "pity pot"; utterly committed to the idea of being a "victim", that is resistance to owing one's personal power to choose.

If the person is absolutely determined to drink alcohol to excess so the liver fails, the heart begins to wear out and death is imminent, that is resistance to healing.

If a person is absolutely determined to die, that is resistance to living.

What if there was an intelligent rational reason for such a high level of resistance to change for the better? If the explanation for this is that the individual concerned is a wombtwin survivor, what then may we learn?

I suggest that we must look to survivor guilt; to loyalty to one's little lost twin who hever stood a chance; to a desire to be reunited in death to the other dead half of oneself.

So if I don't want to be here and never wanted to be born; if I feel I don't deserve to be here because my twin never made it into born life - why then, I may throw my life away and sit on a pity pot for years, wasting the best years of my lfe waiting to be rescued by a skilled therapist.

My friend made it through therapy and is happy at last with the woman of his dreams. Sadly it is not always so. Hospitals all over the world are filled with patients killing themselves slowly with drugs, alcohol, overeating and other methods of self destruction.

Are you resistant to living?

Try a little thankfulness. You have been given the great gift of life; dont waste it, not one minute.

Would you refuse your Christmas presents? Hand them back unopened?

Un-wrap the gift of your life today and allow yourself to receive this gift. Its free; its here and its all yours. If you don't use it, no one else will. Not even your lost twin.