Third of a Lifetime

Best Tweets for Trauma Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.

Please add your candidates for Best Tweets For Trauma Survivors in the comments.

Standalone Tweets

@LZeefe “No wind is of service to him that is bound for nowhere.” ~ French Proverb

@Tamavista “Life has a meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.” ~ Saint-Exupery

@NewMindMirror “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” ~ John Cage

@BIGstLittleCity “Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” ~ Raymond Lindquist (via @CindyAshton @ssanquist)

@MindfullyChange “Do unto others what makes you both free.” ~ Buddhist proverb

@CarePathways “The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you.”

@XtyMiller “History, despite its wrenching pain, can’t be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” ~ Maya Angelou (via @rcinstitute @joyful76)

Linked Tweets

PTSD

@DrKathleenYoung What is Trauma? and The Impact of Trauma

@rcinstitute The Missed Diagnosis of PTSD

@HealMyPTSD Complex-PTSD is not in DSM-IV but our community knows it does exist. A good overview here of causes, symptoms

@PromisePlace PTSD and Children of Survivors
[SEO: Includes discussion of how both children of survivors and those of war veterans are exposed to their parent's PTSD. Another fine article on the Sidran Institute website.]

@PeterBrownPsy Can training soldiers to meditate combat PTSD? #mindfulness

The Best of the Rest

@GoodthingZ 33 Ways to Be Childlike Today

@comingoutofdark OMG! This is one of the best articles on mental illness ever – Mental Health Matters: The struggles of a pop-star musician
[SEO: And not about whom you might think.]

@psychcentral Challenging Negative Self-Talk

@drcmblake 25 Tips To Rocket Your Self-esteem (via @wileyccoyote)

@greythinking New Grey Thinking post: The “I don’t knows”
[SEO: Anyone who's been in therapy any length of time will probably recognize their self in this post; all the unspoken meanings behind saying "I don't know" to one's therapist. On the plus side, we who do this in therapy are creative. ]

@drcmblake 10 Ways to Bring Meaning into Your Life and Integrity: How to measure and improve it

@psychcentral Perhaps the most challenging, yet beneficial thing is learning to accept ourselves

My Favorite TweetStuff this week seems to have a theme of writing, cats, and chocolate. Those are all inspirational, to me, anyway! Enjoy!

@LZeefe “What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate.” ~ Katherine Hepburn

@Donna_Carrick “Writing and cats have been invented, so human beings don’t go insane.” (via @danish_novelist)

@VoiceinRecovery A great reminder to all bloggers (via @CaitlinHTP)

@WritersQuotes “Books had instant replay long before televised sports.” ~ Bert Williams

@awakeningaimee “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” ~ Churchill (via @FindingMelissa)

@Quotes4Writers “I hate people who steal my ideas before I think of them.” ~ Anonymous

@depression_news Chocolate Consumption May Cause Depression
[SEO: I know this is a serious article but ... HAHAHAHAHA!!! In decades of experimentation, chocolate has never once made me depressed! Yes, it talks about depression creating chocolate cravings, well ... of course depression creates chocolate cravings! It fixes the depression! This topic just struck me as immensely funny. Maybe it's just me. ]

@WritersQuotes “The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.” ~ Mark Russell

@LillyAnn “As long as you want to be, you are not. Stop wanting, stop trying. And there you are.”

@rcinstitute “Simplicity Saturday: simplify your life by finishing what you start.”
[SEO: Yes, 1000 times yes! Which is about how many things I failed to finish in my lifetime. But I'm getting better!]

This is a new Wednesday series in which I randomly shine a spotlight on one blog found in the Dissociation Blog Showcase.

As the collection grows, you will always be able to find all DBS Focus posts by searching on “DBS Focus”, either as a tag or category, or in a blog search. I will also create a unique tag for each blog I review. For example, the tag for the first blog in this series is “LabyrinthOfPeople”. The tag will be a shortened identifier of the blog, not necessarily the entire blog title.

Labyrinth Of People

I selected Labyrinth of People to begin this series because it was one of the first websites I found oh-so-many years ago when looking for dissociation information. Its resources are abundant! And it goes back far enough in time that “blogs” were not yet the catch word for resource/writing sites. This is an indexed, writing-powered resource that is a blog in all but name.

Sherry has written numerous articles pertaining to the Dissociative Identity Disorder experience, such as “ABC’s of DID”, “Mapping Your Inner System”, and “Children of a DID Parent”. She candidly discusses her own treatment history and what she does to cope. She provides her journals written while in the hospital.

The website is connected to a Yahoo support group forum (LOPSG), an Amazon store with just about every DID/MPD book available (disclosure: mine too!), a section where you can nominate yourself or others for Labyrinth of People website awards, a DID/MPD FAQ, and a Labyrinth of People webring which currently lists 28 other related websites.

Sherry’s creativity is evident both in her posted artwork, and in the products she created and sells in her DID store on CafePress. I like the “Free to be We” theme. If you follow the CafePress store link on this page, you’ll also find a 348 page paperback book written and self-published by Sherry called “Living with Dissociative Identity Disorder”. (While I have not read this myself, I offer it as an example of what anyone can do with their memoirs/story/poems/artwork.)

All this to explain why I got lost in this Labyrinth of People years ago. (In a good way!) It’s a great site!

We have amazing writers amongst us who give insight and hope to anyone struggling with dissociation, or to their loved ones. It’s a brain trust, and I treasure it. When I find new blogs, I update the Dissociation Blog Showcase (DBS) on Sunday evenings. Tonight I’ve added three new blogs:

BECOMING MYSELF

BETWEEN THE MINDS ~ THE BEEHIVE

I & I

Please use the DBS link above to access these blogs, and check out the entire directory of (currently) 141 dissociation-related blogs!

As always, be careful and safe. Many of these blogs do not provide trigger warnings, nor are they obligated to do so.

I need your help! If you, or someone you know, experiences dissociation and blog about it, write to me with the URL at

sarah.e.olsonATgmailDOTcom

I review each blog before adding it, but the harder part is finding them. Thanks so much for the feedback and well-wishes for this project!

Best Tweets for Trauma Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.

Please add your candidates for Best Tweets For Trauma Survivors in the comments.

Standalone Tweets

@josephbrady “You’ll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.” ~ Irish Proverbs

@kathiekeeler “If you only do what you know you can do — you never do very much.” ~ Tom Kraus

@MindfullyChange “The brave don’t live forever, but the cautious don’t live at all.” ~ Unknown

@BeyondMeds “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” ~ Helen Keller

@motivational “The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.” ~ Carlyle

@natashabadhwar “Fear is my friend. Ain’t gonna get rid of you, pal. I’m going to embrace you and tell you stories. We’ll laugh together, hold hands.” (via @BeyondMeds)

@CarePathways “We don’t need to change ourselves to love ourselves. We can love ourselves with all of our feelings of inadequacy and perceived limitations.”

@rcinstitute “Meaningful Monday: the pursuit of the truth makes life more meaningful.”

@zakaraya “”Failure cannot cope with persistence.” ~ Napoleon Hill

@Maura_Aura “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

@BeyondMeds “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” ~ Vincent van Gogh

@TrendyDC ღ Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people. ~ Carl Jung

@LoriMoreno “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” ~ Buddha

@Journai “No person is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow.” ~ Alice Walker (via @ssanquist @SpiritAli)

@DrMSalim “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences. ~ Audre Lorde (via @Maria_bg)

@PTSDCombat “We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey no one can take for us or spare us.” ~ Marcel Proust

@Splinteredones “Try smiling. Even if you don’t feel it. You can go back to feeling icky anytime. For this moment, just smile and see what happens.”

Linked Tweets

@lizstrauss Top 10 ways to start living your life

@drcmblake How to Get Yourself Motivated by Starting Small

@GoodthingZ How to Master the Art of Saying Thank You

@drcmblake 7 Reasons To Be Happy Now Even If Things Aren’t Perfect

@GoodthingZ 10 Great Ways to Deal with Difficult People Without Becoming One Yourself

@thereseborchard My Illness Is Not My Identity

Bonus :

@PromisePlace Helping a child manage fears after a traumatic event
[SEO Excellent article on Sidran Institute's site, a great resource in itself for trauma survivors.]

Each week I find things in my TweetStream that are just too funny, too ironic, too beautiful, too inspirational (you get the idea!) to let them scroll off into oblivion. Enjoy!

@zakaraya “He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.” ~ Laozi

@GabrielaKortsch “There are two infinite things in the world: The universe, and human stupidity. I’m not sure about the former.” ~ Albert Einstein

@GeneenRoth “It’s never been true, not anywhere at any time, that the value of a soul, of a human spirit, is dependent on a number on a scale.”

@life_with_DID The silver lining of Dissociative Identity Disorder
[SEO: I have never met a multiple who did not have a wry sense of humor and irony. I see it as an essential survival skill.]

@LillyAnn “You are what you retweet.”

@SarahEOlson2009 Announcing the iPad for cats! Mine won’t stop bugging me to get them one now. (YouTube)

@tonystevens4 “It is better to travel well than to arrive.” ~ Buddha (via @mlomb @rcinstitute)

@FredCuellar “If Your Mind Wanders Off, Teach It A Lesson and Don’t Let It Come Back.” #Fredism

@AmazingPics A man, a tightrope, a tiger (via @telegraphpics @petapixel)

@WritersQuotes “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” ~ Albert Schweitzer

@petapixel Volcano in Iceland (editors’ picks of 17 spectacular photos)

@zakaraya “Man may have discovered fire, but women discovered how to play with it.” ~ Candace Bushnell

@Uncucumbered Another stunning volcano photo

@JoyDoctor “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” ~ Mohandas K. Gandhi ~ Support a Happy #Earth Day!

@BeyondMeds Here’s a cool hummingbird video I put on my blog a year ago.
[SEO: Very cool to see a hummingbird drink nectar from the palm of this man's hand!]

@zakaraya “I found out something I never knew. That my world is not the real world.” ~ Robert F. Kennedy

Best Tweets for Trauma Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.

Please add your candidates for Best Tweets For Trauma Survivors in the comments.

Standalone Tweets

@LillyAnn “The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there.” ~ R. Pirsig

@kellyshipp “Design your life or someone else will.” (via @Abeeliever)

@Tamavista “Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” ~ Sivananda

@Maura_Aura “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” ~ Gandhi

@Tamavista “Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is at their heels.” ~ Bertolt Brecht

@DeepakChopra “Coincidences are anonymous gifts pointing to a deeper reality.”

@thedeeperwell “burnout blip: Do you have a quiet place? Noise is everywhere, especially in your mind. Sit still. Think nothing or think everything. Try it.”

@mlomb “Silence is a source of great strength.” Lao Tzu (via @Maria_bg)

@zakaraya “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

@gassho “The best way to protect your Heart is to live with integrity from inner authority and authenticity.” #Pamir (via @rcinstitute)

@EFTdoc “The best way to love is to love like you have never been hurt.” (via @TheHeartBox @LisaKiftTherapy)

@rcinstitute “Freedom Friday: freedom is the fearlessness to be real.”

@AffirmYourLife “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” ~ Edmund Burke

@EnMotivate “Do not be afraid of moving slowly, but of standing still.” ~ Chinese proverb

@LillyAnn “Experience is temporary, but realization is permanent.”

@moritherapy “Let’s be still, breathe long and slow, follow the ebb and flow, forgive, listen and thank the web of life that offers us everything.” ~ (thx @lunajune)

@NadiaKoligman “Creating an authentic and fulfilling life requires that you learn to say no to things that don’t serve you.”

@iamwun “Letting life just be requires mercy toward ourselves.” ~ Ezra Bayda

@sojourner5 “Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.” ~ Dorothy Thompson

@Tamavista “Create your future from your future, not your past.” ~ Erhard

Linked Tweets

@GoodthingZ The Zen of Doing

@NAMICommunicate 10 No-Cost Strategies to Fight Depression

@VoicesUnLtd 12 essential facts about the experience of hearing voices (via @BeyondMeds)
[SEO: Yet another website to explore in much more depth. Check out InterVoice Online's blog, too.]

@psychcentral You think it’s hard when your boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you. Imagine when it’s your therapist?
[SEO: Interesting comments, too. The therapist discussed in this article should read them!]

@HlthyGrl It’s hard for me to take sometimes when good things happen for me. What about you? (via @FindingMelissa)

@ssanquist Awesome Video Depression: Learning How to Dance In the Rain – Beyond Blue (via @thereseborchard)

@GoodthingZ How to Make the Change Mindset Work for You

@Mindful_Living 10 Ways to Bring Meaning Into Your Life

Each week I scoop up from my TweetStream items of beauty, irony, and humor. Always different, always inspiring. Enjoy!

@rcinstitute “Creativity is the one gift you can give yourself that no-one else can give you and no-one can take away.” ~ Dr. Marcia

@MarjieKnudsen “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” ~ Albert Einstein (via @Flipbooks)

@big_picture Journeys to the International Space Station (via @AmazingPics)
[SEO: Gorgeous and out of this world -- literally! On the ground preparations of the Space Shuttle and the Soviet rockets; liftoffs and dockings at the ISS; one of a kind shots of earth and of the moon. I love this stuff.]

@noralmt “A procrastinator’s work is never done.”

@athinkingman 12 Great Free Video Tutorial Sites To Brush Up Your Tech Skills (via @FindingMelissa)
[SEO: Because I need all the tech help I can get!]

@zakaraya “The bridges you cross before you come to them are over rivers that aren’t there.” ~ Gene Brown

@VoiceinRecovery “Being an advocate is the best non paying job in the world because it gives more than $$ ever could. It gives meaning…” (via @psychotherapi)

@petapixel Amazing photos of an unbelievable aerial stunt
[SEO: Also see YouTube video of this stunt below the photos. These people have wayyyy too much time on their hands! ]

@amandajo “Everything you can imagine is real.” ~ Pablo Picasso || which isn’t always a good thing…just sayin’.

@ebertchicago From MSNBC: Iceland’s volcano cloud produces one of the great photographs (via @BeyondMeds)

We have amazing writers amongst us who give insight and hope to anyone struggling with dissociation, or to their loved ones. It’s a brain trust, and I treasure it. When I find new blogs, I update the Dissociation Blog Showcase (DBS) on Sunday evenings. Tonight I’ve added six new blogs:

A JOURNEY …

Controlled Chaos

Diary of a Multiple Personality

It’s All Psychological

joellen’s Blog

Welcome To The Castle

Please use the DBS link above to access these blogs, and check out the entire directory of (currently) 138 dissociation blogs!

As always, be careful and safe. Many of these blogs do not provide trigger warnings, nor are they obligated to do so.

I need your help! While I have a small backlog of blogs to add next weekend (courtesy of and many thanks to Kate1975!), if you, or someone you know, experiences dissociation and blog about it, write to me with the URL at

sarah.e.olsonATgmailDOTcom

I review each blog before adding it, but the harder part is finding them in the first place. Thanks so much for the feedback and well-wishes for this project!

Best Tweets for Trauma Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.

Please add your candidates for Best Tweets For Trauma Survivors in the comments.

Standalone Tweets

@soundsblue “Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your Soul.” ~ Walt Whitman

@Tamavista “A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us.” ~ Saint-Exupery
[SEO: Literally.]

@faithgoddess17 “The body remembers what the mind forgets.” ~ Jacob Levy Moreno

@DrSusan “You will never be hurt as much by being open as you have been hurt by remaining closed.” ~ Martha Beck

@rcinstitute “Thoughtful Thursday: to look under the surface of things is to be able to have an impact on them.”

@Splinteredones “Imagine Universal compassion is an Ocean. Each day you have the opportunity to be a drop of water or a tsunami. Choose.”

@Tamavista “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” ~ Goethe

@Maura_Aura “If I won’t be myself, who will?” ~ Alfred Hitchcock

@karenkmmonroy “You are not your thoughts. You are not your body. You are not other’s opinions of you. You are all possibilities.”

@SunnyRainer “Everything changes when you change.” ~ Jim Rohn (via @SpiritAli)

@GabrielaKortsch “You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.” ~ Ayn Rand

@LillyAnn “If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price.” ~ P. De Coubertin

@karenkmmonroy “Simple elegance is allowed in life when we courageously face ‘what is’. Fears fall away, stress falls away as we meet the present ‘what is’.”

@Tamavista “Moral excellence comes from habit. We become just by doing just acts.., brave by doing brave acts.” ~ Aristotle

@visityourself “Feeling stuck or scared? In contemplative meditation, ask ‘What options have I not yet seen?’ Then listen.” #Mindfulness (via @ssanquist)

@VoiceinRecovery “Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you.” ~ Frank Tyger (via @MindfulBiology)

@AffirmationSpot “It costs nothing to believe in yourself and everything not to.” (via @abeeliever)

Linked Tweets

@melanie360 Is it right or wrong for therapists to Tweet and Facebook their clients? Interesting commentary (via @psychcentral)

@ssanquist The Art of Managing Worry: It is all in the state of Mind

@drcmblake Just Do It: 67 Ways to Tame the Procrastination Beast
[SEO: As soon as I finish not doing other stuff ]

@SarahEOlson2009 Chicago doctor treats PTSD with local anesthetic used in childbirth. Seeks veteran volunteers for study.
[SEO: Interesting implications for anyone with PTSD. His first patient using this method was a woman suffering PTSD following a mugging.]

Depression makes you reluctant to leave bed. So it follows that sleep deprivation will cheer you up, right?
[My apologies; I lost the reference to whomever originally tweeted this. It's intriguing to think that insomnia may be some kind of natural defense against certain types of depression, but for me, they really feed off of each other.]

@GoodthingZ 6 Tips for Facing a Dreaded Task (via @gretchenrubin)

@BeyondMeds When fearfulness infects you, neither avoid it nor let it recruit your mind. . . Don’t give it a thought.

@drcmblake Top 10 reasons why Mindfulness is Cool (via Psychology Today)