Pseudomemories: Personal Story: Alice

Alice sought help for an eating disorder. She went to a "Christian life coach" (acting as a counselor) who first arranged for Alice to be medicated. Alice was then given a questionnaire. Based on her answers Alice was told she was abused as a child. Alice then became dependent on the counseling, dependent on the medication and life got worse.

While on medication Alice was led to imagine some initial state as a child like "you are in your room and it is dark then the door opens...", Alice would then complete the story often entranced or in a "blackout" state. Using this method the counselor and Alice created horrid false memories of abuse by multiple members of her family. Alice confronted all her perpetrators with the "repressed memories" that were actually pseudo memories.

She also exposed her young daughter to the horrid memories. Years later the daughter became suicidal, her husband left her, the life coach could not be paid so the sessions ended, the insurance ran out and then the medication stopped.

Alice began to realize that the memories were less convincing and they began to fade. Six years after her initial accusations she went back to her family, apologized and worked to rebuild relationships. Alice was blessed that it only took six years because many are shamed and trapped by false memories over a lifetime. Reconciliation is reserved for those with humility, great courage and rare intellect. The intellect and character of the victim are often degraded over time by the cocktail of medications used to "treat" the patient. In addition many are unable to return to normalcy due to the long term damage and emotional trauma created by incompetent and/or fraudulent counseling, therapy, life coaching or prayer partnering. Alice is a very rare return to truth.

My name is Alice and I am a retractor. After six and a half years of therapy, I began to wake up to my true reality and come out of the fog I had been living under. I originally went to this person for depression. I first started seeing this therapist to lose weight. I was sure I’d be safe because she was a life coach counselor who was a Christian. That provided a false sense of security.

I was unhappy when I started therapy but in just a short time I was living in pure hell. I went from being a depressed person, but someone who could carry a 4.00 in college to having a diagnosis of Clinical Depression (CD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Disociative Indentity Disorder (DID) and being in a state where I could not take care of myself or anything else.
I was led to believe that I was physically, sexually, emotionally and ritually abused by both my parents, a grandfather, several other family members.
My marriage, which had been on shaky grounds, was destroyed after 23 years together. I put my family, my husband, children, parents and siblings through pure hell. I was totally dependent on my life coach therapist. If I questioned my memories, I was told I was in "denial."
I think the stress reached its peak when my then 16-year-old daughter started thinking of suicide and had to be hospitalized. She had been suffering from listening to my horrid tales since she was 10 years old. In February 1994, I began to doubt the memories and became more certain the memories were not true. I started to question my family in detail and read school and medical records. None of these things agreed with what I had been told had happened.
I sat down with my parents and siblings, nieces and nephews and my own children and told them that I did not believe in the things I had been thinking for the past few years. I asked each one of them separately to try to find it in their hearts to forgive me and I told them I would understand if they couldn’t, but I prayed that they would.
To my surprise they all hugged me and told me they loved me and welcomed me back. My father, who had never confronted me on any of these accusations, stood up, held out his arms and told me, "Well it is about time. I have missed my girl. I love you. Don’t ever forget that please." What joy I felt. I cried and said, "Daddy, I love you and always will. Please forgive me. I am so sorry." He told me to hush, that he did forgive me and that he had known that someday I’d wake up.
The next day, I went into town and told my now ex-husband what I had told my family. He said it was about time I woke up and he hoped I meant it. I never saw my therapist again.

Life has moved on. I stopped taking the medications I had been on for six and a half years. I had to file for bankruptcy and that was especially horrible because I had been able to deal with financial matters my whole life. I felt another part of my life had been shot. But now I am supporting myself, and my daughter. I am trying to deal with everyday life and trying to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life.

A daughter

Comment: A trust that can be quickly established by having a doctor, counselor, therapist or friend claim to be "Christian". This trust can then help nurture false memories. Trust is further established by using questionnaires claimed to indicate childhood abuse but have no validation studies that indicate any such ability. Finally the misguided belief that eating or other disorders (such as depression) were caused by childhood sexual abuse has been endemic in programs that generate horrid fantasies of abuse thought to be memories.

Harvard Mental Health Letter (1996, April) Childhood sexual abuse and eating disorders. 7.

Pope, H.G. and Hudson, J.I. (1992) Is childhood sexual abuse a risk factor for bulimia nervosa? American Journal of Psychiatry, 149,(4), 455-463.

Pope, H.G. et al (1994) Childhood sexual abuse and bulimia nervosa: A comparison of American, Austrian, and Brazilian women. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151 (5) 732-737.

This case was obtained from:

http://www.fmsfonline.org/?qmemories=RetractorsOwnStories#feb95

NOTE: This retraction is a rare example of integrity and courage. Many live with the false memories their entire lives and rob their children of grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Losing contact at a time when the children most benefit from that contact.

WHY I BECAME INTERESTED IN THIS

Our adult child in postpartum depression and medicated with antidepressants sought help while living 2000 miles away. Someone "helped" her using "Repressed Memory Therapy" (or some variation) either through a therapist or friends using "do it yourself therapy books". She became one of hundreds of thousands victimized by a method well known to produce false or pseudo memories (American Psychological Association). Experts have established how false memories are maintained once nurtured and we hope that friends are helping free our daughter from the shackles of false memories. Unfortunately the accuser and the friends around her may nurture and reinforce false memories for a variety of reasons. Those medicated and entranced, as our daughter was, often have the most detailed and horrid fantasies mistaken for memories. It will take incredible emotional strength, a mind cleared of medication, fully functioning intellect, immense humility and great courage for our daughter to return. Many such victims never do but we remain steadfast in our hope. In spite of the bizarre and false accusations we love our daughter and her family. We will never give up on reconciliation.

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Pseudomemories

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Personal Story: Alice

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