Amnesiac Quotes

“But hope, I can tell you, is an exhausting emotion; perhaps, along with fear, the most exhausting of all. It is like juggling eggs: the hope is the shell, and inside is despair. A single crack and the despair might spill everywhere, stain everything.”
― Sam Taylor

“Since i couldn't remember the "real" first time i'd lost my virginity, this would have become my de facto first time. I wanted a better story then: I did it with this boy who i wasn't very into and who had mysterious Gaterade breath; in his room decorated with sports equipment; at least he was nice enough to provide condoms and get his ancient, horny dog to leave us along.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

“I was increasingly both horrified and sceptical about these memories - I had no recall of these things at all, though I couldn't imagine why I'd want to make it all up either. It felt as though it had all happened to somebody else, I was not there - it wasn't me - when those people did nasty things.

But then, of course, it didn't feel like me, that's the whole point of dissociation - to create distance between the victim and her experience of the abuse. The alters were created for just that purpose: so that I'd not be aware that it happened to me, but rather to "others". The trouble is, in reality it was my body that took the abuse. It was only my mind that was divided, and sooner or later the amnesic barriers were bound to come down.

And that's exactly what had begun to happen as I heard their stories. They triggered a vague and growing sense in me that this really is my story.”
― Carolyn Bramhall, Am I a Good Girl Yet?: Childhood Abuse Had Shattered Her. Could She Ever Be Whole?

“To the poor memories of drunks,' she said. 'To all the lovely nights forever lost.”
― S. Fitts

“If he doesn’t get here soon, I’m going to fall asleep, Susan grumbled.
He loved hearing her voice in his head even when she was cranky.
The thought made him smile. I’ve been keeping you up too late.
Not really, she replied. I’ve always been a night owl. I just haven’t been sleeping late the way I usually do.
And had had one scare after another whilst awake.
Did I mention I’m still sore from digging your handsome ass up?
He laughed.
It was totally worth it, of course, she went on.But if we find out you’re single, I might hit you up for a nice long massage.
He cursed when his body immediately responded to the image of her naked and laid out before him, waiting for him to run his hands all over her body. Now who’s flirting?
Ooh, she purred. That’s so cool. Even in your thoughts, your voice deepens and gets all growly when you’re turned on. Before he could respond, she made a sound of impatience.Damn it. Now I’m turned on.
He laughed, delighted that she inspired him to do so even in such grim circumstances.”
― Dianne Duvall, Awaken the Darkness

“He found her utterly fascinating, a nameless, homeless, naked vampire, sleeping away the day in his bed, wanted by state and federal police.”
― Travis Luedke, The Nightlife San Antonio

“Among DID individuals, the sharing of conscious awareness between alters exists in varying degrees. I have seen cases where there has appeared to be no amnestic barriers between individual alters, where the host and alters appeared to be fully cognizant of each other. On the other hand, I have seen cases where the host was absolutely unaware of any alters despite clear evidence of their presence. In those cases, while the host was not aware of the alters, there were alters with an awareness of the host as well as having some limited awareness of at least a few other alters. So, according to my experience, there is a spectrum of shared consciousness in DID patients. From a therapeutic point of view, while treatment of patients without amnestic barriers differs in some ways from treatment of those with such barriers, the fundamental goal of therapy is the same: to support the healing of the early childhood trauma that gave rise to the dissociation and its attendant alters.

Good DID therapy involves promoting co­-consciousness. With co-­consciousness, it is possible to begin teaching the patient’s system the value of cooperation among the alters. Enjoin them to emulate the spirit of a champion football team, with each member utilizing their full potential and working together to achieve a common goal.

Returning to the patients that seemed to lack amnestic barriers, it is important to understand that such co-consciousness did not mean that the host and alters were well-­coordinated or living in harmony. If they were all in harmony, there would be no “dis­ease.” There would be little likelihood of a need or even desire for psychiatric intervention. It is when there is conflict between the host and/or among alters that treatment is needed.”
― David Yeung

“I was turning into a zombie as I was aging.”
― Steven Magee

“People change, he thought -it's truism- but how? Our life is confined to days, after all: Sunday to Monday, dusk to dawn. What great alterations can take place in someone between breakfast and lunch? Is it possible to wake up as one person and fall asleep as another?”
― Sam Taylor

“In this chapter I restrict myself to exploring the nature of the amnesia which is reported between personality states in most people who are diagnosed with DID. Note that this is not an explicit diagnostic criterion, although such amnesia features strongly in the public view of DID, particularly in the form of the fugue-like conditions depicted in films of the condition, such as The Three Faces of Eve (1957). Typically, when one personality state, or ‘alter’, takes over from another, they have no idea what happened just before. They report having lost time, and often will have no idea where they are or how they got there. However, this is not a universal feature of DID. It happens that with certain individuals with DID, one personality state can retrieve what happened when another was in control. In other cases we have what is described as ‘co-consciousness’ where one personality state can apparently monitor what is happening when another personality state is in control and, in certain circumstances, can take over the conversation.”
― John Morton, Trauma, Dissociation and Multiplicity: Working on Identity and Selves

“I am thinking of changing my name to Dory The Fish, as I have the same amnesiac disorder.”
― Steven Magee

“Telescope coordinates are 12 numbers long. After a couple of years working extreme night shifts on the very high altitude summit of Mauna Kea, I could no longer remember the numbers that were read out to me by astronomers.”
― Steven Magee

“Based on what I observed during my time in high altitude astronomy, mental illness was prevalent in the summit workers.”
― Steven Magee

“My brain is like Swiss cheese.”
― Steven Magee