SPLIT

a life shared: living with Multiple Personality Disorder

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Paperback

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English

Blue Gum Publishing
15 April 2024

Memoirs; Child abuse; Psychology; Family psychology

How does a child survive years of unimaginable abuse?

She splits.

And splits again. And again. And again.

And she does survive. But not without consequences. As a young adult, years after her physical abuse has ended, Maggie Walters (continually struggles with an unpredictable temper and socially difficult behaviour) has to leave yet another job due to her unpredictable temper and socially difficult behavior. After several false starts she finds a therapist who she trusts, just enough, to start talking about the childhood locked away behind the anger and isolation she has learnt to live with.

Eventually she is diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder, MPD (now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID).

Gradually, she understands. It was not Maggie who survived her childhood. The instinct to survive created an alternative identity called Annie, who with a myriad of other 'alters', lived through the abuse inflicted on her.

Decades later, with a husband and three much-loved children, Maggie strives to live a normal life despite a past which has left her internal world with a hidden, dark secret. Every day, unseen by those around her, trigger incidents fill her head with voices, the chaotic remnants of her other selves who lived the childhood she couldn't. This is the 'normal' which Maggie has learned to live with.

In SPLIT Maggie tells the story of managing this 'normal', of understanding and accepting her past, and standing proud in the life she has built from the ashes of her broken childhood.

It is a story not only of survival, but of self-acceptance, of the triumph to simply live. You will not read another book like it.

Imprint: Blue Gum Publishing
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 227mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 538g
ISBN: 9780648603801
ISBN 10: 0648603806
Pages: 365
Publication Date: 15 April 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Maggie Walters lives in the NSW Northern Rivers with her husband and family. As a trauma survivor, she shares her courageous journey towards wholeness, confronting stereotypes around mental health. An early draft of SPLIT was long-listed for the 2022 Richell Emerging Writers Prize. HTTP: //www.maggie-walters.com

Reviews for SPLIT: a life shared: living with Multiple Personality Disorder

In her work, Maggie consistently engages with tough, complex themes with deep commitment to making art out of the difficulties she's lived through. I have no doubt readers will benefit from her insight into issues that many people have struggled with but remained silent about. Her writing can do much good in the world. -- Lee Kofman A rare and fascinating journey into the origin and turmoil of living with Multiple Personality Disorder--a candid, often harrowing account of the enduring power of the human spirit. Sometimes shocking, often enlightening, always compelling. -- Michelle Tom An unflinching, exquisitely written memoir revealing an extraordinary way of being in the world. -- Anna Featherstone SPLIT is a book to inspire and inform every trauma survivor who doubted they had a future, every family member or supporter who wondered what they could do to help, and for anyone wanting to understand and reduce the stigma around mental health struggles. -- Alan Close