In Search of Teressa: A Remarkably Told Memoir Daring Us To Recognize Who We Are

Introduction

In Search of Teressa is a memoir written in two parts that was born out of a partnership between two women: Teressa, a woman diagnosed with several personalities, and international brain and behavior expert Lynette Louise, a writer with a gift for communicating complex truth via storytelling. Both women have similar backgrounds, both women have lived similar lives, and both women have done very different things with their thinking.

Main Item

Book One: Teressa's Truth - is Teressa's story

Teressa's truth is that she suffered - in childhood - from the pain of malnourishment, memory lapses, and mysterious ailments, which became - in adulthood - severe suffering from a mind that fractured until she was eventually diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), commonly referred to as multiple personalities. It was decided she has anywhere between 12 and 23 distinct personalities.

During her childhood, Teressa worried that her brokenness had to do with being God's exception, the one he used as a tool in his caring for all others. Religion was both her strength and her scapegoat.

As Teressa works to untangle the confusion and pain it is to be her, the horror of her relationship to her mother, she relives stories meant to understand her life and explain herself. Stories like playing dick detective with her brother. Their mother would hide them under a blanket in the backseat of the car when their father was off visiting the local bars. Their job was to watch and report on any women he spent time with.

As Teressa grows older it becomes clear that the way her life appears is not the way her life feels. She is popular, pretty, talented. But she is afraid, dissociative, certain of being someone to shame and hurt.

However, there is happiness, too. Teressa falls in love and has a grand love story. Teressa dates Bob and they quickly see something special in what they have. Before she's even graduated high school they are married. As they raise a family and Teressa grows ever more desperate and larger in size, Bob supports and cares for the entire weight of her. Teressa and Bob have a romance that is uncommonly beautiful. Even if, as we learn, that style of love may have been harmful to her mental state.

Her story is not told chronologically and actually begins with the murder of her adult daughter. As readers bounce back and forth from Teressa's later years to her early years and back again, it is reminiscent of how Teressa's life is lived in her mind. A continuous bringing to the present slights from her past.

Things in Teressa's life unravel particularly quickly when her own children grow and move on; her mental state circles the drain of pain and suffering. Teressa attempts to fix herself by visiting retreats and meeting with psychiatrists. It is the psychiatrists that help her discover and identify the personalities living inside her. It is with their guidance she struggles with the question of how to behave while all of these others, "the child" "the angry one" and so many more, share her brain and body.

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Book Two: Connecting the Dots - is Lynette's story with Teressa

The second section of the book begins with Lynette - author, mental health expert, neurofeedback practitioner - sitting surrounded by tapes she's recorded of interviews with Teressa, Teressa's friends and family members, Teressa's neighbors and doctors. Around her also are boxes of documents, x-rays, cassette tapes, journals, home movies, and medical histories. All of these records of Teressa's life, of Teressa's husband's life (and death), and of a family growing up with Teressa, reveal so much truth in Teressa's telling, along with the fiction in it. It is incredible and beautiful, the friendship that is nearly immediate between Lynette and Teressa. And as Lynette moves into the apartment above Teressa's storage space at Teressa's request, as Lynette insists on things (things, things, things are everywhere!) being cleared away to make room for herself and her autistic son, Dar, as well as her three sweet little great-grandchildren, Lynette shares with readers the story of how she came to be here. Here, writing Teressa's story for us.

As a neuro-therapist, Lynette is admired. Her efficacy in many circles is known as "The Lynette Effect" because it is unrepeatable by her colleagues. As a writer, Lynette is admired. Her ability to summon an understanding of sophisticated concepts through storytelling and prose gives her readers the inspiring experience of recognizing themselves and others from a new vantage point.

As a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Lynette is in a place of change and choosing. Teressa and Lynette come together at a time when Lynette is selling her house, buying an RV to live in and spend much deserved time with her adult autistic son, all while struggling with how best to help a grandson with three children and an abusive wife.

Writing this book with Teressa, guiding Teressa toward healing and being welcomed into her space, gives Lynette the gift of a place to help her own family as well.

While Teressa and Teressa's family share their memories with her, Lynette shares her knowledge of brain and behavior science with them, helping them let go of some resentments, understand their own role in Teressa's making, and create new plans going forward.

Lynette also has to reevaluate a few things. And there are moral issues regarding the diagnosis of many personalities, of Dissociative Identity Disorder, that Lynette shares with readers using such candor as to create ever more caring about how our beliefs and behaviors influence our brains.

By the end of book two Lynette and Teressa have made giant strides toward a unified Teressa, a happier Teressa, and made plans for ever more growth. Along the way, readers learn so much about how memory works, how we are building ourselves with the beliefs we hold, how we can take advantage of the brain's plasticity for our own benefit by purposely changing certain behaviors, and how we can be kinder to each other without being so supportive we push our loved ones deeper into unhealthy mental states.

The love story here is the friendship between Lynette and Teressa. Lynette, like Bob before her, is deeply supportive and loving toward Teressa. However, Lynette's love is infused with behavior and brain knowledge, which she shares beautifully with the reader, helping us see how we can support and love - ourselves and each other - in ways that encourage growth rather than dependence.

The book, taken as a whole,offers what all great literature offers: A remarkably told narrative daring us to both recognize and shift who we are; as individuals and as a culture.

In Search of Teressa: A Journey into the Mind of a Woman with Many Personalities by Author Dr. Lynette Louise is now available on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/4aR6AAk

Author Credentials:

Tsara Shelton, author of Spinning in Circles and Learning From Myself, is a contributing editor to Disabled World. Explore Tsara's complete biography for comprehensive insights into her background, expertise, and accomplishments.

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Cite This Page (APA): Shelton, T. D. (2024, June 11 - Last revised: 2024, August 23). In Search of Teressa: A Remarkably Told Memoir Daring Us To Recognize Who We Are. Disabled World. Retrieved October 7, 2024 from www.disabled-world.com/disability/publications/teressa-search.php

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