Tag Archive: c-ptss

Autonomic functioning ANP and EP’s

Someone asked me ‘can an ANP/EP systems finds its existence later on in life’?
autonomic ANP and EP
abuseMmmm good question.

Let me give you all something to think about…

Of course that is possible, because every person can be traumatized by a very nasty experience that the personality can’t handle without starting off to dissociate. But if the emotional systems were already synthesized to one autonomic functioning life system, than you can’t develop more than one autonomic handling system. But EP’s can develop itself unlimited during all sorts of nasty life events.

So ANP/EP systems don’t fall out of the blue sky by every new daily life task or nasty experience.


We are all born with biological determinants and four autonomic emotional handling systems (the 4 head emotions).

Emotional systems which immediately after birth are able to react by instinct or reflex. And although those emotional systems are autonomic by birth, they are by nature ‘team players’ so they start directly to interact with the environment and to synthesize with each other. And from there they build an own biological autonomic life system that is able to form an own normal identifiable autobiographic personality.

But how can you develop a level I or II of the structural dissociation? (Trauma type I and type II)
If your life starts out fine as a baby and all systems did synthesize normally, than it is still possible to develop a trauma related ANP/EP act system. But only with one ANP an apparently normal personality part because the autonomous emotional systems already did synthesize and can no longer start off an autonomic functioning – they already connected to each other during baby time.
So, yeah, it is possible that a normal synthesized life system (normal personality) starts to dissociate after a traumatic event. The traumatic experience which is to much for the personality to handle will not integrate and the personality starts to dissociate – we now have one ANP and one EP, a traumatized emotional personality part. We call the personality no longer normal, but  ‘apparently normal’ because it’s no longer a psychological healthy personality, although it acts normal. And there we have a clinical psychological disturbance of the personality after suffering a traumatic experience. A post-traumatic stress disorder, type-I, a primary structural dissociation of the personality (SD) level I.

And if there occurs all sorts of traumatic events over and over again during childhood which the personality can’t handle, then there will be more than one EP.  A complex post-traumatic stress disorder, type-II, secondary structural dissociation of the personality (SD) level II.

Do we now have two personality’s?
No, of course not

* * *

Let’s go back to the newborn little baby and the 4 head emotions.

abuseDirectly after birth a baby has emotional feelings and it reacts by instinct, or with a reflex to those feelings
  1. a baby can feel anger and it reacts by instinct, or with a reflex on this feeling (autonomous)
  2. a baby can feel pleasure and it reacts by instinct, or with a reflex on this feeling (autonomous)
  3. a baby can feel sadness and it reacts by instinct, or with a reflex on this feeling (autonomous)
  4. a baby can feel scared and it reacts by instinct, or with a reflex on this feeling (autonomous)

And again:
Right after birth those autonomic elements of nature start out to add themselves together. They synthesize with each other. And as healthy team players they interact on the environment and learn how to function together as one autonomic life system.

But what happens if those autonomic emotional birth systems don’t, or can’t, synthesize/emerge together because they are from day one continuously over-stimulated with nasty sensations and pain experiences. They don’t synthesize and they stay separated from each other. They don’t learn to function as team players of a bigger life system. They grow out to be separate emotional personality parts (EP’’s). Maybe two of them synthesize together like anger en grief. And also the two emotional systems stick together such as joy and fear. Than the little child starts off with 2 separate emotional handling systems. And those systems grow stronger and stronger until they are able to function autonomic.

Do we now have two personality’s?
No, of course not
We now have two apparently normal personality ‘parts’. Two ANP/EP handling systems

To explain with identifiable stable and recurring recognizable behavior (no mood swing):
The child can have a identifiable stable and recurring anger and rebellious behavior that also can switch in a instant to a totally different very sad and quiet behavior (2 emotional systems in one ANP handling system). And on the other hand the child can behave very joyful, call itself with another name, do things that it normally doesn’t dare to do and talks with another voice sound, but it also can switch in an instant to a very scared child (also here, 2 emotional systems in one ANP handling system).
Now we have two autonomic emotional life systems that take care of daily life emotions and tasks (ANP/EP act systems)
A childhood trauma type-III a Tertiary structural dissociation of the personality – a Dissociative Identity disorder.

The more traumatic experiences to store, the more EP’s finds its existence. So the system grows bigger and bigger. And if one of those two ANP/EP systems can’t handle more EP’s, than another emotional systems can split of and start out to function autonomic (they didn’t synthesize after birth so they can split) So than we have an ‘angry daily life system’, ‘a sad daily life system’, ‘a joyful but also fearful daily life system’. Now we have three daily life ANP/EP systems. And again the EP’s can develop itself unlimited during all sorts of nasty life events.

Those systems do function together as team players, but they didn’t synthesize with each other. We now have a disturbed and broken personality, but it appears normal at moments and tasks of daily life they are best in to handle. The ANP’s protect the personality against the influence of nasty EP’s. If a system doesn’t like an emotion, another systems jumps in and takes over. The personality gets a chaotic mix of life systems with all sorts of nasty emotions and memories (EP’s) that didn’t learn how to synthesize traumatic experiences.

When the system eventually gets more and more overloaded during life, the body and mental personality starts to react with all sorts of psychical en psychological dysfunction and disturbance.

We now have DID
I would call it a trauma related development disorder

 And now I dare to write

Very early traumatized autonomic emotional systems are responsible for not be able to synthesize traumatic experiences later on in life and during child development. And you all can go there with every theory and thinking you want, it fits all in there ! The missing piece of a very big trauma puzzle are those early stage traumatized 4 autonomic functioning emotional systems such as given by birth.

 It’s not likely that there can be more than 3 with a max  of 4 ANP/EP life systems within DID, the Dissociative Identity disorder – the tertiary structural dissociation of the personality such as explained and given by The Haunted Self and all those Janet’iaans pioneers of traumatology.
If those systems don’t synthesize in early stage of life, and don’t learn to function properly as team players of a big personal life system, they become survival systems (not life systems).
They don’t live, they survive!

Those four emotional life system are the big team players of our own personality.


SD00 SD01 SD02 Type 3

Define ANP and EP

So let’s try to define ANP and EPDD-BPD-DID

Each person has only one personality
likewise if they suffer a OSDD or a DID !

The ANP part doesn’t experience the EP part (holding trauma) as a  part of the own personality (of themselves)
Al ANP’s experience themselves as ‘the real me, the normal me’  and live daily life (identity disorder: which life e.g. ANP part is really ‘me’)

An ANP is a Host, an identifiable part of the personality, an act system, an Apparently Normal Personality
ANP’s don’t do to personification. They focus purely on tasks of everyday life and leave aside the EP’s of their consciousness mind.
The influence of EP’s that they do experience, they experience not as a part of their own lives (they think it’s not a part of me)

An EP is an Emotional Part (traumatized) of the Personality.
EP’s don’t do to presentification (don’t live in the present time).
They only think from out the past and don’t take notice of the fact that it’s already 2014.

type 1,2 and 3 PTSD

levels of Structural Dissociation (SD)

In case of a OSDD

SD level II, there is one ANP and a lot more EP’s. Those EP’s don’t completely take over the consciousness mind of the ANP. So the ANP stays more a less in contact with the EP’s.

In case of a DID
SD level III there are more than one ANP, and the EP’s can take over the consciousness mind of that or that particular ANP on that moment (that cause losing time in the daily functioning of the ANP’s). Amnesia is therefore also a typical symptom that goes with a tertiary dissociation of the personality.

ANP¹ Apparently Normal Personality (lives in the present time)
EP² Emotional Personality part (trauma related to the past)

For more clinical info see:
Ph.D. E.R.S. Nijenhuis working at the Mental health care department Drenthe-Assen
Ph.D. Onno van der Hart, Psychotraumatologist
K. Steele, MN, cs

Book advise: The Haunted Self

ANP and EP development

ANP and EP development

ANP EPand the four head emotions of our being.

So I tried to define the ANP and the EP in my own words.
And I also tried to explain the levels of a Structural Dissociation in my own words

But now the next question could be:
How and when does that all starts to develop itself?

To understand things I create maps/charts in my schematic thinking brain. I need to make things schematically visible so I can build a better understanding of all that I learn. I don’t know if that way of thinking comes with me also suffering a ASD (autistic Asperger), but some of those schematically thoughts I want to share with you all. So I did make some maps/charts which I close in.
Although, the biggest compliment already goes to my own therapist at the Dutch TRTC Assen-Drenthe (B.M.C.).
He didn’t give up on me and took the challenge to educate me and to help me out to get started with integrating traumatized experiences and reducing my PTSD DID symptoms. We still have a long way to go, but I have renewed hope that I still can learn how to live as a completed personality and leave the surviving mode behind me.
That fight will go on, and with the help of my therapist I won’t give up.
And again I cry out to my therapist or one of the other Dutch Kings of traumatology to adjust my thinking if I go badly wrong here.

But enough feathers in the *BIEP* of my therapist,
back to the maps/charts in my Traumatized tertiary DID-ASD brain.
And hopefully it starts a nice discussion of how DID ANP’s and EP’s develop itself.

So let’s go to the four head emotions we are all born with,

and which are a part of our own biological determinants. Those four emotions gives an infant the direct instinct to react on hunger, pain, sickness, pleasure, warm feelings, etc..

1. Fear
2. Joy – Pleasure
3. Anger
4. Grief – sadness

These four emotions are needed to start developing an own personality.
I’m convinced that those four head emotions also take part in the development of DID-ANP’s (at a very young age) and that they are the bases of developing the daily life ANP+EP’s handling (act) system.

If an infant goes through a normal early stage of life development than the head emotions are integrated to start building of an own personality.
Within DID one, more of even all four of those head emotions didn’t integrate. They started out building separate identifiable parts of the personality – Apparently Normal Personality parts; ANP’s (and EP’s) handling (act) systems, which are stable over time, place, thinking, feelings, memories, and also act stable from a task that they are the best in to handle or to manage. From this task they interact with each other and environment.

So I dare to say and write that those head emotions are forming the base of the handling parts, the act systems – the Apparently normal personality parts (ANP’s) of DID clients.

I’m not a researcher, clinician or Ph.D. psychologist, so I can only give to you all the maps/charts that goes in my brain. And which I can recognize as how I did survive and how I’m functioning as a traumatized tertiary DID client. The theory of the structural dissociation gives my weird being a raison d ‘ être.

I survived, I survive and I exist as ‘me’.
As one traumatized personality with more than one identifiable Apparently Normal personality part.

DID, the tertiary structural dissociation of the personality – complex PTSD, level III !

take notice of the color switch !