The child cannot stay alive and sane and experience what is intolerable. When stress, pain, horror, confusion, bewilderment and fear are both intolerable and inescapable there are usually two choices. The situation must end or the child must die or go insane. The creative child finds a third choice. The child who will survive blocks awareness.
Intolerable information becomes a well-guarded secret.
The secret is guarded until the child is strong enough, mature enough, has enough support and information, to retrieve his lost experience and live a more full life. If you are an overeater, the darkness and compulsive behaviors around your inner secrets are the devices that have saved your life. It takes a lot of trust and courage to know that you can survive without them. When you rally your trust and courage to begin to explore your own darkness you embark on the next phase of your triumphant journey. Five Copyright 1992 by Joanna Poppink .