Abusers are predators. Many have an uncanny ability to portray themselves as caring individuals, pillars of the community. "At home, they are intimidating and suffocating monsters," says Sam Vaknin, author of Malignant Self-Love, Narcissism Revisited and our guest this coming Tuesday.

Maria's story of living with dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a riveting one. She chronicles living with DID both undiagnosed and diagnosed, then dealing with the stigma of DID. Maria, our guest on the Misconceptions About Dissociative Identity Disorder video, wrote the following post for HealthyPlace.

Years ago, I saw the movie Sybil, about a woman with dissociative identity disorder (DID). Sybil caught the world’s attention by shedding light on what it's like living with multiple personalities and coping with dissociative identity disorder. Most recently, screenwriter Diablo Cody entertains TV viewers weekly with the real but exaggerated accounts of a woman struggling with dissociative identity disorder without the assistance of medications. This Tuesday, we'll be discussing dissociative identity disorder diagnosis and the complications of living with it day-to-day. If you are not familiar with the term dissociative identity disorder, the term multiple personality disorder or “split personality” may be more recognizable.

Mental health certainly carries a lot of stigma, but think about this -- how many adults have you ever heard discuss surviving child sexual abuse? Outside of my job, the answer would be "none." No one talks about it. They mention sexual predators or child molesters, but not what life is like after being sexually abused as a child. On Tuesday night's HealthyPlace TV Show, the discussion centered around the impact child sexual abuse has later in life. Dr. Harry Croft, Medical Director of HealthyPlace, helped us understand how sexual abuse impacts victims in their adult lives. Many child abuse survivors suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, personality disorders and many self-harm. It's frightening, but some go on to become abusers themselves.

In today’s world, there is much discussion on the subject of sexually abused children. On a regular basis, our nightly newscasts bring us appalling stories of sexual predators and their young, innocent victims. Do you ever stop to wonder what happens to these “children” as they turn into adults themselves and try to lead a normal life? What is a normal life after you realize that you’re youth has been taken away? On Tuesday’s show (June 16), we'll dig into a topic that is often never talked about: adult survivors of child sexual abuse. Many times, victims try to lead normal lives but encounter problems such as low self esteem, problems with relationships, trust issues, and the ability to have normal sexual relations. As a result of the sexual abuse, other disorders such as PTSD and depression occur.