What a nice summary! I would hedge this posting by stating that it is not always all about "transitions" for mine was "voiceless" child. I had no say in my parents' divorce at the age of 11 and had a prime front seat through some ugly stuff. My MLC was working through "stuck" emotions and unresolved issues surrounding my parents' divorce.
In looking back, I did not engage in a lot of replay behaviors because I was that "scared, voiceless" 11-year old. It all depends on which stage the MLCer became "stuck" and they usually act out that particular age hence the OMs/OWs, clothing changes, partying out at all hours, etc.
Hey Wonka....I agree...
No two MLCs are the same. As individual as the person going through it....
I have seen/heard of there being several layers to the MLC as well. One might see 3 or 4 different inner children/transitional people within the crisis. Sometimes by them self, while at other times they will flow back and forth between them all fairly quickly.
I saw the 9 year old mostly. Although I also saw the 12 year old, the 16 year old , and on special occasions, the 21 year old would show up to crash the party...
From what you said ^^^, I would liken your crisis to a former MLCer that I had privilege to talk with afterward...
She was the middle child, and the one that bore the brunt of responsibility immediately following her parents split. And while bearing that, she had to always put the well being and emotions of her siblings in front of her own, and never dealing with them at that time.
She said that when the fog started lifting from around her, that she would remember incidents that happened, and realized that she had never had the chance to apply the things that SHE felt about those things.
Once they popped up in her memory (years later, and coming through her crisis), she was able to apply HER emotions to those things, and once she did ? They were gone....not the memories mind you, just the negative emptiness that surrounded those incidents....
I would hedge this posting by stating that it is not always all about "transitions" for mine was "voiceless" child. I had no say in my parents' divorce at the age of 11 and had a prime front seat through some ugly stuff. My MLC was working through "stuck" emotions and unresolved issues surrounding my parents' divorce.