'Crazy': Reclaiming life from the shadow of traumatic memory
In "Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory," author Lyn Barrett shatters misconceptions by offering a deeply personal, first-hand account of living with DID and healing from the trauma that caused it. This award-winning memoir invites readers into Barrett’s world, demystifying a disorder too often sensationalized and instead presenting a story of genuine courage, hope and resilience.
Lyn Barrett’s story begins in what looks like a picture-perfect life. In her late 30s, she was a devoted mother of three living in a cozy suburban Philadelphia town, proud to be the “perfect wife and mother” caring for her brood. But that stability was short-lived. A shocking family crisis — her husband’s long-hidden infidelity — shattered the illusion of normalcy and sent Barrett’s world into a tailspin. She watched her once-happy family life begin to disintegrate, and she blamed herself for its collapse.
“Life was good. Things changed,” Barrett writes, later reflecting that her family fell apart “one by one, broken… And it was all my fault.” In the wake of a bitter divorce and its fallout, Barrett found herself plagued by mysterious problems: episodes of disorientation and dissociation, chronic physical pain with no clear cause, intrusive voices of self-blame in her mind and even moments of suicidal despair. With no obvious explanation for these frightening symptoms, she began to fear that she was — as she puts it — “crazy.”
It would take time before Barrett discovered the truth behind her turmoil. Eventually, a psychiatric evaluation revealed that her “craziness” had a name: multiple personality disorder, now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. This diagnosis was both terrifying and illuminating. It explained that her mind had split into distinct identities, or “alters,” as...