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You are not a fake system because you can't hear your alters, most of us can't! Most people with DID have very limited communication between alters in general.

You are not a fake system because you don't know your headcount, or you don't know your alters names. That can take years! For some people, they need a long time in treatment to even get that ball rolling.

You are not a fake system because you don't know what other alters are doing. You don't need to know who dressed you this morning or who bought the food you're allergic to, high amnesia is normal.

Don't feel like any less of a system because of expectations set by the internet. You don't need to present the same way as people on the internet. The presentation of DID on the internet can be pretty atypical, so don't spend your time comparing.

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Endogenic systems remind me of those people who like to be all organized, and then say things like "oh, haha, I'm so OCD!"

You're not OCD, you're just glorifying the parts of OCD you recognize and romanticize to fit into your personal aesthetic. You just want to be quirky and turn real mental disorders into a silly little personality trait.

You don't have a CDD, you're just glorifying the parts of OSDDID that you recognize and romanticize to fit into your personal aesthetic. You just want to be quirky and turn real mental disorders into a silly little personality trait.

"Oh, well duh, I don't actually have OCD. I just like to keep things neat and organized, and because people with OCD are super neat and stuff, I just say things like 'I'm so OCD.' It's an innocent comparison!"

"Oh, well duh, I don't actually have a dissociative disorder. I just feel like I have multiple personalities, and because systems also have multiple personalities and stuff, I just say that 'I'm a system' too. It's an innocent comparison!"

By continuing to say you have OCD like this, you're watering down the severity of the actual disorder. Less and less people take real OCD seriously because you, and others like you, are turning it into a "person who likes to be organized" disorder. You're taking a trait that you admire from people with a mental illness, and instead "rebranding" it to fit your idea of a person with OCD. You don't actually know the struggles they face. You are causing serious harm to the entire OCD community by making comments like these.

By continuing to say you're a system like this, you're watering down the severity of actual dissociative disorders. Less and less people take real systems seriously because you, and other endos like you, are turning it into the "having alters" disorder. You're taking a trait that you admire from people with a mental illness, and instead "rebranding" it to fit your idea of a person with CDD. You don't actually know the struggles they face. You are causing serious harm to the entire system community by saying you're a system.

"I already told you, I'm not actually saying I have OCD!

"We already told you, endos aren't claiming to be disordered!"

You're still calling it OCD. You're still saying you have it when you're just a perfectionist. Your experience is not the same.

You're still calling yourselves systems. You're still using system language. You're saying you have alters—that you have hosts, protectors, caretakers, gatekeepers (ISHs in general), introjects, persecutors, etcetera. You're using terms that were initially used to describe parts in disordered systems, when you're not disordered. Your experience is not the same.

I guarantee you that syscourse wouldn't exist if endos stopped calling themselves systems and tried shoving themselves into spaces they have no place in. If they stopped claiming that they were systems that just had a different origin, there wouldn't be so many pissed and hurt antis. I'm not personally even convinced that anything close to non-disordered multiplicity is possible (especially seeing there is no real, scientific proof of their existence whatsoever), but that isn't what this post is about.

I know this is Raven's blog but we share a brain, so I'm allowed to borrow their soapbox for a post or two.

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a little cofronting just to go hold our partner's hand for a minute oml

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sometimes plurality is

"oh yeah im alone in fron- hey. who is that. who said that"

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"fakers are a concern because what if people start thinking real systems are faking" then that's a skill issue. I've seen actual fakers confess to their lies and I'm not out here accusing random systems of lying about their entire lives. I'm not creating arbitrary guidelines that "real systems" have to follow or else they're automatically labelled as fakers. I'm not treating every system I meet with distrust and suspicion by default. That's a ridiculous overreaction to a couple liars on the Internet. And if it's a medical professional of some kind using that handful of liars as an excuse to not give a patient proper medical attention and treatment? Then that's also on them. It's so easy to not judge people based on the actions of other, unrelated people. If people don't do that, again: skill issue.

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“People who claim to be endogenic are misinformed about the nature of systemhood, have most likely buried their traumatic childhood memories, and are usually not just faking” AND “I don’t want endos or their supporters anywhere fucking near me,” are statements that CAN and DO coexist, btw

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"what was your childhood like?" idk I wasn't there

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sys culture is having a specific spot for our glasses that have somehow never been misplaced. gotta give whoever set that routine up props for that ig

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Sys culture is- wait, which one am I again?

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I've been disabled for almost 29 years. Here's what I've learned.

Tablets sink and capsules float. Separate out your tablets and capsules when you go to take them. Tip your head down when taking capsules and up when taking tablets. Liquigels don't matter, they kinda stay in the middle of whatever liquid is in your mouth.

If your pill tastes bad, coat it with a bit of butter or margarine. I learned this from my mom, who learned it from a pharmacist.

Being in pain every day isn't normal. Average people experience pain during exceptional moments, like when they stub their toe or jam their finger in a door, not when they sit cross-legged.

Make a medical binder. Make multiple medical binders. I have a small one that comes with me to appointments and two big ones that stay at home, one with old stuff and one with more recent stuff.

Find your icons. Some of mine include Daya Betty (drag queen with diabetes), Stef Sanjati (influencer with Waardenburg syndrome and ADHD), and Hank Green (guy with ulcerative colitis who... does a bunch of stuff). They don't have to be disabled in the same way as you. They don't even have to be real people. Put their pictures up somewhere if you want; I've been meaning to decorate my medical binders with pictures of my icons.

Take a bin, box, bag, basket, whatever and fill it with items to cope with. This can be stuff for mentally coping like colouring books or play clay or stuff for physically coping like pain medicine or physio tape.

Decorate your shit! My cane for at home has a plushie backpack clip hanging from the end of the handle and my cane for going places is covered in stickers. All of my medical binders have fun scrapbooking paper on the outside. Sometimes, I put stickers and washi tape on my inhalers and pill bottles. I used my Cricut to decorate my coping bin with quotes from my icons, like "I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se" and "I need you to be angrier with that bell".

If a flare-up is making you unable to eat or keep food down, consider going to the ER. A pharmacist once told me that since my eye flares can make me so nauseous that I cannot eat, then I need to go to the hospital when that happens.

Cola works wonders for nausea. I have mini cans of Diet Pepsi in my coping bin.

Shortbread is one of the only things I can eat when nauseous. Giant Tiger sells individually-wrapped servings of shortbread around Christmas or the British import store sells them year-round. I also keep these in my coping bin.

Unless it violates a pain contract or something, don't be afraid to go behind your doctor's back to get something they are refusing you. I got my cardiologist referral by getting in with a different NP at my primary care clinic than who I usually saw. I switched from Seroquel to Abilify by visiting a walk-in.

If you have a condition affecting your abdomen in some way (GI issues, reproductive problems, y'know) then invest in track pants that are too big. I bought some for my laparoscopy over a year ago and they've been handy for pelvic pain days, too. I've also heard loose pants are good for after colonoscopies.

Do whatever works, even if it's weird. I've sat on the floor of the Eaton Centre to take my pills. I've shoved heating pads down my front waistband to reach my uterus.

High-top Converse are good for weak ankles. I almost exclusively wear them.

You can reuse your pill bottles for stuff. I use my jumbo ones to store makeup sponges and my long skinny ones to hold a travel-size amount of Q-Tips.

Just because your diagnostics come back with nothing, it doesn't mean nothing is wrong. Maybe you were checking the wrong thing, or the diagnostic tool wasn't sensitive enough. I have bradycardia episodes even though multiple cardiac tests caught nothing. I probably have endometriosis even though my gynecologist didn't see anything.

You can bring your comfort item to appointments, and it's generally a green flag when someone talks to you about it. I brought a Squishmallow turkey (named Ulana) to my laparoscopy and they had her wearing my mask when I woke up. I brought a Build-A-Bear cat (named Blinx) to another procedure and a nurse told me that everyone in the hall on the way to the procedure room saw him and were talking about how cute he was. Both of those ended up being positive experiences and every person who talked to me about my plushies was nice to me. If you don't feel comfortable having it visible to your provider during the appointment, you can hide it in your bag and just know it's there, or if you're in a video appointment, you can hold it below frame in your lap.

Get a small bucket, fill it with stuff, and stick it in your bed (if you have room for it). I filled a bucket with Ensure, juice boxes, oatmeal bars, lotion, my rescue inhaler, etc. in October 2023 in anticipation of my laparoscopy and I still have it in my bed as of January 2025.

If your disability impacts your impulse control (e.g. ADHD, bipolar disorder), you should consider setting limits around your spending -- no more than X dollars at a time, nothing online unless it's absolutely necessary, and so on. Or, run these purchases by someone you trust before committing to them; I use my BFF groupchat to help talk sense into myself when I buy stuff.

Feel free to add on what you've learned about disability!

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i wish more of you would understand that alter roles are just common archetypes of ways that alters can present, and not definitive boxes that all of your parts MUST fit into. not every system comes with a set host, persecutor, protector, gatekeeper, etc. and the roles of host, persecutor, protector, gatekeeper, etc. (ie how they operate within your system and what they do) will look different for every system, too.

and, you don't have to know every alter's role. you don't have to immediately understand the exact intricacies over why all of your parts exist and what they're doing to be valid. trying to force your parts to fit into boxes of how they should be instead of trying to understand them as they are does way more harm than good. just saying.

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Plural culture is talking with friends about the "I wonder what I'd be like in another life, if I had had different experiences"

And always having to sit there like "well there's a large possibility if xyz never happened I just straight up wouldn't exist"

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Every autistic person deserves infinite funds to be able to purchase items related to their special interests with

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Not having a diagnosis does not make your symptoms any less real!!!

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If you grew up constantly apologizing and then apologizing for apologizing and you were/are afraid (or unable) to express your emotions and feelings because it was seen as “manipulative”, or for any reason, I love you and I hope you’re having a good day