staplesys

[staplesys]

mm useless discourse over how peoples brains work.. delightful! GET IT OUT OF MY FACE PLEASE :)

[staplesys]

*“Taste” as in literally associating a specific taste with something involuntarily—for example, looking at a drawing and tasting something like a lemon and peppermint, or listening to a song and tasting something spicy.

[staplesys]

ADVICE FOR NEWLY DISCOVERED OR SUSPECTED SYSTEMS

if you suspect you may be a system or have recently discovered that youre a system, things can be confusing and hard. im making this post as someone who has been aware of being a system for about 5 years and has been diagnosed for 2. these are things i wish we knew and did. i hope it will be helpful to some of you and i wish you luck on discovering things about yourself and your system keep in mind everyone is different and systems are no exception, so what i list here might be incredibly beneficial for one person but do nothing for another. find what works for you. i will try to provide a variety of advice in order for you to see what fits you best DO YOUR RESEARCH research the disorder, try to find others experiences and things you think would help you. this is especially helpful if you are suspecting and not yet sure if you have it, researching symptoms and others experiences can be very helpful in determining START SYMPTOM LOGGING this can be as simple as "i blacked out today" or "i dont feel like myself right now", you dont have to be identifying switches or putting names to alters, theres no rush to be able to do that and some systems have no desire to do that symptom logging is useful because it can help you identify potential triggers and patterns in your symptoms. for example, if you can remember what happened before a period of amnesia and remember being exposed to a stressful event or something potentially triggering, this would be worth writing down to see if its a recurring pattern REACH OUT TO OTHER ALTERS this can be done in a variety of ways, but the easiest way would be to leave a note in a place itll be seen. for example, a sticky note on a mirror (if you live with other people and cant do this, try leaving a note on your phone in a frequently checked app) i would advise saying something along the lines of "hello, i am (name) and i would like to communicate with you. i suspect we have a disorder called (DID/OSDD) and we share the same body and mind. please write back to me in (location, can be a notebook or app etc) and tell me some about yourself if you feel comfortable" but you can say whatever works for you. i just think the main points to cover are having DID/OSDD and introducing yourself as well as asking for an introduction in return START WORKING ON COMMUNICATION this takes a lot of practice, so i always say its better to build up early rather than late. we have a whole post on it that can be found here REMINDERS AND THINGS TO REMEMBER if you do not remember your trauma, do not dig for it. it isnt safe to try to remember trauma without professionals help. if you happen to remember, thats one thing, but dont intentionally seek out triggers to try to remember denial is common and not a sign of faking, if you were faking you would know and would not be in denial. being wrong about having DID/OSDD (if you are suspecting but not sure) is not the same as faking no two systems are the same. you dont have to look exactly like some other system you know or online to be real its normal to not know everything right away. you wont know all your alters immediately, you may not be able to access (and you may not have) your innerworld, you probably wont remember all of your trauma without professionals help, etc. its all normal its totally ok to keep information about your system private. there is no need to share with anyone you do not feel completely safe and comfortable with switching at any frequency is normal, there is no "correct" amount to switch. any amount of alters is normal, there is no "correct" amount of alters. any level of amnesia is normal, there is no "correct" level of amnesia apps like simply plural and bots like pluralkit can be incredibly helpful for some systems, but there is absolutely no pressure to use them if you do not feel comfortable - hund

[staplesys]

the point of plurality is to have weird mind sex with your headmates

[staplesys]

any system is valid, and i mean any system.

rapid switching? system.

barely switching / no switching at all? system.

splitting 5+ times a day? system.

splitting barely ever? system.

having hundreds or thousands of headmates? system.

having just 2 or 3 or a smaller amount of headmates? system.

traumagenic origin? system.

endogenic origin? system.

willogenic origin? system.

mixed-origins? system.

quoigenic / cryptogenic? system.

xenogenic origins? system.

fictive / factive heavy? system.

brain-made headmate heavy? system.

your system is valid no matter what. don't forget that. ^^

[staplesys]

DO NOT REPOST THIS COMIC. IF YOU WANT TO SHARE IT, PLEASE DO SO FROM THE SOURCE.

Here is my submission for @zakeno’s Mental Health Zine to help fight stigma in the professional field. My contribution is about my experiences with Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is sadly highly stigmatized and misunderstood, even within the mental health field (despite there being tons of concrete research to support it). Coming out about having DID is a thing that makes me very nervous, admittedly, but I want people to know that Dissociative Identity Disorder is very real and we deserve to be acknowledged and not feel like our existence has to be hidden or shameful.

I’m posting this comic in full is because DID deserves so much more recognition than it gets, but please go check out the kickstarter for the full zine and consider supporting it:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1056477701/the-animated-brain-mental-health-in-the-animation

Since I was limited to 5 pages for this specific project, this is only the very bare bones introduction to DID, and there is easily a million more things that can be talked about in how it presents and affects people individually, but hopefully this is a comprehensive introduction based on my personal experiences.

Even though this is only 5 pages, it was one of the most difficult projects we have done and took a few months because trying to get everyone as an alter to contribute when they were fronting to show our range in skills was a waiting game. Sadly, we were running out of time so sort of just had to have whoever was out at the end finish it (which was mostly Devyn).

Like briefly talked about in the comic, DID forms in response to repeated childhood trauma (generally by ages 6-9) when failing to integrate a singular sense of self is needed for survival. This failure to integrate experiences, memories, etc. leads to these self states being able to function independently from each other and control the body at different times with varying levels of amnesia between switches. As time goes on, the more each part experiences different aspects of day to day life, the more and more differentiated and developed they can become from each other. Even though alters can be highly distinct and can function as if they were individual people (and boy can it feel that way on top of a lot of us preferring to be acknowledged as separate from each other in our body), the reason it’s called Dissociative Identity Disorder and no longer goes by its outdated name, Multiple Personality Disorder, is because alters aren’t actual separate fully-fledged personalities, but instead a single individual’s life and experiences split up from each other in a bunch of dissociated self states.

If anyone is interested in knowing more about DID, I always recommend this website as a great source: http://did-research.org/

I’ll also throw in the Myths and Misconceptions page: http://did-research.org/did/myths.html

Spoilers: No people with DID don’t have secret killer alters and are no more dangerous than literally any other person. DID is a defense mechanism/way you develop to navigate your environment, and for us specifically, we continued to be victims of abuse and mistreatment even until recently due to our amnesia and lack of awareness hiding the knowledge when people were harming us.

Happy Mental Health Awareness Month, everyone! 

[staplesys]

Yo. This might sound like a stupid question, but about closed cultures; If the body is Asian, can we use any Asian names- Ex; Filipino names

That's the way we've been taught, at least. Sorry if it's a stupid question, again!

we are a white system, so we genuinely can’t answer this. our gut feeling is no, as cultures can be vastly diverse and complex even within the same continents (ie the philippines and pakistan and laos are not comparable in our opinion, because asia is not a monolith). but again, we’re white. so this question would be better directed towards a system of color.

if any system of color sees this and would like to chime in, we’d really appreciate it! our goal here is to be respectful towards other cultures without attempting to control anyone else’s lived experiences.

🐢 kip and 🦇 kandi

[staplesys]

my feelings of superiority that come from my npd is usually not "im better than everyone" but "everyone is worse than me" and even though they sound similar, they feel completely different to me

[staplesys]

Kind of wish people would stop saying that abuse 100% is never caused by personality disorders, especially when it comes to trying to advocate for cluster B disorders in the context of arguing against terms such as "narc abuse". Like, I get where you're coming from and all--abuse isn't inherent to having a CB-PD, and harmful behavior isn't inherently abuse. Those points are very true. The issue comes when you act like abuse is never connected to having a CB-PD, or that it's only ever minimally so ("All abuse is always a conscious and known choice" type of thing--except studies have shown that the majority of people who have been abusive thought they were doing the right thing and weren't aware that they were causing [significant] harm).

Like. When I was with my ex way back when (something to the tune of several years ago, after I'd recognized certain symptoms but before I'd connected them to each other or to any possible disorder), I behaved in ways that, if they weren't already abusive, would have been abusive if taken up just a single notch. When they were describing their life, especially negative experiences they'd had, I often treated them more like a lab rat I was studying than a person. We both recognized that I did this, and I hated that I did it, but it was well before I had the self-awareness and understanding of why I did it needed to try and stop it. I felt a desperate need to have control over the relationship, and consequently, over them. I tried my best to be respectful and to let them be their own person with their own opinions and comfort zone, but because they were the only person I could stand to be around in the world, and because of my lack of self-awareness, I felt that they were mine and my property, and I ended up treating them accordingly without realizing. At the time, I didn't--still don't--feel remorse or guilt for my actions; the most I felt was shame as I realized that I didn't view other people as people in the same way that others seemed to do so easily. And that did make it harder to want to change, because I didn't care that I was hurting them, I cared that hurting them compromised me and my values specifically and only because I cared about them, which made it hard for me to do anything other than spiral about being a terrible person; if it had been someone I didn't care for, I wouldn't have even felt the shame, and I would have had no motivation to change at all.

None of that would have happened had it not been for my [developing] PDs. It is correct to say that pwPDs aren't automatically abusive, and that someone's PD is not always the cause of abuse they committed, and that abuse isn't inherent to PDs. It is correct to say that the concepts of NPD/ASPD/BPD/HPD abuse are ableist.

Abuse, however, can still absolutely be connected to someone's PD. To say otherwise doesn't help anyone--instead, it serves to alienate those who may have some of the most severe symptoms and presentations of these disorders, and blocks them from resources and community because they're not "one of the good ones". If you want to advocate for pwPDs, you have to advocate for all of us--not just the ones who only commit "acceptable" levels of harm or only to themselves, not just the ones who are most palatable to persotypicals. If you want to explain why the idea of narcissistic (etc.) abuse is ableist, you have to understand that it's not because abuse can't be heavily influenced by someone's PD, it's ableist because it paints people with PDs as broadly and inherently abusive, and because people with PDs don't abuse others in such a distinct way that it's somehow different from other forms of abuse, and because you'll never be able to separate the term (example) "narcissistic" from NPD, nor NPD from "narcissistic".

If you can't make your point without alienating vast swaths of the people you claim to advocate for, then it wasn't a good point in the first place. People with PDs aren't not inherently evil because the symptoms of their PDs don't actually lead to genuine abuse and, actually, any abuse committed by a person with a PD was 100% a conscious choice that they were actively making; people with PDs are not inherently evil because we're complex people with different lives and experiences that shape us, and every person is capable of change so long as they are willing to do so, for better or for worse. Sometimes, our symptoms cause us to hurt people. Sometimes they even cause us to be abusive. That doesn't make us inherently evil--that makes us in need of resources and a supportive community that will let us self-determine and get better on our own terms.

[staplesys]

There are two types of alters in our system, there's nothing in between:

[staplesys]

"Thoughts on women?" Yeah pretty much constantly

[staplesys]

Funny system culture is when one alter gets a crush on a character and wishes they were an introject, that character becomes an introject, and then the alter is too scared to talk to them

Funny system culture is…

[staplesys]

I got silly

Free to use!! And requests open ig?? These were fun💜

Endos dni :')

[staplesys]

I look like someone’s OC

[staplesys]

Ngl even though I'm mostly a traumagenic and disordered system I feel 1000x more safe and comfortable with endogenic systems than fellow traumagenic/disordered systems with a medicalized view of plurality because like. If I told an endo about the nuances of my plurality and how I feel it all bleeds into each other, flowering out like a mosaic of people and places, not defined by one state of identity or the other they'd be like "cool" but if I tried to say any of that to a sysmed they would tell me I'm misunderstanding myself, am secretly in deep denial of my trauma, and start dry humping the DSM in fear

No one has ever understood the complications of my plural identity better than endos do ily endos

[staplesys]

Pro tip: summon bees inside your enemy's lungs

[staplesys]

❗ No matter how much damage is dealt to Tumblr's Boyfriend, it will always come back.