#dissociative identity disorder

[emocatnoi]

!! 🩷

Treating your headmates like separate people isn't worsening your condition by default by the way. Treating them with respect isn't making you dissociate more. Final fusion is a fine thing to try and achieve, but people need to understand that functional multiplicity is a thing you can work to achieve in therapy too. Please stop pushing the idea that you need to treat your headmates like a disorder or curse in order to heal. You can be happily multiple if you want that.

[dissociative-misinfo]

"If you really had DID, you wouldn't know!"

Says who?!

The idea that people with dissociative identity disorder (DID) can't be aware of their symptoms until they're diagnosed... This is a huge myth about DID and similar experiences; one that has been debunked again and again by experts. Yet it remains! Here are a few examples of this misconception being spread around online: source.

People with DID can be, and often are, aware of their DID symptoms before ever speaking to a clinician.

Where is the proof? Khan (2024) states that, while it's normal for dissociative people to not realize the full extent of their symptoms, trauma, or alters, they can still become aware of any of these things at any point. Source. Dell (2006) actually considers the awareness of alters before diagnosis to be a "common occurrence in DID" which has been widely documented in studies. Multiple diagnostic screening tools inquire about awareness of alters for this reason. Source.

Additionally, alters can have varying degrees of awareness of each other and their symptoms. To quote Howell (2011) from her book, on pages 3-4: Source.

"Different dissociative parts may or may not have knowledge of the affects, behaviors, histories, motives, and thoughts of other parts. How coconscious patients are also varies—that is, the extent to which they have knowledge of and are privy to the thoughts, history, and affairs of the other parts varies. Often, the part of the self that is in executive control is unaware of the thoughts and activities of other parts (often called one-way amnesia). However, this is a tricky topic to try to make clear. For example, coconsciousness may be minimal before beginning psychotherapy for DID but tends to increase considerably in the course of appropriate psychotherapeutic work. Although parts other than the part who is most often in executive control (often called the “host”) are more likely to know of each other and of the host, this is not always the case and is not always the same for different parts of the same patient. Some parts may be unknown by many of the others. The dissociative structure of each patient is different."

Even in the case someone has no memory of their symptoms, they can be made aware through external evidence such as finding purchases or notes that other alters made, police reports confirming traumatic events, someone pointing out their dissociation, etc.

Now let’s talk about something that I feel goes frequently unrecognized: becoming aware of symptoms is often a positive thing! For many people, recognizing their own symptoms is the first step to seeking help for them. As mental health awareness and access to useful information increases, we will likely see an uptick in people with DID developing more awareness of their symptoms and getting help sooner. That’s incredibly positive!

Finally, a small note about diagnosis... Diagnosis is its own loaded topic for a different day. However, I want to point out that people diagnosed with DID still had the DID before their diagnosis. The symptoms were still there, whether they were aware of it or not.

Furthermore, not everyone with DID can obtain a diagnosis or even wants one. There are a myriad of potential reasons for that and I encourage you to do your own research on it. These articles can be a good starting point: source, source, source.

Thanks for reading!

[sophieinwonderland]

Why are sysmeds still this bad at sources?

Before getting to their source, let me just say...

The Future Is Plural!

Deal with it!

If you can't read the pictures, that's fine. The actual text and what they say isn't super important. Because it's a bad source. What you need to know is the address.

I'm unable to find an About Us page on this website besides this little note at the bottom.

Which really doesn't tell me much About Them.

The Twitter is tagged with #abuse and #survivors though, but not anything about psychiatrists or psychiatry.

As far as I can tell, this website is NOT RAN BY ANY PROFESSIONALS.

You may as well have just cited a Tumblr blog or a Carrd. It's equally as credible.

And the sysmed justified it by claiming it's a valid source because they're the first two pages on Google!

"If you deny a random website I found by nonprofessionals, you're an idiot! It was at the top of Google so it must be true!"

Sorry, that doesn't magically mean it's a good source.

If you want to read the actual DSM, try instead Googling 'dsm-5-tr pdf'

That will give you a link to the most up-to-date version of the DSM in full.

STOP TRUSTING A SOURCE BECAUSE IT'S THE FIRST THING ON GOOGLE!

Also, why the weird pivot from "endogenic plurality doesn't exist" to "endogenic plurality exists but isn't a system" in the same post?

Oh, hey! It's been a while since I've seen the "casually calling all spiritual plurality 'closed' to insinuate endogenic systems are appropriating closed cultures by being plural for spiritual reasons" move.

It's every bit as absurd and laughable as the last times I've seen sysmeds trying to pull this!

Also, even if the screenshots were actually from a trustworthy source, they still wouldn't be from a relevant one. It only discusses DID and doesn't address the question of non-disordered plurality at all.

Yeah, that checks out.

To the OP, if you want to venture into syscourse, you have to learn how to find actual trustworthy sources!

And to anyone else, always check websites and the credentials of their publishers! Don't trust everything you hear on the internet! If someone links a source, be sure to check the link and see where it's from!

Always think critically about the information being presented to you!

[freezingcoldsystemtakes]

Well you see it's really quite simply actually. You can't have trauma without system, but you can't ENDOS without ages 6-9 d i s s o c i a t e. The DSM-V states sOOZ--. Endos trauma psychiatrist but are. You have to DIDIDIDIDIDIDIDOSDDIDOSDD. 1A-B-2-AB. OSDD Type-O Negative. 🎵SuperENDOfragilisticmakesmediagnosis 🎵

.

[dissociateddumbass]

Ours is massive! It's basically a big, neverending circle divided into 3 sections: the meadow, the forest, and the city. The meadow is...well, a meadow, but it is also dotted with the ruins of these huge mansions.

The city is, again, a city. Skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. It's all covered in graffiti and overgrown with plants. There's only one person there, an older lady who runs a coffee shop. Not an alter, as far as I know.

And finally, the forest. A lot of the non-humans tend to hang out there because it is fantastical. I saw a unicorn there, once. At the center, there is also a small lake that's really pretty and, if I'm not mistaken, a mermaid alter lives there.

Now, here's the weird part...you can see this best in the forest, but anywhere in the inner world, if you walk far enough in one direction, there will start to be less and less. Less and less buildings, trees, wildlife, grass, rocks, and even light. Eventually, you just end up wandering around in a flat, dark wasteland. It's creepy and dangerous, so obviously we don't go out that far.

And at the center, where all of the sections meet, is the biggest and most intact of the mansions. Underneath it is a bunker, and that's what we call our "head-quarters" (get it?). Everyone has their own dorm personalized exactly to them, and we all meet in the meeting room where there's also a radio to talk to the front. It doesn't really work, though. There's also a creepy basement in the bunker (I mean it's a normal basement but all basements are inherently creepy) and a door that leads to a long red hallway. This hallway takes us to the front.

The front is like if you put a gaming setup in a movie theater. We look out of a huge screen and there are rows and rows of seats. The farther back you sit, the less influence you have. And the ones at the front (usually just me) kind of have a controller console thingy that we use to control the body. It's very dark up here, though, so I can't actually tell what things look like. I'm a permanently frontstuck host, so I've never left here. So, all the previous stuff is just what I've been told from the others and from what glimpses I can get in there.

And there may be more, there may potentially be a whole subsystem universe if you take the door to the right instead of the left from the front. But, I've never seen it and honestly, if it's true...don't wanna deal with it right now.

I don't know why our inner world is so detailed, and if there's lore behind it, I have no idea. I don't know why the city is abandoned, what's up with the coffee shop lady, what's up with the mansions and why there's a bunker under one of them, or why this world ends without really ending.

question 27: do you have a headspace? if so, what does it look/feel like?

[necroneol]

THESE ARE 2 ALTERS IN OUR SYSTEM, DO NOT BE WEIRD. THEY ARE SISTERS. Dakota (grey hair), she/he/they; December (black hair) she/they

found this photo on pinterest and immediately knew we had to draw the Blues sisters. Something about the expressions and the body language really spoke to us. Might rework it since we kind of rushed but eh

[the-astrophel-system]

I personally haven't seen many people say that you can't view alters as individuals and you can't be accepting of their differences.

The issue is when people don't understand that you are all one collective. Its when people further try to separate alters. Its when people think alters are literally different people.

That's the issue that I've seen most on this app. People thinking alters are genuinely different people.

You aren’t! You are parts of a whole. Parts that can have individuality and differences. Parts that can not get along, or can be the best of friends. Parts that can be very similar, and parts that can be wildly different.

I'm someone who routinely says "All alters are You" and potentially relating it to you personally might help. You are Plura, correct? All alters are Plura, they are you and you are Plura. Plura is that collective identity, therefore all of you. Both individually and as a collective.

To anyone who is saying "Oh all alters are you, aka the host" is getting it wrong. Alters are all from the same brain, they are dissociated parts. Take away those dissociative barriers and you have You. Therefore all parts are you.

I'd really love to see a source that states viewing alters as individuals/seperate people is anti-recovery.

let's be very clear. viewing alters as individuals and knowing you're all part of one collective are NOT mutually exclusive.

there is nothing that angers me more than the statement "your alters are all you"

now time for some anecdotal evidence, my favourite! 😋

the alters in our systems are individuals. everyone has their own name (which they pick), those who choose to make pk to talk on our discord have it, everyone has their own pronouns and how they like to be referred, gender identities and sexualities. they all have a different way they view themselves and everyone gets to draw themselves! (when they want to of course)

but while we are also individuals, we are Plura and Plura is all of us. We have dreams for Plura, Plura will work as youth support worker part time and have a youtube channel too. Plura will live in a nice house with their wife Zoey and Plura will have a lot of pets they love. Plura will also spend their free time rescuing and fostering stray animals. every single one of us is happy for Plura's future and to be involved.

and see that's what letting every alter be treated and viewed like an individual does for us. we care for each other and we all feel valued and respected which helps communication. i heard that treating alters the way we treat each other increases dissociation and this is something that makes absolutely no sense to me. we talk and we solve problems together, we share memories to reduce confusion when someone hasn't been fronting.

now this is just my opinion but i believe all those posts talking about this are simply just the poster's opinion based on their personal recovery journey. and since there's never sources to back up those claims id say those people are pretty fucking shitty for trying to pass off opinions as facts.

[dreamergraveyard]

The online representation of DID is so watered down and catered to fictive-heavy 5000+ alter systems at times it feels like people are just trying to have The Worst DID so it's like, oh, I don't belong here bc none of wht I experience matches w what y'all are talking about like its normal and I low-key feel like other systems feel the same??? Idk do y'all feel out of place in ur community too? Bc I'm like not relating to anything in the community lately and its so frustrating

[ghxsti3]

I'm sick of seeing pro-endo posts on here.

Down to the very way DID affects the brain, it is a result of childhood trauma.

Many symptoms of DID are a result of how the brain reacts to the serve stress that is caused by abuse. You can't do that just because, or for 'fun'.

Even if you don't remember your trauma, you can still be a system. You just can't be endogenic.

If you think differently, please comment so we can have a CIVILIZED debate about it, because I think that is a very interesting conversation we need to have.

[dissociative-misinfo]

What the community calls "Subsystems"

AKA having multiple systems or parts within parts

In this post, we're going to be talking about subsystems! There is a lot of misinfo online over this. Some people doubt the existence of subsystems or they think it's something incredibly rare.

Unfortunately, this misinfo can lead to the harassment of people with this very real experience. Here are a few examples of false claims about subsystems I've seen by doing a quick search: source.

First off, what IS a subsystem?

In complex dissociative disorders like DID, a "subsystem" often refers to alters within a system that are grouped together in a specific way. Commonly (but not always), they are grouped together because they hold onto similar trauma memories. Subsystems can look many different ways, such as appearing like having layers or multiple systems inside of oneself, alters that contain their own alters, or a cluster of parts that act together as one alter.

Subsystems are a real and common experience.

To quote clinical psychologist Howell (2011) from her book, page 57, source:

"The organization of self-states is often imagined in three-dimensional space. The parts are often layered behind one another, with those representing deeper trauma behind deeper layers of identity states (Kluft, 1993, 2000, 2009). Frequently, they are grouped or clustered together (Fine, 1993), for example, with child parts of approximately the same age together. Or, parts may be contained within another part."

Subsystems have been described in various clinical literature. Here are a few examples: source. Trigger warning ⚠ for these examples because most include descriptions of childhood sexual abuse.

It's important to note that the concept of having a system (or subsystems) of parts is not exclusive to complex dissociative disorders. You may also hear about similar experiences with subsystems in other parts-based frameworks, like in other trauma-based conditions, certain treatment practices like IFS, and non-disordered plurality. If you're curious, I encourage you to do your own research into that!

Thanks for reading! If anyone reading this has an experience with subsystems, regardless if you have DID or not, I invite you to share it! You can reply to this post or send an ask. 💚

[rare-average-system]

I think we go back and forth between "our body" and "the body". I can't say for sure which more but I think "our" is the more common one.

I notice this mostly during journals which is kinda the "free space" for all Parts to vent or mark down their memories/emotions of the day. But definitely the use of "the" is a more heavily detached way of addressing experiences.

Since it's something that seems to stay within journals it's not exactly something I police over since for me it's far more beneficial that Parts are cooperative enough to write and with reflecting back it kinda shows where different Parts are currently in identifying themselves within the system.

i really really don't think it's healthy to call your body "the body". It's just going to strengthen your dissociative symptoms. It's not "the" body, it's YOUR body. Even if it doesn't feel like it belongs to you, even if you don't identify with it, it is still yours.

[freezingcoldsystemtakes]

Actually everyone who claims to be a singlet is actually a system. Like I can't believe no one has realized this smh.

.

[madpunks]

we are so ableist about memory. people with good memory take for granted the fact that they can recall as much as they can, and use that to taunt, guilt and threaten people with memory issues. many neurotypes and mental illnesses cause memory lapses. traumatic brain injuries can cause memory lapses. brain cancer can cause memory lapses.

even if your memory is good, it's not right to guilt someone because they can't remember something. trust me, people with memory problems are desperately trying to remember: it's just that we literally can't. it is a very literal "i can't remember".

[the-toybox-sys]

reading the symptoms of autism as a now grown adult after being bullied for no explainable reason all your life

[dressing-art]

highly recommend the workbook

📖 The Dissociative Identity Disorder Workbook by Iheb 🌟

Hey, everyone! ✨ I recently picked up The Dissociative Identity Disorder Workbook by Iheb, and I just had to share my thoughts because it’s been a profound resource for many in the DID community, including myself. So, let’s dive in!

💬 What’s Inside? This workbook is packed with engaging exercises and insightful prompts that cater to those navigating the complexities of DID. Iheb’s approach is empathetic and understanding, making you feel seen and heard right from the start. Each section is thoughtfully designed to help individuals explore their identities and experiences without feeling overwhelmed.

✨ Highlights:

Interactive Exercises: From grounding techniques to creative expression prompts, the activities encourage self-reflection and foster connection among alters. I particularly loved the “Identity Mapping” exercise—such a helpful way to visualize and understand the dynamics within! 🗺️

Affirmations and Validation: The workbook is sprinkled with affirmations that normalize the feelings and challenges associated with DID. It really made me feel less alone in my journey. 💖

Accessible Language: Iheb uses clear, relatable language that doesn’t feel clinical or intimidating, which is super important for those of us who may already feel fragmented. 🙌

🧠 Personal Impact: As someone with DID, I found this workbook to be a safe space to explore my thoughts and emotions. The exercises helped me to not only understand my system better but also to validate my experiences. It’s like having a supportive friend guiding you through the process! 😊

⚠️ A Few Notes: While the workbook is fantastic, it’s essential to approach it at your own pace. Some exercises may bring up intense feelings—so take your time and consider having a therapist or support system in place when diving deep. Overall, I highly recommend The Dissociative Identity Disorder Workbook by Iheb to anyone looking to understand their DID journey more profoundly. It’s a heartfelt, practical guide that empowers you while providing the tools for healing and self-discovery. 🥰 If you’re on this path or are curious about DID, give it a try!

FIND THE WORKBOOK HERE !