#for relating to symptoms of mental illness

[youdonthavedid]

The real-world consequences of a large number of people pretending to have dissociative identity disorder (DID), like we’re seeing in this recent online trend, can be significant, both for individuals who genuinely suffer from the disorder and for society at large. These consequences include:

Stigma and Misunderstanding of DID

Skepticism toward real cases: Increased prevalence of people pretending to have DID can lead to skepticism among the general public, healthcare providers, and even family members of those with legitimate diagnoses. This can make it harder for individuals with DID to receive support or be taken seriously.

Media misrepresentation: Public attention on fake or exaggerated cases may perpetuate harmful stereotypes about DID, framing it as an attention-seeking behavior or entirely fictitious.

Erosion of Trust in Mental Health Diagnoses

Undermining clinical authority: If the perception grows that DID is easy to fake, it may erode trust in the ability of mental health professionals to accurately diagnose and treat complex disorders.

Distrust in self-reporting: Since DID diagnosis relies heavily on self-reported symptoms, widespread fabrication could undermine confidence in the self-reporting process for all mental health conditions.

Resource Allocation Challenges

Misuse of resources: Mental health services are already stretched thin. If people pretending to have DID seek therapy or participate in support systems meant for those with real disorders, it diverts resources away from those who genuinely need help.

Research setbacks: Falsified cases can contaminate clinical studies, distorting research data and hindering progress in understanding and treating DID.

Harm to Advocacy and Awareness Efforts

Delegitimizing advocacy: Advocacy organizations for DID and trauma-related disorders may face backlash if people perceive them as platforms for attention-seekers rather than legitimate support networks.

Reduced funding: Public and institutional support for DID-related research and resources may decline if the disorder is viewed as overdiagnosed or fabricated.

Ethical and Interpersonal Consequences

Exploitation of trauma narratives: Pretending to have DID often involves mimicking behaviors and experiences associated with severe trauma, trivializing the real pain and suffering of individuals with histories of abuse or trauma.

Interpersonal harm: People pretending to have DID may manipulate others, whether consciously or unconsciously, by leveraging the perceived vulnerability associated with the disorder to gain sympathy, attention, or social capital.

Online and Social Media Impact

Normalization of misinformation: Platforms like TikTok and YouTube have seen a surge in content creators claiming to have DID, often presenting the disorder inaccurately. This can spread misinformation and confuse viewers about what DID actually entails.

Fetishization and trivialization: Public displays of DID-like behavior can lead to its fetishization or reduction to entertainment, further disrespecting those living with the condition.

Legal and Institutional Consequences

Legal abuse: Individuals faking DID might exploit the diagnosis in legal contexts to evade accountability, creating precedent for suspicion and making it harder for genuine cases to be considered seriously.

Policy resistance: Policymakers may become less likely to prioritize funding or protections for trauma-related disorders if they are perceived as prone to exaggeration or fraud.

While the intent behind pretending to have DID may vary—from seeking attention to exploring identity—the consequences are overwhelmingly harmful.

They not only undermine the credibility and dignity of those with DID but also exacerbate societal misconceptions about mental illness.

[snortoborto]

No way (THIS IS A HOLDEN CAULFIELD LOVE ACCOUNT!!!)

This is a Holden Caulfield hate account

[sleepy-crypt1d]

One of my favorite parts of COF that I find is commonly overlooked is the fact that it doesn't sanitized itself for a broader audience, it comes in with a message, with a story to tell that's hard to swallow with characters that are realistic and heartbreaking, and it doesn't apologize for this once.

Something interesting that occurred to me was how people who have never experienced severe mental health struggles view COF- the specific instance I'm thinking of is when I was explaining the plot to my mom, and had explained the different endings to her and how to get those endings, and what each one seemed to imply both for Simon and his relationship with those in his life, and her takeaway from the conversation was- "I don't like that the mentally ill main character becomes a killer. I don't like that he's the bad guy"

And this was interesting to me because, that's kind of the whole reason why I started to love Simon in the first place.

So infrequently are we shown mentally ill characters who do bad things yet still deserve redemption. Who still deserve to be treated as a person, because they are one. In a world that is becoming largely comfortable with the idea "bad person = deserves to die" it was insanely refreshing to see a character like Simon, who we see hurt people, who we see become obsessed and stalkerish and violent, gain redemption through healing. Through therapy and community and the belief from others that he will get better. That he isn't a lost cause.

In ending 2, one of the darker endings of the experience, we learn that Simon is alone. That his friends and family have all left him. That he's been abandoned due to his disability and general mental health struggles, and this was devastating to me. Upsetting to a degree that had me thinking about it for days afterward. Not helped by Simon's plea to Dr. Purnell to not feel bad because "not everyone can be saved". The way Simon views himself is much too similar to my own view of myself as someone who has struggled with similar issues.

As someone who was led down a path of harm due to untreated issues and still struggles with believing I "deserve" redemption.

Because I do, and so does he.

And it's always so upsetting seeing so many people who view victims as one note stories. As people who just cry sometimes and have trouble talking to people or get sad every once in awhile. Mental health is messy and hard to live with and life ruining at times, and this stripping of it's nuance is so frustrating to see happen over and over and over again.

Victims are not your savior story. They are not cookie cutter helpless children that need to be protected. Abuse and severe struggles do not make you stronger, they do not make you better, they do not magically make you more empathetic or loving and I'm fucking tired of that narrative. I'm tired of being talked over by people who've never experienced it or other victims who think they're the "good" ones because, well, they never did that which means anyone who did is horrible. I'm tired of stories of illness being sanitized for other people's comfort.

Victims can become perpetrators, that does not take away from their victim status. That does not change the fact that they still deserve help. That does not take away from their personhood. They are a human being that needs help, not a death sentence. Should they take accountability? Of fucking course. Does their trauma absolve them of wrongdoing? No. But I'm tired of people acting like cycles don't exist, like the second you act out on your trauma you're past saving.

Simon's story is perfect the way it is. A story of redemption and acceptance, of learning to live and grow and learn from past mistakes and find a way to live peacefully. To take responsibility and attempt to rekindle the relationships you lost, the ones you hurt.

Ending 4 and his admittance to the hospital, as well as his continued friendship with Sophie but acceptance of his loss of a romantic one, is heart breakingly bittersweet in a way that is hard for me to describe. Him getting better but living with what he's done, growing from it and learning to live anyways.

Another part of this is that, in his happy ending, in the ending where he does get better; he doesn't do it alone. Largely, the narrative of community is lost in these stories, how helpful a support system can be. Simon gets better because he has people there for him, because he has Purnell and Sophie and his mom looking out for him. He has his doctors and the staff at the hospital and people who know he can get better, that he's still a person deserving and capable of good.

People need people, and this seems an obvious note to me in the story of COF. Simon needs people. He needed people the entire time. Someone, anyone, to listen to him and give him the hand he needed.

And it's so refreshing to see a character like Simon still be loved and cared about and helped even when he was "the bad guy". Let mental ill characters be realistic. I'm begging you.

[the--karkats--pajamas]

“Wow I’m such a good manipulator, faking all these symptoms for attention and care. Manipulating people is wrong so I’m evil but damn, I’m so good at faking these symptoms.”

*is experiencing symptoms*

[marypsue]

If you're going to reblog my (admittedly very ADHD) post about, to borrow someone else's excellent summation, bees in the brain, to say 'OP check your medications', have you considered:

not doing that

[vixensofdeath]

relapsing <<<

[creeps-and-pasta]

I never rly understood why people read Toby chewing his skin as cannibalism when it is clearly just like. a complusion similar to hair pulling or nail biting.

people can headcannon whatever they want but it's such a wild conclusion to come to lmao

[thebpdcrybaby]

I'm trying so hard to not escalate my cutting to going back to box cutters. It really is dangerous and makes very very bad scars and I bleed so much. But I can't stop thinking about it. I had made an Amazon order but cancelled it. I've just been using a pencil sharpener blade but that's just not good enough, I feel like I need to really harm myself. My agoraphobia and anxiety is so bad that I can't live normal at all. And my FP moving away just made me so much worse.

"I tried to save myself but myself keeps slipping away."

[rowlfthedog]

Watching Muppets From Space I will NOT apologize for the person I am about to become for the next hour

[nagichi-boop]

Recently I have realised something about my memories. I have a few that visually and logically I remember, but it didn’t feel like they were my memories anymore. It’s more like recalling a part of a movie. But now it feels even further away. And all I can think is stuff that didn’t even happen that long ago feel like they’re not my memories.

Do normal people really remember their childhood/teenage years well? Do they connect to the self in those memories? It feels like the cord between myself and my past is fraying more and more as days go by. I worry someday it’ll snap entirely and all I’ll be left with is my present self…whoever she is.

[iksydk]

capitalistic estrangement from the self is causing more people to self-report as autistic and borderline and with dissociative identity disorder because it causes a disturbance in the formation of self and therefore a disturbance in ability to operate in the social sphere. which can be interpreted as a fundamental disturbance because the estrangement has become fundamental to how the society they live in functions.

[mr-gentleman-scientistt]

I bring a sort of genuinely really struggling mentally vibe to the function that well adjusted people don't really like

[twinknote]

every day i get closer to thinking about considering possibly Maybe having bpd

[seraphasia]

the problem with self-diagnosis that most concerns me is the risk of people, teenagers especially, pathologizing normative behavior

[edge-oftheworld]

if your fave says that someone makes them happy btw. the least you can do is believe them. if they say that they feel safe and a bit calmer and they’re getting a chance to heal. you gotta respect that. even if you have your own concerns and reasons not to be happy about it, in the end it’s their well-being and they have a right to live and to tell their own story however they choose. and if you refuse to believe basic evidence that’s right in front of you, you don’t deserve to scrutinise their life or who they have in it.

[daz4i]

asagiri. hi. hello. how's it going. I'm placing my hands on your shoulders. hey man what's up. listen there's this thing i wanna talk to you about, are you free? great, ok so hear me out. you remember that one character- no, not bram, the other- yeah the clown. remember him? you know, it's been a while since we last saw him. what's uuuh what's up with that? where is he? i miss the little guy, you know? asagiri. hey. look at me. look me in the eyes, asagiri. what do you say about putting him in the next chapter? hmm? sounds like a good idea, isn't it? squeezing your shoulders now. hey man. bring me my fucking clown back. i need him. look me in the eye. do you see the desperation? the longing? this is what being apart from my special little guy does to me, asagiri. please, you have to bring him back. i haven't eaten in days, waiting for him to return. i am going to die. you don't want me to die, do you? huh? oh really now? great, that's great. so you'll put him in the next chapter, yeah? awesome. thanks man. glad we had that talk. take care