#physical symptoms of trauma

[hauntedselves]

Sorry if you've been asked this before, but can Alters (in DID) present as having separate disorders? For context, we have alters that show complete criteria for certain PDs nobody else shows symptoms of. I know symptom holders are a thing, but I really doubt we deal with that much.

this is a complicated subject, and the short answer is "sort of".

there's plenty of documentation of alters having physiological differences - alters that are vision impaired while the body isn't, and in tests their eyesight is legitimately different, to cite a well-known example (check out this 1991 journal article replicating an older study). the ISST-D DID treatment guidelines notes physiological differences between alters including "differences in visual acuity, medication responses, allergies, plasma glucose levels in diabetic patients, heart rate, blood pressure readings, galvanic skin response, muscle tension, laterality, immune function, electroencephalography and evoked potential patterns, functional magnetic resonance imaging activation, and brain activation and regional blood flow using single photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomography among others". there's also a post here that neatly summarises this.

as for mental disorders, that's a bit tricky. most mental disorders have a biological basis. neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders (like autism) are hardwired into the brain, so it's not possible for only one alter to have a neuro disorder, though they may show symptoms that could be interpreted that way (probably more trauma linked though) (though trauma does affect your brain's structure... anyway, i digress). (in fact, van der Hart et al. note “autistic and [disabled] parts” as a type of part, that “can be regarded as more or less elaborated ANPs or EPs whose characteristics are defined by the action system(s) which mediate their functioning and which involve particular psychological defenses.”)

it's possible (and actually very common) that an alter will develop an eating disorder or self-harm while others don't. @this-is-not-dissociative has some posts on this: on PTSD, mental disorders, and a more in-depth explanation.

as for personality disorders, there's some argument as to whether PDs are hardwired or not. so it would depend on that. it's more likely that your alters are displaying trauma reactions than having full-fledged PDs. [though since most PD cases are trauma-caused, it's kind of a moot point anyway...]. (remember that trauma reactions are very varied - for example grandiosity in NPD is often a trauma reaction, but so is feeling inferior in AvPD!)

Summary: maybe! if there's no biological basis, it's most likely a trauma reaction. if there is a biological basis, it's more likely that they have that disorder - with the caveat that if it's something body-wide, like diabetes for instance, obviously all alters will have it, but they may react & present differently to symptoms, treatment, etc.

[agirlwithmagicpals]

My personal alternative headcanons for Sebastian solace

[stars-and-branches]

Why is the answer to "why am I doing that" always ptsd. Villain origin story

[asfdhgsdkjhgb]

i'll be glad that i made it out, and sorry that it all went down like it did // in the end it's better for me, that's the moral of the story. // know it's for the better, know it's for the better, know it's for the better, know it's for the better.

(motion sickness - phoebe bridgers, moral of the store - ashe, waiting room - phoebe bridgers)

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

I did something completely out of my comfort zone and I lived!

[lightblueminecraftorchid]

Me in high school: yeah I’m pretty lucky; I have ADHD but not rly anything else haha. Guess I’m the outlier!

Me, now, staring down the barrel of a PTSD diagnosis on top of the fibromyalgia, probable dysmenorrhea, autism, adjustment disorder, heart rate issues still unexplained, and ADHD: oh I am not the outlier I thought I was.

[crimeronan]

"and then ended up cosmically separated; luz lost her fucking mind for years trying to get back to him" - got stuck with a similiar idea I won't ever make a fic out, but it starts with him saying "That can still be arranged" after that overly dramatic entrance, only to then immediately use the staff to stop the human that is rushing at him (Luz tearing up and sprinting for a hug), becuase she is an enemy BUT ALSO because his armour is scalding hot and he subconsciously wants to protect her.

MMMMMMMM. this is a slightly different premise from the dream but i've been thinking about writing hunter memory loss fic for ages.... there's this art of belos removing & burning hunter's memories of flapjack and luz and the emerald entrails that. Sticks With Me.

the thing that really gets me abt that kind of fic is when the body and the subconscious remembers but the consciousness doesn't.... hunter like i don't know you and you're telling me we're family and i know you're lying bc i Don't Know You but i want So Bad to trust you and part of me is So Sure i can trust you... what gives

there's something So Deeply Compelling about the concept of luz """betraying eda""" and """joining the emperor's coven""" because hunter will only trust her if she's another soldier....

and belos being like 🤨 i KNOW what you're trying to do, luz. & luz being like no no i really am sooooo super loyal i've come around to the whole human supremacy thing for realsieeees granpa 😁😁😁🤞🤞🤞 PLEASE let me be friends with hunter 👉👈 the Right way this time 💕🕯️🙏

[moony-ghoul]

hey team any advice for someone coming to terms with being disabled haha👀 kinda freaking out about the whole “holy shit this is the rest of my life and no matter how hard i try i’ll never be normal”

[herbaklava]

I’ve been catching myself grinding my teeth a lot lately and now I’m watching a video on the connection between jaw tension, teeth grinding, and the trauma of stored survival stress.

[crumbleclub]

there's certain things i want to put in storylines but i keep doing this

[our-inspire-verse]

I think that being autistic got me fucked up

[stardustedknuckles]

I think the most evil thing about panic attacks is that the portion of them not devoted to terrorizing you is dedicated to telling you it's not actually a panic attack, that something is actually fundamentally wrong. You're not allowed to recognize it for what it is. There is no learning from the experience to make it easier in the future. You think you're dying every time. It's fucked up and embarrassing.

[multiplicity-positivity]

Sorry this isn't exactly positivity but I had a question. We had a split show up pretty suddenly last night and he's been fronting with me for about 24 hours now. He's a fictive that we didn't expect to show up, but he's not nearly as... Intense I guess, as his source counterpart? So there's not much friction between us and I don't mind him being around, he's not hostile or anything,

But the entire time he's been here, our chronic pain has felt worse, we've had an awful migraine that fades between "that really hurts but I can kinda tolerate it" to "I need complete darkness and silence and if I even blink too hard I get stabs of pain", we were basically unable to wake up after going to sleep, basically crashed for 14 hours straight and any time we'd wake up for a few minutes we would have really awful pain flares and barely be able to keep our eyes open before we passed out again, and our body tempature has been spiking on and off to the point that we go to bed shivering and wake up drenched in sweat.

This isn't exactly unheard of for us, we do have several physical disabilities that could have led to this just being a really awful flare up, but the timing seems really odd to me, and we normally get more warning that we're going to have a bad flare, we don't just jump straight from a 6 to a 10, if that makes sense? So I'm wondering if splitting could have something to do with it (we also usually notice better when a split is coming up but this time it was more like he showed up and *then* we got all the symptoms all at once?) or if a spedcific headmate could somehow be triggering a massive body response like this? Sorry if this is kind of all over the place it's hard to focus right now

Hi! I’m so sorry we’re just now getting to this a week after you sent it - we hope you’re doing okay!

It sounds to us like pain, stress, fever, or some other sort of negative physical symptom could have caused this split. This fictive may also be a symptom holder, meaning their role in your system would be to feel particular symptoms as a means of protecting other alters.

The most important thing we can say to you is please see a doctor. If your pain is becoming unbearable and you’re having worse migraines and a fluctuating fever, there may be something physical going on that you aren’t yet aware of. Even if your pain is slightly better now, but still comes around when this headmate fronts, it could be an indication that something deeper or worse is going on.

Sometimes unmet mental needs or poor mental health can manifest in physical ways (IBS and CFS arising as trauma responses, for example). If you’ve seen a doctor and they aren’t able to help you pinpoint a physical cause, it may be necessary for you to seek mental health treatment (meds, therapy, or a combination of the two). You shouldn’t have to struggle or deal with this on your own, and seeking help from a trainer professional may provide some insight as to what’s going on!

Last but not least, have you tried asking this fictive if they have any ideas as to what could be going on? Did they arrive with source memories or exotrauma which could be exacerbating preexisting symptoms? Do they have any insight to this situation that they could share with you? It may be worth it to ask!

This is probably the extent of the advice we’re able to offer you. We genuinely hope you and your system are able to receive the help and care you need and start feeling better soon! Best of luck with everything!

🌸 Margo and 🖋 Cecil

[spoonietimelordy]

Kid me: "if I focus really really hard i can become an other person who is stronger/funnier/colder than me and then i won't get harmed again".

Me right now thinking back about it: 👀

I genuinely though that it's what people meant when they said that you could become anyone you wanted if you believed in yourself. Yeah hum, i blame the allistic communication style on that specific misunderstanding.

[starsong-dragonheart]

Also! Sometimes folks with autism and/or ADHD do this, too! Even if they have a hard time figuring out what's going on when other people do it! Because learning to communicate in ways that will be understood by those around them, even if they don't "get" it or if it's bad for their mental health, is a form of masking! It sucks SO MUCH for everyone involved!

Source: I'm audhd and live with other people who have autism and/or ADHD, and we all do this at least occasionally, and all of us sometimes have trouble recognizing that we're doing it, and we all struggle to figure out what's expected of us when the others do it. It's fairly common for this kind of thing to get worse when folks are under stress and when we feel (right, wrong, or indifferent) like we're not being heard or listened to.

I can't speak for allistic folks, but for all of my group, unfucking this shit wasn't as simple as "don't do that anymore" or "learn what we/they actually mean when we/they say this." For us, a critical step was working to make asking for clarification less fraught on all sides, because with some forms of "guess" communication, asking if something is a request or just asking about preferences can actually mean anything from "I don't want to/can't, please don't ask me" to "I recognize that you are asking me to do something, but I don't want to, so I want to make sure you know that I'm only going to do this under protest if pushed. Do you really still want to ask me to do that?" Which sucks SO MUCH when you're really just trying to get clarification.

(side note: if allistics get pissed off when you ask for that clarification because this is what they're used to that meaning, it might be worth experimenting with adding something like "I'm not trying to blow you off/be rude/be passive aggressive, I just don't want to answer the wrong question, I know how much that frustrates both of us" - some people are still going to be jerks, but for the ones who actually are trying to communicate with you better, it can be a good de-escalation off-ramp)

Once we got to the point of not worrying that any of us was doing that any more, it got WAY easier to both get clarification when things were unclear, and recognize that if someone has to ask us this, then we'd probably accidentally slipped into "guess" communication - and it's much easier to change a behavior when you actually recognize it happening!

(brain hack: if someone asks for that kind of clarification, it can be super helpful to include in your response a clearer re-wording of your original question, both so that they know they've understood you this time, AND to help re-train your brain so you're more likely to use "ask" instead of "guess" in the future! It can feel ridiculous at first, but it helps.)

Allistic people really need to stop phrasing requests as questions because it's fucking with me

"Do you want to help me cook dinner?"

No, I'm still overwhelmed from earlier and want to stay in my room.

"well fine, dinner will be ready when it's done." And now they're upset with me

And I'm just here like ???????

[hibernating-stag]

OC Yapping-

Hopefully, I got the medical side of this right, but Zazz uses a cane because of a spinal injury he received! Specifically, he gets pretty bad cervical vertigo- he gets pretty bad dizzy spells and uses a cane to keep balanced during them.