#self diagnosis is absolutely valid | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

misscammiedawn · 3 months ago

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Ok but like aren't you just promoting further dissociation by treating DID like your own personal character sheet of online personas? Can you explain why that's a legitimate thing to support people doing instead of seeking professional help to stop the dissociation in the first place?

(Edit: we never implied people should not seek treatment. Do not understand why you thought this. We are heavy advocates of mental healthcare and write about that often)

That is a fair and valid question and one that is personal to every person who receives care and treatment.

The ISSTD guidelines specifically caution against treating parts/alters as individuals in the very first words of their section on treatment and care:

Although the DID patient has the subjective experience of having separate identities, it is important for clinicians to keep in mind that the patient is not a collection of separate people sharing the same body. The DID patient should be seen as a whole adult person, with the identities sharing responsibility for daily life. Clinicians working with DID patients generally must hold the whole person (i.e., system of alternate identities) responsible for the behavior of any or all of the constituent identities, even in the presence of amnesia or the sense of lack of control or agency over behavior (see Radden, 1996).

This is often quoted in support communities as a way of invalidating alters/parts and imply that treating the parts as individuals is unhealthy.

The unhealthy thing is not acknowledging that we are the same person. As the writing above states, we have collective responsibility for our shared life.

There is only one name on our driver's license.

In fact with our own treatment it took over 3 months of consistent work for the parts in denial to accept we had the condition. The first step was acknowledging that there was a divide.

In Janina Fischer's book Healing the Fragmented Self there is an entire unit on befriending dissociated parts that covers this important step in the healing journey:

“Befriending” one’s parts is not simply a therapeutic endeavor: it also contributes to developing the practice of self-acceptance, one part at a time. When Learning to See Our “Selves” clients pause their reactions to “befriend” themselves, to be curious and interested rather than dismissing and reactive, they slow time. Autonomic arousal settles; there is a relaxing of the sense of urgency to do or be anything different. They feel more at peace because their parts can be more at peace. Self-alienation, that is, disowning of some parts and identifying with others exclusively, does not contribute to a sense of well-being, even when it is absolutely necessary in order to survive. Self-alienation creates tension, pits part against part, communicates a hostile environment (often much like the traumatic environment), and diminishes the self-esteem of every part. Befriending means that we “radically accept” (Linehan, 1993) that we share our bodies and lives with these “room-mates” and that living well with ourselves requires living amicably and collaboratively with our parts. The more we welcome rather than reject them, the safer our internal worlds.

In a therapeutic setting for recovery one needs to accept that the parts exist and that contradicting desires and impulses are happening within the patient. Accepting and acknowledging parts is essential to that and getting to know them, or befriending them as Fischer puts it, is part of understanding these desires.

We are a fairly neat and tidy system as far as many dissociative systems go. Over the course of our therapy and in allowing our parts to have agency, autonomy and individual expression we have come to learn that as a single unified being there are aspects of our personality which we cannot accept as part of who we see ourselves or allow others to see ourselves as.

The big one that many people know is Dawn. We are terrified of erotic intimacy to the point of pre-diagnosis shutting down completely if we were touched in certain areas. We still had our drives, impulses and intrigues though and so Dawn was a version of us that would create online accounts and exist in kink communities and frankly push us beyond the point of comfort which caused us to have meltdowns, delete accounts and try to deny our sexuality entirely. The same is true of our gender expression.

We were married for 11 years and there is not a single erotic encounter that Dawn did not handle for the body. We have no memory of any of it.

As we accepted Dawn and made space for she has simmered down, no longer needing to tug on her leash in order to act and have her needs met. As a symptom we have evened out and are much more comfortable presenting as a sex-repulsed asexual, even when she is front.

The reason is, again, we are one person. Dawn is just a version of us that is not impacted by the terror we have towards eroticism.

Every part of our system exists for a reason. Forcing ourselves to accept the extreme reactions of our parts as "who we are" is as unhealthy as rejecting it outright.

There is nuance and gray.

Integration is finding where the lines are. What is combined and accepted behavior for the system and what is unique to individual parts. Finding these little bits of individuality has been healing. Particularly when each individual trait is something we have rejected and hated ourselves for at a point of our life.

We are healing by accepting the differences.

If we ever get to the point of Functional Multiplicity versus Final Fusion we will decide what to do next.

We are not at the point where we are willing to make those decisions. For now we are one and we are many. We are comfortable with that. Rejecting that and hiding under the knowledge that we are one is denial in another form.

#utility tag #did #watch me post my trauma in public #dissociative identity disorder

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bioethicists · 1 year ago

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what are your thoughts on ocpd? i generally think these behaviors are harmless or at least not distressing and wouldn't benefit people much to have classified as a personality disorder.

hmmm i could post more nuance abt this at a later time so giving this response might be kicking a hornet's nest + leaving- please please please keep in mind that i believe all ppl's suffering is valid + in need of healing + i am questioning the history, purpose + impact of personality disorder dx, NOT the lived experiences of ppl diagnosed with them

while i think all psychiatric diagnosis is suspect, i find personality disorders in particular to be laughable, even by dsm standards. they are a hodgepodge of "types of ppl we think are bad". the words "unusual" + "dramatic" are used to describe supposedly objective pathologies. if anything, these disorders serve as a massive red flag that psychiatry is far less wedded to science than its proponents want to believe it is. i think our attempts to 'destigmatize' this absolutely dogshit collection of disorders instead of questioning their use or existence has been a horrible error within the mad community.

many of the criteria are absolutely seeping with moral judgements + christian ideology. several are blatant repurposings of hysteria. they are frequently diagnosed in ppl who have no desire to 'heal' from them (not viewing the behaviors as a problem is often part of the dx). things like disregarding the rights of others or exploiting others for your own gain are side by side with things like the desire to not be around ppl or intensely believing in aliens. most of them can be directly linked to traumatic experiences in childhood + yet they persist in portraying them as disorders of individual, unchangeable pathology. if ppl expanded their view of trauma, i'm willing to bet that basically all cluster b + c + a decent chunk of cluster a ppl would qualify as having experienced significant trauma.

fwiw, i definitely meet the ocpd criteria but i find the word ocd to be a more useful tool for me. my father also meets this criteria + i would say it has been a deeply destructive pattern of behavior in his life for himself + his loved ones. i can't say this is the case for everyone meeting this criteria, tho.

i just don't think the concept of diagnosing anyone with having a "disordered personality" is healing. some things classified as pds are extremely distressing experiences which ppl deserve support for, but i would like to see those placed in conversation with trauma, politics, + community. classifying intense trauma responses as permanent disorders of the self leaves a horrible taste of blood in my mouth. how many of us already believe that we are inherently broken because of what happened to us?

like u said, other things classified as pd diagnoses can be pretty harmless differences. i often see ppl in my communities responding to the widespread belief that ppl diagnosed with pds are immoral or evil (which is shitty!) by trying to 'destigmatize' them, but i propose, after a careful evaluation of the history + current usage of the diagnosis, that the concept of personality disorders was + is intended to classify ppl who are seen as morally corrupt or 'unusual' as being diseased. the original purpose of this diagnostic category was to stigmatize people. is this really the concept we want to seek liberation through, or can we find new ways of understanding any suffering that may come from the experiences currently labeled as personality disorders?

#anti psychiatry

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peachesofteal · 21 days ago

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peach I was diagnosed as bipolar this week. im scared and have no one to talk to. Its going to be the rest of my life and that scares me

tw mental health, medication, etc

Okay, let's chat.

These are my opinions:

First, you are not bipolar. You have bipolar. Having bipolar is not being bipolar. People who have cancer are not cancer. For me this distinction is important.

It is really scary at first. Your feelings are valid. A lot of people worry they'll never live fulfilled or happy lives once receiving a diagnosis. This is blatantly untrue. Yes, it's the rest of your life. No, you're not doomed or broken or sick.

Here is what I (personally) recommend:

See a therapist outside of a psychiatrist. Full stop.

Medication. Don't try to raw dog it. For most, it will end badly. For me, it ended badly on multiple occasions. Some people refuse meds because they believe they can manage on their own, and good for them, but there is no gold star for being unmedicated. My personal opinion is: it's dangerous. Additionally, it could take a long time to find the right med or combination of meds. It will be frustrating. Don't give up. Also, if you start taking meds and all of the sudden "realize you don't actually have bi polar" or "think you never had it in the first place" ... it means you took the drugs and the drugs are working. It doesn't mean stop taking your meds.

A support system. If you don't have a solid support system in your life, look up support groups for mental heath or bi polar specifically. Cultivate support in online spaces. Listen and learn from other's experiences. If there's absolutely nowhere else to turn, join the bi polar groups on reddit and take comfort in the fact that A. you're definitely not alone and B. there is always someone else who's done way more fucked up shit than you have. Trust me.

Self awareness. Recognizing depressive episodes, hyper mania, manic episodes will go a long way. This is really difficult. Hyper mania is almost impossible to determine from the inside looking out. Depressive and manic episodes are a little easier because they are/can be so extreme. Psychosis is impossible to recognize in yourself until you're on the other side. This is why a support system is really important. Get an app and track your moods, your feelings, your habits. Look for the patterns. Are you sleeping too much? Too little? Are you spending a lot of money? When was the last time you saw your friends, are you engaging in risky sexual behaviors, do you think you're god, are you sleeping for fourteen hours, are you talking so fast no one can understand you, do you think you're hearing things, are you doing a lot of drugs, are you driving across the country for no reason, are you making serious life changes that you've never considered before, are you flying off the handle with rage, etc etc etc.

Look back and see if you can recognize behaviors or symptoms you've exhibited and use that knowledge to help you recognize them in the future. Medication is not foolproof. Do not use this advice to look back and pick yourself apart.

No psychedelics. Not even micro dosing shrooms.

Be gentle with yourself and get enough sleep. Be honest in therapy. Get some sunlight. Exercise to the best of your ability. Do not skip your meds. Give yourself grace. Embrace who you are.

#peaches asks #tw mental health #tw medication #tw bipolar

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actuallyadhd · 29 days ago

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I don’t want to self diagnose but I am pretty sure I do have adhd just based on what I know about it and the fact that multiple of my friends with adhd have said it’s likely I do have it

the primary reason I don’t want to self diagnose is because I won’t know if I’m actually correct or not and I don’t think people would take me seriously

Sent October 1, 2024

I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner, but I'm glad I'm here now! :)

First of all, self-diagnosis is absolutely valid. Most of us who get diagnosed as adolescents or adults basically have to do that in order to get a formal diagnosis!

The main practical problem with self-diagnosis is that it doesn't actually grant you any legal protections or supports. You don't qualify for accommodations at work or school, and disability discrimination legislation doesn't really apply.

I always say that if you're going to self-diagnose, try to state it as "I think I might have ADHD" rather than "I have ADHD"; the latter will cause people to assume that you have a formal diagnosis, while the former is more accurate and you can be confident knowing that you haven't accidentally misrepresented yourself.

Thing is, there are loads of reasons why a formal diagnosis isn't an option for you right now, and that is 100% okay! You may also benefit from others taking your ADHD symptoms into account, which is where the self-diagnosis can be helpful.

For example, years and years before I was diagnosed, I would do puzzle books during university lectures. I was listening to the lecture and taking notes, but I was also doing Sudoku (back when it was called Number Place in North American puzzle books). Some other students thought it was really rude of me to do that, but for me it was important to keep part of my brain engaged in the puzzles since otherwise I'd miss half the lecture due to daydreaming. If I'd known then what I know now, I could have explained why I needed to do the puzzle books during class, even without a formal diagnosis.

If you want to feel more confident about your self-diagnosis, check out our post on it as it includes all the info you need to do a good job!

Followers, what do you think about self-diagnosis?

-J

#adhd #actually adhd #asks #anonymous #questioning if adhd #diagnosis #self diagnosis

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my-autism-adhd-blog · 5 months ago

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A few months ago I sended an ask sharing my experience in the begginning of the diagnosis process, and im happy to say I have in fact been diagnosed autistic!

It wasnt easy, like at all. The first doctor I went to presented me with a list of stereotypes on why I "wasnt autistic", like eye contact during our sessions and hability to make friends. And that was really hurtful. But I did search for a second opinion (which unfortunately cost me a lot money wise, AGAIN) and this doctor clearly saw my autistic traits and was able to diagnose me.

So for anyone struggling w this, I just wanna say first, selfdiagnosis are completely valid too, the experience I went through was unnecessarily grueling so I respect ur self diagnosis. Second, if u do want to go through the official diagnosis process, remember to trust yourself more and that u can absolutely know more about yourself than most doctors . Advocate for yourself, if I had just listened to the first doctor i would be so miserable rn, but now i can fully say "I was diagnosed at 24." And that feels good. 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

Hi there,

It’s great to hear that you got an official diagnosis! I do agree that self diagnosing is valid as well.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I’m sure it’ll be very helpful to others.

I appreciate the inbox. I hope you have a wonderful day/night. ♥️

#inbox #inbox reply #inbox is open #self diagnosing is valid

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be-queer-and-instill-fear · 1 month ago

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My hot take with being trans is that you do need dysphoria to be trans BUT the diagnosis criteria for what dysphoria is should definitely be reevaluated.

Now before you immediately jump down my throat let me explain. The major consensus amongst trans people is that the extremes on the diagnosis criteria for gender dysphoria aren’t exactly what most of us feel and in fact there are some who compared to the diagnosis criteria “don’t have dysphoria” because they don’t experience the extreme dysphoria to the point of self harm or wanting to die because they’re not in the right body.

They might not rip their hair out as a kid but they probably deal with severe anxiety that doesn’t necessarily seem to have a root cause.

They might not even know from a young age they are trans but they might go through life experiencing disassociation that completely cuts their brain off from their body (like me).

You might be transmasc and “not care” that you have boobs, but your nipples responding to stimulation makes you extremely uncomfortable for some reason.

But because it’s not paired completely with a form of social, or physical, or conversational dysphoria then it’s written off as not dysphoria when it very much IS dysphoria.

Not only that but something as simple as “wanting” to be a different gender is completely valid and does make you trans and I think because we as a society are taught to put needs before wants and eventually taught to ignore our wants, feeling like you just want to be a different gender feels like you’re lying or fake about being trans. However cis people don’t sit around and wish they were born a different gender.

The desire to be perceived as different gender at any capacity is dysphoria, regardless of it’s how you feel in your own body, how others see you, or how people refer to you in conversation,

Only having gender dysphoria talked about as if it’s this end all extremism ends up letting people who very much are trans, slip through the cracks because they don’t feel extreme hatred towards their body. On another side it makes people who know they’re trans or questioning their gender feel invalid because they’re not to those extremes yet and don’t feel they’re worthy of gender affirming care.

If you’re a trans person and you say “oh I don’t really have dysphoria” chances are you absolutely do have dysphoria you just don’t know it because it’s not the medical definition of dysphoria.

You might not hate your body but the wrong pronouns might upset you or make you uncomfortable, that’s social/ conversational dysphoria.

You might be okay with the pronouns you were born into but you’d much rather look like a different gender, that’s still bodily dysphoria.

I personally never grew up with intense dysphoria but I did wish strangers would mistake me for a little boy when I was little.

I didn’t have a lot of dysphoria but I started to pretend to masturbate with a penis at 12.

I didn’t have dysphoria but I grew up disassociated with horrible anxiety that I thought was just from the abuse I endured as a kid, however once I realized I was trans I realized my social anxiety came from the fact I’d rather be a boy in the conversation than a girl.

Another big issue is see with this is the imposter syndrome that has so many trans folks in a chokehold wondering if they’re trans enough. If you don’t want to be the gender you were assigned at birth congratulations you are trans and that alone is enough. Cis people don’t question their pronouns or if they do it’s briefly and they don’t continue to revisit the topic. They don’t wish to be a different gender, they like how people perceive them from the get go and are satisfied with this.

Many feel they have to meet a baseline requirement of how many “trans boxes” can I fit so I can properly label myself as trans. If you’re already doing that you are already trans. Dysphoria isn’t a bad thing and it’s not shameful to have it.

If you didn’t have dysphoria you’d have no symptoms of it like depression or anxiety, nor would you have any desire to socially or physical alter anything about yourself or the way people refer to you. If you seek out using different pronouns, HRT or any form of transitioning, you very much have some form a dysphoria somewhere even if it’s not a big burden to you.

Regardless I still feel gender affirming care should be widespread and openly accepted amongst everyone cis or trans. The bar isn’t way above your head to be valid as trans, whatever it is no matter how small of a reason you have to wanting to transition you are 100% valid.

Surgery and hormones to change the way you look to me is no different than getting a tattoo or piercing despite the fact the changes might take years to get.

Bottom line instead of telling people they don’t need dysphoria, why not actually expand and tone down what dysphoria is and how it can manifest itself. More people would be shocked to learn how their dysphoria affects them when they can see it within their own perception realm.

Dysphoria is not a bad thing, and it’s okay if yours isn’t as bad as someone else’s.

#transgender #gender dysphoria #trans pride #transmasc #trans man #transfem #trans woman #genderqueer #controversy #trans community

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kaija-rayne-author · 1 year ago

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Would you recognize an autistic or ADHD person if you saw one?

What about an autistic or ADHD fictional character?

Many of y'all will say, of course.

And you'll be wrong.

I'm not talking to hatched autistics and ADHDers. We can usually spot others like us and autistic/ADHD coded characters in fiction.

Definition: A 'hatched' autistic or ADHDer is someone who knows they're one or the other or both, AND they understand and accept that pretending to be neurotypical is bad for us.

It actually kills us, so, yeah, bad. The leading causes of death for autistics is unaliving or heart attack from the stress of living in a world that was most certainly not created for us. In some ways, this world is antithetical to us.

We also experience the stress of what's known as 'masking'.

Our average age of death is 36 years old. Think about that for a second. 36. And the rates of unaliving in autistic and ADHD kids is utterly obscene. The suicide watch for parents of autistic kids starts at 8 years old. 8.

(I don't say this for everything, but self-diagnosis is absolutely valid for autism and ADHD. In a world where people can still be institutionalized or lose their kids because of an autism diagnosis--this is fact for Britain and several US states. France is awful for autistics-- self diagnosis must be valid so we can figure ourselves out without endangerment.)

Masking is where a traumatized autistic (and I've also never met or even heard about an untraumatized autistic/ADHDer) will create a, persona, almost, that lets us function in the world.

It's rarely intentional, my youngest son started masking at 4 in pre-kindergarten because he wanted other kids to like him and want to play with him. Even though our home is very supportive of diversity, especially about autism and ADHD, y'all... he was *4*.

Being autistic and/or ADHD is so damned lonely. Especially if you don't know why you're different. So we do our best to adapt. That can cause issues.

Masking isn't meant as a lie. It's survival instinct. Because even though the world absolutely doesn't treat us like we're human beings, we still are. We want to survive and thrive as much as the next hominid. We have all the same needs and desires as any other human.

But what about the rest of all y'all? Can you recognize us?

Last week, a music teacher banned a 6 year old autistic kid from the school concert because 'they would ruin the experience for the other children' this is after making the autistic kid learn and practice the songs for weeks. 6 years old and that kid already has scars from discrimination about a genetic condition he can't help. It's cruel and so damned inhumane. At worst, the kid probably sang off key and maybe fidgetted a bit. But that would 'ruin' the concert. It's not the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, lady, it's an elementary school concert. It's absolutely not worth scarring that poor kid over. It also happened back in 2022, and again in 2017.

People will have seen 'Atypical' or 'The Good Doctor' or, gods forbid, Rainman and think they know what autistic people look like. (You should probably know that the majority of autistics loathe those shows because the rep is so bad.)

But here's the thing.

You can't see autism or ADHD. Not just by looking at us. It's purely a brain wiring difference. People don't even believe me when I tell them I am if they've seen me in person. And I'm professionally diagnosed as both autistic & ADHD.

Sometimes, there are co occurring issues, like intellectual disability, that are confused with autism, but they aren't actually the autism or ADHD part of things.

I'm an autistic and ADHD advocate. I have a consultant option on my Patreon for people who want advice either for themselves or so they do the right thing by their kids. I'm autistic/ADHD, my kids are too. I've been researching and learning about the topic for close to a decade at this point. I truly know what I'm talking about. I understand the different flavours and experiences of these two types of neurodivergency extremely well.

As an aside, while I have you here, ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) is never the right thing. You know how gay conversion therapy is bad? The same person (Ivar Lovass) came up with ABA, and it's meant to do the same thing. To torture people, most often children, into pretending to be what someone else wants them to be. It doesn't support or help the autistic person.

Almost unilaterally, ABA causes a PTSD breakdown of self coming into our 30s. I say almost, but I've never even heard of an autistic person who has been tortured by ABA who hasn't developed severe PTSD.

If you tried to use the methods used in ABA on a dog, you'd be guilty of extreme animal cruelty.

Yet, because it's practiced on human children, it's fiiiiine. Big money lobbying has even made it so that ABA 'therapy' is the only one covered by a lot of insurances.

We can thank Autism $peaks for that. They are a hate group. They fit every bit of the definition of one and then some. (So please don't donate to them at the till. They love to pollute stores like Toys 'R' Us.)

Adult autistics have been speaking out against them forever. But since most autistics (80%) are under or unemployed, we don't have the kind of financial sway we'd need to get rid of them. Yes, this even counts for 'the new ABA'.

You can't save ABA. Putting a 2 year old human child through 40 hours weekly of 'training' so that they can look and act neurotypical is just flat out torture. Making a child 'extremely hungry or thirsty' so that they will do what you want is torture. There's just no other way to slice that apple. It's rotten to the core.

But back to my point.

Recently, someone disagreed with my opinion on a fictional character. I feel the character is autistic/ADHD coded, the other person disagreed.

That's cool. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. And it's fiction, whatever. I'm not mad or upset. (I'm slightly insulted, because if you're not autistic/ADHD, [and a comparison they suggested made me think they definitely weren't] it's definitely not your place to disagree with one of us who says a character is autistic/ADHD coded. It's disrespectful and more than a little ableist. Simply because so many people have the completely wrong idea about both conditions.)

Regardless, the important part for a fictional character is that a person was able to see themselves in the character, to empathize with them. So it's not a big deal.

But it got me thinking about this.

Would most people recognize the subtle signs? They're almost always extremely subtle.

Ever hear of 'resting bitch face'? It's an incredibly common autistic trait because we either emote less or we emote differently than neurotypicals. In our world, it's known as 'flat face effect'. I have it, and I've been harmed many times because it looks like I'm pissed off even when I'm having a good time or I'm just deep in thought. I've got a firey temper, trust me when I say you'll know it when I'm pissed off.

So. You see a character (or even a person) who doesn't emote a lot? Or emotes extremely subtly? Wellll... that's a good clue.

So, X fictional character (or person) has odd or esoteric knowledge or hobbies. That's a good clue.

Are they nerdy or geeky in some way?

Most autistics and many ADHDers experience what's known as hyperfixation on special interests. Ever see someone get so fascinated by a topic or skill or activity that they get lost in it?

Forget to eat or drink?

Learn to do an obscure craft just because they wanted to know how it's done? That person is likely autistic or ADHD or both. It applies to fictional characters too.

Are they stand-offish? Many of us are for various reasons. One is that we're trying to figure out the 'rules' of wherever and whoever we're with.

Why all y'all insist on staring creepily at each others eyeballs is beyond me. I find it either too intimate, painfully so, or just ridiculous.

That quiet character (or person) who warms up slowly? There's a hint.

Another reason we tend to be cool with strangers is that ever present trauma thing. So many autists and ADHDers get to the point in life where we just don't have it in us anymore to keep trying to make social connections. A very common trait of both autism and ADHD is a lack of understanding of neurotypical social rules. And trust me, y'all have them.

Does the character or person fidget? Either subtly or more obviously?

It's called stimming. I had to learn to do it unobtrusively, so I'll suck air through my teeth (my dentist isn't impressed by this), circle my pointer finger around my thumb, tap the pad of each finger on my thumb in a rhythm, count silently to myself... the list is probably endless. I intentionally leave the cuticles on my thumbs rough, because I often rub the forefinger or ring finger of that hand over the rough cuticle as a stim.

Maybe they rotate their ring around a finger?

Play with their hair?

Stimming is something that calms us down and helps us regulate our emotions. (It's also one of the first things ABA robs us of. It's called 'quiet hands'.) It's really bad to deprive an autistic or ADHDer of stimming.

I used to click the button on a pen so much that I banned myself from having clicky pens because of how annoying it can be to others.

There are healthy stims and unhealthy ones. (Head banging is an example of an unhealthy stim.)

So a character or person who is just, always moving somehow? There's a hint. Or they're rhythmically moving a body part? Tapping fingers? Wiggling a foot or leg? Fussing with their clothing? Rocking?

Is the character or person 'a walking encyclopedia'? In other words, do they know a lot of information about either one or two topics or about many topics?

That character (or person) is often stereotyped as being a computer genius who can make any computer work just by looking at it for a few minutes. But it can honestly be any topic or combination of topics. That's another clue.

Many autists are almost hard wired to be painfully honest. Unless we've been traumatized into it, we tend to be shitty liars. I'm, unfortunately, a very good liar. It's not something I choose to do, because I don't want my trauma to change something so innate to me as my honesty. I had to learn to lie to survive. I don't recommend it.

Does the person or character truly believe in things like honour? Justice? Mercy? Peace? (Many neurotypical people will call these things social lies that keep the world working.) I'm talking a bone deep belief in honour etc. Are they a shitty liar?

I think I've blathered enough for now. I want to make it clear that I don't speak for all autistic and ADHD folks. I'm just one person attempting to share some of the more common traits with whoever wants to read about it.

A final thought.

Nothing can make someone autistic or ADHD. It's a genetic condition. Which is why so many parents find out they're autistic or ADHD when their kids are diagnosed. It's not more prevalent now, it's just that more people are learning about the actual parameters of it. Diagnosis is easier now than 50 years ago. It's been around since ancient Egypt and probably evolved as a way to keep the clan safe in prehistoric times.

We often have heightened senses. Sometimes we have what I call 'predator vision' which sounds awful but just means that my gaze is automatically drawn to movement. Our sleep cycles are also commonly very different than a neurotypical's. We probably ended up being people who would take night watch, stare at the stars for hours, or warn people when food has gone off so no one eats it.

I think we evolved right alongside neurotypicals because we're both needed for a successful society.

Many, many of the world's famed thinkers/creators are considered to have likely been autistic/ADHD based on records about them.

These people include:

Leonardo DaVinci

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Nikolai Tesla

Albert Einstein

Thomas Jefferson

Charles Darwin

Emily Dickinson

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

William Butler Yeats

Vincent Van Gogh

Benjamin Franklin

People who are autistic or ADHD these days that you may not expect?

Dan Ackroyd

Darryl Hannah

Anthony Hopkins

Jerry Seinfeld

Eminem

Courtney Love

David Byrne

Wentworth Miller

Satoshi Tajiri (creator of Pokemon)

There are also many, many people who have shown autistic or ADHD traits and haven't confirmed or it's impossible to confirm because they're deceased and we don't have the right records.

It's considered a massive faux pas to assign a diagnosis of anything to a living human being. So everyone living I've listed has in some way confirmed it. There are many, many other people (especially in creative industries or hobbies) I believe are likely one or the other, but I wouldn't label. That's for them to do.

If you enjoyed this or learned something and you can, please consider a tip or becoming a Patron. My work of words is my only income.

Every historical person is just a 'likely' because we'll never actually know. All we can do is point at the exhibited traits via records and say, probably.

#being autistic #autistic things #actually autistic #autism #ADHD #actually adhd #autistic problems #autistic adult #autistic #late diagnosed autistic #late diagnosed adhd #fiction #fictional characters #fiction critique

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sysmedsaresexist · 5 months ago

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Hey we've been thinking about that "OSDD was a temporary diagnosis" post for a while and. it makes complete sense what you guys said but like. we can't get ANYONE to diagnose us as anything CDD, let alone anything that isn't going to give us the treatment equivalent of slapping a bandaid on a stab wound. Is there like, anywhere we could look further into P-DID/DID research on the subject? We're not comfortable moving off of the self diagnosis of OSDD-1b yet so we wanna be triple sure to get as much information as possible.

Thankies 💕💕💕

- 🐑 & 🌸 of the Constellation Collective

There's places all over to find that info, but I want to encourage you not to overthink it. You can dig deeper, you absolutely should, but the label... it doesn't matter. It's really, truly okay to get this one wrong and switch around between the labels or use them interchangeably. I promise. You don't need to be right, because you're right regardless (unless it's a misdiagnosis, but I'm going to talk about that at the end of this, because it's important).

I am diagnosed OSDD, but I call myself DID. It's easy, I understand that there's not that big of a difference, no one is going to yell at us (me or you) if it turns out that we have the other one. We're not misrepresenting ourselves. If it turns out I would only ever be diagnosed with OSDD, that doesn't mean I was wrong using the DID label, or that I was even mislabelling myself.

Whether you're diagnosed with DID or OSDD largely depends on where you live. I made a post about this a while back but I can't find it. The US is more likely to diagnose OSDD with minor amnesia than the UK. They're more likely to call minor amnesia DID (as they should). It's literally a dice throw, and not that important.

To quote my BFF, Colin Ross,

The dividing line between DID and most cases of dissociative disorder not otherwise specified is arbitrary [or OSDD]. Most cases of DDNOS are partial forms of DID which lack either clear switching of executive control, full amnesia barriers between identity states, or clear differentiation and structure of identity states. They are partial forms of DID with the same patterns of childhood trauma and co-morbidity.

Also this quote.

So on the one hand we have a vast swathe of people who are, or would be, diagnosed with OSDD as opposed to dissociative identity disorder but who show almost all of the symptoms of DID. Many people therefore see DID and OSDD as appearing on a spectrum, and prefer to conflate the two conditions so that DID/OSDD represents a range of dissociative experiences with more or less amnesia and greater or less elaboration and distinctive identity states or parts of the personality.

It is also what happens in practice: very few people would realistically distinguish between DID and OSDD.

And,

Both OSDD and DID are the result of the spontaneous action of the brain in response to trauma. Both contain different self-states, holding shards of memory and ‘unformulated experience’ (Stern, 1997). Both can be helped by similar approaches to therapy which encourage neuronal repair and result in brain growth such as increased hippocampal volume. Above all, all forms of dissociation need to be validated for their unique contribution to survival.

P-DID is a bit of a new one. Here's the ICD link to it, if you want to read more, but it's going to be the same as above. It's really not that important. Its main difference is that the system doesn't really switch, it's mostly intrusion (like feelings bleeding between alters and host).

These are really only useful for describing how your system generally functions.

Finally, misdiagnosis.

It's okay to be wrong completely. Maybe it's just BPD or OCD, autism, any of the number of disorders that come with identity confusion.

When someone self DX something like BPD and they finally get to therapy and find out it's literally ANYTHING else, we celebrate with them. Good job, you found answers! You're on the right path! You can get the right kind of help now. You did what you had to do in order to get by, and you did your best to try to understand yourself with the tools you had. The use of the first label wasn't malicious, you didn't hurt anyone by using it, and you probably got yourself pretty knowledgeable on the topic.

You are now a resource for those who are also trying to figure themselves out.

Who knows better what the difference between BPD and OSDD is than someone who tried out both and found the answer?

Being wrong doesn't mean you're bad, I don't know why we don't celebrate a misdiagnosis of DID like we do some others. We're all just trying to understand ourselves, and sometimes we're wrong. The point is that eventually we figure it out, and the journey there... recognizing a misdiagnosis is a GOOD part of your story, and it's an important story to share. You were still struggling, regardless of what label you used and what you're being diagnosed with.

Use the label that feels right to you. If you want to keep using OSDD, that's fine. You're describing how your system works right now, and that's perfect. Using DID or OSDD, you'll end up in the same place regardless-- hopefully this means with a good therapist who's going to take your symptoms seriously, but you're going to end up in that same chair no matter what label you're using.

I really hope this helped.

Also, I didn't really touch on it, but I'm sorry you're struggling to get a diagnosis. That must be incredibly frustrating. Don't give up. Unfortunately, the average is about 5 years for most. Keep advocating for yourself.

#not syscourse #did #osdd #osddid #actually dissociative #actually traumagenic #actually did #actually osdd #pro system #system safe #CDDs first #pro endo #plurality #actually plural

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kodyfae-the-1st · 5 months ago

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A response, i guess

Alright so I saw this pretty shit post recently, and I cant help but say I'm a little pissed. I will not be sharing the name of the blog that posted this, as i do not wish for them to be harassed.

So here's my response.

An open letter to you who wrote this.

"Hating endos is lame, hate on us instead ! We’re a DID system that believes people shouldn’t have to have their own entry in the DSM5 to be respected , apparently a controversial opinion these days !"

So though i agree in part that hate is lame as all hell, i do believe that listening to science is more punk than throwing it out the window. Yes system diversity is important as a working point in the community, it is still important to listen to the science.

Though some may not fit the diagnostics 100% doesn't mean they aren't valid that is true, but even so, there have been no scientifically supported exception to one. trauma is a necessary part, and the mind cannot and will not fracture like this without it, that should be without dispute.

"Being unapologetically plural is punk, ESPECIALLY if you don’t fit the “scientific” idea of what a real system should be."

You are right that science is not all inclusive, but i will say being anti science seems pretty conservative for a self proclaimed punk. but asides from cheap digs like that, id really recommend reading a couple scholarly articles if you are ever in doubt of the science, there is a lot to learn, and a lot left to be learnt.

"Systems should support other systems regardless of where we come from. The world doesn’t understand us and they don’t want to have to understand us, if we want to have a future where we are proudly and loudly ourselves we have to work together to make it."

Yes systems should absolutely support each other, and i do feel we fight too much sometimes. And no. the world does not understand us, but that does not mean it is ok to spread misinformation. Im sure you do this with good intention, and i too do my part with good intention. but we are fundamentally opposed, and i do not wish to support endos in a journey for recognition.

Some may genuinely have it, i do believe that, and others may be suffering from something else, so similar it may be difficult to know the difference, but i do not believe that they can be systems without trauma.

"I have to fight to be accepted as gay, i have to fight to be accepted as polyamorous, I have to fight to be accepted as trans, I have to fight to be accepted as non human, I have to fight to be accepted as autistic, I have to fight to be accepted as plural."

A lot of us have fought those same battles, i at least have, and a lot of systems still fight for this, and i do not believe that it should be a thing everyone goes through. And we still fight to accept ourselves in this, But i do not support endos fight for recognition. But i will fight with all i have to get them the help they need, because a lot of them do desperately need help. and i think that the fight to give them a support system and help is much more punk than this fight to support misinformation.

"I do not want anyone to have to fight me to be accepted as who they are, I want to fight alongside them because we’re fighting the exact same battle and it’s hard enough without us stabbing each other in the backs."

There is absolutely too much backstabbing in these communities. And i am willing to fight here alone to get them help, im not saying here that they aren't systems, some may very well be and have forgotten the trauma, but i do not wish to stand beside them in a fight against science. Im sure we'll all know more in the future with more studies made, and maybe itll turn the view on systems upside down, but until then i stand with the science, and with those that want and need help.

I do though want to mention lastly that as per the dsm-5 trauma is not noted as a criteria for diagnosis, and thus i am open to read articles of exception to this rule if they can be provided from credible sources.

I will also ask that if ever i said something incorrect i hope youll tell me and ill do my best to make amends. Please do also feel free to share your opinion, id like to hear more perspectives, and learn the faults of my own.

Well wishes.

-Kody, and a very tired system

#syspunk #systempunk #pdid #anti endo #this was written just before midnight

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lastoneout · 5 months ago

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I got evaluated again yesterday for hEDS(the geneticist wanted to make sure before we did the test I guess?) and it's VERY funny bcs I didn't expect that and about halfway through I started to get worried because he asked a handful of questions that I said no to(haven't dislocated anything, which, thank god, and my symptoms aren't as bad in my elbows and shoulders as they are in my hips, hands, and knees) and then he started checking my skin elasticity and scars and I always thought I didn't have the typical EDS translucent/elastic skin and "cigarette paper" scars but uh...apparently I do. At the end he was like "Yeah all of the signs point to hEDS you meet the criteria for diagnosis lets get the genetic test started" and I was relived but confused?

And I went home and stood in front of my fiancé like "your scars are soft, right?? they feel like stretch marks kinda, right??? almost like a silky soft, smooth gap in your skin?????" and he just looked at me funny and went "no? they're hard and stiff??" and I was like "but my skin isn't stretchy or translucent right" and he pinched my arm and his and was like "girl...you are so stretchy" and then pointed out that he could see almost all of my veins along my entire arms and hands before showing me his and how you could only see some of the veins in a few spots and I was just all

And like this isn't even the first time this has happened I always assumed I didn't have the soft velvety skin typical of EDS but that was just because I live with my skin everyday, once I asked my fiancé about it he was like "you literally have the softest skin I've ever felt in my entire life and I am constantly complimenting you for it wdym" and I suddenly remembered how people have always been pointing out how soft my skin is my whole life, and how my skin is legit SO SOFT I have issues opening doorknobs and jars and those little plastic bags at the store for veggies cuz I can't get traction, my hands are so smooth I DROP SHIT all the time, and like my CAT can't even sit on me when I'm not wearing long pants because she ALSO slides right off. Like fuck Alvida One Piece, I'm the one who ate the damn smooth-smooth fruit.

So anyway not trying to say self dx isn't valid at all but like def make sure to talk to people who have the condition or know about it because Google is absolutely only going to show you the most extreme examples when you look it up and you probably will underestimate your own symptoms as a result despite checking literally all of the boxes. Like you will assume things are normal/justify symptoms away in ways you didn't even know were possible. Like really how tf did I think this shit was normal.

Anyway congrats to me I def do have hEDS which puts so much of my life into perspective(legit just knowing my bad teeth aren't entirely my fault is incredible) and I am infinitely greatful to the people I know who also have EDS who, upon seeing my fucked up joints, went "hey so uh you need to talk to a doctor about that" lmao you were right!! I do indeed got fucked up joints + skin too damn smooth disorder!!

(Also I know you don't need a genetic test to confirm hEDS I'm getting it partially because my rheumatologist didn't want to diagnose me AT ALL without it for some reason despite admitting I fit the criteria without even needing to do the full exam and partially just to make sure I don't have one of the scary bad types that need way more medical intervention.)

#long post #personal

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