ask anything about DID

heck yeah, fistbump
I....sort of feel you there. I have honestly not liked the term, ever? but I just kind of. used it a lot here and other places because I wanted people to take me seriously, and clinical terms tend to lend themselves to that--and 'alter' is absolutely a term used largely by the psychiatry field, so.

 

That's such a good point. I think that's a bias I also have and didn't realize I had. Best do some reevaluation, because I can't see how it would be fair or right to evaluate realness or importance based on seniority.

Now that I think about it more, I think the thing that really scares me about that idea is the shift in self-perception? But that's really neither here nor there.

 

If its not too personal to answer, what made you start thinking you're not the original? How do you know that or if they integrated?

Also, this is just ignorant spitballing, but wouldn't it be more helpful to view everyone as different facets/aspects/shards of one person? Since its the same brain and all? i have no idea im just wondering

 

I didn't suggest it, my therapist did, but he's asked me to consider the idea because....prior to fifth grade, my memories have a very detached feeling to me, and are also much harder to recall than post-fifth grade, not to mention that fifth grade is the first time I remember having dysphoria (and it's very possible that if I'm not the original, then the core and I were different genders), and also I recall being told several times that I changed personality-wise that year, pretty apparently, with seemingly no real catalyst.
as for considering everyone different aspects....no. for one thing, they're not 'shards' or 'facets' or even aspects of the same person. they are whole, three-dimensional personalities, with their own likes and dislikes and wants and needs, and it's kind of rude to them to consider them aspects of the same person--they're not. they are separate people, it's just that we all happen to share a body. like....technically, yes, we all came from the same person and the multiple personalities exist because of dissociative barriers that caused us all to split, but they're not just facets of another person. some of them definitely came from me, and yet they have traits in their personality that I most definitely do not have or want. so it's kind of inaccurate to view them as different aspects or shards of one person, for one thing. they're separate people from me and each other.
on top of that....no offense taken, since you didn't know, but you sort of just touched on something that's a very, very upsetting topic for most systems, particularly alters. the thing is, alters aren't 'facets' of a person. they're their own people. that's why they have their own names and genders and sometimes they even have their own disorders that are unique to them. they want to be respected and treated as their own people--not just viewed as 'different facets of one person'. because they're not me, as much as they might have come from me. they're themselves, and they want to be treated that way. one of the hardest things for us right now is that when systemmates who aren't me front around my parents or extended family or other people not in the know, they have to suck it up and pretend to be me, and answer to my name, and do things I like that they might hate, and sometimes even get misgendered. they much prefer to be treated as their own people, and I'm chill with that.
besides, it's honestly easier to think of ourselves as different people anyway, it makes it easier for us and people around us to remember that we're different and have different reactions and likes and dislikes. for instance, I love coffee. Ray would probably be offended if someone served him coffee. so it's kind of just better to consider us all whole, separate people.

 

Hmm... that raises two questions out of me, if ya don't mind! :D
1) for the sake of autism brains and "i gotta make a metaphor out of everything b/c otherwise it's confusing and horrible" brains, would it be wrong or offensive to refer to alters that stem from you as that personalities... i guess children? just completely as a metaphor, not in any way literal, but i guess just as a way of understanding who came from whoever else better?

2) is it possible to have alters that are facets of another? like an alter that has a noticably separate personality but is otherwise the same person in other aspects? (likes/dislikes/aspirations) or is that just more in the realm of a mood swing than anything else?

 

you can refer to them as 'children personalities of (x) personality' as a metaphor if that helps you make sense of it! just so long as you remember they are, at the end of the day, their own people, and that most of them are also not child personalities age-wise.
as for facets....okay, so, clinically speaking, a 'facet' is commonly applied to alters in OSDD, because one of the forms of OSDD is when the alters are not well developed. they may simply be the original personality at different ages, for instance, or they might be one-dimensional people who don't have a fully formed personality--you'd call these types of alters 'facets'. they can exist in a DID system, but are far more common in OSDD systems. so in essence, yes, it is possible to have alters that are facets of another person in the system, or facets that could've become a full alter but didn't.

 

@thegrimsqueaker THREAD

 

awesome! 38D (I'm gonna backread a bit, but I also want to pick up from where we were in CDCF)

ok, so, alters and ooc-ness, how do yours react to canon personalities, and the differences between them and their source material? is there any correlation between their roles in the system and how they're likely to react to source material, or is that more determined by their own personalities?

 

well, it varies alter to alter, really. I mean, our Ray has viewed some of actual Ray's content and sometimes he goes "oh hey, that's funny, I'd totally do that" and other times he goes "fucking christ I would never do that and I'm glad I wouldn't." on the other hand, Roxy has read some of her source material, and she tends to just be confused sometimes by differences in her and canon Roxy. and then there's ones like Neon, who get so extremely little screentime that Neon barely even knows what canon Neon's personality would be like, so our Neon just kind of assumes that she is basically the same as canon Neon, and she is pretty happy with that.
as far as if their roles correlate to how they react....I mean, some of them have personality traits that correlate to their role, but then those traits correlate to how they react to source material--so I guess there's a bit of a correlation for some of them? but others, not so much. Roxy, for instance, her reactions are more determined by her own personality than anything else.

 

still backreading, but mostly caught up (on pg 20)

yeah, I scored a 32 on the scale and I'm defs not did, or even particularly dissociative, I'm just adhd af.

you have no idea. consciousness is only a small part of what the brain is doing at any given moment, and even our perception of that is kinda skewed. also, there's no one part of the brain that makes personality happen, it's a collective effort.

huh. so I'm realizing that I don't know as much about roles as I thought I did (and I thought I knew jack shit, ftr). basically, I know the bare minimum about protectors and that's it. so do you have any resources or sites w reliable info? (I don't want to make you explain all the things, but I don't know how to tell good information from bad on this subject.)

also, what is OSDD? you've mentioned it a few times but I haven't seen an explanation yet in backreading

 

okay, so:
good questions, I have resources I can offer but I'll have to look them up, and I can give you a rundown of OSDD, caveat being that I don't understand it as well since I don't have it.
that said, I'm very tired and kind of burnt out tonight, so are you okay with waiting until tomorrow for all that? (I don't know what time zone you're on, but I'm EST. if we get to like....7pm my time and I still haven't Done The Thing tomorrow, you should ping me in a thread or shoot me a PM to remind me, because I am SUPER forgetful, sorry.)

 

@thegrimsqueaker sliiiiiiight change of plans, I'm gonna be gone for a month or so, when I get back, if you're still interested, I'll toss you the resources, okay? sorry, but I don't really have any way of staying in touch with you outside of Kintsugi, and I'm not comfy posting my Discord or Skype here.

 

that's ok, but I want to clarify that I don't have you on ignore or have you blocked, and I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that you were. anyways, do whatever you need to on your own schedule!

 

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to say it, but I'll miss you, @chaoticArbiter!

 

...I did the test thing you mentioned on page 11 and got 48 >.<