Hello, I'm that girl who is making a show. Give me how to NOT write plurality/DID.

:))

Have a good day

Hey there. Not really sure if I'm in the minority here or not, but I just wanted to get everyone's opinions.

We just want to be able to hang out with people who will address us individually by our names, treat us differently depending on who's fronting and how they want to be treated, and all that other stuff. We can't really do that because we don't really have anyone in real life that will do that for us, and we're just terrified that people won't want to because it would be too much to handle and too many things to keep track of, and they just won't want to take the time. Society sucks, so we can't exactly just go ahead and let whoever Front and have people call them by their own name. But in a perfect world, we wouldn't have to worry about that.

I'm honestly really curious if you guys want the same thing ideally, if you want to be just treated as one person, or something else.

We told our friend about our system, and they were interested in us. They offered to make us a system bracelet with our collective name, we each chose a bead for ourselves, and it turned out great! Anymany have any plural jewelry or other wearables?

As in, something my brain says things such as a conversation between alters, or events in the headspace, but how can I tell that these are actually happening in my head, compared to me just making it all up.

I feel like both imagining fake stuff, and actually understand what's happening between alters are the same. How can I tell if its real? Am I even plural?

Hey there! I was wondering how fellow introjects out there felt about interacting with the fandoms of the media that they’re ”sourced” from? Does it ever feel awkward to you in any way, or even uncomfortable? Or have you had no issue, and it’s all been good fun? Do you ever seek out those types of interactions, or would you rather avoid them?

I know responses will vary greatly depending on the person and the fandom, since every case is different. That’s fine! I’m just curious since I’ve been debating on interacting with an old, past fandom of a media that I’m an introject of (I’m not the only introject here either). Several of us think it would be a lot of fun to post art, fics, and make new friends.

It’s tempting… but I don’t know. It might feel really awkward. Like “oh this cool new mutual i‘ve befriended has no idea that they're talking to an introject of their favorite character… i wonder if they’d think differently of me if they knew the truth.” Not that we HAVE to tell anyone, my system prefers to keep most things private anyway, but… might feel strange to have that thought always lingering in the back of my mind.

Anyways! Feel free to share your own thoughts and experiences! :)

don't let your gay alters co-con with you for long amounts of time i've been flitting between visceral gender envy and wishing to be an aesthetic softboi in some fluffy yaoi fan art all day

"i long to live in a cabin and play in the fields with my wonderful boyfriend" in the middle of class and then you look over and its some redhead twink who's been undetectedly standing behind you for like 40 minutes and you have to tell him he can't front cos the teachers can't read his handwriting . smh guys

-jay

We’re both in our 20s and I’d asked about a week ago if he’d ever heard of DID, to which he said no and I was honestly surprised. I thought DID was more known about than that but regardless

I let about a week go by before I straight up just asked “do you care to learn about disorders or not really”. He’s kind of a dry texter in general but he said something like “I don’t mind”, I asked if it was fine I send him an article and he said he’d prefer to hear it straight from me because it feels less like an assignment that way lol.

So I said that was fine and wrote a few paragraphs about the explanations of DID/OSDD in general since we’re not super sure which one we have, just that we have a dissociative disorder.

Its so so awkward to explain how the disorder works with plurality, because when you’re in your 20s explaining the disorder to someone who has no idea what it is, it really feels like you’re trying to explain why you roleplay 😭😭😭 (obviously not calling any plurals roleplayers, just that it’s how it felt to try to explain it to another adult. I’m really good at explaining stuff including the trauma and identity-split aspect but that doesn’t make it any less nerve-racking).

He says “interesting” and nothing else so I kind of just sit with that for a few minutes while wondering if he’d say anything else and being kind of nervous, before he asks about how many alters we have! And he said it must be stressful to keep track of but maybe it’s easier since it’s in your own head. He pretty much had it down.

We’re so grateful he was accepting of us and didn’t try to fakeclaim us or say that didn’t sound believable!

-💫

Honestly I find it so strange that people WITHOUT any form of plurality disorder(s) fake claim others so much. I don't think people understand that every system is different. Fake claiming is harmful in my opinion since personally our system doesn't run well with one another and most of our headmates deny that we are even plural to this day.

It gets me thinking though.. how do they expect us to be? It's like they get mad when a fictive isn't acting like their media, or get upset when an anger holder.. is angry? We all make sure to use our status correctly even going as far as to make multiple pages on our strawpage showing off multiple peoples pronouns, name, ages, roles, and interaction statuses. Then get sooo irritated when a trauma holder gets triggered even after being asked to not do certain things in Dm's or whatever else. I just found it slightly funny as well as I wanted to rant kinda kinda..

- Celia ⌖

idk what to tag this, more ranty than venty tho

but yeah basically just the title… i talk way too much and it seems im the only one in our system that uses signoffs. Immalso noticeably very verrryyy different than my headmates (you can see if you look at our other posts on here from my headmates in the oast)

oh well, if it happens it happens I guess 🤷 idk why I felt the need to post this I just like echoing my every thought into the void or smth

- Floyd 🫧

I’d love to learn more about your experiences, as I’m doing my final university project on dissociative identity disorder (DID)

How can you tell if its traumagenic, endo ect?

So I’m writing this show and I plan for there to be multiple plural characters in it, now I am plural myself but I want to make sure I’m writing this right.

Before I explain the plurality part I do need to explain some of the world building because otherwise it won’t make as much sense. So here:

- There are these human-like beings called Prisms whose souls are made up of pure light. They are (almost) always born with one specific wavelength of light (ex. red, green, blue, etc). These beings have the ability to harness the energy from their souls to bend light, as well as use special abilities corresponding with their wavelength. Also, different wavelengths tend to have certain personality traits attributed to them, but this isn’t always the case and Prisms don’t always fit into neat boxes or categories. I won’t go in depth on the wavelengths, their abilities, and their personalities here, as that’s not the point of the post.

- Prism magic is deeply connected to emotional and mental states. For example, depending on the situation and intensity levels, a Prism’s color can change shades from light to dark or vice versa. A Prism can also have varying levels of power depending on their emotional/mental states. One of the bigger instances of this is the process of “going dark,” or “waning,” “blackening,” etc. When a Prism is in a mentally/physically/emotionally isolated state for too long (or is going through any severe trauma), they often undergo this process. Their soul is slowly consumed by darkness until no light can shine, and the Prism is nothing more than a shadowy husk of what they once were.

- There is also a concept called Resonance. Resonance is where when multiple Prisms are together and united, their souls start to shine with the same brightness and intensity, allowing for the Prisms to become more powerful, synchronize their lights, and even achieve a form of communication just through light waves. A Prism can be extremely strong individually, but Prisms are ultimately more powerful when around and united with other Prisms through Resonance.

Now‘s where the plurality comes in.

- Plurality in this universe is called “refraction.” It can happen in many different instances, such as when a Prism is born, or even in some cases a Prism can refract intentionally, but most commonly happens when a Prism is going through intense trauma and often coincides with the process of “going dark.” When a Prism refracts, the light within their soul splits into multiple wavelengths, creating multiple Prism consciousnesses within one mind/soul.

- When “going dark,” Refraction often occurs as a way for the soul to retain its light for a longer period of time, and in some cases it can completely stop the effects of “going dark.” However, this does not always happen, and even if it does, Refracted prisms are not always stable at first. Usually, in order for Refraction itself, without any other factors, to completely stop the effects of “going dark,” the headmates need to be resonant and synchronized (not in the way that they have to integrate, but in the way that they are working together at least somewhat). However, after “going dark,” it isn’t guaranteed that the refracted Prism will always remain stable/synchronized. Also, Refraction does not always happen. It is not as rare as many in this universe believe, but it is still fairly uncommon.

My worries here are that one criticism I saw once of plural rep in a different work was that the character’s alters had different “powers” attributed to them, and that’s kinda how this would work because of how the mechanics of the world work.

Prism souls are of pure light -> said light has certain wavelengths -> different powers are attributed to said wavelengths -> refraction is when the soul’s light splits into multiple wavelengths -> headmates are created with these different wavelengths -> the headmates have different powers because they are of different wavelengths

I think this works and wouldn’t really be a problem because it makes sense within the story as in its world, its narrative, its themes, and everything else but it’s something that’s kinda always been in the back of my mind for some reason.

Also another thing is that a lot of people say good plural rep has switches not be too obvious, and here it might get too obvious? But I think this is the most fixable. Most of the time Prisms look like normal humans and only ever use their magic when they really need to, especially in the society they live in. So if you’re going just based on the wavelength then you’d only be able to tell if their magic switches. But even then, there are Prisms that aren’t refracted that can use multiple wavelengths of light called Multi-Prisms (which yea I didn’t mention earlier bc I didn’t think it was too important) so it’s still hard to tell just based on wavelength.

But it’s not like only purpose the headmates in this story is just so that the characters can have a variety of powers. Because it’s not. That’s what Multi-Prisms are for, and even then they have more of a purpose than that because the idea is very thematically relevant to the story and especially one of the main characters. Refraction, like what I just said about Multi-Prisms, has a very important thematic purpose. Some of the main themes are unity vs isolation, self-actualization, and perserverance, and I think Refraction definitely expands on these themes throughout the narrative. Refraction is also central to a certain protagonist’s character arc. (Sorry im being vague about how this stuff ties into the themes and narrative, I’m just trying not to give too much away about the story. I hope, though, that yall can see what I mean from just this)

Headmates formed through Refraction work a lot like headmates irl, they can be representative of different emotions or ideas, or they aren’t, they can have vastly different personality traits to the host or other headmates, or they can be very similar to the host or other headmates, and sometimes there isn’t a host at all. There can also sometimes be amnesia, but sometimes there isn’t. Important thing to note tho: The headmates created through Refraction are always individual people separate from the other headmates. They have their own goals, strengths, flaws, etc. While writing Refraction I’ve tried to write it as a very broad spectrum where lots of things are possible without making the idea too vague. I hope I’ve succeeded in that.

I think refraction would defo sound better if yall knew more about the story but that would 1, make this post too long, and 2, spoil a lot of things.

So yea, is this good? I’ve put a lot of thought into it but I want to make sure I haven’t accidentally written something potentially harmful or something that could be taken the wrong way.

We feel like we switch when stressed, but we switch most often when relaxed/in a safe environment, like it feels like we switch every 5 minutes or something.

We thought you needed a trigger to switch? What's happening, and what is switching like for you?

We just watched Clayface and really liked it.

As a plural we obviously relate to some aspects of it. (And we just love anything related to the Harley Quinn TV show!)

[spoiler warning]

We related to things like the internalization of factives (although we're not that fast lol), the ending with an in system relationship, the strange experience of acting (or forcing) and being multiple entities (independent will) bleeding into each other.

For us also, the factives/voices of friends we internalize become like an extension of our real world relationships; though it is like, part of ourselves, but also part of them. (our brain makes these parts basically against our will, but we just instruct/suggest the formed parts to work towards the better understanding and wellbeing of who they represent, in addition to affirming their freedom to do basically whatever, and that works out well almost all of the time)

It is interesting the way his nanobots and ability, similar to dissociation, starts out as something out of control and troublesome, but eventually they learn to work with it effectively.

And of course we wish we could shape shift too. (doesn't every plural?) We had a psychotic moment some years ago that we hallucinated that we slightly could, our legs appeared to warp, it was really interesting, but do not recommend, take yer meds.

Some of the body horror scenes, and the unreal ’this is your life now' moments, are also so familiar to our trans experience and derealization when we end up in crazy circumstances again.

Anyway, good movie, but quite gory.

We do assume some won't like it because yet more DIDish villain representation, but as for us, we'll take any somewhat relatable media we can get. (don't give a shit what normies believe anymore anyway)

We want to hear other systems opinions!

I got into an argument with someone about endogenic systems and tulpamancy. He kept saying that non-traumagenic plurality is just "larping with clinical jargon" and that the terms (endogenic, tulpamancy) were invented by people on Tumblr to avoid being criticized for "faking mental illness." I pointed out that the distinction between TID (traumagenic) and tulpamancy (non-traumagenic, deliberate creation) has been studied academically (Isler 2017, Palmer-Cooper et al. 2022), and that the term "endogenic" was coined by the Lunastus Collective in 2014 as a descriptive label, not a diagnosis. He just dismissed it all as pseudoscience and kept calling it "larping."

I decided to ignore him because it was clear he wasn't interested in actually engaging with the evidence. But now, honestly, I'm feeling insecure. I've always had doubts about my own system, and his insistence that "there's no scientific backing" made me feel like I need to prove my experience is real.

I know validation shouldn't depend on someone who's already decided I'm faking. But I guess I'm asking: how do you deal with doubts about your own plurality when someone attacks it like that? And how do you stop feeling like you need to "prove" your experience to people who won't listen?

so, i made a system server (jay's plural community on the masterlist) and people kept joining then leaving right away and then there were a bunch of stupid spam bots spamming their links on every channel and it pissed me off...

I didn't really know what flair to pick, so I just leave it as this. Today was a big day! I've had my first appointment with a new psychologist, and we were able to tell her about our plurality! Hooray!

To preface all this post, I think I will need to give a little bit of context. I'm the host of a traumagenic system (well, if we're strictly based on definitions, we're mixed-origins, because some headmates are willogenic and some would fall under the endogenic category, but those are the minority), and for almost a year now we've been struggling greatly because of mental health issues (stress because of college, depression, intrusive thoughts, and other stuff). We had a fallout with our best friend and flatmate, which was very traumatic for us, and we've been struggling with memory issues, amnesia, and personality changes for a few years now.

Our memory has always been very bad, as we dissociated in high school because of stress and trauma, but we don't really remember when we started doing that. We became aware of our plurality a year and a half ago, but we had been having problems with dissociation, depersonalization, derealization, the works. We don't have a diagnosis of a cdd, as it's almost impossible to get in my country, but we've been tired of dealing with the symptoms (dissociation, depersonalization, derealization, the memory issues in general), so we decided to just... jump for it.

We've been seeing mental health professionals since we were a teenager, but since we were never aware of these issues, we never brought it up. For a few months now we've been receiving psychological help because we've been dealing with intrusive thoughts and everything mentioned above, from a public mental health professional that we see once every four months (for free, but she's horrible but the only psychologist in my area so I can't change her), a private psychologist we saw when we were a teenager for anxiety (costs money, she's really good but I haven't told her about our plurality yet), and now we started with the psychological support service from my college (free for students).

Today we had our first appointment with this new professional at our college, and we decided to say 'fuck it' and tell her about the system. I was constantly backpedaling and trying to correct myself, as I didn't want to sound like 'I want a diagnosis of DID', but I just needed to tell SOMEONE. And guys, guess what. SHE BELIEVED ME! She said that our experiences seemed real (especially since we showed the journals we've been keeping for months, and the amount of evidence we had of it), whether they were from a dissociative disorder or not. She also said that, in her experience, plurality can exist outside of cdds because it's a symptom, and a symptom can exist outside disorders. She said that we can explore it as a symptom of a dissociative disorder or outside of it, because if I tried to deny my symptoms to myself, I tried to stop the plurality from existing, and it was still there, especially since it affected me in so many areas in my life... why wouldn't it be real?

I was astonished and so, so happy. I asked if she really believed that headmates (I called it different identities because there's not a word in my language for it except for alters and I didn't want to use that because I'm not diagnosed with any cdd) could exist outside of dissociative disorders, and she said that any symptom can exist outside of a disorder, it's just that it can exist at different levels of severity. DID and OSDD were no exceptions of this rule. It's just that in CDDs, they form because of a failed integration of the sense of identity during childhood (the theory of structural dissociation), so they're separated by amnesia barriers.

I talked a bit about my headmates and my system (I mentioned Orion and a few of the littles), but that was what we had time for in the session. I know that psychologists are supposed to validate your experiences, but I just felt so happy to be told that I'm not crazy or making it up for attention or anything like that.

What should I continue this conversation in the next session? Do you have any tips? For undiagnosed systems (or those who discovered the plurality before being diagnosed), how did you navigate it in general? I know she can't give diagnosis, but I don't really know what should I talk about. We have quite a few information of our system documented, but we don't want to seem too eager or performative. We just want for someone to understand us, listen to us, and give us tips.

Kind of stuck and trying to figure out my options.

My current complaint is, I guess, my limited insight into my plurality. I know I have at least one alter, and that we both have fragments. But attempts to explore this any further make me physically unwell, mainly nauseous. And then I pull away instinctively.

It used to be easier in the past, but then I got particularly overwhelmed by a specific fragment resurfacing, and since then I've been so averse of even thinking about my fragments that I kiiinda partially went back to being in denial about my plurality.

Right now, I'm only able to easily interact with my oldest and most segregated alter. The fact that she's very separate from me seems to make it easier. The less clear the separation is, the more dizzy and nauseous I get.

How does one move past something like this? And is there a way to ensure I don't get overwhelmed so badly again?

Hey so minor post. We've only been aware we're a system for a short while and we don't have it all figured out. Right now, I want to try to make one of my other headmates front because they want to play Rain World and I want to sit in co-con and watch them experience it. Issue: I don't know how to intentionally get someone else to front. Any advice?

Basically, anyone else believe their origins were one thing, only to realize they were something else? Thought you were endo -> realized you had trauma origins, vice versa, or something mixed.

Other options I couldn't fit are if you believed you were a system, only to realize some other form of plurality fit you better; thought you were one kind of plural, only to realize you're a different kind (such as polymind -> system); or anything else related that I can't think of, lol. Feel free to share if you went from singlet -> plural and what that experience was like for you.

What was your syscovery like? And anything else you want to say about it/share. c: (Please do not feel pressured to share info!! Feel free to just vote and move on. /gen)

For us, when our host was first contacted by two of our headmates, we assumed we were fully endogenic. No memory of trauma that was "bad enough" for us to think we could have a dissociative disorder. (We are now aware that "bad enough" is entirely subjective, and anyone saying you need a specific "type" of trauma is misinformed and/or just ableist, lol.)

At one point, a friend we had pointed out that the things we told him about our mom sounded pretty bad... and we finally connected the dots, lol.

We believed we had OSDD for a few years after that, and identified as a gateway system for a while.

Later on, we discovered we had FAR more headmates than we'd originally thought and started suspecting DID instead. Started realizing we had blackout amnesia and information was slowly being shared with the front...

Figured out we went through some pretty horrid stuff and that what we thought was our being a gateway system was actually better explained by our having side systems! We still have headmates/systemmates who identify by community coined terms, but we now believe we are a fully traumagenic system, even if we have "mixed origins." :]

So we were just at a choir concert, and the songs were beautiful! :DDD

That's when we saw our host's ex gf who's in the choir who was not that nice to her. Our host was in front when she saw her ex gf then disassociated each time she looked in her direction and then we switched I wanna say maybe 2 minutes later? Anyways so my question is this, Could seeing her be a trigger for switching?

-(Maybe) Lolbit

Hi I think I’m Floyd- idk…. still very new. hosts parents are fighting and ig that triggered it even thought I don’t thing theyve split bc of it before and this time isn’t even bad at all just some yelling

but whatevers I’m here now I think

or maybe I’ve always been here and Floyd is jus there form I took suddenly? or maybe I’m just an IRL kin or something…. it wasn’t until today after I realized I’m me/him just how similar Floyd and us have always been. it’s kinda weird

but yea yea hellos!!! if anyone else is from twisted wonderland I’d love to meet youuuu

-Floyd 🫧

(vent flag bc of the topic, it’s nothing really bad tho)

but we find it kinda funny how I always seem to the the one to front when hosts parents are arguing. well, host is always there but he’s more like just the general consciousness and me and my headmates control the emotions and memories ig.

the reason we see it the way we do is because I don’t have parents, I grew up in the slums alone. I got “adopted” (more like abducted imo) by a piece of shit alien but he wasn’t a parent in any sense of the word. So why is it me who’s always here when dealing with parental issues?

maybe it’s because I’m the oldest? the rest of my headmates are older teens, and I’m in my mid twenties. I guess I just feel parental over them? I have five kids in source, so I’m no stranger to taking care of them. I guess it’s just my instincts lol

-Ivan

hi this'll be kept quite simple but

new headmate apparently spawned. okay cool, what's the worst that could happen!

they're really similar to an already existing headmate. i can't even be mad at this as i'm not in control of this sorta stuff... i just find it funny 🥹

i don't even know if they properly exist or if a certain someone got confused with their own identity is the thing LOL?? that's how similar they are

and even though i apparently talked to them both i still cannot believe the possibility that they exist... idk we'll see

but that's all i'm gonna say i'm. really tired and just wanted to share something i find humorous. you may also throw tomatoes at me if i typed anything in a weird manner idk

was actually quite anxious to post this too so