Superfreq
I'm confused. As someone who has 2 close family members with #DissociativeIdentityDisorder previously called #MultiplePersonalityDisorder Where did all of these people with #plural in their bios come from recently? Is this a common perception of other #MentalIllness too? Is it a lifestyle thing? Are people just more comfortable to be seen now?
#OSDD
#DID
#Plurality
#PluralTalk
#pluralgang
#psychology
#psychiatry
#MentalHealth
#psychotherapy
#Therapy
#neurodivergent
#neurodiversity
Aug 8, 2023 at 6:41pmWeb
Show threadmikiAug 8, 2023
@Superfreq Part of it is the Mastodon community attracting non-neurotiypical people, part of it is something weird going on with blindness and autism and gender dysphoria and plurality which I don’t really understand and which we have way too little research about, but there’s definitely something there.
Show threadMichelle HughesAug 8, 2023

@Superfreq

I thought I didn't know anyone with DID. Then I met one. Then another. Then, at a trans meetup, someone asked if anyone was plural and a bunch of folks that I'd known for awhile said they were. They just weren't talking about it within earshot of me before, and probably some of them thought they were all alone.

These days, it actually seems to be pretty common among trans people I know. Possibly because they're so likely to have traumatic pasts.

Show threadSuperfreqAug 8, 2023
@MegaMichelle
The common link to PTSD thing makes sense, you could also probably work that backwards and say that maybe the most forward alters being another gender contributes to the dysphoria, it's hard to say which it was with my trans family member, but I thought that while dissociative symptoms of PTSD were pretty common (with variety of severity), other identities were very rare, especially long term. Maybe a skeptical medical community and trying to suppress it explains the anamaly.
Show threadMichelle HughesAug 8, 2023

@Superfreq

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a stigma situation, and people are starting to be more aware of it and more accepting of it.

In that respect, it makes sense to see trans people coming out as DID also, because it's like - they already came out as trans. Fuck it, the closet never served them, why be closeted about this?

Show threadSuperfreqAug 9, 2023
@MegaMichelle
Forgot earlier to thank you for responding to this despite the somewhat suspicious nature of my post. I wanted to reassure people more in my message that I wasn't trying to accuse people of anything or use their responses to just prove some preconceived notion I already had, but I didn't have enough characters with the hashtags I needed to reach as many people as possible.
Show threadSkyAug 8, 2023

@Superfreq (To contextualize the following, I am not plural and not DID, but have a couple of plural friends and use personification exercises therapeutically.)

My impression is that plural is an umbrella term that includes DID but doesn't itself mean DID? That is, that it's a term for those who feel internally like multiple separate individuals sharing a body/brainspace, but/and can include people with alters/selves that aren't necessarily traumatically induced, don't necessarily cause distress/difficulty, and don't always involve amnesia.

It reminds me a bit of personification exercises in therapy (where you personify and talk to different parts and aspects of yourself and your emotions), but less transient and with a stronger sense of distinct identity. My guess is it's one of the many variances natural to humans that get hushed down because of mental illness stigma around DID and things that present similarly to DID. It's probably also something where awareness of it as a thing causes more people to look inward and decide it matches or might match their experiences. Heck, could even be that DID is a point on a broader spectrum than previously recognized, though I have no expertise to speak on that.

I haven't met anyone experiencing non-DID plurality who seems like they're trying to garner attention by appropriating the experiences of people with DID or what have you. I'm sure there are a few such people, just because there's always someone, but I doubt that's true of the group as a whole.

Show threadRebeccaAug 8, 2023
@Superfreq I wonder this as well. The question of if it's still considered a mental illness or just another type of being in the world comes to mind.
Show threadKeri SvendsenAug 8, 2023
@GamingWithEars @Superfreq @silverleaf57 It is still a mental illness.
Show threadSuperfreqAug 9, 2023
@sapphireangel @GamingWithEars @silverleaf57
Only if it causes significant or consistent measurable harm to the person in question or those around them, I think that's the modern definition of mental illness. Just because someone is out of alignment with norms doesn't necessarily mean they are a problem. Humanity would be far less advanced today if it weren't for people who thought differently from the rest.
Show thread12 Freya it/its𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩Aug 9, 2023
@Superfreq aha, so! DID != plurality. They are not the same! DID is a medicalised descriptor for one type of thing that sometimes exists under the definition of plurality, and sometimes, doesn't. And yes, varying cultural and interpersonal definitions, some specific to one specific system, are much more commonly seen now
Show threadSuperfreqAug 9, 2023
@12
Sure. I guess. But that doesn't change any of this. Plurality in some form has obviously always existed. Cultural contexts inform how we see things and what we call them. DID is the term we use for involuntary, PTSD induced, life impacting plurality here in much of the western medical community.
Show thread12 Freya it/its𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩Aug 9, 2023
@Superfreq sure, and DID is a specific variety of plurality, though as far as we understand it, plurality was created as a term specifically to NOT step on the toes of those with DID. We, for example, are plural in a rather unusual way; we are kind of the exact inverse; take a plural system and turn it inside out in concept: instead of a bunch of cuties sharing the one body (and yes, we know that's a way simplified description), we're a unified entity across multiple bodies.
Show threadSuperfreqAug 9, 2023
@12
Ah okay, I get what you guys are saying now. So what's the catch all then? Or should there even be one? fuck! :D
Show thread12 Freya it/its𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩Aug 9, 2023
@Superfreq we don't think there is one. The word we use for all of our bodies and the individual minds that are merged into our Collective is Enḫeduan (singular) / Enḫeduanna (plural)
Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@12
May I ask, is your username just a borgue reference, or is it because the alter who created it was for what ever reason associated with the number 12.
Show thread12 Freya it/its𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩Aug 10, 2023

@Superfreq two things:

1: Indeed, We are Borg; our Collective actively assimilates others into itself
2: We do not, directly, have the concepts of alters; instead we have the concept of the Collective will, arrived at by consensus, and whichever Enḫeduan is best fit to carry out the task identified, does so. This Enḫeduan is designated 12 of 47, quaternary data processing adjunct of submatrix 9-3-9, unimatrix 00-12-06

Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@12
Alright. Thanks for explaining.
Show threadKat RavenwolfAug 10, 2023
@Superfreq I have seen that...some people know that they have different personalities in their head, and before (or if) they are even diagnosed with a mental disorder, they do that so that they can deal with it better on their own...At least I think from knowing some folks who see themselves that way. I, too, am neurodivergent, though I have no interest in seeing what the medical establishment would potentially label me, because guaranteed they would. That's my thoughts on it, anyway.
Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@cambridgeport90
Can't really blame them given the state of mental health support honestly. We shouldn't have to DIY it but sometimes that's the best way anyway.
Thanks for sharing your POV.
Show threadKat RavenwolfAug 10, 2023
@Superfreq No problem at all. Psychiatrists, and to a lesser extent, psychologists, need to start looking at things a bit differently. Just because someone is different, doesn't make them ill.
Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@cambridgeport90
It is horribly tough though and some harm will always be done.
Do you say if it's hurting them it's bad? Okay but how much of that is society causing the problem. Should we push people to change just for others? And what if it's more good than bad.
What if they want to change. Well okay, but is it for good reasons? Do we even have the right to say what's a good reason? And what about those who don't want to change, yet are still harming people. How do you measure harm anyway?
Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@cambridgeport90
Really, the only way to make sure you aren't screwing people over by imposing "normality" on them is to never attempt it at all. But you can't do that if they threaten you, and morally you can't let them hurt them selves or others either.
If you live in society, you are expected to follow it's rules. The problem is when you can't help but not, or the rules are shit.
Show threadKat RavenwolfAug 10, 2023
@Superfreq You have to learn to resist, if you can; though I agree, the ones who are hurting others, something definitely needs to be done for them. Note how I say for them, not about them. I though about suicide a few times in 2014, but I never spoke to a psychologist about it. Because I knew who it was taunting me, and that was purely what it was. Most psych professionals probably also don't believe in either demons or the spirit world, for that matter. Their training probably squeezes it out of them.
Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@cambridgeport90
IMO a good mental health professional doesn't care what you believe in, they care about how it's effecting you. They will learn all they can about the way you see the world and try to draw the information out so they can make sense of it in a way that they can understand, so that they can use it to help you.
A good MHP is willing to be a little bit insane when it counts.
Show threadKat RavenwolfAug 10, 2023
@Superfreq Plus, most stuff that happens to me is in my minds eye, so they would have that going for them. I believe that there are beings all around us, and most of them we can't see. The reason for that? Because humanity would try to crush their existence by hiding them behind, say, meds or something. Way too many people are on unnecessary meds as it is.
Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@cambridgeport90
You're ultimately always going to have to choose some guidelines even if they're arbitrary. I guess the best you can do is try to choose the least harmful ones, based on majority rule, expertise, or both.
Show threadKat RavenwolfAug 10, 2023
@Superfreq The cruelest thing I believe that psych professionals do is keep people in some cases sedated on a constant basis. I believe that rehab, not prison, should be the way going forward for those who were clearly diagnosed as insane during trials. It could always be made up, but I have to believe that the majority of people would want to tell the truth. No one is pure evil, in my opinion.
Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@cambridgeport90
Assuming rehab is possible with the techniques we have in their lifetime...
The line is between making them as comfortable as possible and making them safe around them selves and others.
Some DR's just give up and use sedation for convenience because they don't care about the patient any more. Some can't guarantee safety otherwise because of lacking resources. Some patients are genuinely so constantly destructive that we can't do anything else for them except kill them.
Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@cambridgeport90
Not saying it's right, just laying it all out. Either way, it's fucking terrible for the patient and will probably make them far worse than they were before.
Show threadKat RavenwolfAug 10, 2023
@Superfreq It's basically signing up for intentional brain damage when it's long term. A friend of mine was put on Haldol, briefly, and she hopes to never be put on it again. I forget why they did that, though. She didn't like it.
Show threadSuperfreqAug 10, 2023
@cambridgeport90
Ideally it's supposed to be temporary for most conditions, but I agree. We generally have a quick fix, get back to work, shake it off culture in most of the west, and at this point it's hard to say how much of the medical system was formed from that, and how much of the culture has been changed because of the medical system.
Either way, under resourcing mental health assistance isn't helping.
Show threadsignerinkbeastAug 18, 2023
@cambridgeport90 @Superfreq I can second this. Depending on circumstances & how the system is structured, it is possible to have awareness of other parts. I knew of one very early on in my life alongside myself that handled the external daily living stuff. We had to know & work with each other, otherwise we'd both run our life into the ground. That's just how things were structured in my own DID-system according to some more internal parts many years later. When I was diagnosed, I knew 3 pts.
Show thread∞ of ∞Aug 10, 2023

@Superfreq Plurality is a superset.

For example, our own system isn't DID type, it's schizo-type.

All DID is plural, but not all plurality is DID.

Also the neurodiversity community as a whole has been trying to remove both the stigma and tragedy narrative from these sorts of disability. A lot of people clutch their pearls that if you don't hate being plural that it "doesn't count" and take great offense to that as though by enjoying your existence you are somehow intruding.

This is the same as the LGBT+ community was before Stonewall, and history shows we(p) are MUCH happier after that (we(s) are also bisexual and trans).

Show threadAaronAug 11, 2023
@Superfreq I'm not plural, but I can tell you that over the last few years there has been a sea change in our culture around the acceptance of neurodivergence. I was autistic for decades years before feeling comfortable coming out as such. There is also an increase in awareness of the wide variety of different ways to experience life as a human being, which means people are just now finding the words for what they experience, the courage to communicate that, and the community to support them. I see this happening with all forms of neurodivergence and self-understanding, from autistic people to trans people to plural people. It's a good time to be alive for those of us who have always struggled to conform.
Show threadEctoplasmAug 11, 2023
@Superfreq think it's more people are open about what's going on with them. Back in the past there was a big stigma around neurodivergence. With a more open society, people are more willing to find help for their problems, and more open about their live, If social media was active when my generation grew up in the 80s, a lot more of my generation would have been diagnosed.
Show threadTroubles Dissociatifs - DocuAug 15, 2023

@Superfreq
DID is as common as autism, anorexia, schizophrenia, social anxiety, and PTSD.

Also, people with borderline PD and a lot of dissociative symptoms can mistake their condition with DID. Not their fault, even professionals have to use diagnosis tools to know if it's BPD with dissociation, BPD+DID, or DID alone.

And last, having traumas can have an impact on how you perceive boundaries, and can easily make you oversharing online.

Show threadTroubles Dissociatifs - DocuAug 15, 2023

@Superfreq

We wrote two articles about that, if you are interested, I have put them in Google Translate for you (our team is French). It has trouble translating "TDI" to "DID", but otherwise it's understandable.

Article 1 : Myths and Facts about DID
https://troublesdissociatifs-wordpress-com.translate.goog/2019/09/21/mythes-et-faits-partie-1/?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=fr&_x_tr_hl=fr&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Article 2 : Talking about DID
https://troublesdissociatifs-wordpress-com.translate.goog/2021/02/23/parler-du-tdi-un-etat-simule-ou-une-realite/?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=fr&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Mythes et Faits sur le TDI – Partie 1

Les mythes et les idées reçues sur le trouble dissociatif de l’identité ont toujours existé, mais ils se sont imprégnés de plus en plus dans l’imaginaire collectif au fil des années et des études d…

Troubles Dissociatifs - Documentation
Show threadNatasha BatesDec 17, 2023
@Superfreq I never quite got it either. How does plurality arise without early childhood trauma? I have doubts about that.