Mordax et al

solipsistful:

arashi-of-ota:

last-starfighter:

fangirlinginleatherboots:

I’m not asking for an explanation on their existence, I’ve tried for a long time to reconcile having them and then I found you through a friend, and while you have an explicit *reason* for being the way you are, I do not. Still, your existence has been a great comfort to me, since I’m not alone in being.. not alone. But you say people like me can’t exist? Or shouldn’t? I guess I’m trying to understand why “natural” systems shouldn’t exist to you. I mean, here I am. Not to call you out, tho! 2/2

this is going to sound harsh but this is an issue that lies p close to my heart so im going to be totally honest and open here:

having people in your head is not what DID is though. alters aren’t people in your head. i mean they are, but not in that sense of it. 

alters are the result of a specific neurological development that is caused by trauma. like they can only control the body BECAUSE of that neurological aspect. in that sense, alters cant just form and fade over time because they are part of the brain. like their very existence is because of a physical thing and that physical thing can only exist when someone has been exposed to childhood trauma.

having people in your head doesnt make you a system

like please think about this statement because i get a lot of asks about having people in your heads and worrying that makes you a system

but having people in your head does NOT make you a system

a system is a word that refers to the segments of consciousness that can only exist because of that neurological factor, which again, can only exist if the brain doesnt develop correctly due to exposure to trauma.

like im not saying you dont exist, im saying you arent a system.

to make this as clear as possible

• system is a word for a group of alters
• alters are a neurological phenomena
• that neurological phenomena can only exist if a brain develops it
• the brain only develops that way if a young child is exposed to trauma

thus, natural systems cannot exist since the only way alters can exist is if a brain is exposed to trauma in a certain manner

whatever you’re going through is still a real and valid experience, but it’s not a system. whatever reason you exist the way you do is still valid, but you can’t call them alters or a system bc thats not what those words mean

and if it is a system, by definition of what a system is, you actually did have trauma that you dont recall (i didnt know i was traumatized until i was like 16 despite the trauma starting around 5-7). like to use the word system, you had to have had trauma because alters can only exist that way.

i know im just reciting the same phrases in different ways but i need this to be understood because the issue is that the endogenic community uses words for things that are DID and by definition, can only be used by people with DID

and just as a ….for the record sort of thing? i had “people in my head” before that werent alters. i didnt have words for what they were. they were coping tools that i couldnt get rid of but were with me. they kept me company. they formed and faded. they were very real to me even though i knew that they were in my head, but they were not alters and alters have verified that those things were not alters. ive known several people who have had this too and they are not systems. there’s a difference.

 this is a thing thats super controversial ok

you cant say ‘yr valid and yr experiences are valid’ and then turn around and say to someone who ids as part of a system/as an alter that they aint reeeeeeeallllllll and that they aint reaaaaaaaaally an alter because aint no trauma happened

like if you want to hoard the words and have yr super sekrit special did club thats only for people who are this traumatized ok that aint any of my business but theres plenty of people who aint part of traumagenic systems out there who are just as real as alters/who are part of systems 

and playin this off as ‘alters all agree on this thing!!!!!!’ ‘if you say this yr wrong!!!!’ when its actually???? really Not Settled??? and even psychs and people who study this dont agree????? 

thats kinda bullshit man 

@arashi-of-ota prolly has better words to explain this than i do 

actually im gonna hand this one over to @solipsistful, because i’m pretty sure i saw a post from them a while back on the origins of the word “system” but i can’t find it now D:

(also tho saying that someone is/was very real to you and calling them “things” in the same sentence, ouch – like this smacks of paying lip service to respect but not actually giving it)

Our understanding is that “system” really got popularized in early multiplicity mailing lists, in which things like “traumagenic only” and “no spirituality” and “medical only” weren’t really present. It really has just been defined as “multiple people in one body” (that link uses the word “alter”, but also note that they talk about walk-ins in that same faq and the whole “what causes multiplicity?” is very not-only-traumagenic) – we think the idea that it’s DID/OSDD-1-only terminology comes from the idea that multiplicity itself can only be from DID or DID-like OSDD.

I mean, it’s not exactly The Standard Terminology: go to one of those DID conferences and say “system”, and you’ll probably have to define it, unlike something like “alter.” It shows up in scientific articles here and there, but not super often, and usually the author makes it sound like it’s some idiosyncratic term that they’ve come up with lmao

So that’s where a lot of us are coming from, OP – it’s been defined as “multiple people”, not “DID/OSDD-1″ for a long time now, so it’s hard to hear “you aren’t a system” and not think it means “you aren’t really multiple.”

– Thomas