ʚ body age┊➞ late 20s !
ʚ collective pronouns ┊➞ they/them !
ʚ collective labels ┊➞ androgyne/non-binary !
Minors can follow, but we don't make friends with minors!
We are supportive of polyminds, so long as they understand they are not a system or use CDD terms
We will not go out of our way to harass communities we disagree with!
Radqueers, (pro/neutral) endogenic/non-traumagenic systems, radfems, transids, terfs/swerfs, proshippers, bigots, homo/transphobes, and other general criteria please DNI
Hopefully this is okay to ask, but I was diagnosed with DID Ages ago, and im only really starting to come out of denial now (long story). Ive looked so many places online- and ive even tried reading a few books, but every resource seems to skip the beginning part. They talk about mapping your system, and listing your alters- as if i have any idea on who they are or what theyre like. People talk about it like its so second nature that its making me feel insane. A part of it could be autism and me taking things too literally- but i have no clue on how to communicate with people who arent around. Agh. Im just asking for advice i guess, im struggling to find anything.
I understand the struggle, these things just take time and unfortunately it's not exactly a concrete process. People really don't talk about these kinds of problems even though they should, because what you've described here really isn't uncommon at all.
The problem with DID is that is essentially hides in plain sight; alters are switching out and influencing you all the time, the disorder just makes it very difficult to realize when it's happening.
Even outside of amnesia and denial, you can be looking directly at your own symptoms and still not see them. DID brains are hardwired toward not processing things because our personality structures are built around dissociating away from our experiences.
So even when you're experiencing symptoms in the moment and are actively aware of that experience, you still might not realize what you're experiencing is the activity of other alters. It just doesn't "click".
As for how to learn things about your alters, it's most commonly done through pretty meticulous symptom tracking. I'd recommend keeping some kind of journal that you aim to update at least once a day (it's easiest to do this with an app that you can set notifications for).
Keep note of when you lose time, feel dissociated or notice differences in your thoughts or behaviour. Over enough time you'll start to be able to see patterns, i.e. that certain events, activities or emotions tend to trigger certain symptoms. From there you can start to form an outline of your parts, for example you might notice that you tend to hear a childlike internal monologue in response to a certain trigger, suggesting you might have a child part that holds that kind of trauma.
You can hypothesize about the kinds of parts you might have based on what you know about your trauma history and PTSD symptoms, too. Trauma has to be compartmentalized somewhere, if you have amnesia or strong dissociation for a particular part of your trauma history you can generally assume that there's another part that holds it. If you have vague memories of how you've acted in the past when that trauma is triggered (or someone's told you) you can start to guess what that part's personality may be like.
Obviously this can be quite difficult to do with amnesia and dissociation. But in general, it's just a matter of trying to consistently pay attention to your symptoms and the patterns that show up when you do.
In the beginning stages of DID treatment, it's normal for suspected alters to be discussed based on singular traits that have been noticed. For example, "the one who I hear crying sometimes", "the one who throws aways my possessions" or "the one who yelled at my friend". Over time you might realize some of these are the same alter.
With communication specifically, it's a good idea to have a shared journal or leave notes around that explicitly invite other parts to write things. You could write a letter or something to them first as well. After that, it's kind of just a waiting game to find something you don't remember writing that might have clues that allow you to figure things out about your alters.
You might find the following links useful from DIS-SOS:
Befriending Dissociated Parts: First Steps
Reducing Amnesia: Developing Co-Consciousness
Mapping for DID/OSDD Systems
And these videos from the CTAD clinic on YouTube:
A method for building internal dialogues for Dissociative Identity Disorder DID and OSDD
Why do some alters not communicate? Questions about Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
Why is my internal communication (in OSDD or DID) not working?
Obviously, the ideal solution would be to work through this with a professional, but hopefully some of this was helpful regardless of whether or not that's something you can access at the moment.
Links to studies on various co-occurring conditions within DID and dissociation, including suicidality and non-suicidal self-injury.
General Comorbidity
Dissociative Identity Disorder and Its Relationship with Other Diagnoses
Dissociative identity disorder and dissociative symptoms in people with gender incongruence: a critical review of literature and a case series
Axis-I comorbidity in female patients with dissociative identity disorder and dissociative identity disorder not otherwise specified
The psychiatric comorbidity of dissociative identity disorder: an integrated look
Mood & Anxiety Disorders
Dissociative identity disorder associated with mania and change in handedness
Anxiety sensitivity predicts depression severity in individuals with dissociative identity disorder (not open access)
Anxiety sensitivity predicts depression severity in individuals with dissociative identity disorder
The Effect of Depression on Self-Harm and Treatment Outcome in Patients With Severe Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative depression among women in the community
The bidirectional relationship between depression and dissociation: A longitudinal investigation (not open access)
Electroconvulsive therapy in an adolescent with dissociative identity disorder and depression: a case report
Prevalence and correlates of dissociative symptoms among people with depression
Dissociative symptoms in depressive and anxiety disorders: prevalence and clinical correlates in a real-world outpatient sample
Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dissociative disorder among abused children
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dissociative disorder among abused children
A case of dissociative identity disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder comorbidity
Dissociation in autism spectrum disorders: An under-recognized symptom
Management of dissociation in high-functioning autism adolescents
An investigation of dissociative symptoms and related factors in autistic adolescents (not open access)
Eating Disorders & Substance Use
The treatment of dissociative identity disorder in an eating disorder residential treatment setting (not open access)
Dissociative states presenting as an eating disorder (not open access)
Dissociation, abuse and the eating disorders: Evidence from an Australian population (not open access)
Dissociative Experiences and Trauma in Eating Disorders
Dissociative identity disorder and substance abuse: the forgotten relationship (not open access)
Dissociative disorders among inpatients with drug or alcohol dependency (not open access)
The Role of Psychoactive Drugs in the Onset of Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Comparative Study of Alcohol and Drug Abusers
Dissociation, PTSD, and Substance Abuse: An Empirical Study
Psychotic Disorders
Auditory hallucinations in dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia with and without a childhood trauma history: Similarities and differences
Dissociation and psychosis in dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia
Association Between Psychotic and Dissociative Symptoms: Further Investigation Using Network Analysis
Dissociation and Psychosis in Dissociative Identity Disorder and Schizophrenia (not open access)
Psychotic symptoms in complex dissociative disorders
Dissociation, Dissociative Disorders and Partial Psychosis
Auditory hallucinations in dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia with and without a childhood trauma history: similarities and differences (not open access)
The Relationship Between Dissociation and Symptoms of Psychosis: A Meta-analysis
Personality Disorders
Co-occurrence of dissociative identity disorder and borderline personality disorder (not open access)
Comparing the symptoms and mechanisms of "dissociation" in dissociative identity disorder and borderline personality disorder
Three cases of dissociative identity disorder and co-occurring borderline personality disorder treated with dynamic deconstructive psychotherapy
Case Report: Anomalous Experience in a Dissociative Identity and Borderline Personality Disorder
Childhood trauma history and dissociative experiences among Turkish men diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder
Dissociation in antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy: review of the literature (not open access)
The relationship between self-mutilation, aggression, childhood trauma history and dissociative experiences in antisocial personality disorder (not open access)
Narcissism, a relational aspect of dissociation
A new insight into borderline and narcissistic dissociative experience: the mentalization of attachment trauma (not open access)
The intricate role of dissociation in the relations between childhood maltreatment, self-objectification, and narcissism (not open access)
Defense Mechanisms in Schizotypal, Borderline, Antisocial, and Narcissistic Personality Disorders
Schizoidia in schizophrenia spectrum and personality disorders: Role of dissociation
Personality disorder traits, maladaptive schemas, modes and coping styles in participants with complex dissociative disorders, borderline personality disorder and avoidant personality disorder
Why dissociation and schizotypy overlap: The joint influence of fantasy proneness, cognitive failures, and childhood trauma
Relationship between Dissociative Experiences and Schizotypal Personality Traits: Mediating Role of Inferential Confusion
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders
Dissociative symptoms and dissociative disorders comorbidity in obsessive compulsive disorder: Symptom screening, diagnostic tools and reflections on treatment
Dissociative experiences in obsessive-compulsive disorder and trichotillomania: clinical and genetic findings (not open access)
Dissociation in skin picking disorder and trichotillomania
Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and dissociative experiences: Suggested underlying mechanisms and implications for science and practice
The relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and dissociation: a systematic review and meta-analysis (not open access)
Dissociative symptoms in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (not open access)
Symptom subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder and their relation to dissociation (not open access)
Are trauma and dissociation related to treatment resistance in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder?
Suicidality & NSSI
Dissociative disorders and suicidality in psychiatric outpatients (not open access)
Frequency and characteristics of suicide attempts in dissociative identity disorders: A 12-month follow-up study in psychiatric outpatients in Switzerland (not open access)
Dissociative identity disorder presenting as a suicide attempt or drug overdose: A case report
The link between dissociation and both suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury: Meta-analyses (not open access)
Multidimensional perspective of dissociation and suicide-related outcomes: A Meta-analysis and systematic review
Self-Injury and Suicide Attempt in Relation with Trauma and Dissociation among Adolescents with Dissociative and Non-Dissociative Disorders
Six completed suicides in dissociative identity disorder patients: Clinical observations (not open access)
Dissociative, depressive, and PTSD symptom severity as correlates of nonsuicidal self-injury and suicidality in dissociative disorder patients
Neuroanatomical Predictors of Suicidality in Women with Dissociative Identity Disorder
Establishing safety with patients with dissociative identity disorder
Suicide and parasuicide in multiple personality disorder (not open access)
Risk of suicidal acts in patients with dissociative disorder: a population-based cohort study
Other
Dissociation and its biological and clinical associations in functional neurological disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis
Self-Reported Sleep Disturbances in Patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and How They Relate to Cognitive Failures and Fantasy Proneness
Links to research on the causes and mechanisms of DID, including the genetics that lead to its development and the neuropsychology that underpins its symptoms.
Etiology of DID
Dissociation debates: everything you know is wrong
The sociocognitive model of dissociative identity disorder: a reexamination of the evidence
Disorganized Attachment and the Orbitofrontal Cortex as the Basis for the Development of Dissociative Identity Disorder
Revisiting the etiological aspects of dissociative identity disorder: a biopsychosocial perspective
A Cross-Cultural Test of the Trauma Model of Dissociation
The Weakness of the Sociocognitive Model of Dissociative Identity Disorder
Is it trauma‐or fantasy‐based? Comparing dissociative identity disorder, post‐traumatic stress disorder, simulators, and controls
Multiple Personality Disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder: Etiology, Diagnosis, and Management
Toward an etiology of dissociative identity disorder: A neurodevelopmental approach (not open access)
The Proposed Etiologies of Dissociative Identity Disorder
Evaluation of the evidence for the trauma and fantasy models of dissociation
The Psychobiology of Authentic and Simulated Dissociative Personality States: The Full Monty
Abuse Histories in 102 Cases of Multiple Personality Disorder
Neuroscience of DID
“I Am Not I”: The Neuroscience of Dissociative Identity Disorder
Abnormal hippocampal morphology in dissociative identity disorder and post‐traumatic stress disorder correlates with childhood trauma and dissociative symptoms
Aiding the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder: pattern recognition study of brain biomarkers (not open access)
A systematic review of the neuroanatomy of dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity state-dependent working memory in dissociative identity disorder: a controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Treatment of dissociative identity disorder: leveraging neurobiology to optimize success
Normal amygdala morphology in dissociative identity disorder
Hippocampal and amygdalar volumes in dissociative identity disorder
A neurostructural biomarker of dissociative amnesia: a hippocampal study in dissociative identity disorder
Neurodevelopmental origins of abnormal cortical morphology in dissociative identity disorder (not open access)
Voluntary switching between identities in dissociative identity disorder: A functional MRI case study
Dissociative Part-Dependent Resting-State Activity in Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Controlled fMRI Perfusion Study
Neurological Difference Between the Host and Alternate Identities of a Patient Diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder
Similar cortical but not subcortical gray matter abnormalities in women with posttraumatic stress disorder with versus without dissociative identity disorder (not open access)
The Neuropsychiatry of Dissociative Identity Disorder: Why Split Personality Patients Switch Personalities Intermittently? (not open access)
Psychobiological Characteristics of Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Symptom Provocation Study
Volume of discrete brain structures in complex dissociative disorders: preliminary findings
Opposite brain emotion-regulation patterns in identity states of dissociative identity disorder: a PET study and neurobiological model
Frontal and occipital perfusion changes in dissociative identity disorder
Functional Neuroimaging in Dissociative Disorders: A Systematic Review
Genetics of Dissociation & DID
The Molecular Genetics of Dissociative Symptomatology: A Transdiagnostic Literature Review
A Genome-Wide Association Study of Clinical Symptoms of Dissociation in a Trauma-Exposed Sample
CATT haplotype of the FKBP5 gene and dissociative phenomenology
The interactive effects of child maltreatment and the FK506 binding protein 5 gene (FKBP5) on dissociative symptoms in adolescence (not open access)
Twin Study of Dissociative Experience (not open access)
The relationship between childhood abuse and dissociation. Is it influenced by catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) activity?
Behavioral and molecular genetics of dissociation: the role of the serotonin transporter gene promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) (not open access)
Predicting identity dissociation using childhood maltreatment and genetic variation in the stress-response gene FKBP5: a machine learning analysis
The prevalence and biometric structure of pathological dissociation in the general population: taxometric and behavior genetic findings
Dissociative Disorders: Symptomatology and Genes (not open access)
A genetic analysis of individual differences in dissociative behaviors in childhood and adolescence (not open access)
Disorganized attachment and identity dissociation: FKBP5 CATT as molecular moderator
Do external auditory hallucinations occur in DID? And do people with DID experience any other kinds of hallucinations in general?
They can, yes.
From the DSM-V section on DID:
"These individuals may also report perceptions of voices (e.g., a child’s voice, voices commenting on the individual’s thoughts or behavior, persecutory voices and command hallucinations). In some cases, hearing voices is specifically denied, but the individual reports multiple, perplexing, independent thought streams over which the individual experiences no control. Individuals with dissociative identity disorder may report hallucinations in all sensory modalities: auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory."
Generally hallucinations in DID tend to be more transient and explicitly trauma-based than compared to those experienced in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. It's also not something that everyone with the disorder experiences.
There's quite a bit of research about the relationship between dissociation and psychotic symptoms like hallucinations, but these in particular might be of interest here:
Psychotic symptoms in complex dissociative disorders
Auditory hallucinations in dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia with and without a childhood trauma history: similarities and differences (not open access)
Voices: Are They Dissociative or Psychotic? (not open access)
The holy grail of evidence against endogenic systems - that CDDs CANNOT be intentionally created and then sustained
[SOURCED]
And for the research of how it can’t be created? Here are those sources if you’d like to read and study them.
D. W. Brown, Frischholz, & Scheflin, 1999
Gleaves, 1996
Loewenstein, 2007
Image text below cut.
Some authors claim that DID is caused by clinicians who believe strongly in DID and who implicitly and/or explicitly influence patients to enact symptoms of DID. According to this “sociocognitive” model,
DID is a socially constructed condition that results from the therapist’s cueing (e.g., suggestive questioning regarding the existence of possible alternate personalities), media influences (e.g., film and television portrayals of DID), and broader sociocultural expectations regarding the presumed clinical features of DID. For example, some proponents of the sociocognitive model believe that the release of the book and film Sybil in the 1970s played a substantial role in shaping conceptions of DID in the minds of the general public and psychotherapists. (Lilienfeld & Lynn, 2003, p. 117)
Despite these arguments, there is no actual research that shows that the complex phenomenology of DID can be created, let alone sustained over time, by suggestion, contagion, or hypnosis (D. W. Brown, Frischholz, & Scheflin, 1999; Gleaves, 1996; Loewenstein, 2007).
[Additional reading provided above.]
A number of lines of evidence support the trauma model for DID over the sociocognitive model. These include studies that demonstrate DID in children, adolescents, and adults with substantiated maltreatment with evidence that DID symptoms predated any interaction with clinicians (Hornstein & Putnam, 1992; Lewis, Yeager, Swica, Pincus, & Lewis, 1997), studies of psychophysiology and psychobiology as described above, and studies of the discriminant validity of the dissociative disorders using structured interview protocols, among many others. Furthermore, naturalistic studies have shown that DID patients report many symptoms that, based on research data characterizing DID, were previously unknown to the patients, the general culture, and even most clinicians (Dell, 2006b).
My boyfriend recently made a point on how CDDs are seen as a chronically online topic that has been watered down to the point people forget that people with CDDs have went through repetitive and complex trauma and I agree with him.
I don't have much to add on; we're kind of lazy today.
In our honest opinion, the amount of misinformation spread about CDDs doesn't help. Not to mention those that treat CDDs like "alter disorder" and "quirky fun people in my head". I've dated far too many people that turn a CDD into a big joke and LARPing.
Maybe it sounds harsh as fuck, but making OCs is still cool and still fun! /nay OP
A post that we made a bit ago... and we think an ex of ours - who should be blocked - may have made a response to it... The timing is... a coincidence...
Our post was not even about him... It was about the sex cult we were in, the ex who severely raped us, our family, and our ex fiance... Not about an ex we dated 13 years ago...
i used to be terrified and reluctant of fusion. lets talk about it
my past three partners treated DID like a larping game, or something out of this world. my ex fiance treated us like we were another universe connected to a brain in this universe, and two others were self proclaimed "systems" that treated it like ocs and world building. everything was too convenient, everything had to go their way or the highway, and each of us had to be completely separate from each other. it was literally like larping our ocs.
i am a diagnosed system and have been in therapy off and on since i was 12-13 and i am 29 now. ive been in 5 different psychiatric wards throughout my life because of my mental health, and only just last year, when i was still 27, was i given the diagnosis of DID despite being aware since i was 13-14.
i was groomed into believing that my system had to be just like the self proclaimed systems i dated, and how my singlet ex fiance wanted me to be. i also followed a lot of systems online and because my system wasnt exactly like theirs, i thought for the longest time i was faking. i did exaggerate my symptoms to match what others wanted of me and to be like how it is often portrayed online.
by default, i saw each of my parts/alters as their entirely separate people, which only increased my dissociation and amnesiac barriers. it also didnt help with my identity and if i didnt know who was fronting, i always assumed it had to be a new alter instead of just being fuzzy, dissociated, or blurry. i could never just exist in the moment and accept that i didnt know who i was and that sometimes thats okay. i was taught that i had to know at all times or it wasnt acceptable. i was even sometimes beaten if i didnt know.
theres a lot of my system that i do not know what is and isnt true to who we are. i thought my system was a lot bigger than it was, but it was just my system basically having what we call a "virus" to subconsciously fawn and be what everyone wanted us to be.
if something was our way and we were honest about something in our system, we were told thats not real and that others know more about our system than we do.
fusion and dormancy was treated as the ultimate alter death and something awful. to those around us, alters could die and it was a traumatic and horrifying thing. deaths in one of my exes "system" was even pre-planned and talked about often as something we all had to accept and mourn about. we were often told to "kill" problematic persecutors and trauma holders.
an alter dying can be one way of visualizing them going dormant or fusing, and its okay to be upset by that and feel like you lost a part of you
but now that were in a healthy and stable relationship and can just exist as we are, we are piecing together what is and isnt true about our system, we can have time to ourself where we dont know who we are without fear of being beaten or needing to know, and we arent treated like ocs and roleplay. weve come to accept the inner world isnt real and is just a visualization for us to process and cope with trauma, and that all of us are parts of one whole and nothing special and that is perfectly fine.
we dont have to exaggerate symptoms or be what anyone else expects us to be. weve had a few fusions through therapy and healing and weve been okay. its a wonderful feeling to know that we are healing and breaking down amnesiac barriers even if our dissociation is still rough. im just glad that we can be unapologetically us and dont have to feel bad about it, and im glad parts of us have healed and been able to fuse.
fusion isnt scary, its healing yourself. its taking your child self by their tiny, delicate hands and saying we are okay now, and weve come so far and we deserve love and kindness and care.
A personal stance term that focuses primarily, if not solely, on CDD spaces and community support. Those who are CDD-centric have separated, or wish to separate themselves majorly or entirely from syscourse for whatever reason prn may have (e.g. exhaustion with hostility in syscourse spaces, personal health reasons, etc.).
Those who are CDD-centric are:
Pro-CDD-recovery, and respect individual systems' desires for final fusion or functional multiplicity
Non-traumagenic plurality critical, and believe NTGs do not belong in CDD spaces. This includes using CDD terms (note: the term "system" in regards to identity alteration was first used in medical texts to refer to pwCDDs, and is thus included) or claiming their experience is parallel to CDD systems in any way.
Syscourse-critical
Anti harassment
Anti fakeclaiming (this includes fakeclaiming NTGs for their believed experiences)
Anti "armchair diagnosis," forced syscovery, and forced trauma recognition
Suggestions for tags:
[in addition to CDD tags; yes syscourse is often placed within CDD tags, this is why we filter content]
#cdd centric, #cddcentric, #cdd centric community, (and more, we are open to suggestions).
This is a long post, there is a lot more under the cut. Help with image IDs & PT are extremely appreciated.
Behind the Flag
Colors:
The Foggy Blue represents complex dissociation & CDD systems as a whole
Green is for healing and growth. There are two shades of green as a representation that there is no "one acceptable path" to recovery. The choice of only two shades was influenced by the two primary forms of system integration: functional multiplicity and final fusion
Yellow is for community, and healthy/positive community spaces
Orange represents strength, and for those who speak out against misinformation, mistreatment, and injustice—no matter what "side" (particular to syscourse, as this is a syscourse-critical stance) it's coming from
Red is for the establishment of personal responsibility to enforce boundaries: blocking accounts instead of harassing others, filtering tags to minimize the amount of discourse one engages in, etc.
The blue-greys were color-picked from the CDD system pride flag.
The symbol on the flag is based on the system signet. This design retains the original meanings behind the symbol's design, while also being inclusive of P-DID systems (as the original signet is OSDDID specific). The meanings of the symbol are as follows:
The largest circle stands for systems as a whole
The inner circle within the largest represents complex structures within systems (such as subsystems) and internal parts that rarely or do not front
The smallest circle at the top (interrupting the largest middle circles) represents the structure of P-DID systems. [Explanation of this symbolism at the end of the bullet points]
The larger outer circles represent more overt parts (+ symptoms) in CDD systems
The smaller outer circles represent more covert parts (+ symptoms) in CDD systems
The stems that connect the circles signify each alter's connection and purpose to the system
Credits and many thanks to @the-complicity-system for their input on the revised system signet to also be inclusive of pwP-DID! I included their wording for the symbolism of the P-DID alteration, because I honestly can't explain it any better, myself—and I feel the wording coming from a P-DID system is more meaningful than it is from a system who does not have P-DID.
“I like pdid's symbol being a circle with another smaller circle interrupting the complete link bc it avoids the idea that the stuck host is the like main guy but still is a linked focus of the system.”
In coining this stance term, I need to make myself as clear as possible:
I coined this because I wanted a term to describe my individual beliefs.
This is NOT a push to abandon the anti endo community.
I'm tired of syscourse and how hostile it is—and how much worse it seems to have gotten in the span of time I've been on Tumblr (close to 2 years). While I've identified most closely with the anti endo community, there's been a growing association with animosity within our spaces (this isn't everyone, nor is it "all the time;" but it is a trend and it isn't getting better with time).
I enjoy the anti endo community as a whole, but I don't feel fully connected to a lot of the ideals that circulate through that side syscourse anymore/most recently. This is why I'm creating this term, and possibly (hopefully) separate community tags.
Additionally, I feel as though syscourse is completely unproductive. CDD systems who push to educate are rarely listened to by the (pro)endogenic community. Endos who try to express how they experience plurality are shut down just as quickly. Nobody listens to each other, and I feel it's pointless. I don't want to involve myself in syscourse anymore, so I'm creating this term to step away from it and focus on constructive, CDD-centric spaces.
I recently saw someone who was not anti-endo (not exactly sure their specific labeled stance), talking about how people who are anti-endo are often racist/religiously prejudiced (intentionally or not) due to some... (sorry idk how to phrase) "plural" experiences being linked to religious sources?
And like.... very genuinely curious your opinion.
Because like... im not an expert on religions, nor the beliefs or lived experiences living under any specific religion. And like, im not here to tell someone what is and isnt a spiritual experience... but also like.... that isnt a CDD then... so.... why do you want to be in CDD or agacent spaces? Like wouldn't you want to be in a space for your religious/spiritual experience?
And the only like... "point" this person had that made me kinda second guess myself I guess was that those specific spiritual experiences can coexist with someone who does have a CDD. (Like for example someone who has a traumatic childhood and develops CDD, but also raised in a religion with a "plural" spiritual experience built into it, would then theoretically have both experiences)
Idk curious your 2 cents about it..
(I also dont expect you to have "the answer" or be an expert on any of this, just want to hear someone elses thoughts)
Okay, for starters, I want to make it clear as all hell that I am white and not at all part of any of these cultures, so I definitely am not the spokesperson for this topic! I am also not an expert on other religious or cultural practices!
That being said, I don't think it's racist at all to be anti endo. I am someone who does believe in other spiritual experiences, tulpas, possession, etc, but as I've mentioned in the past, none of that makes you a system. I do however believe it could be teetering a line if you tell someone of these cultures and practices that what they experience is fake, stupid, bullshit, etc.
The original form of tulpamancy, from what I've heard, is not at all the same as how others make it out to be (the westernized "endo" crap we see today), and tulpas are instead supposed to be used as a sort of guide and then disappear once their purpose has been fulfilled. Tulpamancy is also a closed Tibetan Buddhism practice, and not something Bobby down the road can just claim to be part of.
While I do believe in the possibility of spiritual practices causing experiences similar to plurality, it's still not the same as being a CDD system and would not cause a system to form. It also would not cause the same experiences as someone with a CDD has. It would be it's own entirely separate thing that has nothing to do with systems at all and instead has all to do with their spirituality. So regardless, endogenic systems still have no right to be in CDD spaces.
As for the topic of someone who is both a CDD system and experiencing those kind of spiritual practices... That's a tough one. They'd still belong in CDD spaces since they are a CDD system, but I think when it comes to the topic of their spirituality, that should be kept either in their personal circle with IRL friends and family, trusted professionals, their religion, etc. It still doesn't need to be brought up in CDD spaces, unless they are able to differentiate those spiritual experiences and CDD experiences from each other and make it clear that both are not the same, they just happen to be experiencing the same.
I do also think they should be willing to accept that they may not be experiencing both and that it could be spiritual psychosis, delusions, something else entirely, etc., and that others in the CDD community may not be comfortable with talking about that and they should respect those boundaries.
I hope this makes sense! And if anyone would like to add their opinions, feel free! Though if you reblog this in bad faith to argue or be shitty, you will be blocked!
White systems please stop saying “black alter” “POC alter” “asian alter” “native alter” etc. I’m literally begging you to talk to systems of colour and realize how odd (and racist) it is to say those phrases.
