That actually brings up something Iโve been wanting to address.
Listen. As helpful as it can be to have a community here, there are ideas that can make people expect things that actually arenโt common, or think that what IS common is a sign of something wrong, and these ideas permeate across the tumblr communities.
If you donโt know how many alters you have, thatโs common.
If you have periods where you canโt tell who you are, thatโs common.
If you have a blackout when normally you remember what happened, thatโs common.
If you remember the basic idea of what happened but not details, thatโs common.
If you find a lot of your alters behave similarly, thatโs common.
If you canโt speak with your alters, thatโs common.
If you have trouble identifying when an alter showed up, thatโs common.
If you canโt figure out why an alter split, or what their job might be, thatโs common.
If you find yourself behaving differently but having no control over it or didnโt switch, thatโs common.
If you have trouble identifying key parts of yourself (things you like, your skills, your favorite things), thatโs common.
The entire concept, the #1 symptom of any dissociative disorder, is that you have trouble connecting with the world around you, with your thoughts and your emotions, and your identity. This lack of self-identity (or lack of awareness of your self-identity) is a key feature of dissociative disorders. Because you never fully formed a complete concept of your identity and emotional responses to experiences, you do not have a stable concept of yoir identity.
This causes โfuzzinessโ where youโre not quite sure about yourself. When youโre faced with the same situation twice, you might have very different responses. Your emotions donโt make sense to you and you arenโt sure why you feel them at all, or you arenโt sure if theyโre real. Your thoughts go in different directions, even contradicting themselves, making it difficult to figure out where you stand on something, or what to do, or who you are. Your behavior changes, reacting differently to similar situations, or having drastic changes in interests and preferences, that you and others consider yourself unpredictable and hard to keep up with. Youโre constantly second-guessing. You canโt remember very important information on yourself, but you know you must know it because at some point you did.
Dissociative disorders are a diagnosis for this very struggle, where your identity is a mystery, and you feel disconnected from yourself and your surroundings.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is having two or more distinct identities. They donโt have to have names. They donโt have to behave completely differently. They donโt have to have โjobsโ or a reason they exist. They may not serve a function. But they are distinct enough that one can tell theyโre almost two different people, and this disrupts the personโs life.
OSDD has multiple references. One is having switches in personality, with no memory loss. Another is having periods of blackouts, but no switches. Another is dissociation brought on by programming. And the fourth is for identities that overlap, but still distinct enough that some dysfunction arises.
Do all systems fit these categories? No.
Is it possible for someone to 'loseโ their diagnosis if they learn to function? No. (You do not lose a previous mental diagnosis unless you are retested and it is confirmed you never had that disorder. You can learn coping methods, but youโll never stop having ADHD, or BPD, or PTSD. They still affect you, but you know how to handle it. If you no longer had it, you wouldnโt have the symptoms in the first place.)
Can you have dissociation without alters? Yes.
Can you have alters that are blurry and have no defined identity? Yes.
Can you have times you donโt know who you are, but havenโt switched? Yes.
Can you have inconsistent personality changes? Yes.
Can you know who you are, but it feels wrong or fake, and you havenโt switched? Yes.
Can you and your alters 'blendโ and be unable to separate each otherโs distinct differences? Yes.
Can you have no idea what alter does what function or what their identity is? Yes, and itโs actually not common for an alter to have a decided โjob.โ
Can an alterโs identity shift? Yes.
Do not forget the โdissociative IDENTITYโ in DID. This means you have no connection to your identity and it can change or become unknown or โwrongโ to you. Your brain is all of those identities at once, and without a โcore,โ your identity will be fluid.
All the things you think arenโt common, really are.
Donโt let tumblr culture fool you into thinking that having defined appearances, voices, and jobs/types for each alter is the norm. Itโs far from it.
