“You don’t have DID. Your 'alters’ don’t even act that different from you. I never noticed. Have you seen Sybil, though?”
I hate this movie. I hate the old. And I hate the new. And I hate the book. And I hate this whole situation. I personally have 6 alters that I am aware of -- One an adult, 47 year old man, two children ranging from 4-7, and an alter that ages with me but is very much “like me”, and a chaotic black mass who passes as me, but is very much a horrendous monster underneath it with self-harming behavior when she is alone. But all of them, aside the children, try to act like me! (act like me as in the perceived thought of who I am to other people. I try to blend in and not be noticed. ever.) ”But Celia, why do you hate Sybil? She spear-headed DID research and recognition? I mean, yeah, it’s wrong, but like, it’s still a very important part of the DID COMMUNI-” NO ITS NOT. The older version of Sybil (the one MOST people and even freaking doctors reference from) was much more psychological horror film-like, and really did scare the crap out of a lot of people because of the erratic switching and behaviors. A lot of those with DID usually have subtle changes in switching, and have some alters that are not 100% completely different from the core, as many people think those with DID are supposed to act. Sybil had many MANY alters that acted differently from the core -- in fact, so different that it fed into the whole idea that personalities all HAVE to be DRASTICALLY different from the presenting person that everyone sees. While the DID diagnostic bullet in the DSM5 talks about “the presence of two or more distinct or split identities or personality states that continually have power over the person's behavior”, it doesn’t mean behavior has to be erratic or so severely dramatic to be ‘distinct’. You can have a room of 20 similar-looking, similar-acting, similar-thinking individuals without alters and yet they are all their own people with their own lives and thoughts and opinions. Alters can be the same way in a system as well. As long as a person matches the criteria for DID/DDNOS, diagnosis could almost be absolute without drastic different behaviors from alters. DID goes undetected for a LONG time, and alters learn how to adapt to look normal. Their job, as their own individual, is to look normal, and act normal to prevent the body from getting hurt just like anyone else without alters. Even ‘fictives’, despite being created by a TV show or -insert media here- come out trying to present like a normal human being instead of a fantasy character because the brain learns to adapt and conquer stressors around us like any normal human being without alters. I personally do not have any fictives, but most fictives I have met or read about are rather distant from their original stories or fanbases, and want to be their own person without the stress of being someone’s fantasy item to RP with. Sybil's alters were all over the place, and while some alters that come from systems can and do have severe changes in behavior, it was ‘depicted’ as desperate and erratic and attention-seeking, which for some reason some mental health doctors look at for some kind of base, and have a hard time believing and diagnosing DID -- because of the case of Sybil.
There are probably a good amount of legit, diagnosed systems that act like Sybil. There are self-harming alters, and this is very, very common. There are alters that have learned to fight back physically to PROTECT (not go out of their way to joyfully and willfully kill people) themselves, and in conjunction with PTSD, makes this all the more prevalent. There are alters who destroy things around them because that one particular alter is scared to be out, so they do anything to go back in by triggering themselves with fear and compulsive behavior. But the majority are terrified of being seen, heard, and hurt, and act subtly and quietly. Most traumagenic, professionally diagnosed or heavily-researched systems already know all of this, but the movie, new and old, are both stigmatizing and frustrating because everyone wants to base their research and baseline off of this movie or this book or these two women (therapist and patient) -- which is highly suggested that it shouldn't be, but that doesn't stop doctors from doing it anyway. Sorry, I am just in a mood today and someone made a video on Sybil and it made me remember how horrendously uneducated mental health professionals can be. I’ll probably be put on blast about how wrong I am for this post, and that’s fine. Everyone’s journey is different and systems are different, etc Its just...eugh. Not every alter has to be drastically different like in the case of Sybil to be legit.