The plural community needs to do better. We need to come together, stop antagonizing one another, and be kinder and more willing to engage in real dialogs.
I have a mutual on Twitter whose account has become somewhat popular, and is known for answering questions and providing guidance and resources about CDDs and plurality. They are dealing with a TON of harassment rn on Twitter, and don't get me started on those system tracking apps shutting down recently bc of harassment of the founders. Please, guys, this is getting to be a serious issue in our community.
Honest to god, I don't care anymore, there is no disorder actually that similar to the dissociative disorders that cause systems.
BPD, Schizospec disorders and Maladaptive Daydreaming can all be COMORBID with DID.
DID, P-DID, OSDD-1 and UDD are the only group of disorders that cause alters. Only complex dissociative disorders cause alters.
BPD parts ARE NOT similar. Auditory hallucinations ARE NOT the same. Maladaptive Daydreams CAN COINCIDE with systemhood!!!!
I'm actually so SICK and TIRED of having to explain the EXACT SAME FUCKING THING to people OVER AND OVER AGAIN!
NO OTHER DISORDER BESIDES THE CLUSTER OF COMPLEX DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS HAVE INDEPENDENT AND ELABORATED PARTS! NONE OF THE OTHER DISORDERS LISTED ARE GOOD ENOUGH REASON TO SAY IT'S TOO COMPLICATED!!!
It really isn't fucking complicated. It's not fucking hard. Stop saying people can't have DID because there are similar disorders out there. Please shut the absolute fuck up holy shit.
If you got it wrong? Good for you. I literally shouldn't have to always address the people who are wrong or bad at introspection. Nobody should have.
DID does *not* have to come from severe or provable trauma to be valid. And you should STOP sticking your nose in other people's business, where it doesn't belong.
All the disorders that cause systems can only develop from childhood trauma, and if that's too hard for you to accept, then do not expect people to coddle you. Trauma disorders fucking suck, and I'm not going to dance around that fact to keep you in perpetual denial of your own issues.
Dissociative Identity Disorder, Partial Dissociative Identity Disorder, Otherwise Specified Dissociative Disorder subtype 1, and Unspecified Dissociative Disorder are the only ones that cause you to have an unintegrated personality split apart by dissociative barriers that developed in childhood due to complex trauma.
Trauma is not stated to be a requirement because trauma memories are repressed and split from the conscious general identity into Emotional Trauma Parts. Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has Emotional Flashbacks, and alters in Complex Dissociative Disorders are triggered with the emotional flashbacks.
This disorder can be complicated, yes, but it is unique due to identity alteration.
You can have personality disorders with DID, you can have schizophrenia and DID, you can have MADD and DID. It is not impossible to have multiple disorders.
So for the love of fuck, please stop using other disorders as an excuse to fakeclaim others or yourself. It's fucking infuriating.
Our thoughts and experiences, and some resources to learn more.
Hello everyone! We’ve gotten a few asks recently wondering about amnesia in dissociative disorders, so we’ve decided to put this post together. We will cover as much as we can about amnesia, and talk about our experience with it.
What is amnesia?
Amnesia is partial or total memory loss that is more severe than common, every day forgetfulness. People may experience amnesia for a wide variety of reasons, such as experiencing a head or brain injury, being inebriated, having an illness or disease that affects the mind, lack of sleep, and extreme stress/fatigue/brain fog. Amnesia (specifically dissociative amnesia) is a really big part of many dissociative disorders (with the exception being OSDD-1B). In dissociative disorders, alters may experience full amnesia (blackouts) or partial amnesia (greyouts).
What are blackouts?
A blackout is when a person or alter experiences a jump in time, or finds that they cannot recall key events from the past. Their memories may feel fragmented, incomplete, or literally “blacked out.” Coming back from a blackout can be overwhelming, scary, and disorienting.
For us, blackouts look like: seemingly “snapping awake” suddenly with no recollection of what we had been doing. Coming to in odd places, like the grocery store or the park or the library, with no idea how we got there or what led up to that point. Feeling like we are jumping forward in time (it’s Monday today, but I blinked and it’s Thursday now). Large gaps in memory, especially memories from our childhood. Fragments of memories may remain as factual information (EX: “I know we went to the store yesterday, but I don’t remember anything we bought or any of the details”), or there may be no lingering information at all (EX: “I can’t remember what happened yesterday and there’s food I didn’t buy in the fridge”)
What are greyouts?
A greyout is an experience of partial amnesia, and the term covers a broad range of experiences. It may mean that a particular aspect of a memory was forgotten, or that you feel emotionally, physically, or otherwise detached from a memory. The memory may exist, but it feels hazy or incomplete when you try to recall it.
For us, greyouts look like: feeling emotionally or physically detached from memories. Able to recall the past but it seems shaky, foggy, hazy or unclear. Retaining some details in memories but not others. Memories feel like a film, or like something that we heard about in a story, but not something that actually happened to us.
How can I tell the difference?
Telling the difference between blackouts and greyouts can be quite tricky! In general, for our system, if we’re able to recall events with some clarity, there isn’t any amnesia. If we can recall only pieces, or feel like the memory isn’t ours at all, it’s a greyout. If our mind is just blank regarding a certain memory, or we can only recall what others have told us, rather than the events themselves, it’s a blackout.
Can I experience amnesia without knowing it?
Yes, and we actually thought we had a pretty good memory before learning about our dissociative disorder and the amnesia that comes along with it! This is because our mind tends to fill in the gaps that it can’t explain or understand. These pseudomemories, or projections, led us to believe our memory was healthy and normal. We’ve since learned that many of the memories we took for granted were just projections from our brain trying to fill in gaps and help us function to the best of our ability. It’s something we had been oblivious to for decades, but at this point we are very aware of how unstable and unreliable our memory is. It is a part of having a dissociative disorder!
Can dissociative amnesia heal/Can my memory improve if I have amnesia?
We think so, yes! Our therapist has assured us that memory can be repaired and healed with treatment and time. Patience and self-compassion can both aid in this process! We ourselves are trying to heal, and our hope is that as our system becomes more integrated, we will be able to recall more memories and recover details as a result. It is a difficult process though, and one that we are actively pursuing through therapy! Some may be able to heal their dissociative amnesia without therapy, but for us, having outside help and a support team is essential to our healing journey.
Sources/Links to Learn More:
Dissociative amnesia can happen when a person goes through extremely stressful or traumatic events, which cause a loss of memory.
Amnesia between alters is a key symptom of dissociative identity disorder. However, not all alters are equally unaware of each others' activ
Loss of memory as a result of overwhelming trauma or exceptional stress. Dissociative amnesia has been researched for over a hundred years,
Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any further questions, or to share corrections or concerns! Thank you so much for reading, and have a great day!
(Image ID:) A pale orange userbox with a cluster of multicolored flowers for the userbox image. The border and text are both dark orange, and the text reads “all plurals can interact with this post!” (End ID.)
if you needed some reassurance that it's okay to not discover your system until later in life;
i'm 28 and we've only "known"(some of us know, some of us are still dealing with denial at times) for a couple months.
it's okay to not know; you aren't fake just because you only found out/realised later in life. you are valid no matter when syscovery happens for you 💖.
(no discourse on this post at all, i will smite you)
[plain text: no discourse on this post at all, i will smite you]
image ID: the "i would like to award you the highest honor i can bestow" meme format, with old guy labeled "me", and boy labeled with "my favourite character", and then the second half of the format labeled with "CDD", short for complex dissociative disorders.
