#overt did

[youlookkindadead]

how often do you have possessive-style switches? (definition below)

this is the only type of switch we/i have

very often, dailyo

semi often, multiple times per month

once in a while, around usonce a month

rarely, a few times a year

very rarely, less than once a year

we/i have never had possessive switches

used to have them more often, now rarely / not at all

we/i never fully switch

i'm unsure / other / vanilla extract / singlet button

Voting ended onMay 4

possessive switches are a form of overt switch in people with dissociative disorders. they are described as being complete black outs between switches, often sudden and quick, where one part is suddenly taken from front as another is shoved in - similar to spiritual "possessions" as might be seen in a movie.

[aetherial-boy]

My DID presentation is in-between being overt and covert. As in, if you don’t know me well, I seem inconsistent and a little odd, but if you do know me and my symptoms well you can probably tell it’s DID, and you can see the differences between alters. We all have different preferences in how we dress and what we do. We have different ways of talking, some of us can’t even talk at all. Some of us are incredibly feminine, and some of us get horribly dysphoric from presenting like that. If you don’t know us then yes, we just seem weird, but if you know then those patterns are easier to pick up on and it’s not too hard to figure out who’s fronting.

[plurapony]

Majority of DID presentation is covert, in fact only 20% of DID is overt and of that 20% only 5-6% are completely unable to mask.

We've always found that our DID has been overt, though we do have the ability to mask. Our presentation from internal to other internal differentiates a lot with noticable voice changes for a lot of us and different ways we use our body language.

For example, Blake hates that they're part of a system and when they're out they prefer to pretend to be the host. Though Blake and the host are similar, the people around us can tell something is up and Blake normally would have to come clean that they're not the host.

When we are masking, when we are hiding our DID we are either in two states. Completely silent and nonverbal as to not accidentally reveal anything we will regret later or we are simply lying, putting on a false persona that seems more presentable.

Being an overt system when the majority of systems are covert can be very isolating and it can feel like there's really no place for us, even alongside other systems. All we ever want is to be ourselves freely, not having to worry about changing our voices to sound more like the host, not having to worry about "is this something the host would say?" just to be freely ourselves with no judgement.

[informationsorter]

Overt-Covert DID/OSDD

*Please note: This isn’t an actual term*

Why is it that symptoms of DID/OSDD can be so obvious to yourself and those close to you, while remaining completely non-suspicious to others around you?

Think of it this way: You are a witch. But no one is going around looking for witches, no one is going around suspecting people of being witches. Sure, you have a herb garden and a black cat, you wear black dresses, and you love going for strolls in the forest under the full moon’s light. But very very few people would actually truly believe you are a witch. Other people’s responses would likely be “that’s just the way she is”, “oh that spooky goth bitch is at it again”, or even “lol. What are you, a witch or something? Hahaha!”. An actual witch might see you and conclude that you are a witch, but that same witch might see a non-witch who just happens to enjoy moonlit strolls with her cat, and conclude that she also must be a witch. Likewise, in everyday life the majority of people aren’t out there looking for people with DID/OSDD, or carefully observing every single person to check for signs of DID/OSDD. You can be out there with obvious symptoms, and successfully just wave them away as “memory problems”, “mood swings”, “poor time management”, “inconsistent beliefs” etc. Even people who see you every day, and notice these symptoms are likely to write them off as “That’s just the way they are”, “Maybe they have (insert common mental health issue here)”, or joke about you having “multiple personalities”. (Of course some people will dismiss these symptoms as “laziness”, “rudeness”, “being inconsiderate”, “wishy-washy”, or other cruel and dismissive explanations.) Even when you think that your system seems extremely overt, and even if you feel as though at any moment someone is going to realise that you have DID/OSDD... the more likely outcome is that everyone around you has just accepted that those obvious symptoms are “just the way you are”. (There are exceptions of course.) Humans want to identify with each other. The social rules of our species mean that we rationalise phenomena that we ourselves don’t experience. The result is that “covert DID/OSDD” doesn’t need to be all that subtle in order to protect you. A lot of people worry themselves over whether their DID/OSDD is overt or covert, not really understanding just how obvious your DID/OSDD can be before it’s no longer covert.

The important thing is to make sure that you are safe.

Other than keeping you safe, overt vs covert doesn’t actually matter all that much.

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Here a person talks about the differences between overt DID vs covert DID, and later their own experiences with extremely overt/florid DID: https://mr-system.medium.com/our-overt-covert-disorder-dissociative-identity-disorder-56693450d758 *Please note that this blog does not have a stance on endogenic systems, but the above link does briefly mention them in a negative way. Please do not click the link if this will harm you.*

[aetherial-boy]

Adding to my last post but without reblogs because it’s a little venty, but I wish people could unlearn how to tell too. I wish my ex couldn’t still identify when her favourite alter to antagonise was front, although to be fair I wish he’d be less of a nightmare with it too. I wish people who’ve turned out to be abusive couldn’t tell when more vulnerable alters were front so they could hurt them. I’d like to take the ability away without that needing me to be better at masking, because I’ve tried and I just can’t. Something slips out, people make accurate guesses anyway from even more subtle things, it just dosent work.

I want to have a fully covert DID presentation but that’s just… not something I can have. It’s just how my brain and system are, I’m gonna have to learn to cope with it.