#pluralismajestatis

[this-is-totally-plural]

Hey, T here, like promised on the Discord server - gonna ask my stupid questions, yeah? So, I was just wondering, without going too deep into the functions of our own system, we've got a couple fronters who do most day to day business, some "middles" who do a bit of that but stay mostly in the inner world, and some folks who're pretty much hibernating unless a specific thing triggers them to front, right? So how's it like for a big system, like 50+ members? The same? Different? (1/2)

(2/2) Another question that popped up in a conversation is like, is it hard to keep track of everything when there's a lot of people around like that? Like, everyday life, relationships, all sorts of things with continuity in the external world. We're struggling with just a few people, managing life as a large system just seems overwhelming from this perspective. Thanks in advance. ;)

Hello! Thanks for the question. We (Sprites) will be answering this since we are polyfrag and have a large and complex system. It's honestly very similar to what you have described! We have people who enjoy fronting and like doing it often, people who come and go as they please between fronting and being internal, and people are almost ALWAYS internal. There isn't that much difference! For us specifically, we also have people who can get pulled closer to front due to triggers, etc! So not much difference at that front.

It's also not that different and we haven't had much trouble maintaining relationships or everyday lives! People find common things to do together, and we have very wonderful and understanding friends and partners. We are who we are and people who understand how we work will get to know us or they won't, it doesn't bother us! This is just our personal experience ofc, I don't know if this really answered your questions, but I hope this helped!

- Henry [Sprite]

[maemaybe]

7 + 20 for the asks!

7. Do you have any introjects? How do you feel about their source? How do they feel about their source?

I do. I have a few “regular” introjects as well as a few fictional introjects. 

My non-fictional introjects are introjects of real people from my childhood, which is confusing and upsetting for all of us. None of us really recognized them as introjects because they don’t literally believe they are those people and they don’t even use those people’s names, but their identities are sort of formed around being like those people. When we described those parts to our therapist she called them introjects and I trust her judgement on that.  I think these parts don’t even really like the people they identify with. 

I have a few fictional introjects, mostly from very early childhood. A few are from children’s media and a few are from books we read in early adolescence. Very few of us feel very strongly about any of their sources. In fact, the ones from the books literally forgot about their source until their books were made into a TV series and we started watching it without realizing what we were getting into. 

I do think Peter, who is one of our oldest and most dissociated parts, is quite attached to his source. He’s very fond of the fantasy surrounding it and he’s very attached to the idea that he is Peter. This is a point of conflict for a lot of the rest of us. 

20. What grounding methods or skills work best for you? Do different skills work better for different parts/alters?

Bilateral stimulation like thigh tapping and the “butterfly hug” technique work pretty well. Running through a “container exercise” is sort of hit or miss, I’m not sure if that variation is parts related but it probably is. The “safe/calm place” exercise works really well for our younger parts who are better at visualization, but doesn’t work very well for our ANPs/Daily life parts who struggle with visualization.