< Mod Perzoreth > One thing you should know, if you are going to split headmates on purpose, is that splitting can be dramatic and scary.
It isn't all the time, but if you use stress to split headmates, or are splitting headmates with roles related to stress or trauma, it's probably more likely to be.
Yesterday, I split a headmate on purpose, and I'm glad it worked, but I used stress while I was dissociating to do so, and it resulted in me going non-verbal for about an hour in which I could only communicate in digital graphics we've made for situations like these.
I am saying this not to scare anyone off from splitting headmates on purpose, or to make splitting seem scary or undesirable (as things like this can happen during unintentional splitting as well), but this is sometimes how it goes.
If you know or suspect there's a chance that something like intense dissociation or communication difficulty could happen if you split a headmate on purpose - where I would say, if you experience those symptoms under stress, there is a chance - you should tell someone you trust about what you're doing and what might happen, as well as prepare alternative methods of communication if needed.
If you are splitting a headmate on purpose and believe symptoms like these could occur, it's best to work on splitting them when you're at home, won't be interrupted, and will have access to anything comforting or grounding as needed.
Even though it was stressful when it happened, and I expect it will happen again, I don't regret it, and I don't consider what I experienced to have been inherently unsafe or dangerous. It's good for me to know that that can happen (as it has happened with natural splits before but seems to happen moreso under certain circumstances), and it's good to know that it could happen to you, too.
