DID vs Tulpas (a DID system’s take)
“A tulpa is an entity created in the mind, acting independently of, and parallel to your own consciousness. They are able to think, and have their own free will, emotions, and memories. In short, a tulpa is like a sentient person living in your head, separate from you. It’s currently unproven whether or not tulpas are truly sentient, but in this community, we treat them as such. It takes time for a tulpa to develop a convincing and complex personality; as they grow older, your attention and their life experiences will shape them into a person with their own hopes, dreams and beliefs.”
“You’ll create a tulpa by imagining a person in your head, and treating them as a person. The exact mechanism is unknown, but as you give a tulpa attention, and believe it can be a sentient person, it will grow into one, and act independently of you. At first, you will be narrating to your tulpa—speaking to it, and visualizing it in your mind—and with time, you’ll be able to communicate through various methods, which will be described in the next section. Keep in mind that when a tulpa starts talking, it doesn’t mean that they are complete, or finished by any means. Like any person, a tulpa is never “done”, and you shouldn’t be going for a finished tulpa, when you make one. You should be focused on nurturing and teaching your tulpa, and allowing them to grow as a person with you, while at the same time you learn about yourself, and grow as a person in turn. It takes time and effort to make a tulpa into a self-sufficient and balanced individual, and their independence and personality will grow and flourish over time, like any regular human being’s. Creating a tulpa means committing to raising and living with another person, and this is a lifelong commitment—not one that ends when your tulpa starts speaking. “
( https://www.tulpa.info/what-is-a-tulpa/ )
- is having a tulpa like DID?
Well, to put it simply, no. Having a tulpa is far from having DID. DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder, is a very complex disorder created by immense repeated childhood trauma. Tulpas are consciously created whereas alters in a DID system are not. With DID, the child’s brain cannot handle what is happening and ends up splitting due to the amount of stress and/or fear as a coping mechanism when the child feels as if they are experiencing life-threatening danger. Having a tulpa is much, much different from this disorder.
Tulpas are usually linked to spirituality and/or religion (Correct me if Im wrong) so it’s not necessarily a bad thing on its own. In fact, in my personal opinion I think it’s completely fine. HOWEVER, problems start to arise when comparing this to DID... Im repeating myself, sorry; Tulpas are completely created by choice whereas alters are the result of terrible repeated childhood trauma.
I support people having tulpas since it’s a spiritual thing. Although like I stated before, problems arise when comparing this to DID. Ive seen some people try to fit into the DID community because they have tulpas and that is not okay at all. Please please please do not compare them and recognize that they are both their own separate experiences.
Fellow systems, what’re your guys’ thoughts on this?
jbbartram-illu
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
janainaart
jacobvanloon
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
