amore-et-al

[amore-et-al]

This is what gatekeeper alters are like

would you?

[amore-et-al]

Begging people to stop the fucking misinformation about alters not presenting until young adulthood. As far as I've been able to tell, this came from an ANONYMOUS TIKTOK COMMENT of some random person claiming to be a counselor and people took it and ran with it so hard. I've seen multiple trauma/dissociative specialists and all of them have said it's incredibly common for alters to be developed and presenting in childhood. I've not found a single reliable source actually stating alters do not develop until adulthood, just people parroting this information with no sources

A lot of the people I see spreading this are the ones apparently dedicated to calling out misinformation about the disorder, but if you actually read up on it you'd know that alters usually DO emerge in childhood, age 5 and a half approximately is the average according to most studies I've found.

This also makes no sense considering what we know about how DID develops. Host states are alters - they are not any more real and not necessarily more developed than other identity states. It makes no sense that only the host state would be developed until adulthood, especially considering that alters have roles they formed to take, meaning they inherently had to be fronting during childhood in order to cope with and take on trauma.

You're not anti-misinformation if you listen to randos on tiktok over specialists in the field and actual studies. Read a fucking book.

[amore-et-al]

Think systems with a high number of fictional introjects are a new phenomena? Kluft's paper on polyfragmented/extremely complex DID from 1988 includes a patient with LOTR introjects, and another based off of Shakespear's Tempest. Fictional introjects have been a thing for a very long time!

[amore-et-al]

Some days, DID looks like constant spacing out and never seeming fully there. Missed bits of conversations and a memory that doesn’t seem like it wants to work.

Sometimes it looks like talking to myself, constant internal noise and heightened sensory sensitivity.

Some days DID looks like being emotional for seemingly no reason, crying, laughing, anger over something I don’t know, emotional bleed-through from other alters.

Other days it just looks like severe PTSD. Avoidance, spacing out, needing help to ground myself. Flashbacks that I honestly can’t remember the triggers of, or remember the full event of, but that I know are flashbacks.

And sometimes it just looks like nothing at all. I seem put-together and relatively normal. You’d never know I had a dissociative disorder.

The day-to-day severity of my symptoms do not determine what mental illness I have. I still have DID and I still struggle with it whether you can see it or not.

[amore-et-al]

I hate how my therapist literally said to acknowledge alters more and let them express and introduce themselves and some of mine want to be open about who they are on here and have people know and acknowledge them but we feel super fucking weird about writing anything about who we are bc for some reason writing little intros on alters is considered a sign that you're faking?

[amore-et-al]

– Mia ✌️

[amore-et-al]

"kill them with kindness" wrong. SAW TRAP 🪚⛓️🩸⚙️⛓️꩜🔪🩸🪚⛓️🩸꩜⚙️🔪🩸🩸🪚꩜🪚⛓️⚙️⛓️🩸🔪꩜🩸⛓️⚙️🩸⚙️🪚⛓️🩸꩜🔪꩜🪚🪚⚙️🩸🩸🪚⛓️🩸⚙️⛓️꩜🔪🩸🪚⛓️🩸꩜⚙️🔪🩸🩸🪚꩜🪚⛓️⚙️⛓️🩸🔪꩜🩸⛓️⚙️🩸⚙️🪚⛓️🩸꩜🔪꩜🪚🪚⚙️🩸🩸🪚⛓️🩸⚙️⛓️꩜🔪🩸🪚⛓️🩸꩜⚙️🔪🩸🩸🪚꩜🪚⛓️⚙️⛓️🩸🔪꩜🩸⛓️⚙️🩸⚙️🪚⛓️🩸꩜🔪꩜🪚

[amore-et-al]

When the hell did "ask who's fronting" become part of "basic system respect?" When did that happen because I don't think people get how damaging it actually is for some people to push that as the right thing to do when you talk to systems.

I don't WANT you to know who is fronting. In the past when people knew that it put me in danger. I've been abused because I told someone who was fronting. I'm not comfortable with that anymore.

How about instead of making these threads on "basic system decency" we let systems decide for themselves what they are comfortable with?

[amore-et-al]

DID is simultaneously the most subtle, ambiguous disorder while also being the most intense, all-encompassing, extremely-personal-because-it-affects-fundamental-perceptions-like-memory-and-identity-at-all-hours-of-the-day disorder of all time.

[amore-et-al]

What's a cat's favorite food? Paw-sta.

SO true omg

[amore-et-al]

i don't know how to quantify the experience of being a system for singlets. i'm not sharing a body with several other people, we are all "me," and yet we are all our own people too, with hopes and dreams that don't fit together in a perfect puzzle. we're one and we're many. so different but the same.

[amore-et-al]

Been thinking about writing an alter introduction post because it's been helpful for us to be able to identify ourselves online and feel more like we can express ourselves, but I think the only way I'd feel comfortable posting it is if I basically made it kind of a long joke and I feel like people would think it's cringe 😭😭

[amore-et-al]

[amore-et-al]

if you're not obsessed with anything weird and niche please try harder. stop going outside for a while. consider getting weirder about the things you already like

[amore-et-al]

I’ve been seeing posts like these on Instagram for other misunderstood mental illnesses, so I thought I’d have a go at making one myself. 

I think that one of the most frustrating misconceptions about DID is that it is just about having alters or “multiple personalities” as some laypeople see it. 

Alters are just one part of Dissociative Identity Disorder. 

The information above is paraphrased and simplified from the book Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation by by Kathy Steele, Onno van der Hart, and Suzette Boon. 

The majority of the information above also applies to people with OSDD, since they have many of the same symptoms and experiences as people with DID. 

[ Note: I’m not a mental health professional or educator. I’m just a person living with DID. This post is not intended to diagnose anyone. Please speak to a mental health professional if you need help. ] 

[amore-et-al]

Comparing pictures of me, my personal protector, and my co-host and we look genuinely different it's so weird

[amore-et-al]

Hot (??) take I hate the word singlet

Like use it if you want but I do not personally