plural-system-research

[plural-system-research]

"Plural" is inclusive of ALL SYSTEM origins. If you don't like "endo and endo supporters :((((" using the term "plural", that's a you problem. It doesn't matter if you don't believe in non-traumagenic plurality-- plurality, as a term and a community, accepts non-traumagenic systems.

Stay mad about it, we don't fucking care.

[plural-system-research]

Well that escalated quickly...

I... can actually respect that in a way.

I mean, with all the two-facedness in syscourse where people don't know who to trust, it's nice for someone to proudly wave all their red flags in the air instead of backstabbing you later.

In all fairness, the whole "telling endogenic systems" to die thing since got edited out by the host who apologized on for Constantine.

Although notably, the heavy fakeclaiming is still there. The accusations of roleplaying are still there.

I'm not going to bother debunking the accusations of roleplaying. As they say, you can't reason somebody out of a position they didn't reason themselves into in the first place.

It won't matter that the ICD-11 written by the World Health Organization specifically that you can have multiple "distinct personality states" without a disorder.

It won't matter that Transgender Mental Health, a book published by APA Publishing, talks about endogenic plurality.

It won't matter that Stanford University is pouring massive amounts of funding into an fMRI study of tulpamancers.

It won't matter that the creators of the theory of Structural Dissociation have said that it's possible that spirits communicated with by mediums may be self-conscious dissociated parts of the personality.

None of the overwhelming support for the existence of endogenic plurality from the academic community would convince somebody who is driven purely by anger and, frankly, is projecting their own insecurities onto others.

First... I don't know what the anon is on about because people aren't generally attacked for saying their own plurality is caused by trauma.

But the main reason I'm quoting this is because you seriously need to ask yourself if you're accomplishing that goal.

Fakeclaiming anyone normalizes fakeclaiming and self-doubt. A space that fakeclaims any systems isn't a safe space for any systems.

[plural-system-research]

A new hate blog is on the scene: Meet @no-context-endogenics

The DNI is rich when your whole blog is dedicated to witch-hunting and calling out endogenic systems by name. But let's see if this blog is even living up to its own name.

Here's the first post on their blog:

First... literally have no idea what's wrong with this. But second... Let's take a quick look at the pinned of this system they targeted.

Literally a traumagenic system.

IN THE FIRST POST OF THIS BLOG!

To be fair, they did post to the endogenic tags, but a lot of pro-endo traumagenic systems do when users like this make them feel unsafe in traumagenic spaces.

Right... which is why you posted the previous traumagenic system on your no-context-endogenics blog that claims to be about posting endos! 🙄

Also, I can't tell... are you lumping in mixed origin systems with "endos" here? It seems like you are, because the blog has a tendency of posting mixed origin systems too when it claims to be posting endos, as well as ones that just don't state their origins. Because many mixed origin systems do, in fact, have a disorder and are very public about it.

For example...

Mixed origin, polyfragmented DID system.

(Also, runs some of the coolest and most important plural blogs on Tumblr.)

Another post on this blog, which I'm not including here, was from a 14-year-old polyfragmented c-DID system. That system didn't say if they were endogenic or traumagenic, but I think it's safe to assume that they were most likely at least partially traumagenic.

And no, I think systems that harm the community definitely deserve hate. People who are out there calling out systems, fakeclaiming them, implicitly fakeclaiming trauma, bullying, etc.

But systems who are just existing as endogenic... sorry... we aren't your scapegoat.

I generally try to be nice with these. At least relatively.

But I'm going to fail this time.

You. Are. Pathetic.

All of you.

Endogenic systems have NOTHING to do with why systems are fakeclaimed. Do you want to know why systems are fakeclaimed? It's because systems... are weird. We are. We're a step too far from the norm and the average neurotypical singlet can't comprehend multiple existing in the same body together.

That makes us easy targets. And we should be standing together. We should be supporting each other.

But people like you are only interested in tearing us down because you're too cowardly to put the blame for your fakeclaiming on the actual fakeclaimers.

You want to talk about ruining the community, but you fakeclaim other systems. You hurt other systems. Including traumagenic DID systems. Because you're miserable and you have to inflict your misery on others to make yourselves feel better.

Have you ever been to Fakedisordercringe?

Because let me tell you, the people who get fakeclaimed there aren't usually fakeclaimed for being endogenic. Yes, of course they're anti-endo. But many who are targeted are traumagenic DID systems and it has nothing to do with endogenics at all.

Although... I guess that also applies to the @no-context-endogenics too, doesn't it? I mean, out of every post there, I think this might be the only one that's actually purely endogenic. (Not mixed origins, unknown or explicitly traumagenic.) Most of the blog is just Fakedisordercringe-style posts targeted at trauamagenic DID systems.

Minor bodied? Minor bodied with over 200 headmates? Using the word "headmates?" OSDD-1b? Fictive heavy? Undertale fictives?

The cringe subreddits would gobble you all up in a heartbeat.

And you know what the most incredible part of this is???

You're supporting them!

You give them the moral justification they need. You support this ridiculous narrative that there are these groups who are causing DID to not be taken seriously by... existing... often, in the case of most endogenic systems, not even claiming to have a disorder in the first place. Just... being plural.

And you give the okay for these singlets to feel morally justified in attacking and fakeclaiming systems just like your own.

You are EVERYTHING wrong with the system community.

You're the reason systems fear expressing themselves online or in public. The reason fakeclaiming is so rampant. You contribute to this toxic environment of fear and paranoia in system spaces.

You're not defending the system community.

YOU ARE THE ONES RUINING THIS COMMUNITY!

You're just a bunch of cyberbullies.

And the same goes for anybody supporting you too.

(And before anybody takes issue with me posting this when two of the bullies acting as admins for the blog are minor-bodied, I'm just going to remind you again that another one of their posts which I didn't share here targeted a 14-year-old polyfragmented DID system, so I really don't care about the ages of the bullies in the slightest.)

[plural-system-research]

median culture is maybe we’ll just not tell anyone since we’re technically the same person but then realizing how different we are and how it would be so obvious something was up

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[plural-system-research]

Melpomic

A Melpomic headmate is a member of a system that holds purely negative thoughts or perceives the world as inherently negative, bad, and evil. A melpomic member might see everyone but themselves as bad, be distrustful of people, see life as a bad or negative thing, and not be able to see the positive in things. Melpomic members are often the counterparts to Thailean members, but not always. Melpomic can be both a role and a descriptor for a member.

Melpomic’s name comes from Melpomene, the Greek muse of tragedy. The term is based off of black-and-white, or polarized thinking, where someone can only thing in absolutes with no grey area in between.

@pluralterms @clownterms @radiomogai

[plural-system-research]

Thailean

A Thailean headmate is a member of a system that holds purely positive thoughts or perceives the world as inherently positive, happy, and good. A thailean member might try to see the good in everyone, be overly trusting, see the world as purely positive and happy thing, and be unable to see the negative in things. Thailean members are often the counterparts to Melpomic members, but not always. Thailean can be both a role and a descriptor for a member.

Thailean’s name comes from Thalia, the Greek muse of comedy. The term is based off of black-and-white, or polarized thinking, where someone can only thing in absolutes with no grey area in between.

@pluralterms @clownterms @radiomogai

[plural-system-research]

Median/parasian culture is not knowing if you're actually median or just have a complex identity because you're not sure if your facets are even separate at all besides their somewhat different personalities, and the fact that there's like 0 communication between facets, but you know dam sure that your personality changes like the weather. Help :')

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[plural-system-research]

Don't wanna add more to the previous post but i have the urge to give a short recap of my own story with learning about multiplicity and coming to terms with my did plus being wrong more than once.

It was 2015 when I first got confronted with undeniable proof that something was very wrong in my head when I found messages that "I" had wrote to friends and a person I was in a very toxic relationship with.

I couldn't remember writing them, which was weird and off putting but it became outright scary when in some of them they admitted to being someone different who shared my body.

Back then I was terribly unstable, suicidal and sometimes was extremely close to psychosis.

I did some basic Google searches wtf could be wrong with me and was met with the "Multiple Personality Disorder"

I was terrified of that bc I only knew of dramatized Media portrays and stigma.

So I did what most dissociative people would do and absolutely repressed it and forgot it all lmao.

However since then weird things kept popping up and I noticed them even if I didn't want to. During that time I encountered the multiplicity community on Tumblr.

I learned about median systems, dissociative disorders and nontraumagenic multiplicity.

At first I was relieved; but also sceptic.

The trauma I did remember wouldn't be nearly bad enough to cause DID. (lol I didn't know half of it back then I thought it was only some slight bullying and tiny bit toxic home environment)

I also didn't have any blackout amnesia (i thought) and I wasn't sure if those things I was experiencing actually were dissociative parts, or just me playing pretend bc that's how I always had used to cope

"i just gotta act and pretend like I'm someone who can handle this"

i thought this was me having great acting skills fooling myself.

But it was undeniable something was off.

So I identified as a median system. And started exploring my brain and my headmates.

I uncovered and learned to accept more trauma and eventually identified as having OSDD-1b.

And then my wonderful brain went off the rails.

Bc I wasn't in therapy for dissociation back then (only for depression and borderline but even that wasn't good therapy) i was left to my own devices.

I was still extremely mentally unstable, coped with any Media I got my hands on and maladaptive daydreaming , dissociated almost 100% of the time, SHed, and was absolutely miserable lmao

And bc I kept reading online

"denial is a symptom

, if you think you have it you have it"

and a personal experience of someone accusing me of denying their alters existence and how badly it hurt them

i believed every single thing in my brain was a new part

fictive numbers shot up like stocks

every other week at least one "new" part

i did discover older parts too

and i did split a bunch bc I was in a really horrible state

but i never questioned it and by the time i finally got a therapist I could tell about my dissociative issues and who helped me accept I have DID my alter count was up to 300 or more.

It caused me great distress bc once again I was still in denial about a lot of my trauma and with that number I kept running into "polyfragmented " as a term.

For a while I was seriously thinking I might have had bad RA i just repressed bc

i have all these alters and they don't come form nowhere right???

that was... i guess around 2018-2019

since then I have done a lot more research, worked with my therapist

realized a bunch of those fictives weren't alters at all, a good chunk just tiny fragments i artificially gave more personality than they had,

i am polyfragmented but did not go through some secret RA I just couldn't remember. (I've come to terms with the fact my traumas were lots and bad and coupled with my inherent ability to dissociate, bpd, maladaptive daydreaming and absolute lack of any support or caretaker through my entire life just turned out that way)

I slowly deleted all the alter lists from my online presence, always scared someone would "call me out" for "faking"

I only told some close friends I knew would understand the truth.

If others asked why a certain part wasn't present anymore I replied they integrated or went dormant. (which made me feel bad but it was more accepted than me going "oh they weren't real")

I am still struggling to identify some of the parts in my system, whether they are kins, imaginary friends, fragments blown out of portion or actually the fully developed parts that I wrote them down as.

I don't blame the community for the mentality of "if you think it is that way then it is that way" when it comes to dissociation and multiplicity.

It's a difficult and convoluted topic, often drenched in trauma and heavy topics nobody wants to go into, and filled by people who often did experience trauma, we're neglected and feel insecure and identifying as a system gives them a sense of belonging and purpose, whether they misinterpreted symptoms or not.

It feels safe, but it is dangerous.

I hope this post won't cause anyone denial.

I promise you it's okay. If you end up finding out you were wrong it's okay. And if not that's okay too.

Once again don't go searching for hidden trauma without professionals and a stable environment.

If you are identifying as a nontraumagenic system that's absolutely okay too! Just make sure to check every now and then that you aren't forcibly dissociating and ending up causing yourself pain.

Who is some stranger on the internet to say your experiences aren't real and valid.

All I hope is that anyone who reads this takes a good critical look at themselves ever now and then and remembers it's okay if they were wrong about something (system related or not)

I love you all.

Also if anyone clowns on this post you will be blocked on sight. Be civil, there's a living person behind the screen with emotions.

[plural-system-research]

median culture is going by a new name for every major phase in your life and looking back and thinking “i was a completely different person back then” and then realizing…

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[plural-system-research]

Median culture is sorta forgetting you are plural until you talk to a singlet and you are like. Wait. Huh.

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[plural-system-research]

median culture is taking forever to unblurr cause everyone is so similar am i A? no V? no T? no?? who tf am i!!

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[plural-system-research]

What the brain doin?? PT. 1 of a questioning median system's journey

"Why do I think I'm plural?"

Hello!

I am making this post for those who think they are a Median System. I've noticed our community is small and that there aren't many recourses out there to compare experiences to. The few that do exist have been very helpful so I thought I'd add to the pool to compare and contrast with.  In this post I will discuss how I reached the point of believing I am a Median System, why, as of right now, that label fits the best for me, and what my system is like on the inside. 

(THIS IS A SAFE SPACE FOR EVERYONE REGARDLESS OF ORGIN, LABLE, KNOWLEDGE, OR IDENTITY)

How did I get here?

I started learning about what plurality was in 2018 for a college psych course. At that point in time I just found it interesting; fascinated at how the brain reacted to trauma and why it would split off as a way to cope. A tiny part of me thought "am I....?? NAaaah!! I would know!! It would click and everything would all make sense and I would just know!!! Plus I don't have enough trauma." I developed a hyper-fixation on it for a bit but it fizzled out and I didn't reflect on it again for a while. 

In 2021 I took a course that looked at the abstract ideas and philosophies behind what consciousness really is. I decided that for my final research paper in that course I would write about DID and other forms of plurality and what implications their very existence meant for how we define consciousness. After that, the hyper-fixation was reignited. I started to reflect on myself again but came to the same conclusions. Until, I met my now partner, who is a system, in 2022. They taught me a lot about plurality. 

It's a bit fuzzy when I started questioning myself again or why. EDIT: I remembered! I ran out of ADHD medication and had to go without it for a couple weeks. For context, I haven't taken a break from my meds since I started them at age 8 and at the time of running out I was on the highest dose of really strong stuff. After this break I started to notice how much my meds suppressed my emotions and creativity, eventually I got more medication. I then started asking my partner more questions about how they figured it out they were a system, how they knew, what did they do, how did they navigate embracing it, etc. I was a bit obsessive about these questions and it wasn't hyper-fixation level obsessive, this was "I need these answers to survive" level obsessive. I started noticing anxiety around these questions that I had never felt before. Ya know, totally normal singlet stuff. 

I started a notes app note titled "Psychological analysis of myself" after I had a panic attack that felt like someone else was having it through my body. Like genuinely, it snuck up on me (unusual for my anxiety I usually can see it coming a mile a way) and then it felt like my body had the panic attack without me, I was just there along for the ride. It freaked me out, which is why I started the notes app. I started diving into more research on OSSD and more nuanced experiences of plurality that never came up in basic psychology research. 

Then the denial started. Heavy, aggressive, degrading, denial. I pride myself on have decent esteem and self love but this denial laughed in my face. I only felt this once before when I was failing a math class in 2019. It was the first class I had ever been so close to failing I tore myself apart about it. It was so unlike me to be so mean to myself. When having this denial dialogue in my head about how (aggressive language warning) I was attention seeking faker who was just lonely and wanted to feel special, it was always stated in “You are…�� statements. For example: “You’re just faking.” “You’re stupid.” “I can’t believe you think this.” When I would have these conversations with myself I would feel myself getting tired. Not tired in a way where I needed a nap but more like a drifting tired. I know this may be connected to dissociation, or switching (unclear).

So in my notes app I would write the thoughts out as they came. I realized I was having a chat with myself. A great app for honestly singlets and plurals to download is ANTAR. It’s an app that lets you chat with you "emotions" to sort out emotional hang ups but if you label the emotions as your alters instead you can chat with your system! These conversations are why I didn’t fully fall back into denial stage.

For a moment I did. I concluded that I was just being silly and dramatic and blowing things out of proportion. But having those conversations on my phone that I could go back to and look at didn’t let me stay there for long. 

I went back and forth on the denial thing for a minute only because I couldn’t find label that fit how I felt about my potential system until I happened across Median System. There was the click. Everything fell into place. I sat and read the definition and just thought “That’s me”.

Why “Median System”

A Median System is describe as 

A median system (also called midcontinuum) is a system where members are not as distinct or separate from each other. It can be considered being somewhere between multiple and singlet.[1] Some are dependent on a single individual, or the dependence can be mutual in that there is no central individual. Some median systems feel more blurred between themselves[2]. Others may also be based around a shared identity or kin. The members of a median system are often described as aspects or facets. Some median systems may identify as different archetypes[1]. Despite being more fluid and similar, median systems can be very diverse. Median systems are often opposed to multiple systems, with multiple systems experiencing more distinction between headmates. Some may also oppose it to partitionary systems, but in fact, median systems can be either partitionary or blurian, as variance in identity and presence or absence of memory sharing do not necessarily go hand-in-hand.

For me, part of the reason that I was in such denial of possibly being plural was because I have little to no amnesia in my day to day but unlike OSDD-1b (which also lacks amnesia) I don’t have distinct others. It felt like me all the time but sometimes adjacent. Someone described the difference as feeling like a snake with multiple heads rather that multiple snakes in a cage. And a Median system it feels like being an individual with multiple consciouses instead of multiple individuals in one body. 

Other ways that I experience my existence are as follows: 

I sometimes use plural first pronouns when referring to myself because before this realization I would be talking about myself and my brain as separate from me.

I used to joke that I felt like a system that just never fractured. 

The way people describe masking but for me it feel like a more extreme level, where I’m not TRYING to change my behavior, it just sorta happens and I’m “someone else”. What I called masking felt more like skipping songs in a playlist to get to the right one instead of putting on a mask. 

Another thing I experience is sometimes I expect to see a different face in the mirror and I get weirded out while still recognizing that, that is me and my face. 

This one might be a stretch but I have seen other Median Systems mention it. I notice that proper singlets have 1 go to aesthetic. It may change over the years but that typically have 1. I have never been able to consistently identify with 1 aesthetic I typically cycle through several. Specifically for me it's punk, grunge, hippy, cottage academia, and dark academia. With a funky gender identity on top of all that.

I wrote this post on and off over the course of a few hours and I lost my train of thought. Please let me know if you have questions, clarifications, comments, or your own stories. My asks are open. I will probably speak more on this at a later date.

[plural-system-research]

YO WE JUST THOUGHT OF A NEW(?) PLURAL TERM

ALEXIPLURAL

it's based off of alexigender, which is where ur genderfluid but don't exactly know what gender u are as u do a gender fluidity

it's basically that but in terms of plural stuff, where u know ur plural but don't know which person/facet u are at various points

kinda like being blurry but if it was a type of system

thought someone might relate to it :D

[plural-system-research]

traumagenic median culture is loving and supporting endogenic plurals because neither of you are "doing plurality right" and that's swagful

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[plural-system-research]

shout out to systems who …

get demonized for their disorders

never taken seriously by doctors/therapists

do not remember their trauma

do remember trauma

have singlet partners

POC systems

trans systems

queer systems

disabled systems

intersex systems

neurodivergent systems

systems who have similar alters

systems who have completely different alters

systems with 2 alters

systems with 200+ alters

systems with fragments

systems with subsystems

systems doing their best

shout out to YOU !!

[plural-system-research]

Absolutely. Headache, dizziness, or intense pressure in the head, which can then morph into nausea if its not taken care of soon enough.

weird question but i gotta know:

does anyone else get physical effects from dissociation? (putting a cut so people don't have to see examples if they don't want to)

like we get really dizzy, sometimes short of breath, and even nauseous as a result of bad dissociation and i'm curious if this is like. an us/me thing or if anyone else gets that?

(if people do reply, i'm open to responses from both singlets and systems! really anyone who experiences dissociation)

-choosing to not sign off-

[plural-system-research]

I'm looking for a counterargument to "everyone is plural because everyone has parts (like work self and home self)" that doesn't ignore median plurality, cause I've seen people say "no, we are multiple separated and distinct people" in response but that ignore medians. Do you think you can help?

As far as I know, there are certain experiences associated with systemhood that just aren't things everyone experiences.

Most median systems I know of may not identify as fully separated people, but they do have self-consciousness and recognize themselves as somewhat distinct. At least have a basic autobiographical sense of self. Enough to feel "I did X, this other facet did Y."

On the far end of singlethood, a singlet wouldn't genuinely feel like they were different entities.

Yes, people behave differently in different contexts. But their home self won't have a sense of "I tucked my daughter into bed, my work self got into a fight with a coworker."

Their multiple selves are... maybe not entirely metaphorical. But neither are they entirely literal.

The same is true of internal communication too. The average singlet isn't going to feel like self-conscious voices in their head are different individuals. They might have a conscience or inner critic or other voices, but every thought in their head feels like something they thought. There is no distinction at all.

I believe most headmates, even in median systems, will usually possess an at least rudimentary self-consciousness that a singlet's parts don't possess.

Host: Backing up what Soph said, never had a plural experience with aspects of myself. I may describe myself as multifaceted with many views, even some that conflict with one another. But I never had facets that talked to me and I don't have "parts" with their own sense of self. Every aspect of myself is myself. I act differently according to my environment, but it all feels like me all the time, just as it did when I was a singlet.

And I guarantee you that nobody saying everyone is plural is a tulpamancer. It's either singlets who know nothing about actual system experiences, or it's systems who have been plural as long as they can remember and don't know what it's like to be a singlet. As someone who has experienced both sides, there's a HUGE difference between the experiences.

What median systems describe is much closer to my experiences with Soph and the others than it is to how I was before.

Of course, plurality is a large spectrum of experiences, and there's no clear, solid line where someone is either a singlet or a system.