#dissociation positivity

[dissociationswagcompetition]

DISSOCIATION SWAG COMPETITION... 2!!!

What is Dissociation Swag Competition?

Dissociation Swag Competition is a Tumblr bracket-style tournament meant to pit fictional characters against each other who have (canonically or headcanon) dissociative disorders! These include, but are not limited to:

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder (DPDR)

Otherwise Specified Dissociative Disorder (OSDD)

Unspecified Dissociative Disorder (UDD)

Dissociative Amnesia

Dissociation as symptoms of other disorders (including anxiety, depression, PTSD, BPD, OCD, and many others)

This is NOT meant to romanticize mental illness. Instead, this is to celebrate characters like us and push for more positive representation!

Round 1 was run back in February and March 2023, and now we're running a second round of it!

NOMINATIONS

You can nominate characters with this form! Just keep in mind the following rules:

Fictional characters only, no real people!

Characters do not need to canonically have a dissociative disorder, headcanons are accepted

Characters featured in round 1 can be nominated, except for Shallan Davar (Just to avoid having the same winner in round 2)

Submit one form per character, start a new form to nominate a new character!

Only submit one form per character, no spam nominations!

NOMINATIONS WILL CLOSE OCTOBER 1, 2023

Bracket size, timelines, etc will be announced closer to nominations ending, stay tuned!

[solidwater05]

Apparently this needs to be said so

Forgetting things is morally neutral! Memory issues are morally neutral!

You're not a bad person if you...

forget things quickly

forget people

can't remember entire stages of your life

can't remember important things

can remember some things very well and forget other things all the time

can't remember things (or anything!) about your interests

forget to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, etc

forget to reply to texts

remember things and immediately forget them again

can't remember birthdays, events, etc

frequently answer 'I forgot' to questions

can't retain new information

forget things you used to know

only remember things when it's too late

have vague, distorted and/or unreliable memories

depend on others to know how an event you were in played out

have other symptoms that are worsened by memory issues and vice versa

... and anything else I might have missed!

[collectivewarmth]

one of the most important things about dissociative identity disorder and generally being a system that i wish people would understand is that it truly isn’t as cut and dry as it may seem for member count.

you’ll see people who say they have “six alters” and then immediately assume it’s six fully fleshed out equal individuals with no confusion or fuzziness regarding identity. that’s simply not true in a majority of cases, as i have seen.

most systems still VERY much deal with confusion regarding potential splits, go through dissociative episodes where they’re unsure of who they are, sometimes feel no attachment towards any identities, feel like they might have split and then suddenly that person is gone, unsure if alters they haven’t heard from often have gone dormant, not sure how to react when alters do come out of dormancy, etc.

it’s not a fun feeling and it’s genuinely unfair in certain situations to force systems to list every single alter to you with full certainty, as if it will never change. because it will. for so many different reasons, systems will grow, they will shrink, they will fuse, they will develop. you can’t expect the person with the dissociative disorder and lack of core identity to be able to keep up a perfected list of forever, it’s simply impossible. you may have alters who stick with you, but that doesn’t mean changes won’t happen.

and systems who may be reading this — please don’t feel bad. you are not a hassle, you are not a headache, and you are not an inconvenience for simply coping with something like this. it’s out of your control and the only thing you can do is continue to cope to find ways to help yourself retrain from these reactions. please don’t allow yourself to be harmed by others who don’t understand what you are going through. there are people who will accept and love you for who you are, all of you.

past, present, and future.

[ed-recoverry]

To anyone who was suicidal at age 14 or younger, here’s your permission to grieve. Here’s your permission to not joke about it or just flat out ignore it. Here’s your permission to acknowledge that lost child who felt way more pain than any child should ever feel. You’re allowed to cry for that child, whether you healed or are still suffering the same thoughts. Finally allow yourself to grieve for that child filled with undeserved hurt.

[thestarpletsystem]

Technically, if you’re plural, every project is a group project. Give your headmates credit

[the-habitat-sysblog]

shout-out to people who fit the demonised DID stereotypes seen in movies & other media:

if you have violent &/or aggressive alters, i love you.

if you have complete blackout amnesia between alters, i love you.

if you have little to no communication between alters, i love you.

if your switches are overt & "distressing to witness", i love you.

if you've ever been called "scary", a "freak", or even "evil" for how your DID presents, i love you so much.

your experiences are real. you do not have to sugar-coat your disorder to make it more palatable for others. your brain helped you survive as best it could, so i hope you will find peace & healing when the worst is over. 🤍

[spearheadrampancy]

"if youre transgender youre delusional" okay but do you think delusions should be handled in a medical setting, or are delusional people just the butt of your jokes?

"people who kin are insane" do you think insanity is something that should be treated with sensitivity, or are insane people just something for you to point at laugh at?

"neopronouns prove that some people have lost touch with reality" are you willing to talk to people with reality issues, or are you just an asshole? etc etc etc

[positivitycombopack]

Shout out to systems whose abusers tried their best, but failed.

It can be so, so hard to have the good with the bad. You’ll remember the good times — the things they did right, the stuff you remember fondly — and think “it couldn’t have been that bad, if I still have these good memories.”

It can be. Two things can be true at the same time. Your abusers could have loved you so, so much, and done so much right — and still fucked up.

Shout out to all those with a complicated relationship with their abusers. Shout out to those whose abusers did their best to love you, but never could the way you needed. Shout out to those who weren’t purposefully abused, but still suffered.

Your suffering is seen here, and it is just as valid as anyone else’s.

[dissociationswagcompetition]

Intro Post + Survey!!!

Hello and Welcome to the Dissociation Swag Competition!

This is a competition inspired by the many other fictional character competitions going on currently, though this one meant to celebrate fictional characters with various dissociative disorders, including but not limited to:

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Depersonaliztion-Derealization Disorder (DPDR)

Dissociative Amnesia

Other Specified Dissociative Disorder (OSDD)

Unspecified Dissociative Disorder (UDD)

This will be run via a tournament-style bracket, voted with Tumblr's poll feature!

General Rules/Housekeeping for the Competition

This is a celebration of characters we see ourselves in, and a push for more positive dissociative representation. Any hatred towards dissociative identities will not be tolerated here. (This is run by someone with DPDR, so this is a safe space for dissociative disorders)

There is a time and place to pick fights over dissociative disorders, and this is not one of them. We will block people who try to start discourse here.

We will try to avoid triggering dissociative spells as much as we can here, but "unreality" will be used in cases where it can't be avoided, please blacklist if necessary.

Please be nice during the competition! This is all for fun and it's a fictional tournament for fictional characters!

Rules for the Survey

Fictional characters only! No real people!

One character or system per form, please do not submit multiple characters to a form.

Only submit one form per character! Do not spam submissions with the same character.

The character does NOT have to be a system, as not all dissociative disorders involve systems

The character does NOT have to canonically have a dissociative disorder, headcanons are accepted and encouraged

Only the top submitted characters will be in the competition. I will keep the number of participants vague for now as I don't know how many responses we'll get.

The submission survey will accept responses until Sunday, February 12, 2023

[thexspiral]

I'm being so real with you all, stop trying to appeal to fakeclaimers.

I am diagnosed with DID, in treatment, have an extremely covert presentation, and pretty much ONLY talk about having DID online. I got the trauma to show for it, which I've been open about before, and I'm heading for final fusion. I don't get mad when people fakeclaim me and just shrug it off bc I know I'm not.

I still get fakeclaimed.

You're never gonna win. You're always gonna be faking in their eyes, whether you are or aren't. No matter how many qualifications you have, they will never believe you.

So just stop trying. Be yourself, be weird about it.

[kaleidoscope-crew]

Issac 💚

You're welcome internet

[lefluoritesys]

No, you're not.

(Made by me)

-host

[starshiver]

Some reminders for systems out there:

- you do not have to fit stereotypes, even if they are formed by the community

- small systems are still systems

- large systems are valid and real

- switching a lot is valid

- switching only a little is valid

- not noticing when switches occur is normal

- being a headmate who is almost always in front or co-con is normal

- being a headmate that almost never fronts is normal

- having many fictives/factives is normal

- having few to no fictives/factives is normal

- having communication issues is normal

- having amazing communication from the start is normal

- hearing voices is normal

- hearing them only with focus or not at all is normal

- understanding headmates through different means, such as feeling what they feel, or having them write things to you is valid

- not fitting coined system roles is normal

- enjoying and fitting coined roles is normal

- almost fitting a term and using it to describe your role is valid

- having no name for your system is valid

- having multiple names for your system is valid

- having stretches of silence from your headmates is normal

- having moments of extreme activity from your headmates is normal

- being frontstuck happens! just do your best, you’re awesome.

- what you see online is not every experience a system has, and they are likely just as varied from other systems as you are, just in different ways <3

being a system is varied and complex for every single system, nobody and no system has to fit into a box to be real, don’t fakeclaim yourself based off of other systems experiences.

[thestarpletsystem]

Everybody gangster and anti-fakeclaiming until it’s them fakeclaiming themselves. Yeah. That’s what I thought. Be nicer to yourselves.

[a-systems-positivity]

if you've ever purposefully tried to deny your system/"turn it off" and it still keeps happening, your system can't be fake.

you can't subconsciously fake something while fighting against it.

[museofdeity]

being a system is going through years and years of abuse and torment. being a system is sitting in the shower sobbing because you don’t know who or where you are. being a system is losing year-long friends because they refuse to believe you. being a system is looking the worst parts of you in the face and going “i think we can change”. being a system is holding a child version of yourself and repeating “i love you” over and over again.

being a system is hugging yourself and saying, “hey, we’re gonna be okay.”