- Joined
- Dec 25, 2015
This is my understanding of it. It’s a response to extreme abuse of a young child to the point where that kid will unconsciously compartmentalise the experience away so it doesn’t have to be dealt with. The child is often in a position where they’re expected to act a certain way the majority of the time (strict parents, fundies etc) where no talk of the abuse or its effects would ever be tolerated. The only way the young child can cope is by compartmentalising it away completely. When the abusive behaviour towards the child continues, it cements the compartmentalisation.I believe it "exists" but also not as different people in your head, but more like your brain tricking itself into being someone else. In what I've read, it goes more like "I'm not Jane, I'm Cathy, Jane experienced severe sexual abuse and I didn't." Or even in cases where the alter is a different sex/age/species, it's more like "I'm Johnny and I'm a huge man and I fight off anyone who tries to abuse Jane." Like they're not literally a huge man, just a young girl who's brain basically crashed in on itself too many times, to the point where when they grow up their brain won't work normally so instead they have memory gaps for huge chunks of their life.
To claim that your favourite media characters are alternate personalities of yours and you can negotiate between them or allow one or another to ‘front’ is bullshit. DID is horribly chaotic, there’s no sweet little ‘oh I just woke up and don’t know where I am my name is little Jonny and I love dinosaurs’ bullshit. It leaves sufferers paralysed with fear, desperate to try to understand what’s going on with themselves, and often so self-doubting and scared that they become very isolated, never trusting themselves at all. It’s the closest thing to someone being 100% conscious of being ‘crazy’ and it’s a terrifying and very lonely experience.
These online larpers are the equivalent of drawing a blotch on your skin and claiming to have stage 3 cancer. I don’t usually talk on the subject at all and I’d rather not powerlevel (sticker me, you fucks), but the online DID larp is absolutely enraging. No doubt those who care for people or who have Tourette’s feel the same way, likewise those with sexual development disorders.
The desperation to be quirky and special and get attention in some quarters is really poisonous. It negatively affects those struggling with the illnesses a lot. I can only imagine what a nightmare the autism community and care situation is like now. I’ve mentioned before a friend who said the large mental health unit they work at now has so many on the waiting list that they will never, ever be able to deal with all the patients - and that’s because 90% of them are fucking larpers taking support meant for people who desperately need it.
Insert rageyfish drawing here.