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Anonymous Coward · 17h
is the difference between non-pathological, normal-human-experience parts and dissociated parts the lack of control over them? or is it that with normal parts you change your behavior but not your values, preferences, levels of affection? or both? sorry i’m just trying to understand if i understood
the main difference, as i understand it, is the level of integration between parts. non-dissociative people don’t necessarily “control” their parts either though.
for non-dissociative people, these shifts feel like part of one cohesive self. their behavior changes with context (like acting differently at work vs. at home), but their values, preferences, and emotional connections stay relatively consistent.
in contrast, dissociated parts tend to feel (more) distinct and compartmentalized. they may have separate preferences, beliefs, and emotional ties, often acting in ways that feel disconnected or more opaque to understand the inner workings of to the rest of the system. this lack of integration, combined with a sense of losing time or awareness, makes the experience qualitatively different. so it’s about both the integration and the level of consistent connection across parts, not just “control.” does that make sense?
Anonymous Coward · 21h
Two questions: what exactly qualifies as ramcoa and how do people know they are victims of it?
Anonymous Coward · 1d
How can I identify ANP and EP within my alters? Whenever I think about the theory of structural dissociation and how C-PTSD has multiple EP and one ANP, I get confused about whether my parts are EP or ANP or not, and if I'm closer to one ANP and several EP or several ANP AND EP at the same time. I'd ask my therapist, but she doesn't seem to understand structural dissociation and believes I have C-PTSD with dissociative symptoms.
I think you should probably read the book about it to get further information because I feel like a lot of what they talk about will answer your questions + it's not supposed to be used to straight up identify "that one is this"
if you send me a dm I might be able to answer follow-up questions tho
Anonymous Coward · 1d
you have every right to be discontent with spaces online but implying that people are self harming by not knowing how to handle living with a disorder or not knowing where to gain access to correct resources is fucked up. saying its like watching people hurt themselves is actually crazy. it would be different if there were endless resources with correct information readily available but it absolutely does not seem that way from my experience.
they're not self harming by not knowing, they're injuring themselves because they don't know. those are different scenarios and reasons.
if you sprain your ankle and I am upset to see that you keep injuring your ankle by walking on it, I am not saying "you're injuring yourself by not knowing you should stay off of it," you're injuring yourself because you don't know a better way. it's extremely reasonable to be upset and stressed to see people being in pain because they don't know how to avoid that.
Anonymous Coward · 1d
Is host used in offical clinical contexts or therapitical settings? Is it a term that's recognized by professionals in a meaningful capacity?
I would say yes, lol
"The part of the self who is in executive control most of the time is generally called the host...The advantage of the term is that it is one word, and for this reason, using it is sometimes the best way to be clear.
I also frequently use other phrases, such as the usually presenting part, the part who appears most of the time, or the part in executive control most of the time, but when necessary, I use host.
Kluft (1984) has described the host as “the one who has executive control of the body the greatest percentage of the time during a given time."
This part of the person usually goes by the name that the patient goes by, the name used socially in the world.
This part is the one out front and actually often functions as a kind of shell, a front...the part in executive control most of the time is likely to be compliant, depressed, depleted, and masochistic. In many cases, though, this part may be energetic, idealizing, or cheery, while other parts hold grief, terror, rage, and depression. (Of course, these are not the only structured patterns; there are many variations and combinations.) What is constant is that the experience of the part or parts who function and interact in the world most of the time has been protectively separated from those of other encapsulated parts who hold powerful emotions such as rage and terror, as well as memories that would be too destabilizing for the func-tioning of the person if the host were conscious of them. Thus, the more depressed, depleted, and masochistic front parts have in their personality system other parts who hold, for example, rage, anger, terror, pain, and agency. The energetic front parts are likely to serve in a counteracting way to the dissociated very depressed and hopeless, and sometimes dead, parts.
Different parts can take over as host at different periods in a person’s life.
They may or may not have coconsciousness with the preceding usually pre-senting part. One of my patients described how she suddenly “came to” in class one day when she was about 8 years old, having forgotten everything she learned the previous year but feeling more in contact with her self of prior years. Another described how, as an adult, an alter different from the usual host acted as host for a period over 1 year."
Boon, Suzette, Kathy Steele, and Onno van der Hart. Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists. W.W. Norton & Company, 2011, p. 58-59
Anonymous Coward · 1d
what do i do if my persecutor IS just being mean to be mean and won't listen and says things they should not be saying. discriminatory things. i am aware that every headmate is technically "me", so is it possible that there are cognitive biases i need to work through?
Anonymous Coward · 2d
do you ever see some of these questions and just grimace in horror and worry because i see some of these and go Just that they're in this mindset is horrifying
Anonymous Coward · 2d
from my understanding did is not sufficient for "not guilty due to insanity" plea in court. what is your take on this?
im not a lawyer but also honestly as someone who's not over familiar with the concept of criminal insanity and don't know what, like, the stipulations or guidelines are. I'm also just not familiar with cases that have to do with this so I don't have an opinion really outside of "im sure there's probably at least one valid circumstance in which that makes sense for DID" but also like. I think there's probably a lot of complex problems with personhood and accountability with people who have DID
Anonymous Coward · 2d
[hard amnesia barriers anon] also if u know of any research papers or articles that cover this (or non-typical plural presentations in general) it would be very helpful, but no worries if not 👍
Anonymous Coward · 2d
do u need hard amnesia barriers to be plural? or is it possible to remember everything that happens day to day (and be AWARE of all the traumas), but have some alters hold more visceral/triggering feelings towards certain places/people/experiences?
you do not need black out amensia to have DID. most of the time people with DID will not even have blackout amnesia.
what you're describing could be amensia or it could be like, just typical dissociation of stressful feelings away from you in order to tolerate things better bc what ur describing here is extremely common for people with PTSD+
Anonymous Coward · 2d
correct us if we're misunderstanding but your response to the 14 y.o. "syskid" (not mocking just direct quoting cos we've never used that term) kinda suggested a system should be able to control who's fronting at any given time which we were always under the impression is pretty unrealistic even with a bunch of support/therapy/in-system communication/whatever. like... "you can just not front" sounds very idealistic and hard to imagine for us. you're right that people switch to handle different situations but you made it sound like something a system can/does/should have total agency over which really isn't our experience, nor what we see from others/in research/etc. can you explain what you meant? thank you! sorry for my weird syntax!
the person talked about being a 'potential host' which implies that there's some decision/leeway about who would be host.
many systems have some degree of who is fronting based on intentional triggers or if they have gatekeepers who have some amount of control over who fronts. so not like 'a system deciding who fronts' really.
that all being said yes, with good support and integration and work it is entirely possible and fairly common for people to influence who is fronting via various strategies
Anonymous Coward · 2d
do you have any opinion on people with fictives who dont want other people to have the same fictive
Anonymous Coward · 3d
does Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors talk about ego death at all? I plan to read it regardless but have been looking for resources about trauma-induced ego death specifically in recent weeks
Anonymous Coward · 2d
I’ve taken the DES II before but questionnaires like that confuse me because, like…how am I supposed to know the percentage of something? If it’s supposed to be over my whole life, how do I factor in experiences that maybe happened often in the past but don’t anymore/as often? What if I don’t even remember? If something happens a lot only under certain circumstances but not in others how do I factor that in? I kind of just end up guessing. I took it just now and got a 44 and last time I took it I got a 60 something
it's not supposed to be highly accuarate or something you're supposed to overthink, because it doesn't diagnose people with DID. it's just a screening tool to indicate to you/a professional about whether you experience dissociation to the extent that it should probably be looked closer at so an accurate diagnosis CAN be made.
it also doesn't matter whether you got a 44 or 60. those are still numbers that indicate "hm you should probably see a professional about the amount of dissociation you experience."
I want to reiterate: you're overthinking it. if you go to the doctor's office and they're trying to determine if you've sprained/broken a bone and they ask you "on a scale of 1-10 how much pain are you in" or "what were you doing before the pain" a discussion examining "what is pain, really?" or how long you've been roller skating isn't what they're looking for, they're just looking for an indication that it would be a good idea to investigate further about ur injury
Anonymous Coward · 3d
hi! I'm a syskid/middle (14ish normally) with an aversion to adult topics (romance and sex in particular). however these things are part of a lot of our life, and I've been put forward as possible host which I really want. do you have any advice on making those topics seem less icky?
I think unfortunately my answer probably boils down to "sex never has to be a part of your life for any reason and if anyone insists that you have to 'get over' your discomfort they do not have your best interests at heart and should consider why they believe sex is necessary even if you don't want or like it"