Thread by @alteredparts

I want to talk about how people with DID-PTSD express their trauma, dissociation, reality, recovery, etc. in different ways, and how policing that expression can lead to harm. #dissociativeidentitydisorder #dissociatwt #pluralgang #DIDOSDD

(Up front, this thread is about DID-PTSD but if you find it useful for endogenic or non-disordered plurality then that's cool.)

A lot of #syscourse tends to focus on the "personhood" of alters, dissociated parts, headmates, whatever you want to call them. It's an understandable topic. Routinely, we are denied our personhood even as collective wholes. Having DID-PTSD means that you have

had your personhood rejected, attacked, policed, and denied from childhood; maybe even from the moment you were born. That's why I think that it's one of the most universal DID-PTSD experiences: Denial. Denial from yourself. Denial from others.

The reality is that people with dissociative disorders are real people. Because of that, every single alter, dissociated part, headmate, etc., is a real person. These sentiments go hand-and-hand. They are validated and supported in good therapeutic settings.

The way that dissociative people validate their own personhood is extremely different per system (sometimes, it's even different per alter!). For some people, they validate their personhood by expressing their system as separate, real people.

For other people, they validate their personhood by expressing their system as equal parts making up a whole real person. Some people find a nice medium between the two ideas. Others express themselves in different ways entirely.

Part of the therapeutic journey involves discovering what validates the realness of every single alter within the system. For me, that came from accepting my system as parts of a collective whole. Seeing each other as separate people only increased our dissociation and denial.

For other people, they found their reality in a completely different expression and belief. That's absolutely okay and normal. No two people have the exact same path of recovery.

Please remember that. 🖤

And now, onto the darker side of things. I want to talk about the harm that can come from policing this kind of stuff. Let's take a look at this thread that was created by a median system:

https://twitter.com/Multi_Sapphire/status/1398039549897445380

In this thread, they lambast the dissociative systems who express themselves as parts of a whole. They insinuate that this sort of expression is universally unhealthy because it was personally unhealthy for them when they used it...

They also explain that this expression is a "trauma response" and that only the host of the system does it to invalidate the personhood of the other system members. I believe them fully that this is what it was like for them, but it's definitely not universal.

First off, my system doesn't have a host or a "main frontrunner." We share our life equally & all have equal say. We used to struggle so much with denial, wishing certain alters were gone, etc., before we started viewing each other as parts of a whole.

The thread goes on to bash on recovery options for DID-PTSD. They post some strong remarks about fusion, stating that it's just an attempt to get rid of alters fueled by the system's own denial. I know of several fused systems who would be appalled by this insinuation.

For example, @calioninspires has posted that they experienced final fusion like reincarnation. Their multiplicity was never erased or gotten rid of, just changed appearance. While we're not a completely fused system, this is exactly what our own fusions have felt like.

Every alter who was previously separate in my system is still here with me. Healthy fusion creates a sense of joy and togetherness. Knowing what fusion work is like...healthy fusion just isn't possible if someone truly wants to get rid of their alters.

You fuse to be together with your alters. It's just a different form of closeness that some dissociative people choose on their path to recovery. You don't fuse to get rid of alters, change them, or deny that they exist. That's not what healthy fusion looks like.

From this thread, I believe that this account just does not believe in healthy fusion. They go on to share some scary & outdated statistics* to probably push people away from considering fusion as the right recovery option for them.

In my opinion, this is anti-recovery. Not everyone is going to find their healing in healthy multiplicity. For some people, fusion truly is the right option. People should be allowed to explore these different options without having to see scare mongering like this.

This is how policing the expression of dissociative people inevitably ends up invalidating someone & allows anti-recovery to infiltrate our spaces.

Dissociative people already have a hard enough time finding prof help. Scare mongering like this just makes it even harder.

*The 14-30% success rate comes from a study over two decades years ago, back when final fusion was pressured (it's not anymore), and did not notate whether the systems actually wanted to fuse or not. More on that here:

https://twitter.com/multiplicityand/status/1398920192953143297