8 ms·

A similar one I just became aware of is Dissociative Identity Disorder, or multiple personality disorder. There seems to be a huge surge of people doing TikToks

by themgt 5y ago

A similar one I just became aware of is Dissociative Identity Disorder, or multiple personality disorder. There seems to be a huge surge of people doing TikToks etc showing themselves going through identity changes (often "rapid switching"), some with hundreds of thousands or millions of views and seemingly a lot of supporters. There's a whole huge sort of jargon/ontology to this intersecting with other ideas and people identify as a "system" e.g: Systems, Collectives, and/or Plurals are those who experience being more than one entity in one physical body [1]. Systems are under the neurodivergent umbrella, and are not inherently LGBT+, but being plural can impact sexuality, romantic orientation, attraction, identities, and/or gender (such as with systemfluid). Systems can also commonly intersect with LGBT+ experiences[2]. The experiences may overlap to the point of ones queer identities being a large part of headmates, such as within queergenic systems. I am not quite sure what to make of all this, but we live in interesting times. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rapid+switching https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rapid+switching https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/System https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/System https://www.inputmag.com/culture/dissociative-identity-disorder-did-tiktok-influencers-multiple-personalities https://www.inputmag.com/culture/dissociative-identity-disor... https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-did-influencers-of-tiktok-and-the/id1504298199?i=1000530029977 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-did-influencers-of...

0xdeadb00f 5y ago
Fascinating.
ceejayoz 5y ago
This used to be thing back in the LiveJournal days; I remember people claiming to have a baby personality and typing in mock baby talk, as well as a bunch of "otherkin" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin).
rdimartino 5y ago
Yes, I stumbled upon some of these same community discussions happening on Twitter and Tumblr. It was really interesting to read about the in-fighting about traumagenic vs endogenic DID. This discussion of real or imitated Tourette’s reminds me of that. https://pluralpedia.org/w/Traumagenic https://pluralpedia.org/w/Traumagenic https://pluralpedia.org/w/Endogenic https://pluralpedia.org/w/Endogenic
- xerox13ster 5y ago
  As someone with DID who is a part of that community (founded two subreddits and moderated /r/DID for a time), I look at at the traumagenic vs endogenic debate as a sad case of ironic community amnesia. One of the core features of the disorder is the dissociative amnesia that protects us from having to deal with the consequences of the trauma we faced at all times. Systems that have lower dissociative barriers who deal with more trauma symptoms can be understandably upset when they see people seemingly functioning fine, claiming the same disorder with few of the same symptoms. I personally believe that endogenics are systems that have successfully repressed their trauma to the point that they really believe they didn't face trauma, or their trauma was more of an emotional or neglectful nature and their parents matured as they developed so it was safe to totally forget. Many endos will get mad in defense if you try to tell them they have trauma (as a mod the fighting can get unexpectedly emotional), because they have to believe they don't have trauma to survive. For everyone else in the thread talking about it like it's a curiosity or a psych fad please don't, yeah teens are picking it up and faking it, but some are actually coming to terms with it early--those are rare but they happen--most will lose interest in it after some months or years. People who fake this also aren't psychologically normal. People who claim to have created head mates are engaging in tuplamancy, which is NOT Dissociative Identity Disorder, and does not function in the same way in the slightest.
pfarrell 5y ago
I’m wondering if this is a modern extension of the old “psych-101 syndrome”. Where undergrads, upon learning of the existence of various mental health diagnoses, suddenly realize they too are OCD or have depression, etc…
- stefan_ 5y ago
  It's even worse. People on TikTok are all diagnosing themselves with anxiety, depression, neurodiversity, OCD, ADHD, and autism out of a mix of fashion, group pressure and teenage angst. Where are all the schizos and self-diagnosed narcissists? Me thinks the distribution is off.
  - ryan-allen 5y ago
    There are proper diagnosed awareness activists with large followings on TikTok, and based on the humanity on display within TikTok, I have no doubt for every legitimate individual, there are many times that number of fakers. As for a narcissist awareness activist, they're not wrong, they are right, and you are an arsehole and it's all your fault! Schizophrenia on the other hand is absolutely tragic, and it often contains disordered thinking. There is/was plenty of content on YouTube but it wasn't awareness based, rather it was paranoia based. You're always going to get scammers and fakers, but the legitimate people who are letting others in to their lives to spread awareness is overall a good thing. I would have liked to discover I wasn't alone as a teenager with undiagnosed ADHD. Treatment at that point in my life would have changed it's trajectory significantly. Neurodiversity isn't a diagnosis by the way, just a catch-all for a group of other disorders.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - jmcgough 5y ago
    I'm fine with teens doing dumb stuff as a small side effect of an overall positive impact of the internet for mental health. The internet has made it so people can openly discuss mental health problems, do research on their own, reduce stigma around mental health discussions, and meet other people struggling with similar issues. I'm on r/bipolar2 and its giant, awesome, very supportive discord.
evv555 5y ago
>A similar one I just became aware of is Dissociative Identity Disorder, or multiple personality disorder. Is it really crossing over into a MPD however? Voice dialogue is a therapeutic modality where you take a 2nd person perspective on your psyche components in addition to 1st/3rd person. There's something to it but it's not MPD. The most popular example is the "inner child" complex which people often reconnect with when they empathize with their own child.
- sildur 5y ago
  I sometimes discuss things with myself, taking two sides and having a conversation in my head. I see it as something like when you discuss something with someone in a dream. Is that voice dialogue?
  - evv555 5y ago
    Yes voice dialogue is a structured engagement/analysis of this capacity. Give structured labels/names to these 2nd persons and your mind will naturally frame the world as a system of 2nd persons on top of the usual 1st/3rd person perspectives of self. If you find this interesting I highly suggest looking at the "Big Mind" process that's been incorporated into western Zen Buddhism.
    - a9h74j 5y ago
      I have also seen it posed this way: Label that 2nd person as someone sitting on the other end of a sofa with you. If someone on the same sofa that way were constantly criticizing you, would you keep listening to them or paying them any notice?
- themodelplumber 5y ago
  I'm glad you pointed that out. There are many related therapeutic functions. While journaling I have a random personality picker which draws from a list of subjectively helpful archetypes. From favorite actors to inner child and future self, and more. Then I interview them or converse with them intuitively, with the aim of exploring the situation or problem from a new perspective. Related is a theory that by taking the perspective of a given personality, we essentially become that personality (not person, but personality) for however short a time period, giving ourselves access to their tools for problem-solving...
learc83 5y ago
I ran into a person in a technical forum recently who kept referring to the themselves as we and us. I was very confused for a while until someone asked them about it. Turns out they had purposely created a “head mate” and now insisted on being treated as multiple people.
- dmingod666 5y ago
  Or probably an insecure entrepreneur that doesn't want to look like a one person company.. :D
- sn41 5y ago
  I keep using the word 'we' in single author papers- e.g. 'we now show...':)
  - joshuaissac 5y ago
    Pluralis modestiae, a type of singular 'we'.
  - vnorilo 5y ago
    I have made a conscious effort to bring the language in my academic papers closer to the language I would actually speak. Part of that is writing in singular first person when that reflects reality. One of the hardest to write is "I believe" - it just feels so weak and un-sciency!
marcan_42 5y ago
It's a spectrum, like everything else, and the idea has existed for ages, it's just that people are now coming up with terminology for it. And yes, just like this (faux-)Tourette's story, it is possible to push oneself around in the spectrum; I know a few people who have deliberately and consciously done that (that can of course change how you classify things, if root cause is part of the definition). Think of it as ranging from acting differently in front of family and in front of your boss, to being an actor in character, to having that character evolve on its own, to full blown DID with amnesia. The fields of psychology, neuroscience, etc are sadly still in their infancy; we really have very little idea how the brain truly works. Doctors tend to like to put people in boxes, but the brain isn't digital, it's analog, and there isn't a boolean flag somewhere in your head that determines if you have a condition or not. People are different. The medical community usually concerns itself with cases where the condition impacts people's quality of life, i.e. only the more extreme ones, but that doesn't mean anything below that doesn't exist and hasn't since the dawn of humanity.
xerox13ster 5y ago
I moderated the DID subreddit for about two years and there was incredible controversy over this constantly in the community and in the mod team. The mod team wanted to have absolutely no discussion of it, while most of the community wanted to either complain or fight with DID youtuber followers. I don't miss moderating that community. The general consensus in the wider text and image based DID community is that most of them are faking, but we don't have a way of knowing for sure or how many because of just how inconsistent the presentation of the disorder can be in real life. You'd never know I had DID if you met me in person, but I have a good friend who is disabled because she can't function on her own. The important thing to remember about DID is that it's caused by childhood trauma, abuse, and long term patterns of neglect as simple as "crying it out" or as significant as parentifying. It's not interesting times we live it it has been this way this is often generational, psychology is just finally catching up in this regard. I was raised (and abused) by my aunt who was only continuing the cycle of her and my mom's abuse that she faced, continued by her father who was abused because of traumas his parents faced on the Trail of Tears. They both described feeling like they had more than one person in them, that their age was not aligned with their body, and the stories of abuse they both told me align. My dad was abused by the Boston Archdiocese, his psychiatric records claimed he referred to himself in turns by John, Jack, and other names, claiming they would act on his behalf. They called it schizophrenia then because of a backlash against diagnosing DID after Sybil and other films reached mainstream.
- phkahler 5y ago
  My understanding of DID and its origins matches your. While dont have it, I did find IFS therapy useful in fixing myself and recognizing similar in other people. It makes sense (to me) that DID is an extreme on a continuum of splitting of the self. IMHO most people flaunting their DID online, bragging about their others, claiming to be systems, are just attention seekers that are an insult to those with a real problem. The second "D" stands for disorder after all. It's like the teenagers running around claiming all sorts of odd variations on their sexuality - while being virgins. It's cool to be different, but not to falsely claim someone else's difference.
  - 5y ago
twic 5y ago
You may be interested in tulpamancy: https://www.vice.com/en/article/exmqzz/tulpamancy-internet-subculture-892 https://www.vice.com/en/article/exmqzz/tulpamancy-internet-s...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
_pvf6 5y ago
We have DID, and I think some YouTube systems may be real, but it's like the social popularity syndrome where you have to completely cast away every part of yourself that doesn't live up to the previously manufactured spec. Most systems that we know who have DID are generally A. Wonderful people with B. very hard emotional struggles and C. tend to have very painful private lives. It's generally an incredibly painful disorder, in my experience and in seeing those near me. I think the very concept of having different selves in a body... This creates all sorts of deeply painful, existential crises, as well as I think lifestyle dysphoria. So I think there's a lot of popcorn-y debate about DID YouTubers, but I think that might be like using Logan/Jake Paul's channel as an argument for/against certain parts of California culture. I think there's parts that do line up, most are grossly exaggerated or left out due to popularity reasons, and I think there's one final piece to it. I think for me, the maturation process on this issue seems to start with confusion, followed by some level of agreement/disagreement/potentially strong emotions, and that may go on for a while. I think I'm starting to come to the point where I can see these systems as real systems, and whether they're more plural or more singular, just being able to have compassion. If a 2-5 year old is going through the emotional/developmental phases they do, oftentimes it's not wise to mock or deride them for it. Their growth phase has little do do with my wellbeing as an individual, but I can be compassionate and caring regardless. That, or I could move to popcorn debating the intentions of people popcorn debating the intentions of DID YouTubers. At that point, I'd probably set myself up for popcorn debate too. I don't know, hopefully that's not too discombobulated. I can say that systems that can live well with DID have to have extraordinary leadership and diplomatic skills internally. It's like having a random greyhound bus of people picked randomly all over the world and having them function as a good, moving... I don't know, for the sake of example, performative group. One can sit and be upset about D'Je'be, who seems to be intent on harassing the female members of the crew, or Sarai, who seems to have a personal need for everyone in the crew to dote on her, and so on. All of those things can happen inside of a DID system, and they generally do. So seeing DID YouTubers, if they are a system, this is part of their journey. It may not even be a bad thing! It's just a thing. But my deepest respect to the systems who can find a way for the D'Je'be's and Sarai's of the world to both authentically be themselves and feel cared for + have their needs emotionally met, while that's being done in a way that doesn't hurt the needs and emotional desires (+needs too, I suppose!) of others in the system. It's certainly NP hard, and in the class of NP hard that's an NP-hard for NP-hard problems, I'd contend. Alrighty, enough of me long-form expressing myself here! Happy to answer any questions below. <3
pessimizer 5y ago
It's not just an internet thing; since Sybil, multiple personalities became an identity to aspire to. What the internet adds to it is that all of these individuals network together and start setting up a common lexicon, demands that the condition be treated as what they say it is, and a bunch of rules dividing "authentic" MPD from fakers. At some point an industry arises to prey on them. It's like fandom, basically, except with medical treatment and the sense of being an oppressed, abused minority.
- smegger001 5y ago
  munchausen by mob
pnathan 5y ago
DID is real enough. But my take is that conventionally clinical DID presenters will not be particularly public about it, because it stems from the most brutal trauma in childhood- not something to showcase to get upvotes or likes. I don't have any perspective on non-clinical cases.
jmcgough 5y ago
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but the challenge with DID is that there's no empirical evidence supporting it; something like 10-15% of cases are believed to be fictitious, and there's studies that cast doubt on its diagnostic criteria [1]. Around half of clinical psychologists are skeptical as to whether it's 'real', or if it could be better explained by borderline personality disorder or other diagnoses. [1] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/08/a-story-that-doesnt-hold-up/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/08/a-story-that-...
beerandt 5y ago
Isn't this just over the top, perhaps unintentional, method acting?
hellbannedguy 5y ago
I was taught Multiple Personality Disorder was so rare, you might be able to count the real cases on one hand. This was twent years ago, and Dr. Godsey was the professor. He didn't have tenure, so he did landscaping during the summer. I thought his summer job was cool for a teacher. He might have been the best teacher I ever had. Never forget the first day of class, and he said the C students usually hide in the back row. The next day all the back row seats were empty. Anyways--I do question certain people who are affected by so many psychological problems to the point they need to use abbreviations to describe themselfs. I don't blame them though. They are just repeating what a licensed professional told them.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
ED_Radish 5y ago
I remember pluralism being passed around in the earlier days of the Internet too. With some pretty wild claims like being able to enter your own mind and fuck about while another portion of your consciousness lived your life for you. (which, might have been the origin of the other social media thing about reality shifting going around?) Back when it was called tulpas. Interesting that it seems to be coming back in popularity.
cyanydeez 5y ago
probably just the same thing as code switching. People learn to tap into some portion of the brain that tracks personality constructs of others and can do a 'deep fake' of them. I don't think it's anything but humans being humans.

by themgt 5y ago

0xdeadb00f 5y ago

Fascinating.

ceejayoz 5y ago

This used to be thing back in the LiveJournal days; I remember people claiming to have a baby personality and typing in mock baby talk, as well as a bunch of "otherkin" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin).

rdimartino 5y ago

Yes, I stumbled upon some of these same community discussions happening on Twitter and Tumblr. It was really interesting to read about the in-fighting about traumagenic vs endogenic DID. This discussion of real or imitated Tourette’s reminds me of that. https://pluralpedia.org/w/Traumagenic https://pluralpedia.org/w/Traumagenic https://pluralpedia.org/w/Endogenic https://pluralpedia.org/w/Endogenic

xerox13ster 5y ago
As someone with DID who is a part of that community (founded two subreddits and moderated /r/DID for a time), I look at at the traumagenic vs endogenic debate as a sad case of ironic community amnesia. One of the core features of the disorder is the dissociative amnesia that protects us from having to deal with the consequences of the trauma we faced at all times. Systems that have lower dissociative barriers who deal with more trauma symptoms can be understandably upset when they see people seemingly functioning fine, claiming the same disorder with few of the same symptoms. I personally believe that endogenics are systems that have successfully repressed their trauma to the point that they really believe they didn't face trauma, or their trauma was more of an emotional or neglectful nature and their parents matured as they developed so it was safe to totally forget. Many endos will get mad in defense if you try to tell them they have trauma (as a mod the fighting can get unexpectedly emotional), because they have to believe they don't have trauma to survive. For everyone else in the thread talking about it like it's a curiosity or a psych fad please don't, yeah teens are picking it up and faking it, but some are actually coming to terms with it early--those are rare but they happen--most will lose interest in it after some months or years. People who fake this also aren't psychologically normal. People who claim to have created head mates are engaging in tuplamancy, which is NOT Dissociative Identity Disorder, and does not function in the same way in the slightest.

pfarrell 5y ago

I’m wondering if this is a modern extension of the old “psych-101 syndrome”. Where undergrads, upon learning of the existence of various mental health diagnoses, suddenly realize they too are OCD or have depression, etc…

stefan_ 5y ago
It's even worse. People on TikTok are all diagnosing themselves with anxiety, depression, neurodiversity, OCD, ADHD, and autism out of a mix of fashion, group pressure and teenage angst. Where are all the schizos and self-diagnosed narcissists? Me thinks the distribution is off.
- ryan-allen 5y ago
  There are proper diagnosed awareness activists with large followings on TikTok, and based on the humanity on display within TikTok, I have no doubt for every legitimate individual, there are many times that number of fakers. As for a narcissist awareness activist, they're not wrong, they are right, and you are an arsehole and it's all your fault! Schizophrenia on the other hand is absolutely tragic, and it often contains disordered thinking. There is/was plenty of content on YouTube but it wasn't awareness based, rather it was paranoia based. You're always going to get scammers and fakers, but the legitimate people who are letting others in to their lives to spread awareness is overall a good thing. I would have liked to discover I wasn't alone as a teenager with undiagnosed ADHD. Treatment at that point in my life would have changed it's trajectory significantly. Neurodiversity isn't a diagnosis by the way, just a catch-all for a group of other disorders.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- jmcgough 5y ago
  I'm fine with teens doing dumb stuff as a small side effect of an overall positive impact of the internet for mental health. The internet has made it so people can openly discuss mental health problems, do research on their own, reduce stigma around mental health discussions, and meet other people struggling with similar issues. I'm on r/bipolar2 and its giant, awesome, very supportive discord.

evv555 5y ago

>A similar one I just became aware of is Dissociative Identity Disorder, or multiple personality disorder. Is it really crossing over into a MPD however? Voice dialogue is a therapeutic modality where you take a 2nd person perspective on your psyche components in addition to 1st/3rd person. There's something to it but it's not MPD. The most popular example is the "inner child" complex which people often reconnect with when they empathize with their own child.

sildur 5y ago
I sometimes discuss things with myself, taking two sides and having a conversation in my head. I see it as something like when you discuss something with someone in a dream. Is that voice dialogue?
- evv555 5y ago
  Yes voice dialogue is a structured engagement/analysis of this capacity. Give structured labels/names to these 2nd persons and your mind will naturally frame the world as a system of 2nd persons on top of the usual 1st/3rd person perspectives of self. If you find this interesting I highly suggest looking at the "Big Mind" process that's been incorporated into western Zen Buddhism.
  - a9h74j 5y ago
    I have also seen it posed this way: Label that 2nd person as someone sitting on the other end of a sofa with you. If someone on the same sofa that way were constantly criticizing you, would you keep listening to them or paying them any notice?
themodelplumber 5y ago
I'm glad you pointed that out. There are many related therapeutic functions. While journaling I have a random personality picker which draws from a list of subjectively helpful archetypes. From favorite actors to inner child and future self, and more. Then I interview them or converse with them intuitively, with the aim of exploring the situation or problem from a new perspective. Related is a theory that by taking the perspective of a given personality, we essentially become that personality (not person, but personality) for however short a time period, giving ourselves access to their tools for problem-solving...

learc83 5y ago

I ran into a person in a technical forum recently who kept referring to the themselves as we and us. I was very confused for a while until someone asked them about it. Turns out they had purposely created a “head mate” and now insisted on being treated as multiple people.

dmingod666 5y ago
Or probably an insecure entrepreneur that doesn't want to look like a one person company.. :D
sn41 5y ago
I keep using the word 'we' in single author papers- e.g. 'we now show...':)
- joshuaissac 5y ago
  Pluralis modestiae, a type of singular 'we'.
- vnorilo 5y ago
  I have made a conscious effort to bring the language in my academic papers closer to the language I would actually speak. Part of that is writing in singular first person when that reflects reality. One of the hardest to write is "I believe" - it just feels so weak and un-sciency!

marcan_42 5y ago

It's a spectrum, like everything else, and the idea has existed for ages, it's just that people are now coming up with terminology for it. And yes, just like this (faux-)Tourette's story, it is possible to push oneself around in the spectrum; I know a few people who have deliberately and consciously done that (that can of course change how you classify things, if root cause is part of the definition). Think of it as ranging from acting differently in front of family and in front of your boss, to being an actor in character, to having that character evolve on its own, to full blown DID with amnesia. The fields of psychology, neuroscience, etc are sadly still in their infancy; we really have very little idea how the brain truly works. Doctors tend to like to put people in boxes, but the brain isn't digital, it's analog, and there isn't a boolean flag somewhere in your head that determines if you have a condition or not. People are different. The medical community usually concerns itself with cases where the condition impacts people's quality of life, i.e. only the more extreme ones, but that doesn't mean anything below that doesn't exist and hasn't since the dawn of humanity.

xerox13ster 5y ago

I moderated the DID subreddit for about two years and there was incredible controversy over this constantly in the community and in the mod team. The mod team wanted to have absolutely no discussion of it, while most of the community wanted to either complain or fight with DID youtuber followers. I don't miss moderating that community. The general consensus in the wider text and image based DID community is that most of them are faking, but we don't have a way of knowing for sure or how many because of just how inconsistent the presentation of the disorder can be in real life. You'd never know I had DID if you met me in person, but I have a good friend who is disabled because she can't function on her own. The important thing to remember about DID is that it's caused by childhood trauma, abuse, and long term patterns of neglect as simple as "crying it out" or as significant as parentifying. It's not interesting times we live it it has been this way this is often generational, psychology is just finally catching up in this regard. I was raised (and abused) by my aunt who was only continuing the cycle of her and my mom's abuse that she faced, continued by her father who was abused because of traumas his parents faced on the Trail of Tears. They both described feeling like they had more than one person in them, that their age was not aligned with their body, and the stories of abuse they both told me align. My dad was abused by the Boston Archdiocese, his psychiatric records claimed he referred to himself in turns by John, Jack, and other names, claiming they would act on his behalf. They called it schizophrenia then because of a backlash against diagnosing DID after Sybil and other films reached mainstream.

phkahler 5y ago
My understanding of DID and its origins matches your. While dont have it, I did find IFS therapy useful in fixing myself and recognizing similar in other people. It makes sense (to me) that DID is an extreme on a continuum of splitting of the self. IMHO most people flaunting their DID online, bragging about their others, claiming to be systems, are just attention seekers that are an insult to those with a real problem. The second "D" stands for disorder after all. It's like the teenagers running around claiming all sorts of odd variations on their sexuality - while being virgins. It's cool to be different, but not to falsely claim someone else's difference.
- 5y ago

twic 5y ago

You may be interested in tulpamancy: https://www.vice.com/en/article/exmqzz/tulpamancy-internet-subculture-892 https://www.vice.com/en/article/exmqzz/tulpamancy-internet-s...

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

_pvf6 5y ago

We have DID, and I think some YouTube systems may be real, but it's like the social popularity syndrome where you have to completely cast away every part of yourself that doesn't live up to the previously manufactured spec. Most systems that we know who have DID are generally A. Wonderful people with B. very hard emotional struggles and C. tend to have very painful private lives. It's generally an incredibly painful disorder, in my experience and in seeing those near me. I think the very concept of having different selves in a body... This creates all sorts of deeply painful, existential crises, as well as I think lifestyle dysphoria. So I think there's a lot of popcorn-y debate about DID YouTubers, but I think that might be like using Logan/Jake Paul's channel as an argument for/against certain parts of California culture. I think there's parts that do line up, most are grossly exaggerated or left out due to popularity reasons, and I think there's one final piece to it. I think for me, the maturation process on this issue seems to start with confusion, followed by some level of agreement/disagreement/potentially strong emotions, and that may go on for a while. I think I'm starting to come to the point where I can see these systems as real systems, and whether they're more plural or more singular, just being able to have compassion. If a 2-5 year old is going through the emotional/developmental phases they do, oftentimes it's not wise to mock or deride them for it. Their growth phase has little do do with my wellbeing as an individual, but I can be compassionate and caring regardless. That, or I could move to popcorn debating the intentions of people popcorn debating the intentions of DID YouTubers. At that point, I'd probably set myself up for popcorn debate too. I don't know, hopefully that's not too discombobulated. I can say that systems that can live well with DID have to have extraordinary leadership and diplomatic skills internally. It's like having a random greyhound bus of people picked randomly all over the world and having them function as a good, moving... I don't know, for the sake of example, performative group. One can sit and be upset about D'Je'be, who seems to be intent on harassing the female members of the crew, or Sarai, who seems to have a personal need for everyone in the crew to dote on her, and so on. All of those things can happen inside of a DID system, and they generally do. So seeing DID YouTubers, if they are a system, this is part of their journey. It may not even be a bad thing! It's just a thing. But my deepest respect to the systems who can find a way for the D'Je'be's and Sarai's of the world to both authentically be themselves and feel cared for + have their needs emotionally met, while that's being done in a way that doesn't hurt the needs and emotional desires (+needs too, I suppose!) of others in the system. It's certainly NP hard, and in the class of NP hard that's an NP-hard for NP-hard problems, I'd contend. Alrighty, enough of me long-form expressing myself here! Happy to answer any questions below. <3

pessimizer 5y ago

It's not just an internet thing; since Sybil, multiple personalities became an identity to aspire to. What the internet adds to it is that all of these individuals network together and start setting up a common lexicon, demands that the condition be treated as what they say it is, and a bunch of rules dividing "authentic" MPD from fakers. At some point an industry arises to prey on them. It's like fandom, basically, except with medical treatment and the sense of being an oppressed, abused minority.

smegger001 5y ago
munchausen by mob

pnathan 5y ago

DID is real enough. But my take is that conventionally clinical DID presenters will not be particularly public about it, because it stems from the most brutal trauma in childhood- not something to showcase to get upvotes or likes. I don't have any perspective on non-clinical cases.

jmcgough 5y ago

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but the challenge with DID is that there's no empirical evidence supporting it; something like 10-15% of cases are believed to be fictitious, and there's studies that cast doubt on its diagnostic criteria [1]. Around half of clinical psychologists are skeptical as to whether it's 'real', or if it could be better explained by borderline personality disorder or other diagnoses. [1] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/08/a-story-that-doesnt-hold-up/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/08/a-story-that-...

beerandt 5y ago

Isn't this just over the top, perhaps unintentional, method acting?

hellbannedguy 5y ago

I was taught Multiple Personality Disorder was so rare, you might be able to count the real cases on one hand. This was twent years ago, and Dr. Godsey was the professor. He didn't have tenure, so he did landscaping during the summer. I thought his summer job was cool for a teacher. He might have been the best teacher I ever had. Never forget the first day of class, and he said the C students usually hide in the back row. The next day all the back row seats were empty. Anyways--I do question certain people who are affected by so many psychological problems to the point they need to use abbreviations to describe themselfs. I don't blame them though. They are just repeating what a licensed professional told them.

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ED_Radish 5y ago

I remember pluralism being passed around in the earlier days of the Internet too. With some pretty wild claims like being able to enter your own mind and fuck about while another portion of your consciousness lived your life for you. (which, might have been the origin of the other social media thing about reality shifting going around?) Back when it was called tulpas. Interesting that it seems to be coming back in popularity.

cyanydeez 5y ago

probably just the same thing as code switching. People learn to tap into some portion of the brain that tracks personality constructs of others and can do a 'deep fake' of them. I don't think it's anything but humans being humans.