#actuallysystematic

The conversation I'm having with a few new/old friends on Waterfall is making me want to really just... spell out how I've experienced the community so far, and how I want that to change or stay the same.

Discovering I was plural, and that it didn't make me literally insane was a godsend. I thought I was the only one walking around life switching name and personhood with who wore our face. I thought if I told anyone, I would be called crazy, or be institutionalized.

So when I discovered there's a whole community of people on tumblr who were... variably like me in that regard, I was estactic. We all were. We were glad to find possible resources, possible solidarity, possible friends who got our experience, even if how it came about might not have been the exact same.

What I found, though, was a crab bucket. A community that was constantly trying to box people up, keep them away from themselves if they were at all different (which is ludicrous since all experieces of multiplicity are unique and different anyways), tell people they were delusional because they weren't a carbon copy of the DSM, or keep everyone in a state of dysfunction. Trying to take part in trying to fix this puts anyone who does in the way of often-traumatizing backlash, even if all you did was say someone they didn't like was valid.

That isn't the community anybody can have enjoyed being in.

Now Tumblr has declared war on it's own userbase, and people are fleeing the site, at least to have multiple sites where they're active, and Waterfall is one of them. Those people who are fleeing include a lot of Multiples like us, and those that I've already found/reconnected with on here.

What I don't think anyone wants to follow is the discourse and crab bucket we're working to leave behind. It hasn't done anyone much good. It's created division in a community of people who are share varying experiences of multiplicity when we could have packed together in helping each other get through life by supporting each other.

Let's make this different, okay? Let's leave the crab bucket behind and create a positive space for people to find support and community.