"Mama, I'm a big kid today! Do you want to go for a walk and I can tell you all about the movie I watched yesterday?"
"Of course I do, buttercup! Let me get my shoes!"
𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊
"Mama, baby! Ma! Up!"
"Oh, what an adorable little baby! Come here, let me wrap you up and give you a cuddle!"
𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊
"I'm tired of being a person, can I be a kitten after dinner?"
"Always. Let me get the ribbon toy for you to chase after you have a nice nap."
𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊
"I don't feel like regressing, but I still want to watch a Disney movie with a stuffed animal, is that okay?"
"Absolutely! What movie do you want to watch? Should we make some snacks for movie night?"
𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊
"Mama I don't want to go anywhere -- I'm just a moss ball, I can't move."
"Oh, are you? That's a new one, let me get you some water and I'll look up how to take care of you.... Hmmm, it says here that a moss ball needs to be rolled around to make you more round. Alright, curl up little one, you're about to get rolled!"
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There's been a lot of harmful invalidation and misinformation floating around trauma spaces lately about the cause of complex dissociative disorders like DID. Please, let's put to rest the trauma olympics and claiming that certain childhood traumas are more "valid" than others. The childhood trauma that causes someone's DID does not need to be sexual or physical abuse, or even abuse at all.
From Understanding and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Relational Approach, by Elizabeth Howell (pages xvii - xviii):
"DID is usually the outcome of chronic and severe childhood trauma, which can include physical and sexual abuse, extreme and recurrent terror, repeated medical trauma, and extreme neglect. Pathological dissociation generally results from being psychically overwhelmed by trauma. . . . However, the traumatic experiences that may result in dissociative disorders do not always stem from sexual, physical, or emotional abuse. Disorganized attachment which often underlies the dissociative structure of dissociative disorders . . . may result from overwhelming experiences in the infant's interpersonal environment that are not caused by parental maltreatment. Parental illness, depression, or problematic attachment styles may be psychically overwhelming and lead to disorganized attachment. In addition, medical trauma may be dissociogenic. For example, some dissociative patients have reported histories of chronic medical problems and hospitalizations that involved severe pain and unavoidable separations from well-meaning parents. Medical trauma may involve both the chronic and severe pain of certain diseases and conditions as well as painful procedures intended to remediate these medical conditions. Some dissociative adult patients have reported the trauma of being left alone to suffer their pain as children in the hospital. Such children may be additionally confused by the fact that their parents are either hurting them, as part of necessary medical interventions or allowing others to hurt them . . ."
You can find a free download of this book and others [here]. I highly recommend reading it, it's one of my favorite books on DID. If you're able to, please consider purchasing a copy of it to support the author too!
Anyways, if you're reading this and you've been harmed by the recent influx of trauma invalidation, please know that I'm here for you. I believe you. Your trauma is REAL and it was ENOUGH to cause your disorder. You were a child and no child deserves to go through trauma. No one.
But the framework behind parts language is something I think all systems and plural people can relate to.
Seeing your system as one whole comprised of parts tells you that you are not alone. You aren't broken...you belong. Everyone in your system is an equally important, necessary, and real part of it. Everyone. Even the alters you don't get along with, the ones that you're ashamed of, the ones that hurt you or others, etc.
Some people see "parts of a whole" and feel like that dehumanizes them or diminishes their personhood. And that's okay. You're allowed to feel that way. We all have terms that we dislike. You have every right to set boundaries about what terms you do/don't want to be used towards you.
BUT! That's not how it is for everyone. Being seen as a part of something is not universally negative or dehumanizing.
For me, and many others I know, parts language does the exact opposite. It makes us feel more real and deeply connected to our systems. It was so profoundly important for me to discover parts language. Parts language is what helped me finally start to understand and accept that my system was real.
I also used to have some parts who didn't feel like "separate people." They felt more like facets of myself, like being in a different mode. Parts language made them feel safe and understood. Seeing discourse over parts language made them feel ashamed, like they would never be accepted by the online community.
Some people think that calling system members "parts" is the opposite of calling them "people," but my system has never felt that way. In therapy, I often switch between these two ways of speaking about my experiences. They're not mutually exclusive for everyone.
Anyways, I just wanted to share a few thoughts on this. I hope that you all have a lovely day. Drink water, take your meds, use the words that make you happiest, and take care!
Some adorable soulbonding buttons I found archived in 2003 from this (now deleted) soulbonding webpage.
(Disclaimer: This is an archiving blog that posts about plural history. Links and images in this post are from the past, saved by the wayback machine. Please be mindful that not all soulbonders consider themselves plural or consider their soulbonding to be plurality.)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Note: There was a blog before this one under the same name, but they deactivated and I snatched this URL for myself. Sorry if that causes any confusion!
Welcome to dissociative-misinfo!
What is this blog? The purpose of this blog is to help destigmatize and spread awareness on dissociation, dissociative disorders, and complex trauma. I aim to investigate potential misinfo and help give you the tools you need to be able to do your own research on these topics!
Who am I? I'm a diagnosed adult with DID who has recovered to a point of final fusion and remission. Aside from my lived experience, I have an academic background in psychology with a focus on developmental psych. I am not a licensed professional, though, so please do not ask me for medical advice or a diagnosis!
Who can interact? Anyone! You are allowed to be here and engage so long as you do so in good faith and are respectful to me and others. I will block if it's necessary.
Doing your own research? Here's some resources -
How to evaluate sources - please read this
Google Scholar - search scholarly articles
PubMed - search open access scholarly articles
Open Library - archives of books
Internet Archive - archives of the internet
Open Access Button - for getting around paywalls
Unpaywall - for getting around paywalls
A note on terminology... The terms used to talk about dissociation and having multiple identities/selves is vast and varied. In my posts, I mostly refer to the identities/selves inside of one body as 'parts' or 'alters'. The entire collective of parts together is what I call the 'system'. These are my preferred terms for myself -- not everyone uses them! So, if these are not your preferred terms, that is perfectly okay. I hope that my posts can still be useful to you, regardless!
Post Directory
Can minors be diagnosed with dissociative disorders?
Can people actually KNOW that they're dissociative/systems?
Are subsystems real; can alters have their own alters?
