Here’s my metaphor for systemhood that I tell my singlet friends.
Imagine you’re playing a first person video game. You have the controller, you control your character. It’s a normal first person game. You are an alter, the character is the body. This is fronting.
Other people live with you. Sometimes, they come into the room and sit and watch while you play. They sometimes try to guide you, give you advice on what to do next. They don’t always agree, and they can argue with each other. Other times they scream at you that you’re doing everything wrong and you suck at this game. This is co-consciousness.
Imagine how distracting it would be for people around you to tell you what to do, or to scream at each other or at you, even if they have good intentions. It wouldn’t be easy to focus on your game, would it?
Then sometimes, something happens in the game that prompts you to hand off the controller to someone else so they can play and you get a break. This is (some types of) switching. This can be good.
Other times, someone rips the controller out of your hand or fights you for it. This is (other types of) switching. And sometimes, six other players hook up their controllers, but there’s only one character to play as. So all of you have your controllers, but you’re all trying to play the same character. This is cofronting.
Imagine how difficult that would be. Imagine how hard it would be to try and play a game while someone is trying to take the controller from you, or while six other people are trying to play too.
There are also times that nobody is playing, or you can’t decide who should play. What’s happening to the character in the game? What are they doing if no one is playing? This is dissociation. The character is doing nothing. They’re stuck.
This is the best metaphor I have come up with for being a system. It’s something a lot of people get because they’ve played games before.
Exactly, all systems are different in their own, beautiful ways.
Just like knowing an autistic person means you know one autistic person, knowing a system means you know one system. Systemhood/plurality is an incredibly diverse experience and it's impossible to get the full scope of the lives of every system out there by talking to one system, or even just a handful.
What feels restricting to one system may fit another perfectly. What feels comfortable to one system may make another feel dehumanized. Something that's a common experience in one system may be downright impossible in another. And on and on with many personal preferences and experiences.
This is fine, and normal. We're all unique, whether that's unique as individuals or unique as collectives. Just remember that the way one system works has no bearing on how another works; do not presume you know everything about systems just due to your own experiences or those you've talked to. It all depends on the system/plural/person in question.
anti-endos 👏 do not 👏 own 👏 the rights 👏 to 👏 plurality 👏
Undiagnosed systemhood is
Thinking you just have no sense of self, and that's why your "personality" keeps changing.
Feeling like you're watching someone else operate your body, with no idea how or why.
Having strange deja vu moments where you feel like you've done something, but you don't remember any specific details.
Feeling like years of your life weren't actually lived by you, but by someone else that still exists somewhere in you.
Saying things that you can't control or don't agree with and not being able to do anything to fix it.
Feeling like you don't belong in your body, like you aren't actually you.
"Actually many disabled people do contribute to society" is not a great argument against eugenics, by the way.
Exactly, like wtf.
...why are there so many singlet alterhumans who are vocally anti-endo....what are they even doing. like these people could be the most radical inclusive physical nonhumans ever that are actively trying to normalize "weird" mental health things and all that crap, and your cursor hovers over the follow button, but then you realize that their dni says "ENDOS F*** YOURSELF KGJHAGSWDJDWJDKADS" huh??? first of all we're your freaking cousins, second of all that's not even your battle to fight
Litterally me lmao
AuDHD is so funny sometimes like what do you mean my hyperfixations/special interests will last for years on end or possibly forever but they will cycle out every month or two with absolutely no transitional period or warning. like i will think about the same topic every day obsessively for 46 days in a row and on the 47th day with no visible cause adhd brain goes "ok! bored of that now" and autism brain goes "dw i got something queued up for ya" and i blast into full blown obsession on some other topic whose mental file folders haven't opened in 9 months. brain's out here treating hyperfixations like a crop rotation. once the dopamine runs out it cycles in another one but once something's in the rotation it never ever leaves. last summer we brought in one from when i was 11. it's so funny to me but frustrating too bc like. i cannot stress enough my inability to predict or control this. or how completely abrupt and random it can be
cool fact! writing "you have no reason not to reblog this" or "reblogging this costs you nothing" or "every decent person should reblog this" or any other kind of reblog bait guilt tripping is extremely unfair to those of us with moral ocd / guilt complexes so please fucking stop doing it!
Nazis will never be welcome in paganism. They have no space in our communities, we will have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to nazis. You have no right to the cultures, gods and religions you hijack to spread your disgusting ideologies. You will find no refuge or comraderie amongst pagans.
Reblog to let nazis know they’re not welcome here.
the neurodivergent experience:
20% of the time: wowwieee!!! i love my passions and interests!!!!! they make me so happy i want to jump up and down!!!!! weee!!!!!!! :3333333333
80% of the time: this mind is a prison
“Stop thinking of alters as separate people” this and “alters are each there own different entities that shouldn’t be blended” that
How about we let each system decide what feels best to them and stop policing systems that are already dealing with a very complex and varying disorder