Welcome!!
If you are on this carrd, you probably came across one of our accounts or friend sent it to you. Either way, we're glad you decided to take a look! We hope this carrd helps you better understand what DID is. If you still have questions, feel free to message us!! We'll be happy to explain anything. Until then, click the button below to get started! Or click on Contents to find specific topics!
What is DID?
DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder, is a disorder that is caused by childhood trauma and develops during childhood. To explain it in short, it's multiple beings- yes, people- within a single body. It used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder, but we aren't personalities. We are individual people. The brain created us to protect the body and core (body's owner).
No, we aren't like the guy from split. We aren't dangerous. We don't switch and go to town k*lling and harming people. Do not associate us with that stigma.
Terms
~ Alter ;; An individual in the system
~ Caretaker ;; An alter role. As the name says, they take care of people in the system.
~ Co-Conscious ;; When an alter is present and watching those fronting, but not front or co-front themselves.
~ Core ;; Typically the bodies owner, this definition may vary between systems.
~ Dormant ;; When alters are in a coma state,, they can be in this state for any amount of time
~ Factive ;; An alter who is from a factual source, like an actor or music artist.
~ Fictive ;; An alter who is from a fictional source,like a book, movie, or game.
~ Fragment ;; An alter who has a single job or skill
~ Front ;; The one(s) in current control of the body.
~ Gatekeeper ;; Typically keep watch of who does and doesn't get to front. Literally Gatekeeping front. May slightly vary from system to system.
~ Headmate ;; Alters in the system.
~ Host ;; Alter(s) who front most
~ Inner World ;; Where alters go when they aren't fronting,, quite literally the world within the system.
~ Integration ;; basically when two or more alters blend into one (will update this definition)
~ Introject ;; Umbrella term for fictives and factives,, alters from an outer world source.
~ Little ;; Child alters
~ Memory Holder ;; Alters who hold memories
~ Messenger ;; An alter who takes messages around the system.
~ NPC ;; Alters who can't front, even if they wanted to and were allowed to. Most have very specific jobs in the inner world and some can't leave those positions, much like NCPs in games.
~ Persecutor ;; Extreme protectors who sometimes lash out and make irrational decisions to try and keep the body from experiencing trauma again.
~ Polyfrag ;; Systems with 100+ alters, subsystems and/or mostly fragments
~ Protector ;; Alters who protect the body from trauma. There are more specific roles to them, such as physical protector, emotional protector, and s*xual protector. They also protect alters in the inner world from other alters
~Soother ;; As the name suggests, they sooth people in the system.
~ Split ;; When new alters are formed. This typically happens as the brains response to either or even both inner and outer world trauma or stress.
~ Subsystem ;; when a system has alters who are ALSO a system
~ Switch ;; When alters change front. They can happen quickly or slowly, but always have dissociation.
~ System ;; Collective term for everyone in the body.
~ Trauma Holder ;; As said, they hold traumatic memories.
About Relationships
This topic can seem a little hard to grasp at first, and that's okay. You may have question, and we're here to try and answer them.
Alters can be in relationships in both inner and outer world. Meaning, they can date alters within their system, or they can date people from other systems or even singlets.
How does this work? Quite simple, really! As mentioned before, we alters are individual people. We have our own individual feelings, preferences, sexualities, etc. It's important to remember that.
In our system, we have many inner and outer world relationships. Our outer world relationships are only between other systems. This includes our core as well. Xey are with a host/core? of another system, and some of their alters have relationships of their own. And that's okay because again, alters are individual people.
Inner world relationships are equally as real and valid. These, as said, are relationships between alters within the system. And, in some cases, they start their own families. (This is rare, but it happens.)
Now. Let's discuss marriage. Between system alters, there typically isn't any outer world documentation or sometimes even no inner world documentation. Sometimes there is a wedding (Most likely virtual, I had one) and sometimes there is not, it all depends on what that couple decides to do. But they are still real and valid.
Marriage between hosts and/or cores can work in the same way but in my personal opinion, it'd be more complicated because of outer world things. This also applies to singlets marrying an alter or host/core.
These views vary from system to system. If you're thinking "well what way is best", communicate with your partner. These aren't strict rules by any means, just what seems common. Communication with your partner is above everything
Introjects
As said in terms, introject is an umbrella term for fictives and factives.
I will be using our systems introjects, including myself, in this topic.
I want to start by retouching what fictives and factives are individually.
Fictives are alters that have a fictional souce. This includes books, movies, tv shows, animes, video games, etc. A few in our system are Cube from Animal Crossing, Yukine from Nerogami, Viper from Kung Fu Panda, Glenn from The Walking Dead, and Ponyboy from The Outsiders.
Factives are alters that have a factual source. This includes youtubers, actors, singers, and sometimes even friends. A few in our system are myself- Jimin, Matthias from Dope Or Nope, Lucas from NCT, Zeyu from Boy Story, Zhong Fei Fei from Produce Camp 2020.
Why do alters split with sources like this? Well, the brain splits to help with stress and trauma, and what could be better than things that comfort you or other alters from the outer world? What the brain does, essentially, is bring that comfort character into the system.
It's important to remember these alters are NOT their source. I am a factive of Jimin, but I am NOT Park Jimin himself.
To extend this, some introjects do keep traits from their source. For example, Cube kept his catchprase "brainfreeze" and Matthias somewhat kept is sense of humour and intelligence from his source. But they are not a direct copy of their source. They can and some will have entirely different personalities from their source.
This also means that they may not entirely remember their source. Fei Fei remembers nothing of her source, and Ponyboy only remembers a couple people from his source. This okay and they are still valid. Do not explain their source if they don't ask you to explain it.
So how DO you act around introjects you know the source of?
Act as if they were a normal person. If you want to talk about their source, ask if they're comfortable with it.
This varies from system to system of course, but it's always best to ask about boundaries.
Other Types of Alters
Alters aren't always from a book, game, or music source. Not all are introjects, obviously. And not all are human. The brain makes alters with the goal to provide comfort and help for the body and/or other alters, so they don't have a limit on what they can be or come from.
This means alters can be;;
animalhumanoidmythicalagelessetc.
And they can come from any source- or maybe no source at all. They can come from characters someone makes or maybe the brain just kinda created them. They can also have a complete backstory, who knows. No matter where they come from, there is no limitations on what they can be.
To extend this, alter who look like introjects may not be introjects. For example, using someone from our system, KoKo looks like Woodie Gochild, but he's NOT a Woodie Gochild factive. He split with the appearance of Woodie Gochild, but not the identity.
This being said, there's an almost flip side to it. Alters can have the appearance and looks of an other world source, but are an "alternate universe" version of them. So, using music artists as an example, if someone in the system reads fanfictions, the brain could potentially split an introject from THAT universe, or maybe create a universe to help with comforting.
Using our system as an example of this. We collectively love writing and reading fanfictions (Yes, even introjects), and we love making fantasy universes. Mostly making people into humanoids or shapeshifters. And for some of us, our favourite song is Winter Bear by Taehyung of BTS. See where this is going?
Taehyung split from a mix of these. He's still a factive and he'll tell you his source is BTS, but he has fantasy elements to him. You can say he's like a Jack Frost AU of Taehyung, but with bear ears.
Polyfrag Systems
In terms, polyfragment encompasses several meanings. Systems who have 100+ alters, systems who have subsystems, and/or systems who have mostly fragments.
These are all very common definitions used, but I'm only going to touch on the first two meanings.
It's not uncommon to meet a system with a lot of alters. Let me explain why this may be.
The brain forms alters as a response to trauma or stress from both the inner and outer world. And because DID develops in early childhood, there's no telling how much trauma or stress that system has been through from the first split to when you met that sytem, and they could still be going through trauma and stress.
This is also very dependent on how often the brain will actually form new alters. Sometimes the brain will split once with a single alter. Other times it may split a few in response to a huge traumatic event. Or there will be a series of splitting in short time period, which is called rapid splitting. Or, of course, there could be no splits.
Systems can have any amount of alters. 3, 10, 47, 134, 478, any. It's all dependent on the brain's reaction to trauma and stress.
Now, subsystems, or alters who have system of their own. This varies from system to system on why this happens, so I'll list a few possibilities.
The brain is trying to make the system feel less alone on being a systemThe alter came from a universe where they had a systemTheir backstory was traumatic
There's more, of course, but these are things that have applied to us as a system with subsystems.
It can be confusing meeting an alter that has a system, but with time it gets easier to understand.
Inner Worlds
The Inner World is quite literally a world within the system that alters live in. They come in many forms. Like alters, there's no limits on what it can have.
Some are as small as just building or town. Some are cities, islands, or a planet. Some can have an entire solar system. It just depends.
Sometimes alters can change things in the inner world, or add to it. Sometimes as small as a bridge or park. Sometimes larger. Sometimes only specific alters can change things. And sometimes it changes itself.
Theme wise, the possibilties are endless. Some are foresty, some are water based, others are a specific colour scheme, and sometimes there's multiple themes to it.
All are different, you'll never find two systems with the same type of inner world.
If It's Not DID...
Not all systems are DID systems. They may be OSDD, or Other Specified Dissociative Disorder, systems! They're like DID systems, but slightly different.
There are two types of OSDD;
OSDD-1A; these systems have less defined altersOSDD-1B; these systems have less amnesia between alters.
Both are super valid!!
There's another disorder called DDNOS (Dissociative Disorder : Not Otherwise Specified), which we aren't super educated on. We will update this once we have more information!
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