Im struggling to cope with myself rn -Shigs

no nuance pick one. you can elaborate in the tags.

Id like to hope I'm plural coded, at least I read myself that way - Tomura

Hey everyone! Let's have a bit of fun!

Reblog with your favorite plural or plural-coded video game character(s)!

Mine are Pyra/Mythra! 😁

Here’s some positivity for introjects who are connected to their source!

There’s no one true or correct way to be an introject - introjects come in all shapes and sizes, and may have a wide variety of ways in which they view their source! Whether a factive, fictive, faitive, objective, conceptive, songtive, or something else, it’s okay for introjects of all sorts to like their source of feel connected to it. If you’re an introject who is connected to your source, this post is for you!

❤️ Shoutout to introjects who identify with their source’s name, gender, pronouns, sexuality, or other identities!

🧡 Shoutout to introjects who kin their sources!

💛 Shoutout to introjects who identify with their source despite having never directly seen or interacted with it!

💚 Shoutout to introjects whose source is their special interest, hyperfixation, or one of their favorite things!

💙 Shoutout to introjects who roleplay or otherwise engage with the world as their source!

💜 Shoutout to introjects who are source divergent or who don’t identify much with their source, but are still deeply connected to it!

❤️ Shoutout to introjects who like being referred to as their source!

🧡 Shoutout to introjects who are tired of their relationship to their source being policed or dictated by others!

💛 Shoutout to introjects who distanced or disconnected from their source, only to reconnect with it later on!

💚 Shoutout to introjects who often feel ostracized or left out of plural spaces because of how they view their source!

💙 Shoutout to introjects whose relationships to their source are intricate, nuanced, or complex!

💜 Shoutout to introjects who go through phases or waves of feeling more or less connected to their source!

Introjects may not literally be their source, but that doesn’t mean they are morally obligated to abandon connections to their source altogether! Introjects can and often do have a wide range of opinions on or relationships to their sources! It’s okay for introjects to love their source or feel strongly connected to it. You’re still just as valid and cherished as an introject, a member of your system, and a member of the plural community just the way you are!

We hope every source-connected introject who sees this can have a lovely day today. Please treat yourself with the kindness and gentleness you deserve, and don’t judge yourself too harshly for how you view your source! Rest assured, you will always be welcome in our spaces without the expectation to change. Thanks so much for reading, and take care!

(Oldest meaning how long they've been a system member. Best estimates are fine if you aren't sure.)

I write this as a joke but we found someone new this morning.

╰ 🌿

One note we always make when researching plural history is how incredibly difficult it must be to keep an anti-endogenic stance when you know the history of the community. Which is exactly why they don't bother to learn about those people & forums that shaped plural culture years before they were even born.

It rings similar to the queer discourse happening over on Twitter at the moment. They don't know the history and yet are making dangerous and exclusive claims anyway, just looking to pick a fight when they have no idea what they're talking about. They have no idea how frankly stupid they sound arguing these points that have literally never been brought up until the last decade, on Tumblr.

There definitely like Are systems who thought they were endogenic but realized they were traumagenic but the anti-endo rhetoric of "even if you think you're not traumatized you must actually be secretly traumatized and just repressed it otherwise you're an ableist and a faker and an attention seeker" is uh, Profoundly Fucked Up, Actually

Going up to strangers who say they experience multiple people living in their head and saying "actually you must have some horrific mind-shattering trauma you don't remember" is, well, I just don't think it's very good for them, best case scenario is they're truly endogenic and know better than to believe some random asshole online, worst case scenario is they go digging and unearth trauma they were not ready to process and have a mental health crisis, all just so randos online can deem them "uwu valid"

shout out to all the systems that formed from “unusual” trauma or trauma that's never talked about in this community - being bullied, sibling abuse or abuse from someone that's not your parent, near death experience(s), medical abuse, and anything and everything else

you're all valid. the child's brain is incredibly fragile and everyone is traumatized differently. just because your trauma wasn't from a parent, doesn't make you any less valid.

i wish more people spoke about the other sources of trauma

* Hate will be removed. This is for all plurals 👥

Someday the average experience for a system discovering their plurality is going to be joy and understanding. Someday it is going to be commonplace for systems to introduce themselves as systems. Someday it will be rare for a person to not know a single system in their community. Someday we are going to have so many role models that young plurals will be able to pick and choose their favorites for every field or hobby they express even a hint of interest in. Someday we are going to have grandparents reminiscing to their grandchildren about what it was like to be a system back in their day. Someday this community will look back and be astonished that we ever lived like we did now. Someday plurality will be so well-known it will be common knowledge and a casual topic. Someday systems will be able to talk about their plurality casually and without fear. Someday support will be given without hesitation, accomodations without hoops, and acceptance without question. Someday we are going to get that damn pride parade, those abstract murals on the walls, those colorful posters in the classrooms, that tacky jewelry with our symbols, those flags hung outside homes, and so many other shows of victory and progress, and plural pride week will be looked forward to by so, so many as a time of celebration and community.

The history we are creating today will be valued tomorrow. Thank you all for being part of this wonderful community; your presence alone makes a difference and is valued beyond what words can express. The future is plural!!!

Someday the average experience for a system discovering their plurality is going to be joy and understanding. Someday it is going to be commonplace for systems to introduce themselves as systems. Someday it will be rare for a person to not know a single system in their community. Someday we are going to have so many role models that young plurals will be able to pick and choose their favorites for every field or hobby they express even a hint of interest in. Someday we are going to have grandparents reminiscing to their grandchildren about what it was like to be a system back in their day. Someday this community will look back and be astonished that we ever lived like we did now. Someday plurality will be so well-known it will be common knowledge and a casual topic. Someday systems will be able to talk about their plurality casually and without fear. Someday support will be given without hesitation, accomodations without hoops, and acceptance without question. Someday we are going to get that damn pride parade, those abstract murals on the walls, those colorful posters in the classrooms, that tacky jewelry with our symbols, those flags hung outside homes, and so many other shows of victory and progress, and plural pride week will be looked forward to by so, so many as a time of celebration and community.

The history we are creating today will be valued tomorrow. Thank you all for being part of this wonderful community; your presence alone makes a difference and is valued beyond what words can express. The future is plural!!!

(note: wow this is old, I still feel this on the occasion though so I'll post it to get it out of my drafts) As a fictive host who is and has been extremely hyperfixated on my source for a good 3 or 4 years now, I've developed friend groups who I can talk with about it, as anyone does. But after time, those friend groups start finding interest in different things you do, and you can enjoy it with them, sure, and even share the same passion for this new subject, but... After any sort of interest cycle like that, I've always returned back to MHA, and they haven't.

This isn't a failing on their part, of course, this is personally how I feel about things, and I've always had this looming passion over MHA than anything else since I've formed. Maybe as a side effect more than anything else, as a fictive, but it's priority in my mind nonetheless...

But this moving on feeling in a group that's supposed to be a space for one thing, and then turning discussion to another while I'm still focused on the former has left me feeling, incredibly lonely.

It's a little crazy to show up in this system, fresh out of battle, go dormant for a couple month periods at a time because Identity Crisis, and then now find out that you can actually talk as myself on here. And the way it's organized is neat too.

An Autism culture blog is spreading misinformation about endogenic systems...

The misinformation:

Naturally, all of this is wrong.

The only true statement here is "you could probably learn a lot more about these things in your own research." Because yeah... Doing your own research is likely to bring you to actually valid sources of information instead of whatever this is.

Real Information:

Endogenic systems are not a "fake form of dissociative disorder."

Endogenic systems ARE plural systems who experience multiple agents, or "headmates," sharing the same body in some way without trauma. Usually, endogenic systems don't even report having any sort of dissociative disorder at all.

And this is a real experience that's been repeatedly acknowledged by the psychiatric community.

So much so that the World Health Organization's diagnostic handbook, the ICD-11, specifically states that you can experience the presence of multiple "distinct identity states" without a mental disorder.

"Distinct identity states" is the same wording the ICD-11 uses to describe alters that characterized DID:

It's also acknowledged in the book Transgender Mental Health by Eric Yarbrough, which was reviewed and published by the American Psychiatric Association, that you can be plural without trauma or a disorder:

...

Additionally, the phrasing that endogenic plurality "mocks and invalidates people who are actually plural" is especially harmful as it erases and rewrites a huge part of plural history. That is, the fact that "plural" is an inclusive term coined and popularized to by non-disordered and endogenic systems.

Back in the 90s, the popular term that was used was "multiple," originating with "multiple personality disorder," the old name for DID.

The shift towards using "plural" was an effort by non-disordered systems to distance themselves from medical and pathologizing language. As you can see from this article from the 90s:

We don't claim that every multiple system/household is a happy loving cooperative one. What we do question is the *identification* of "real multiples" with the characteristics or symptoms of a psychological disorder. We go further: we question by what right or authority doctors and therapists are given sole jurisdiction over the definition of "an individual".

This is one reason our clan encourages use of the word "plural" rather than "multiple". "Multiple", even standing by itself, brings to mind MPD/DID, "multiple personality disorder", "dissociative identity disorder", which are specific diagnoses created by the medical/therapeutic community. "Plural" is a much more neutral word, more commonly heard in the context of grammar than psychiatry. (The other reason, of course, is that plural can be construed to have a broader meaning, applying to anyone(s) anywhere on the continuum who experience themselves as plural in some way. )

The Bottom Line:

An autism culture blog should be lifting up all neurodivergents. Not spreading misinformation about them and encouraging hate!

We've been working with our therapist for years now. She treats us as a group. She asks if specific headmates are willing to attend sessions. She doesn't blink when we task about each other as different people. She respects when we say that someone else has an experience and not the person in front of her. She's been helping us work through trauma.

You know what she's never done? Treated us as if any of us came from trauma. Hell, it's never come up. She doesn't treat us like we have a purpose. She doesn't try to find out why we're here. She doesn't try to override our spiritual beliefs.

And it's just facepalmingly annoying when we see sysmeds. They get so bent out of shape over systems that don't fit their narrow world view, as if we are impossible, don't need the resources, or more specifically, should/could not be granted help unless we change our identity to match their narrow understanding. Idk, we have DID, a good therapist that doesn't try to force theories on how we formed on us, and call ourselves a natural system. I hope sysmeds seethe about it.