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Spooky

@the-truth-is-outthere / the-truth-is-outthere.tumblr.com

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Pinned Post

!!!!!!!This is a dead blog! Stop replying to our posts!!!!!

this blog is so so so dead. years dead. we literally don’t even go by the same system name anymore. and yet i still get people replying to posts where I asked questions 3 YEARS AGO or had an opinion like 2 YEARS AGO and even had some sysmed come attack me out of nowhere on one of those?

And now we still have posts getting replies and like. I know most of them are well-intentioned but just. Please make sure the post isn’t 3 years old before you reply. Better yet -- just consider this blog archived.

Thanks.

~Alice/Davepeta

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reblogged

What no one tells you about Abnormal Psychology; a heads up for those interested in the course or field

This is my personal take away from my abnormal psych course, it’s a page from my final exam. A hot take some might say. I was really disappointed so I thought this could save someone the heartache and stress put on me.

My understanding of Abnormal psychology entering this course was vague. I didn’t really know what defined abnormalities within the psychological sphere. I also didn’t grasp any notion of what work there was within the field of abnormal psychology. And I didn’t really like the connotation of abnormality for mental disorders because I think most disorders are natural responses and defenses to experiences ranging from trauma to genetic factors. However, out of the psychology courses to choose from this was the most thought provoking, so I chose it. My understanding of the topics studied in the course hasn’t changed at all. I don’t think this course really provided much in-depth information, rather a superficial and light educational take on the subjects. Some of the disorders covered, I‘ve seen first-hand and have listened to many with disorders covered in this course speak and advocate them. And in learning through this course and discussion I think it enabled me to lose consideration for the humanity of these disorders. Sort of as exampled in the Rosenhan study, the focus on abnormality negates the nature of humans. If anything, this course has raised my awareness of stigma both internalized and externalized. Additionally, while I took this course, I was also taking a sociology of deviance course that from my interpretation debunked the notion of abnormality, pointing more to sociological factors as the cause for abnormality existing in the first place, which I was leaning toward when I entered this course. I found that the sociological point outweighed the psychological point of abnormality within the individual. I felt the study of abnormality created a sense of distance between normal and abnormal, marking the stigma barrier or good and bad people face with disorders. And it was difficult to grasp how easily something that is normal can then be made abnormal due to people being unaccepting of more uncommon or perceived negative aspects of themselves and humanity in general. The topics I was interested in weren’t covered in the depth I had hoped, and the topics that were, were extremes. And I was disappointed that the studies seemed to feed into the negative or more stigmatized points of abnormality. The stance of abnormality itself seems like a clinical form of demonization as well as what I took from the inclinations of the framed discussions.
#since some ~psych major~ wanted to lecture us on abnormal psych
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neutrois-lesbadger
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heavyweightheart

Thinking that psychiatric diagnoses are objectively existent disease states so perfectly cataloged by the DSM and identified by psych professionals that self dx is some kind of amateurish transgression is… 😬. Clinical diagnosis is also subjective, and highly political, and culturally embedded. Don’t do the mentally ills like this; educate yourself, not just in psychiatry but on it.

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heavyweightheart

The DSM mainly exists for private insurance system purposes and was first written during one of the US’ most reactionary decades; it also supports a dubious research industry that dovetails w other industrial complexes (like pharmaceutical and military). The APA and the committees who write the DSM–we’ve now had 5 iterations–aren’t comprised entirely of evil people who want to pathologize human diversity and natural human responses to our adverse environments, but that is effectively what they do. Control and pathologization and profit are baked in; they’re intrinsic characteristics of our psychiatric system. It’s a mess bc white supremacist capitalist patriarchy is a mess! Critical inquiry into the psych system does not invalidate our experiences of “mental illness” or even our diagnoses–it gives us a lot more information about them.

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Anonymous asked:

wow, thanks for a shit post about the actual medical term for this disorder to talk about the individuals in a system. to us, headmates feels more made up. like it’s literally only in your head. calling myself an alter, and the other alters in our system calling themselves alters, feels natural and okay and it makes us feel more unified. alternate state of identity/consciousness just means that that’s how each alter is created. it’s the proper term, and not yours to shit on

1. why are you even sending this? that post is two years old, that blog isn’t even one we use anymore and doesn’t reflect us at all now

2. Plurality is not inherently a disorder. If you feel like it is for you, great, fine, don’t force that view on everyone. 

3. medicalizing things isn’t always good, and i’m very psych-critical. If you don’t like that I oppose the medical model of all of this and the way that model explicitly says not to “encourage” us to believe we’re separate and real people, then you can just block us.  4. if you don’t like headmate, that’s fine. If you have a personal preference and your system-mates agree, that’s fine. We’re not much a fan of “headmate” anymore, either. But we use other words. The point wasn’t “everyone should use headmate.” The point was that there’s a scary trend toward sysmedicalism that’s shown in how many people are going back to medical language after a long period of rejecting it.

5. it is absolutely our term to shit on if we want to. We had the DID diagnosis, now we’ve been un-diagnosed for explicitly not being disordered. I have problems with the medicalization of our existence, so yea Im gonna shit on terms that are used to dehumanize us. 

6. I think that post was maybe a little harsh, but it does reflect an overwhelming step back in plural self-advocacy that so many people defer to it now and are locked into medical terminology. If others use it differently, then aight. Im not the language police and Im not gonna harass anyone about it, but the term has undeniable problems in dehumanizing plurans. it’s not “the proper term.”  I only replied to this because Im bored and tired. You won’t get further engagement. 

~Davepeta

#syscourse#seriously we dont use this blog anymore#our system has changed a lot and this blog mostly stands as a record#im amazed people are still reblogging stuff#Anonymous
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So I’ve been noticing the word “alter” gain more traction and popularity these days in place of where “headmate” once stood, and I’m wondering why.  Like legitimately, why are people using the word “alter” to describe themselves and others in their systems so much, now?  Why use a word that literally stands for “alternate identity state” and indicates that someone isn’t a real, full person and shouldn’t be treated as such? Why use a word that singlets chose to describe our experiences for us?  I really don’t understand. Unless you view yourself according to the medical model as a “dissociated identity part” and intend to integrate accordingly, then I can’t see a reason why designating yourself or anyone else an “alter” is empowering or humanizing at all.  ~Alice

EDIT: yo this post is literally years old (and this blog is pretty well dead) and was in response to a specific rise in medicalism bringing this word back when it was very unpopular for a long time, with many good reasons why. I’m not saying you’re bad if you use it, but people don’t fully understand its implications or where it comes from, and that’s bad because it means they can’t make a fully informed choice to use that language over others because they don’t have all the information. That’s all. I don’t need to hear every justification for using it -- its ok i really dont care why you use it. 

#systematicpride#its actually unnerving to see the rise in popularity#the word itself makes several of us very uncomfortable bc of what it suggests about our existence#i dont mean to rag on anyone who does choose to use it because that's up to you#i just dont understand the overall rise in popularity#or why people would use the word while simultaneously advocating for their own multiplicity and personhoods
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multiplicity-is-a-spectrum

A piece of multiplicity history a lot of anti-endogenic systems don’t seem to remember:

Back in the 90s and early 2000s, the concept of “healthy multiplicity”, anti-psychiatry, and rejecting the DSM was common. The concept of DID, or at least the way psychiatry handled it, was shunned a fair bit. Why? Because at that point, if therapists believed you at all, they often treated systems like they were just bits and pieces of “the original”. They weren’t seen as real people. And, thus, it was heavily pushed for all the bits and pieces to integrate back into “the original”. The “healthy multiplicity” community came about because traumagenic systems determined that they were real people, should be treated like real people, and that they could help themselves become less distressed/impaired. It was common to see traumagenic systems say that they didn’t need a diagnosis to be a system.

The majority of these systems often were friends with non-traumagenic systems. There was some drama, sometimes, of course. But for the most part, traumagenic systems and endogenic systems teamed up to push back against ignorant singlets– especially mental health professionals that treated traumagenic systems like crap. 

(Before someone yells “yeah but traumagenic systems had trauma so they’re still real and endogenic systems aren’t!!!” thanks for missing the point, which is that the community was united and 99% of the time it didn’t matter what caused your system. What mattered was working together against a bunch of asshats that didn’t see ANY OF US as real, or if we were, that we were sick and broken and not even really people and the only way for us to not be sick-and-broken was to be singlets.)

This focus on the DSM and validation through a diagnostic label is new.

Yes, a diagnosis can be immensely helpful for many systems. No, it’s never been the be all and end all of being multiple.

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It’s been said by some friends before, but here’s for the actual tags.  Maybe consider *not* using the terms “false memory” or “false memory syndrome” considering the term was coined and is maintained by a foundation that is constantly trying to disprove that DID exists and discount the recovered memories of trauma survivors.  Do y’all really want to encourage a term like that in our vocabularies?  Call them “pseudomemories” if you really don’t believe your own memory is true, but please gods don’t use the term “false memories” or encourage it. It has only ever harmed systems and survivors.  ~Alice

#actuallytraumagenic#systematicpride
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reblogged

Important Message to the System Community

Hey guys, Kam of the Grey Skies here with a warning about a new “upcoming event” aimed towards the system community.

A new tumblr blog has sprung up recently claiming to be dedicated to an IRL event for the system community. They messaged another system we’re friends with, an endogenic system, asking them to join their Discord server. 

To most, this might seem innocuous. In fact, it might sound pretty cool- it’s an inclusive event, and an inclusive server!

Sadly, there may be ill intentions behind it. 

Not too long ago, someone made a tumblr account dedicated to an all-inclusive system discord server. They then messaged/pinged well-known members of the system community here (including us, The Sorority, CambrianCrew, etc), asking them to join the server/spread the server around.

It turned out to be a honeypot. The people there were screenshotting the members (whether traumagenic or endogenic, it didn’t matter; anything that seemed “fake” or “funny” to them was captured) and posting the screenshots publicly to make fun of members. After the owners admitted to this, all hell broke loose into an enormous argument involving the owners and several members which lead to one of the gatekeepers posting their actual IRL address in the channel, several people being triggered, and a tons of backlash against those trying to warn others about the server. Here’s a small post on it (TW for suicide baiting in one of the images) X

So, for all those in the system community: please watch out for a blog and Discord server associated with a “System Convention,” because it may not be what it seems.

Sincerely,

Kam (GS)

(ping to @ohana-island, as you asked)

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teacupnetwork

Co-fronting feels like having two heads at once. I don’t know how to better explain that phenomenon. Does anyone else get this feeling?

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the-truth-is-outthere

We get this when we’re really successfully splitting our control of the body vertically in half. It feels like two bodies sitting next to each other slightly behind our physical body’s eyes.  ~Alice

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plural-lesbians

Here’s to plural butches and femmes.

Here’s to plural butches and femmes who can’t show that they are that way because it’s bad for their system, because of transphobia or misgendering or others’ trauma.

Here’s to plural butches and femmes who have to change out of their desired looks for the benefit of the system before they switch.

Here’s to plural butches and femmes who fear singlet lesbians accusing them of not really being butch, femme, or even lesbian enough because they’re plural.

You are all lesbian enough. You are all butch or femme enough. Being butch or femme is much more than just your presentation.

I see you, and you are enough.

🧡 Am (Mod A), butch

#<3 thank uuu
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lunarian-therian
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queer-buccaneers
admasculine: transitioning towards masculinity
adfeminine: transitioning towards femininity

these are meant to be slightly more inclusive than ‘transmasculine’ and ‘transfeminine’. who wouldn’t feel included by trans-? why do we need ad-? i’m glad you ask! here are some examples:

  • an AFAB bigender person who has been on T for a long time and now needs to do the same things as transfeminine people to pass on girl days would be transmasculine but adfeminine
  • a man in a system who has to dress up the body of his cis woman host when he fronts to feel himself would be admasculine
  • a trans woman would be adfeminine, because it’s an umbrella term that transfeminine falls under
  • a cis man with kallman’s syndrome who chooses to take T might be admasculine
  • an AFAB nonbinary femme might call themselves adfeminine because they feel like they’re transitioning into a different kind of femininity than the heteronormative role they were assigned at birth
  • a butch woman who transitions but wants to avoid the connotations of transmasculine might feel more comfortable calling herself admasculine
  • a woman in a system who’s transfeminine inworld but fronts into an AFAB body would be adfeminine
  • an intersex person who has undergone medical intervention but doesn’t consider themselves trans might talk about their experiences instead as an adgender person
#:o#there are people in here who have been dying for a word like this
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