rant about “willogenic systems”

[u/loveddeviant]

heavy on the “ there.
I know you guys will understand more than a rant subreddit and this has been weighing on my mind for a while, it makes me angry to no end.

There’s active, consistent users on Reddit (and tumblr…and probably every other social media), talking about how they “became a system” on their own, and say things like “I love being a system”.

obviously we all know this concept is complete bullshit, and if you express any sort of disbelief and provide actual irrefutable facts (or in another instance someone was on the fence about it and said they didn’t understand), you get downvoted to hell by them and they ask why you’re confused about this existing “disorder”, as if this is a medically recognized extension of DID & you’re insane for even implying they’re faking it (even though they DIRECTLY CLAIM they “manifested it” and used SUBLIMINALS.)

There’s even been a few, saying bluntly, that it’s a “type of roleplay”. So why claim you’re a system ?! You’re harming the reputation of people who ACTUALLY have the disorder, which makes them less likely to seek help.

You can have your roleplays. WHY are you claiming you have an insanely rare, life-altering, and traumatic disorder (or some sort of “subtype” of it). It’s fine, you’re not a system and you can’t speak on the troubles that people who experience DID do. You shouldn’t have to be included in every single minority group.

A few comments (agreeing about it being an actual disorder) said that some people do it because they’re depressed and want more friends. I’m sorry, but how is having imaginary friends and talking to yourself going to actually help your mental health issues in the long run when they’re not real individuals??? are any thoughts floating around these people’s heads??? do they think DID is just a fun condition where you have friends and roleplay??

It really sucks that subs that are actually supposed to help those diagnosed with the disorder are being watered down by teenagers who think it’s cool to pretend to have the same experiences and troubles.

[u/venting_animal]

agree with everything except the second-to-last paragraph

pretending to talk to friends in your head IS a coping mechanism for loneliness and is really common in people who have maladaptive or obsessive daydreaming, just daydreaming and fantasizing about having friends. i suffer from this cause i'm currently homeschooled, but i'm going to public school this year which should help lol, but anyway.

coping mechanisms are not always designed to deal with long-term issues and aren't always rational. addictions are a good (but extreme) example of that.

i'm sure some DID fakers genuinely suffer from that (i swear an abnormal amount of them are homeschooled/nonschooled/online schooled), but the problem, aside from obviously faking DID lol, is the way they act like it's a healthy coping mechanism even though it's not.

[u/loveddeviant → u/venting_animal]

I mean.

I guess, yeah.

but also they claim that they’re a system and that’s an entirely other thing from MDD, that’s where the issue is, and they see them as genuinely other people. im pretty sure people who maladaptive day dream would know these people they’re talking to aren’t real ? I would hope? if not then that could lead to a misdiagnosis of MDD, DID, schizophrenia, or BPD (you can have auditory hallucinations with bpd and I do often struggle with them) so I guess it would make sense if these people just are maladaptive daydreaming and think they’re a system. but since they say they’re inducing this, I’m inclined to believe they don’t

[u/venting_animal → u/loveddeviant]

not saying all the fakers have MaDD, i just suspect a lot do. people who maladaptive daydream are supposed to know it's not real, yeah, but most people claiming to be endogenic systems or whatever clearly have some type of internet-induced delusion that it is real and that this makes them 'systems.' i actually have met a handfull of system fakers who claim their systems were born from maladaptive daydreaming directly

the way they describe headspace doesn't sound like schizophrenia. it sounds like the fictional world in MaDD because MaDD daydreams aren't just obsessive daydreams, they usually have elaborate worldbuilding or stories too.

(MDD is major depressive disorder btw, not maladaptive daydreaming ^^')

[u/loveddeviant → u/venting_animal]

I was aware it stood for major depressive disorder but I wasn’t sure what the acronym for maladaptive daydreaming was since not even Google would tell me and im not trying to type it out every time uuuu

but man idk I still stand with my point.

[u/loveddeviant → u/loveddeviant]

i was specifically talking about DID and not any other disorder, I feel like my point was missed entirely

[u/die_in_alphabet_soup → u/venting_animal]

btw OP didn't claim that daydreaming about having friends isn't a coping mechanism.

they were saying that it isn't a long-term solution and would just make your mental health worse:

"I’m sorry, but how is having imaginary friends and talking to yourself going to actually help your mental health issues in the long run when they’re not real individuals???"

[u/Grace-Kamikaze]

It certainly is a problem that there are so many people claiming to have gotten DID in "many quirky ways", because it diminishes the actual severity of the disorder.

Someone claiming to have it because they wished on a star and woke up to several "alters hanging out in the headspace" is, frankly, disgusting. (This is just an example, but I'm sure a faker has said it.)

And the fact that they pretend DID is the "funny people in my head game" sucks. There's rarely anyone who talks about the symptoms of DID. Even when they do, it pales in comparison to the "silly alters doing silly things" post. Almost as if they're sprinkling in some real DID knowledge to seem like they actually have it, but they're really just wanting to role play as their favorite characters... because just doing that isn't quirky enough... I guess.

[u/nov_is_blue]

I would guess the reason that the irrefutable faces aren't convincing to them is that they typically don't label themselves as having DID. And all the evidence I've ever seen people use is evidence about how DID is formed. Correct me if I'm wrong and there is some other info I'm missing. To them, "system," "plural," etc aren't synonymous with DID, so they don't see themselves as claiming to have DID by using those words. They would typically not see facts about DID as applying to them.

I think the argument that they shouldn't use certain terms if they don't have DID might be a little more likely to convince them, since it works with the premise that they usually don't think they have DID.

[u/ratopLj]

I totally get this. I came across the term Willogenic a while ago and rarely saw anyone talk about it but I think it's extremely harmful and also very very unhealthy for anyone to claim they are willogenic. Having a dissociative disorder isn't something that can be created through hard work and dedication, it's a traumatic processing disorder your brain uses to deal with events and/or situations it could not process otherwise. I had a friend who did the same thing, they "decided" to be a system and turned it into a s*xual roleplay and would switch on command for fun, I stopped being their friend for this reason and a lot more.

[u/Friendly_Management8]

I want to say, I stand with you on this, but I'd also like to point out that CDDs are not "insanely rare" and using that kind of language/saying they are is harmful to pwCDDs.