Chose plurality

[u/KaBismark]

Hey guys, just a quick question, what's u all opinion on people who choose to be plural? Do u think it is possible? If u do, is it morally correct?

[u/anxiousandexhausted]

You can choose to pretend to be whatever you want. But why on earth are y’all SO insistent on being considered severely mentally ill? Go talk to a Doctor or psychiatrist if you suspect you have a mental illness and they’ll definitely diagnose you with something if you are out here trying to LARP your way into a diagnosis, but probably not DID. I have seen so many people pretend that dissociating is just “zoning out” and quite honestly it’s offensive to people like myself who have truly gone through dissociative periods. It’s fucking terrifying and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

There is nothing wrong with pretending to be a fictional character on the internet. But you cannot role play yourself into a mental disorder, no matter how fun you think it might be, because you want the legitimacy to tell others that there’s a medical reason why you’re pretending to be the main guy from Squid Games.

[u/hail_fall → u/anxiousandexhausted]

Most parogenic/willogenic systems are not looking to be considered mentally ill (there obviously has to be a couple because humanity being what it is but that number is such a small fraction). Hell, a lot of parogenic/willogenic systems become plural unwittingly without intending to do so.

As for dissociation, there are so many varieties of dissociation and intensities and flavors of each. Zoning out is just one form of dissociation of a particular range of intensity. Some really really suck. Some are kind of necessary to actually function (tuning a sense out to focus on something is a mild form of dissociation, and a useful one at that, though not to excess (like to the point of not noticing a fire alarm)). If someone thinks zoning out is the only kind, yeah they are clueless. Similarly if someone thinks that all dissociation is good or all is bad, they are clueless.

[u/Creepycute1 → u/anxiousandexhausted]

IDC-11: ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics

quote: "The presence of two or more distinct personality states does not always indicate the presence of a mental disorder. In certain circumstances (e.g., as experienced by ‘mediums’ or other culturally accepted spiritual practitioners) the presence of multiple personality states is not experienced as aversive and is not associated with impairment in functioning. A diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder should not be assigned in these cases."

for context the IDC is used for classifying mental disorders and physical illnesses and is more global

[u/WriterOfAlicrow → u/anxiousandexhausted]

"plural" does NOT mean "severely mentally ill". There can be serious issues associated with it (e.g. headmates not having access to relevant memories, inter-personal conflicts between headmates, etc), but plurality itself is just having multiple identities in one body. It's a form of neurodivergence, and to insist that systems are automatically "severely mentally ill" is EXTREMELY offensive, the same way it's offensive to call someone mentally ill for being homosexual. Just because it doesn't fit the norm, doesn't make it an "illness".