I may be an old man but what the fuck are alters? What? Why? Just because a movie came out? (I'm sorry, TWO movies, and while good movies...I don't understand...is this like the matrix when I was a kid and we all wore trenchcoats? what is this?)

@Jazzy_Butts s just like. several people. been around for a long time.
@tarperfume @Jazzy_Butts wait, actual multiple people? with multiple bodies? i coulda sworn is was a multiple personality disorder adjacent thing
@bitterblossom @Jazzy_Butts no, not with multiple bodies. just multiple ppl

idk what's the overlap between DID and plural systems, if most systems would say its the same, different, the first but they dislike it, the latter but the don't mind, really dunno what the consensus is. i use plural cause until someone tells me, it sounds nicer

@tarperfume @bitterblossom But what I am confused about is this, do they think other people believe that each identity is like...real, like with a mind of its own, or do they think people believe they're like... explaining different parts of their personality or exploring different parts using these characters?

@Jazzy_Butts @bitterblossom other people do believe it. i believe it, because its as unobservable and impossible to deny/verify phenomena as me telling you "im thinking of the colour red". you can tell me "you're not", but, uh

it's really just like, yeah, several people in one head

@tarperfume @bitterblossom I am skeptical, I can't lie, I just am. When someone tells me they have multiple people in their head I feel like they're fucking with me and would be made a fool if I believed them. But I know it's possible, anything is possible.

@Jazzy_Butts @bitterblossom sounds like you're more skeptical of the intentions of someone telling you that—they're trying to deceive me, ill be falling for a trick—than whether it, the question of it, is possible
@Jazzy_Butts @bitterblossom i understand a gut reaction of being skeptical, but i do think it helps to compare this to just how much of an opaque black box other people's brain are, even to the smallest things. do they see colours the same way you do, do sounds have a fundamentally different texture, does "A is not Not A" mean anything to them, etc
@Jazzy_Butts @bitterblossom my acknowledgement of this impossibility to know is also paired with personal experience: just
how different, truly, plural system members are. if its all an act, damn, they're a guild of master actors all of them. it's all fully natural. like speaking to my neighbour and some yankee anon online
@Jazzy_Butts @tarperfume @bitterblossom its important to note that some DID people do refer to themselves as plural; are you willing to gran legitimacy to them?
@Jazzy_Butts @bitterblossom @tarperfume so yes, there are doctors telling people that they have alters. i think that its a term that does more good than it doesn't; in that it does very little harm and a whole lot of good in helping people to understand how their mind works

@kallisti @bitterblossom @tarperfume I don't believe in DID either really, but I do think it's possible. I...just don't understand how a person can be like that, I have many voices in my head, and from moment to moment I feel like a completely different person but they are all me, I can see that clearly, there was a time I didn't. Maybe their existence scares me, because losing cohesion of self scares me.

@Jazzy_Butts @bitterblossom @tarperfume i think whether you accept something as existing is irrelevant to its existence. even if you dont believe in it, you should be kind, no?

@kallisti @bitterblossom @tarperfume You know that episode of adventure time where finn is convinced that Riccardio the heart guy is a villain, for no reason at all and then is right (only by luck)? That's what I'm going through, this anger of mine is irrational but it's there, because I think I'm being lied to, not just about this, I'm generally paranoid.

@Jazzy_Butts @kallisti @bitterblossom yeah, i didn't want to say that cause i think it's up to you to name it, but it does sound like a paranoia. you can't see it easily, and it's something that introduces complexity into social situations, complexity that you have to pay attention to, or feel like you do, in order to avoid someone blowing up at you

i think you becoming less skeptical about plurals/alters would go hand in hand with you also becoming more comfortable around them, and a good start to that is that honestly, in my experience they're all very chill and understanding about only kinda getting it at first
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