Understanding Mutliple Systems (Discussion)

[Haru'Shimo]

Having previously experienced one of the many forms Multiplicity takes in one's identity, I have some understanding of what Multiple Systems experience, but only my own scenario.
So this thread is dedicated to the sharing of Multiple System identities and their mechanics.

The Goal:
To list detailed descriptions of Multiple System Identities in an effort to help both those who experience them, and those who don't, understand the whats, hows, and whys of multiplicity.

To that end, I would like to offer a few guidelines for those who wish to share:
- Do not simply list who/what is in your system.
(This isn't a contest to see who's has the most/most interesting head-mates)
- Try to explain what the members of your system are in relation to you, not merely species.
(If you don't know the answers to these questions, perhaps it's time you started wondering why you don't.)
- If there is one that you know of, and it's not too sensitive to share, provide the age(s)/event(s) that sparked your awareness of the others.
(if such information is too personal/upsetting to share publicly, you're free to state that and provide what you feel comfortable with.)

[Spiritual Hunters]

This thread is old and kind of, well, silent. So we might as well start if all of, right?

To understand multiples is to look back at the history of them. Multiplicity has been around for a very long time. Many know the term Multiple Personality Disorder. Now it is referred to as Dissociative Identity Disorder. Those who suffer from DID are considered to be trauma-based multiples. Lately, there have been many articles on healthy multiples who were not born out of trauma but out of a natural process. These multiples are mostly those you see in therian or otherkin sites. There are also some systems that claim neither trauma-based or natural. It's not uncommon for someone to be trauma based and gather headmates by non trauma induced means or for natural multiples to gain headmates through trauma or stress. The key difference between sufferers of DID and natural multiples is that those who suffer from DID have what is called lost time. This is when a headmate/alter fronts and when the "core" take the front back, they don't recall anything of the events that took place while the headmate/alter was fronting. Others would say that it is only considered a "disorder" if it inhibits the person from living their normal life. So by those terms, those who have DID may not have a disorder at all as long as they know how to handle the time loss correctly. Natural multiples do not suffer from lost time, though there may be times when they do not know what happened in the front not because of the inability to but more of them not paying attention. This is easily solved with a bit of communication within the system. Those who suffer from DID can learn communication that will help them limit their loss of time or get rid of it completely. So a trauma-based multiple can become a healthy multiple. Healthy multiples are multiples that have learned to live with their system and flourish just as well as any singlet would. Just because a system may be having a few issues, does not mean they are not a healthy system. It would be the same for someone with roommates. There will be squabbles every now and then.

Our system was natural with a few trauma induced headmates. Huntress and I have been in this body from birth. At'Ka showed up around high school and acted like guardian. We were dealing with a lot of teasing through elementary and high school. She was the one to stand up to most of the bullies and helped keep us from being picked on too much through school. She was the big bad wolf that kept the mean people away. Huntress pretty much did all our homework.

The system grew bigger mostly from stress. There was this very stressful situation with a wolf boy who lied to us a lot about our current fiance and we broke up with him. At the time, At'Ka had a very big thing for the boy and we ended up getting with him a few times. After a few months, we realized that he was just using us and so we split from him that left At'Ka rather depressed. This caused her to split off into Kay. He became the only male in the system and acts as middle man for arguments between members or between headmates and our fiance. He is usually the one who doesn't care either way about a situation so acts like the outside voice of reason.

Next to come into the game was Chelsea. She was another stress induced headmate who showed up while we were watching American Horror Story. She was probably the slowest headmate to develop in our system. Normally, when a headmate forms it takes no time at all but Chelsea took a little over an hour to develop. It was actually a rather frightening experience for us and we think that maybe that is why she developed like she did. She was the reason we went to see a psychologist. She was the first little we ever encountered, let alone in our own system, and we weren't quite sure how to handle her. The psychologist kept wanting to dig in our past and figure out the reason we were multiple. He made us feel a little uncomfortable and we got out before he asked if he could hypnotize us. So we've been handling our system mostly by ourselves. Our fiance has helped a lot too but it's mostly just rules and punishment for those that break the rules. It helps to have rules that keep the peace.

Our last headmate is Mar. She appeared when we had some problems with a friend. She didn't split from anyone as far as we're aware. She claims to have been there from the beginning but had been effectively locked away up until the point where the troubles began. The stress from all the confusion and frustration broke her out and now she's free to roam. We're still not sure what to do with her but she's pretty good at work, so we let her out every now and then at our job.

That would be all of us, for the time being. Unfortunately, it's never clear of when the final count of headmates will come but we're really hoping that we'll be done with gaining anymore.

~Jessie

[Praeter Coetus]

Alright, let's see if We can't pull something together for this thread, as We've only identified at multiple for around two years at this point. It is probably best to start off with those who are in the system.

As it stands currently, there are three members in this system: Kit, who is the soul based in this body,and identifies as Human. Next is Kittahara, a Kitsune who appears as an Anthropomorphic silver phase red fox. Lastly is Myself, Suriel, an Angel, and that is all I wish to say about myself. Kittahara and I have inhabited this body, along with Kit, since the day of Hir birth, however; We had kept ourselves hidden from Kit until we felt Hir ready, and able to accept us.

We presented ourselves to Kit in 2005, their second year of High School. Kit interpreted us as characters at first. Sie later realized, in late 2008, that Kittahara was more than simply a Character, after discovering Therianthropy. Later, sie also discovered that I was more than simply a character; Multiplicity would not be discovered until much later. Kit finally came to the proper conclusion of Multiplicity after analyzing the timelines of both Kittahara and I, and finding that neither of us had died, and had existed during the same time. We are all still working on Figuring out who we all are, and why we are in this situation currently. We have reason to suspect that our current "residence" within Kit is purposeful, unfortunately; that purpose is not fully known.

Now, one of the "requirements" you have listed Haru, is how Kittahara and Suriel relate to me. I'm not quite sure how you mean that, but they are basically roommates I didn't get to pick. The really unfortunate thing is, I cannot really talk with them. There seems to be a barrier within myself that separates me from them. I can ask them things, and only get impressions back, or what almost feels like a passed note. It's very frustrating for all of us.

One thing that might also pertain to this thread, is how I think my multiplicity works. I think my brain is wired for mulitiplicity, but my headmates origins are spiritual. They gave up "physical" form in order to enter my body, for some reason. I believe they're from alternate planes of existence parallel to ours. I still wonder, though, if they didn't originate within myself. I suppose I may never fully know.


(If you need Us to clarify, or add anything just let Us know. Font is also different, depending on who's talking, if necessary, I can change font colour as well.)

[rowan1966]

Hello, we found this and figured it'd be a good idea to introduce ourselves. One of my headmates, Phoenix, didn't want me to say anything about them when we first joined the site because she didn't know what the reaction would be and she's just overprotective like that. However, she's come to realize that it is accepted here. They would like to tell you a little bit about why they exist and what they are like.


P: Hello, I am Phoenix, I have always been with Rowan since birth and I am very overly-protective due to the fact that she has been bullied a lot. I didn't want anything bad to happen so i stopped her from telling about us in the beginning. I am now much more comfortable in this place though...


B: I am Bliss, I split off from Phoenix when Rowan was about 6-7 years old (very young), it was mainly due to the fact that Phoenix needed something to balance her out. In other words she needed someone who could calm her down and make sure she didn't get too upset at something (which happens fairly often). I am very hyper and happy but also very chill and when I am full of questions. I love making people smile and laugh. I also love animals with a burning passion.


C: I am Cyra...I am the most neutral when it comes to having heavy emotions as such the two above. I am the majority of Rowan's brains. i do most of the homework that Rowan has. I came to be around the middle of 6th grade. I came to be on my own without splitting from anyone due to the amount of stress that Rowan and the others were under and I have stayed ever since.


S: I am Shado...I came to be around 7th grade...I, like Cyra, came to be on my own. I am the most depressing one of us...7th and 8th grade was a very hard year for us and thats when we realized we had depression so I came to be Rowan realized that she was getting depressed badly. That is how I came about, I have stayed ever since because it seems as though the depression has formed into Seasonal Depression.


S: I am S-Sin....short for Cindy. I came about when Bliss did, I split from Bliss b-because she was a fearful thing and Rowan was feeling much fear and stress at the time, thus I was came to be....I have a stutter when I talk so i don't like to front.