We stan Jonathan’s humility and willingness to listen to people who actually have DID, and admit when he was wrong about some things. 💖 Jonathan, you are just an incredible person, and any patient would be absolutely lucky to have you as their therapist!
It makes me so happy he's willing to listen and learn. It makes me trust the content they put out because he's ready to say, "Hey, I was wrong and here's why I was wrong so I don't spread misinformation, thank you for teaching me and I'm sorry!" It's so refreshing to see that open mind and eager to hear experiences from people all around the world.
@Derpy Dashie Ugh, that happened to me in college. A professor of mine only wanted to oversee my honors project if the study yielded the results that he wanted. That's not how science works. 🤦♀
I think it is important to learn from people with DID since they have the experience with it, but at the same time, we should learn from general researchers on the topic as well. People can provide a lot of insight on themselves, but sometimes they don't always have a completely accurate understanding of themselves. Sometimes an outside perspective of a person's actions can be more accurate than the person explaining their own actions.
My therapist explained my condition to me beautifully 'You do not have more than one personality; in effect, you have less than one. Your personality has created specialists to deal with life for you, a child to play, an empath to sooth, a protector to stand against threats, it goes on. They are all of you, and you are all of them - all uniquely crafted as experts in their field and there to help you navigate a complex and dynamic world. Why? Well, because your mind probably feels, and quite rightly, that you've suffered enough, and its time to share that load'
HEDWIG IS IMPORTANT!! littles in general play such a HUGE role in a system. They take on the role of the inner child. They are the systems sense of innocence. They are the child they never got to be. Hedwig's role is to be a child and do the things that Kevin never got to. To fill that void, to be a kid. Thats What his purpose is.
@Alex Doorn Yes! I'm glad to hear the relationship you have with your siblings is a good one; people with DID often struggle at the hands of lots of people so them having someone dependable is touching to hear. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I find your siblings' case fascinating. I'm less surprised and more intrigued that the little didn't age up but it makes sense. Especially if you're younger than them. My system has a little that's sort of similar. She's a fictional introject that formed while we were a child but hasn't aged up either even though the person she's based off was an adult. You'd think that they'd eventually become the same age as the person they're based off of but that's not always the case! The brain keeps the alter at the age it needs them to be in order to comfort itself. Truly remarkable what the brain does to survive. I've got an interest in psychology and want to specialize in dissociative disorders/ trauma so I'm sorry again if what I said might have offended you.😅
@Saturn BatistaWhat I think is interesting is that littles can be introjects. I never quite know how to describe this but the person born as my brother has DID. I have since claimed all alters of the system as my siblings. There is a little in that system that is an introject of me or more accurately the system's memories of a younger me. I have been always really close with my brother so it is no surprise that their brain created a little me to soothe and comfort the system. And to just be a little brother, like you said his role is to just be a child but in particular his role is to be a supportive brother.
@xxjosh166xx I've very aware littles can have other roles and agree with what you said too. I'm actually a system myself (DID). What I meant was that littles SHOULD (eventually) only have what I said as their "purpose" since they are just kids. Littles should not have to be protectors or persecutors or even trauma holders (they can be relieved of that role with therapy of course,) for that reason. We have 2 littles in our system, one named Marie who's currently holding trauma, and one who was a sexual protector, Veda. We relieved Veda of her role with much therapy and now she's happily dormant! I have a firm belief that littles should never have to be anything more than children and commented in that mindset. Sorry for being unclear earlier.😅
Littles are important and should be protected, but all of what you said just now is not necessarily true. Littles can represent those things sometimes, but each alter can be different. Thats true for littles too. Sometimes the littles can be protectors or even persecutors. In my system, our only little, a 9 year old girl named Elaine, is our trauma holder. She isnt a usual happy go lucky child. She doesnt like her face being seen, she doesnt like talking very much. Another example you can educate yourselves with(anyone reading this) is a youtube channel by The entropy system, specifically the video titled "evil to sweet, the truth about evil alters". Or something close to that title anyway. She had a monster alter that turned out to be a 5 year old girl. She pretended to be a monster to seem strong (so to protect). Now, if you are referring to hedwig specifically, you find out that hedwig is actually a protector. In charge of keeping kevin out of the light. That, in a way, is protecting a weaker part from things. Dennis and patricia seem like persecutors. Which are like self bullies, sometimes they take on forms of abusers sometimes not but usually persecutors are misguided protectors. I.e. a system overweight might form a persecutor that bullies the system for eating or even cause eating disorders if an outside abuser has detrimentally abused them over their weight. The round about logic of the brain creating such an alter is that by bullying and eating less, they would lose weight and therefore remedy a situation of being bullied by the outside abuser over weight. These types of alters dont usually realize that logic on their own but over time and therapy, can be made to be more actual protectors. Osdd 1b here. Same as DID except i don't black out during switches. I go co con (co consciousness) which means im somewhat aware of things but its a different alter fronting (in control, or "in the light" as the film calls it). Osdd 1b systems have amnesia of their traumas but no or very little amnesia barriers between alters daily.
I'm a therapist who has worked with four clients with DID. The thing I tell new therapists about switching is this: it is NOT creepy, like in the movies. At least in my experience of witnessing switching, it is more organic, subtle, logical, and curious, but not creepy or scary. I think that is important to note. This has been my experience.
Yes. I've seen it happen with people I knew and it was never creepy, maybe weird until learning to adapt to it but it was like each individual emotion had its own role or personality that appeared to adapt to circumstances
My friend with DID had some seizure like symptoms during at least one of her transitions and the neurologist told us he had seen that in other DID cases. But it's not scary in the way the film is. We just had her checked medically to make sure she wasn't dealing with something else on top of the DID. I suspect her other transitions were less dramatic, because I trouble convincing other people she knew there was anything wrong at all. (I was only telling people she permitted. I could tell something was seriously wrong when I met her. It just took a few months to figure out what.)
@Ray Lee I completely agree. For me a conversation switch is like "you've hurt and scared me now I need to hide and this person can keep me safe amd handle this. We will escape. "
I really appreciate you saying this, because I switch even in front of people in mid-conversation and no one ever notices a difference. And it's the exact opposite of how this movie portrays; it's not like "there's now a murderer lurking in their mind and you'll never know," but rather it's because someone said something that was very triggering and so one of my other sides comes out to handle it. The impetus isn't "I don't like what you said, so now I want to hurt you," it's instead, "I've just been hurt, so now I need to handle it." It's largely due to social conformity that I even switch, because if it was just about my feelings, I'd break down sobbing or otherwise have some kind of episode; switching keeps me going either in my work, conversations, chores, self-care, so on.
my mom loves this movie universe and she could not understand why i was so upset with the DID representation. i was a psychology student at the time and it hurt to see the vilification of real mental conditions and disorders knowing that the majority of people considered mentally ill are nonviolent. i get that it's "just a movie" but why is one personality a perv, another a prim homicidal governess and one a literal monster?
I think it’s because IRL no one would think he has supernatural powers it’s not possible, they gonna look at what they can see and tell which is why he is diagnose with DID but it’s only because it’s the only diagnosis they can come up with. It’s like if doctors came across a zombie, doctors aren’t going to jump to conclusions and say it’s a zombie, they’ll look at all viruses, diseases, medications that can be causing these “zombie” like actions
@Kaitlyn Petty people can be kinda stupid though and that doesn't change the fact that this movie has done major damage to the DID community. Great movie, irresponsible filmmaking.
@Tark Surmani they have EVERY RIGHT to be offended don’t you dare even say they shouldn’t be. Would you be saying to someone with ADHD to not be offended by a character that has ADHD, and that it is said in the movie that they are, but all they do is run everywhere always forget never stay put and always yell ? Because if you would you’ve got a lot of studying to do
Hedwig is in the movie to represent a “little” alter I’m pretty sure. Littles are just as necessary in a system because they help relieve stress and are also trauma holders. I loved seeing him on screen. The actor gets the childish nature down pretty good and is relatively accurate for a little.
As someone with OSDD, or called "Other Specified Dissociative Disorder", the movie Split really broke my heart. We're not overly violent monsters who have to "hold back the bad ones", it's more of just tryna remember who ate the spaghetti I put in the fridge two days ago and why I'm wearing a top I didn't wear earlier.
@Rat Queen I have CPTSD as well from childhood trauma, you're not alone there. I thought this movie would've been awesome for DID representation, not to say the movie wasn't *kind of* cool at some parts, but it's just... Harmful more than anything. A huge letdown.
Thank you. I have DID, diagnosed last year after a diagnosis of CPTSD due to childhood abuse and it breaks me that DID is so often portrayed as a forensic illness. It is a protective response and none of my alters have ever broken the law or killed anyone. One of them is a handful but she’s not evil.
If I remember correctly, James did tones of research and even tried to find someone with DID to interview. He wasn’t able to find someone sadly, but very interesting how he tried so hard to bring these characters to life. It’s so sad that the writers did such a shitty job at research.
I really wish that they'd just made a non thriller film about DID with James as the lead He's the impressive thing about the film and it could have been a great piece of positive representation for the community
I so do not believe he wasn't able to find someone with DID to interview, but I'm glad he did all that research. It is sad that the writers clearly didn't give a s>>>.
My partner has DID. Her multiples can share "the light"/"focus"/"what have you". I think up to 4 at once, but they're all very closely related to one another (quadruplets). And focus can shift very quickly, depending on circumstances. Furthermore, calling the name of the original personality can pull that personality's attention, which is generally why we don't use it. (She voluntarily chose to leave "the light", as she's aware alters are meant to help her cope and she wasn't coping either way. We use her middle name for legal things as much as we can.)
I hope your partner gave their consent to share that information. If not, please ask them and remove that comment if necessary. It might not be safe to leave it, especially if they did not give consent. It’s okay to share your personal struggles and feelings. Having DID is not easy, and neither is having a partner with DID. I feel that you’ve shared their personal information, hence writing this comment. P.S. I’m using “they” because I am not sure if all of the members the partner’s system use that pronoun
@wlwskam clizzy Do you know how poly relationships work? It's the same here, the person who commented might be in love with one alter, and the rest of them consent this, that's all
Has she thought about legally changing her name, or is there a chance that her original personality might want to come back at some point when she feels ready?
As someone with OCD, i’m so glad you made the distinction between OCD and OCPD, it’s so often confused in modern media. There needs to be better representation of it. I don’t care if it’s represented in media, but if it is, I just want accuracy.
Yes! I have OCD and people get so confused because all my clothes are lined with cat hair. I have to explain that my OCD involves taking the knobs off the stove, unplugging all electronics, because my house is going to explode and my pets will have a terrible death otherwise.
My mom didn't believe me when I said I suspected I had some form of OCD. I tried explaining to her that it's not all about cleaning and making things perfect. I went a long time without mentioning it, because I have a history of minor hypochondria. Eventually I told my psychologist about the symptoms I have that were bugging me and she said it sounded like mild OCD. I'm still keeping an open mind since it's not an official diagnosis yet, but it makes you feel a lot less crazy hearing "Yeah, other people have it too. It can be managed. You're not insane." (Not a quote, but it's the jist of it.)
While he mentions the preoccupation with cleanliness, OCPD is more about having rigorous standards (for yourself and those around you) in general. It can manifest as a very black and white sense of morality, for example.
Completely agree! I didn’t know about OCPD until I was diagnosed with it. Most people don’t know about it at all. Even though, afaik, it is the most commonly diagnosed personality disorder in the US (I live in Europe though). I recently went to a psychiatrist for another issue and the psychologist who shared my file with her told her that I had OCD, even though I make sure to clarify that I have OCPD but not OCD…
I feel like artists should have artistic liberty to portray stories that are a fantasy, and to place responsibility upon the audience to infer or recognise that aspects of the piece aren't correct to real life. But there's a line. And split took that line and just drove so far away that it became a dot.
Absolutely agree. The audience has responsibility for their interpretations, yes. However, the artist also has responsibility for their art. There’s a fine line and you’re 100% right in saying Split took it way too far. I’m astounded that nobody looked at this script and was like “hey- should we be making a movie about a guy with DID and make it absolutely clear that he has DID and also make him a monster??”
@Tark Surmani I never said the ability to walk off a gun shot is from DID, that part clearly is a Super power. If Superman developed depression, I would not say his depression is what makes him fly. His alien genetics make him fly. His depression would be a deep and consistent sadness which might be related to being the last of his kind, but that would not mean depression gives you super powers, only that someone with superpowers can also be depressed. You're insisting on an "or" when "and" works fine. The existence of the fully formed personalities from a history of trauma is DID. Being able to turn into a bullet proof monster is a supernatural ability. I would not diagnosis the Hulk with DID because his two sides come purely from scientific experimentation. He's more an exaggeration of someone with an anger management issue.
@Tark Surmani I watched it. But you repeating yourself and being rude about it doesn't make you right. The psychiatrist was wrong about thinking the beast abilities were a delusion rather than a real ability. But there are reasons why people are cautioned against self diagnosing. However DID doesn't necessarily exist in a bubble. You can have other issues alongside it to varying degrees. I have a friend with DID and we are certain that she had it, but some of her symptoms could have been other medical conditions so we also saw a neurologist to rule out other potential issues, because if she had a medical problem too just treating the DID would not be adequate. In comic books most super heroes face different types of villains, some are physical equals other may be intellectual superiors. Again not sure where you pulling that everyone's powers in this world are completely unique. Rare, yes, which was why Glass was so excited when he found someone.
Can we talk about how amazing these guys are? Jonathan said he got something wrong and said sorry and clarified, they are so respectful with what every they are covering and they get it right as well. These guys are my favorite people on KZclip
I loved that too. I didn't see the original mistake but did appreciate him explaining what happened, how he was wrong and taking that ownership. This is a great channel. I'm learning a lot from them. Definitely becoming some of my favorite people.
You know, it's interesting and also sad that we as humans are so bad at this that we give gold stars to people who do it. It's such a simple thing to apologize and admit to being wrong. Yet I would say that the majority of us often can't :( I think we need to do better at teaching this to our children. Why is it so hard? I think your comment is actually a great mirror to hold up to ourselves. There's a reason we need therapists. Seeing this behaviour modeled is a really good teaching mechanism so we can learn how to do it ourselves.
I'm a diagnosed sytem that has been seeing a DID therapist for almost a year now and yes 2 or more alters/identities can be at the "front" at the same time. Its called co-conscience. And rapid switching is definatly a thing. THANK YOU for covering this topic. There is a lot is missinformation out there.
I kinda imagine consciousness as swimming. So with DID I imagine it's a bit like having more people swimming around, and of course, multiple people can kinda end up floating at the surface line.
theres a difference between coconsciousness, multiple headmates being awake and able to communicate and process information, vs cofronting, multiple headmates being able to influence the actions of the body. both are real
Thank you, was looking for this comment. As a diagnosed DID system that experiences co-conciousness most of the day, including frequent rapid switches, the whole 'co-concious and/or fronting is not a thing' and 'rapid switching super rare' can feel.. as if the way we are experiencing life and each other is not "right". Or at the very least again an outlier. But then I encounter a comment like this with so many voices tuning in and it feels nice. Thank you everyone.
Thank you I was feeling weird about the thought that we were in the "rare" category for rapid switching and co-fronting. If our spouse surprises us first thing when our body wakes up, we get an interesting effect of vocal control rapidly passing between us until we wake up enough to settle. We also have a little prankster that likes to take over body parts when we're not paying attention. It's a bit unnerving to watch the left hand grab the sink sprayer, aim it at my face, and squeeze. But I agree it's quite hilarious. Though that just might be the feeling of her contagious internal laughter
Yes!! It's a popular topic in r/did , I wish more people would talk about co-conscience to bring awareness, there is nothing offensive about it as long as you don't want to impose it on a system. But I imagine how it could seem offensive if you just hear about it without knowing how it works... Like f.e. therapist advising to X alter to "control" Y alter time or something. But I don't think most systems live it that way, according to their explanations, co-conscience seems to be mostly a calming, collaborative, nice experience, something many look forward to build. Not some trick to become controlling.
Hello we would like to say thank you as a system of a girl who was abused since the age of 6. Thank you for covering DID with such understanding and realism. We are a system of 12 currently and have been diagnosed since age 8. Only started seeing a therapist recently.
Hi Lune I was abused at the age of 6 too, I have DID too and, like you, began seeing a therapist recently I hope you are well and, I have yet to see this movie, as I feel it will upset me
James McAvoy is absolutely incredible actor, the way he changes everything about himself to bring these personalities out, like you can look at him and see the different characters. Master class.
I just want to express my gratitude to all the systems in the comments sharing your experiences. I may never know what it’s like, but I find it fascinating and a good exercise in empathy to learn about how other people experience life.
I wish most people were like you and have an empathetic view towards us. Ive mostly stopped letting people know im a system. Ive been fake claimed, gaslit, insulted, laughed at, argued with about what alters can or can't be by persons lacking phd's... more often then acceptance. Someone told me that i was mocking actual systems because i had mentioned i have a fox alter and an ageless ice elemental alter in my system. Mind you, i am a diagnosed osdd 1b system in therapy. You would not believe most peoples hate and ignorance. The amount of people that have tried to "diagnose me correctly" telling me im not a system... im so sick of it. That is why most systems stay covert. Too many people just refuse to accept the reality of our lives. So thank you for your appreciation here.
indeed I think it is a good learning experience for people to have a better understanding of mental illnesses instead of how media portrayed it as it was years ago.
I posted earlier that Critic was our persecutor at one point. Mom tried to make us perfect. She wanted us to be flawless in every way. Failure was harshly treated, partial success was harshly treated, being perfect was acknowledged for the slightest amount of positivity, followed by telling us that we should always perform to that level and it is inexcusable that we don't. Critic formed as part of our psyche took that lesson to heart and believed her rhetoric. He thought that she was perfect, possibly the only perfect person in the world. He thought that he was perfect, but that everyone else was flawed and worthless as people. In particular he saw myself as the most flawed and the most needing of punishment and reform. He would berate me all the time about what a horrible person I was for even the tiniest mistake, pretty much echoing the teachings of mother, but with the a harshness even she never quite reached. What eventually turned things around was my compassion for him, coupled with challenging his view of Mom as perfect. Once that got shattered he started questioning what he learned from her. The final major straw came when I realized that some of his criticisms didn't line up with my mistakes or behaviors. Turns out he hated his own lack of perfection and himself and was projecting the hatred onto me. With more compasion and much time we have grown decently close and he is now a major asset to our system as well as a valued friend.
@Sol System Sorry you went through all of that. I hope that things are better now. As far as trans stuff goes, my system has 1 straight female, 1 ... pan? ... female. 1 gender refusing member. 2 straight males. And myself. As my personality is kind of a mix of the others, my identity is a bit of a blur.
We had a similar journey with religion. One of our parts who was very trans and also a bi ended up getting picked to perform as the child we knew our parents wanted. It turns out all taking all her memories of internal connections, any faults in religion we noticed, memories of trand/bi thoughts, etc for years leads to a really zealous part with extreme internalized queerphobia. Tbh though idk what else we could do. Coming out went terribly after we moved out so glad we didn't do it while living at home. It took me like a decade to undo that and connect with her again (without her yelling at me for being a demon). Though a lot of compassion though I was able to get through to her. We've both fused and split since than but, still wouldn't trade our current system for the world though 💖. I don't think I would have survived the past few years without them. -Luci
What an absolutely incredible story; thank you so much for sharing. I’m glad that you’re all in a much safer situation now and wish you all nothing but happiness ❤
I forgot to post that at the height of it Critic was pushing us to kill ourselves. He at the time believed that we were beyond saving. That we were 100% imperfect and incapable of ever becoming perfect. By his old value system we were a burden to the world and needed to die in order to do the 1 perfect and good option left to us. There used to be times when I was colse to doing it. Times when I wanted to give up on the future. I'm eternally grateful to all my friends, headmates included, for anchoring me and keeping me from that path. I'm no longer in any danger of choosing that path. Also, as mentioned before, Critic has made great changes and is a force for good in our system now.
Thank you for taking the time to correct and discuss more. My mother has DID and I’ve been trying my entire life to understand her system. This movie was very upsetting when it came out because my mom was already struggling with feeling like a villain and I was a confused teen. Split influenced friends and partners to view my mother differently than they had before and I’m so glad the stigma is being broken down and better representation is being shown as time goes on.
I think Hedwig's psychological use in protecting Kevin was to emulate a fun carefree childhood that he never got initially and gets to experience that fun dopey nerdy kid life vicariously through Hedwig.
The one system I know even vaguely well has one... I think the word is "alter"? who is very similar to Hedwig as an innocent child who doesn't really do anything directly practical but gets to be innocent and mostly happy.
Yes! So glad to see this. My sister has DID as well. Many systems may have a child identity in order to relive the childhood they never got, and to protect that age of tender innocence.
I love that James(actor) actually took the time to learn about DID so that he could portray the system more accurately, it really shows with his body language when he switches! It's just so good! The main problem is that the movie is using a disorder, that is very misunderstood, as a catalyst for terrible deeds and the idea that there is evil everyone that has DID. That's really harmful because it has such little representation that the little that is available does not show DID in a light of understanding but a shadow of ignorance. Few people even know of its existence, let alone understand it as a whole, so when something like this comes out for a largely ignorant audience to watch, it's very dangerous. I agreed with the majority that the producers and directors should've put a warning at the beginning that this was purely fantasy and that very little is based on real research, it's the least they could've done. In saying that, it falls on both parties to bear the responsibility of what they take from this piece of media. The artist must know that their work will influence people no matter how big or small, and the audience must understand that the media they consume will very rarely ever be 100% accurate and to take everything with a grain of salt. It's an objectively amazing movie but it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to implementing real medical diagnoses in fictional media.
I'm actually currently writing a non-horror novel about a girl who has DID and coping with it as life throws punches and she gains additional identities through the years as she tries to make it through life
Osdd 1b system here (DID without the daily amnesia barriers, just amnesia of our childhood traumas). One of my alters thought about writing a book based on some inner world events we had shared with a friend. The friend said it might make a good book. So basically, some systems have whats called an inner world or headspace, a place thats a constant inside where alters are if they arent fronting (controling body). We have had a handful of events happen inside that were basically traumatic of themselves, mostly within the first few months after becoming aware of our system. Such as one event in which our gatekeeper susan lost her arm dealing with a new alter that had come forward. Long story, triggering to share, but basically there were these things that played out in our head that were more then just imagination or thoughts. Almost like living through witnessing these things. Those events dont happen hardly now, things arent as dramatic now and we mostly all understand our situation so not as much butting heads or confusion. But ya, one of my parts thought of making those times into books.
Personally as a creator myself (but in different mediums), I place most of the responsibility on the creator to get things right. Most people just believe what they are told- I do it too. I would feel incredibly guilty if somebody got the wrong idea from one of my works, especially for something as important as mental health.
@FusionBolt27 Yeah, and when you do know the truth it ruins the whole thing (same goes for historical and science fiction). I can name a few pieces of media or even whole franchises where I read about a major inaccuracy and go like "hmm, maybe this isn't for me".
Same here. As a writer and artist, I don’t like to assume that people will go into films with a doubtful mindset- like you said, most people are going to take stories at face value.
I think it’s particularly important when covering topics that aren’t well understood. if you make a movie about a murderous shark in a world that knows nothing about sharks, people might start killing sharks out of fear. if you make a movie about a murderous system when they’re not well understood, people might start killing them too. there are ways to lessen that impact, maybe there’s another system that’s well adjusted and works together. maybe have people say “this is abnormal shark behavior, we should keep people away from this shark” and have characters narratively punished for not listening. still, if it gets big enough, there will be ignorant and violent people who hurt others over it. artists shouldn’t always have to spell out morals and accuracy to the real world. this is the information age, people should use the instant information boxes they always carry with them to fact check. it doesn’t matter what they should do though, they usually don’t. what can we do to stop these pointless deaths?
I just think that if a creator is going to base something on reality but completely butcher it, they better make sure to let the audience know that that's the case with a message at the beginning or something of the sort. I want to let the creator be able to create whatever he wants without the need to be accurate, unless that's what the creator is trying to do. I definitely think that when the creator makes it obvious that they're basing what's in the movie on reality and not documenting it, the responsibility is on the audience to see it.
I've been diagnosed with DID, it is possible to have multiple identities simultaneously turn up at the same time. I am constantly controlling them though, so that the arm belongs to one, another might be feeling emotions that I don't recognise, another might be reminding me of an event that happened years ago, another might be making me feel sad but I know those feelings aren't mine, child might be complaining that the shrink might not know she's there, while another thinks the diagnosis is wrong and therapy is a waste of time. Usually it's one but it's possible to have two or three out, but where one might be stronger and the other weaker. The fun bit is when none of them want to take over, so the body sits like a shell waiting for someone to take over. I don't watch movies like this, or any cruel or violent movies, disturbs the others too much. No I don't have significant switches, don't lose days, weeks, etc, there's a lot of forgetting but no blackouts where another personality takes over. For the most part, I function pretty well, no one would notice these things about me. I had to be in constant control cause I was a carer for my parents for many years. It became a blessing, cause if I didn't need to be in control, I would have been in and out of hospital if not dead.
Just here to add that co-fronting (more than one alter taking the “spotlight” at the same time) is totally a thing, a very common one too. Plus, there are different roles for alters. Hedwig seems to be a “little”. A young alter. There are also things like protectors, persecutors, fragments, mediators, trauma holders. It’s complicated. But they don’t necessarily need to serve an obvious purpose. Also shifting is complicated too, it can happen quickly in a super intense situation but usually doesn’t, it’s VERY rare. And would happen like only twice or thrice but that’s it. Those scenes are ridiculous. This movie is a disgustingly horrible mockery of DID. But the actor’s acting is really good for the shit he’s been given to the point it’s upsetting. Also, footnote, endogenic (as opposed to traumagenic - I’m a DID traumagenic system) systems are (in my opinion) valid. And Ik a lot of people will hate me for even saying this 😂 That’s not DID tho, that’s some other form of plurality, like religious/cultural stuff, tulpas and such. I find it quite interesting.
Exactly!! We always saw endogenic and traumagenic as a Venn diagram! Overlapping circles! They have commonalities, but are not the same thing. It makes us so mad when people say endogenic systems are “claiming to have did” and some probably are, there are always bad apples, but the majority understand that they are different.
I don't even know anything about DID or have even seen this movie, but when he said that thing about serving a purpose, my immediate thought was, "Just because you don't know or understand a purpose, doesn't mean there isn't one."
I still can't get over James McAvoy's performance in this movie. Dude is essentially playing an entire roster of characters in one person, and does a great job of making each personality very distinct from the others.
@Kim Kardashi-un 2.0 As a system, I loved Jane in Doom Patrol! I surprisingly related to some moments of it. Specifically with the switching (our system has very intense switches). It is better than split absolutely but it's not perfect and does still get some things wrong. It's good representation overall though and I really loved how they took away the "murderous alter" stigma. Sorry for rambling, I got carried away.
The rest of the video describes the many problems with the movie and its portrayal of DID better than I can, which is the more important issue, but I do think it's a shame it overshadows the performance, which is AMAZING work on McAvoy's part.
agreed. im a host of a system and we watched split in the filmmaking class im in. his performance is great. though me and the other alters in our system believe split got stuff wrong, james macavoys performance is remarkable.
right? I love his performance. It does fit DID (our experience) well because our posture, tone etc changes too. It feels validating to see that (although enhanced) Its too bad the movie overall is so bad and also leads to even more bias opinion. The actor deserves a better script!
For comparison, I have a trans friend who hates - and has every right to hate - Silence of the Lambs, because of how it polluted people's ideas about trans people with its "this creepy villain thinks he's a woman but he's not lol and also he's a sERIAL KILLER" gimmick. And what other trans characters were there in the media at that time, to portray a more realistic trans woman? Any trans person? One that people wouldn't be afraid of? I told her that Split is my Silence of the Lambs. She got it immediately. Yeah. "Irresponsible" is one way to put it. And I still enjoy watching Silence of the Lambs in my own house because I enjoy many other parts of it, and because it exists, and me not watching it isn't going to make it un-exist... but what the movie did to people's real lives was not okay. And I don't make jokes about Buffalo Bill, because they're not funny. If you personally enjoy Split and also know that's NOT how real life systems are? Cool, good for you. I'm sure there's many parts of it that are enjoyable. But please also remind the people around you that this is NOT how real life systems are, and don't joke about systems based on what you see in the movie.
I have a freind, and only within the last year we've identified his behavioral patterns are a result of DID. His alters have only introduced themselves to his close circle super recently, and we're learning new things as we go. A few bits of information based on my experience with their DID. 1. Every system is unique to the individual body and mind. You can use textbook examples of DID to find exactly how one's system works, but to assume how a person will function based on other's experiences or textbook examples will in most instances be misinformed. 2. Some alters may have a stronger basis of connection and communication with other specific alters that they do not share with the whole system. My friend has 3 total alters and the persona that claims the legal name, face, and most of the consciousness does not have a connection to his other 2 alters, but those 2 have some connection that we, or even they, don't understand. 3. The distinction of "I" and "we" is entirely up to the alter and how they perceive the world. There is no correct or wrong way to refer to yourself, so as long as it gets the idea across, saying "I" shouldn't be labeled as less correct than "we". All 3 of my friend's alters refer to themselves with "I" and "me", and will say "in my experience" and never "our experience", but that's just my experience with their system and they way they present themselves. 4. The phenomena of DID is fascinating, but at the end of the day, we're all just people. Treat people like people, and not a personal project. DID is odd in the way you can build different connections to one host body through their alters, but at the end of the day they're all people, so treat them as such.
It’s great that you are supporting your friend. But if he has DID, he needs professional help. Take it from me- I was only diagnosed with DID last year and, prior to that, it caused havoc in my life. Only now are things becoming clear. Bless you for helping but you need to remember that this illness is the result of trauma and your friend NEEDS help
As an artist, I think duty of the artist is way bigger than duty of the audience. The artist does the research on the topic. Not every person in the audience has the time / energy / headspace / life experience or capacity to do and understand research. Movies are very emotionally charged, which sells the story even more strongly. Also, when fact and fiction are intertwined, its even harder to figure out whats real and what is not. Not everyone has a friend who can explain psychology to them. "Do your own research" is a very priviledged position imho.
Stories have power. They change our outlooks, even when we know they're fictional. I wish more people took the influence stories have on us more seriously. Hell, the entire premise of "Cinema Therapy" only works if we accept the premise that we can learn and be influenced by fiction. For good or otherwise.
As a fellow artist, it depends on what the objective of the artist is. Not all art is a product to consume, in fact the majority of it isn't. For a lot of artists if there is an audience to expose your art to that's great, but the audience's comprehension and approval isn't the objective of your work. So wouldn't speak so generally about it, as always there's various approaches and none of them is right or wrong. Some movies are pure art and are the expression of a matter dear to the writer/director, expressed in whichever way they desire. Because that's what art ultimately is, expression, and it could be done for whatever reason and there shouldn't be rules of how to do art besides the ones the artist imposes to themself (and obviously, in this era, the general consensus of being a decent human being to collaborators, just because people are artists and geniuses, we live in 2022 and it doesn't justify being a jerk). Some products made to be consumed (Hollywood Movies, some novels, some paintings, sculptures) end up being great and the line between a product and a work of art slims itself. In this case I would say I agree with you. This movie is obviously not a Kubrick movie, it's a product. It's a well acted, not very sensibly written movie and it shouldn't force the audience to educate itself alone (but we also know most of the people who went seeing it didn't bother to comprehend if it was an accurate depiction of DID or not, even if the protagonist lives in a universe with mutants and crawls onto walls).
@Lynnerry I agree. On the other hand I think that its also the harsh reality that people will not be aware that media is not reality. So I think the only thing we can do is keep informing people, artists as well as audiences.
I agree that it should be the duty of the artist to do their research and potray things properly but the harsh reality is that most of the time that wont be the case. I think everyone should go into media aware that it might misinform or mislead you.
I think there is a certain level of responsibility on the artist however, I feel like everyone is able to access wikipedia and read the page on DID... You don't need to have a degree in psychology to do your own research on topics. I think the main problem is with the audience if they watch a movie about a guy with supernatural abilities, and assume everything to be factual.
when you started the video off saying how inaccurate the movie was it made me smile. I feel like Split really was one of the big things that contributed to all the stigma surrounding DID and it feels amazing to be seen and heard when we say it's not true. It was a good movie though, acting and story-wise. I'd have been happier if they'd rethought the character and made some better decisions.
7:27 I'm so glad this was covered As a Co-Conscious/Fronting System I wouldn't know what I'd do if I lived without my alters after all these years. My therapist has asked me about integration before and maybe when I was younger I would have liked that idea, because I did not understand my System and it scared me, but now I rely on it and everyone in the system is like my family. Edit: 10:34 Yes Co-Conscious/Fronting Systems are a thing, it just takes time Edit 2: I'm pretty sure Hedwig is supposed to represent a little in the System Edit 3: 22:16 I don't think I've experienced it myself but it's called Rapid Switching
@Greywolf757 I’m going to help answer some of these questions (as someone that as far as I’m aware doesn’t have DID). Co-consciousnesses question- It depends on the system on if they can hear the other alters talk. Really it’s a talking over them type situation. Not easily defined but as a system described, “think of it as you driving a car” or washing dishes. Someone may want to do this dish first. Another may want to cook something. Maybe they want avoid eating altogether and run outside. It’s tad exaggerated but very possible conversation that the different alters can have amongst them. 2) Do you go unconscious when another alter controls your body? The word you’re looking for is dissociation. Psychologically speaking, the body uses it a coping mechanism and in “extreme” cases can cause amnesia walls even for those without DID. You may also say retriggered and be able to remember it then, while another time you won’t. The simplified answer to your question is yes. The person who fronts the most or another alter in the “light,” will result in the other alters remaining in the background. This all depends on the system of course but with DID and switching there’s an amnesia block. The host or other alter may not know what occurred in the conversation before. Or they may know and can be retriggered. 3) Do you experience the world as another alter? It depends on the system. Within early stages from what I’ve seen. No because of the amnesia barrier. When that barrier comes down, it becomes easier to experience the world but they don’t “live” as another alter. Secondly, regardless if they’re a multiple system (recovered) or a singleton (can’t think of the proper time) with years of healing and therapy it can feel as if they experience the world as another alter. The system will usually communicate more which aids in healing the body as well. Note: My answers are based off of systems that I know. They’re not poly-fragmented, which would change the response to these questions
So do you experience the consciousness of one alter or all of your alters? Do you go unconscious when another alter controls your body or do you experience the world as another alter when they take control?
As a spouse to someone with DID, I truly appreciate you taking the time to clarify that they can be happy and healthy as the system they are. You guys are great!
I'd think it would be hard to be married to someone with DID because basically you'd be married to several people in the same body. It's like polygamy except you don't get a choice with each member and have to marry a preformed group.
@Ben League DID is survival. Having been in situations that is killing the system, it can protect itself, but most often do whatever it can to avoid more harm. In that regards it isn't different from singletons (not DID people aka only one person). Put under enough stress and situations that becomes survival mode, most people would defend themselves any way possible. It is annoying how DID is so often portrayed in the media as murder plots. It just increases fear mongering and makes it harder to talk openly about. How often it is used as a defence in trail is also annoying "I didn't do it, my bad side did, and I don't remember it" - I could see how systems could end up in a situations that requires anger and attack-like defence, but I think most systems are so buissy surviving that going out hunting to hurt other people on purpose are stretching the plot frigging thin. It is also NEVER as black and white as "good vs bad", not the mr Jekyll & Hyde twist so commonly portrayed.
@Rheyn hi, as someone who suspects I have DID I can’t speak from the perspective of someone who has been diagnosed, but I will say that from my own personal experiences and from my understanding that it wouldn’t be fair on the system to be accused of something like cheating due to the fact that they had no control of being in one single body. Not to say that alters can’t lie to and/or betray each other tho
@Rheyn yeah i don't have personal experience but i would compare it to like living in a house full of people. One of them might be your spouse. The others probably are not. Some are kids, some older, some you know really well, others you rarely even see. You get along with all of them on different levels. It's something similar to that, only that there's only one body shared between all those people 😁
For me it's kind of like we have a driver's seat and navigator's seat and fronting can be the headmate in question taking either seat. Sometimes a headmate will kick me out to do a particular task, but more typically I will be too tired to front and one of them will step up to fill the empty seat. I keep learning small things about my headmates, such as for Emma, the emotional motherly one, was kind of created when I pushed my emotions away to try and live exclusively in logic. This move also seeded the creation of Kevin. But also, because my mentally abusive mother was what made me want to run from my emotions, the shape the personality of Emma ended up taking was essentially a photo negative of my mother. Emma is Mom's polar opposite in nearly every aspect.
Im a OSDD system host (basically another form of a System) and as much as I hate this movie, I love how respectful you guys are being with it, using the right terms and talking about how alters are real and separate people like rapid switching and hosts and even the fact that alters *can* be different and also just “different shades”
I was diagnosed with DID in ~2016, and I would just like to say that co-fronting can occur on occasion, most often as a sort of transition as sometimes switching is more gradual than films lead people to believe. Switching for me is often instantaneous, but it can sometimes happen gradually over the course of an hour or longer. As for the bee stings and high cholesterol and probably the ambidextrous writing, those are more on the hollywood side for sure. I am often asked "which of your personalities are gonna kill me?" when people find out and I usually (jokingly) say "All of us will if you keep making shitty jokes about my mental health"
Having more than one alter actively in the "driving seat" is called co-consciousness or just "co-con"! This is what is great about Jonathan, he is exactly how mental health professionals should be, open to learning about new medical discoveries, actually listening to the people with the disorders themselves, and admitting where he's given misinformation and actively working to correct himself and bring more accurate information to light.
So, I'm one of the people with DID. And just like Jonathan says, it's trauma. I had a series of events that caused me to have a severe mental breakdown. The worst part of the entire breakdown was this mass of swirling negative thoughts, intrusive and always present that I just could never shake. I did get help and the treatment I needed. It did take medication to bring me out of it. But as I collected myself and pulled myself back together, those swirling negative thoughts did too. And then one day, the other part of my system kinda 'woke up' too. Just two of us 'skull roommates' as I call it, and we're pretty stable now. And yeah, like they say in the video, nothing there to treat. And to answer Jonathan's question, Trevor and I can swap back and forth at-will. And yes, it can happen rapidly. But too many swaps too quickly become immensely tiring. And we'll get massive headaches from it that can last all day.
My best friend I’ve known for over 30 years has DID (and it was originally called multiple personality disorder). Not only does Hollywood get it wrong, but so called pros do as well. Several of her psychs tried to say DID doesn’t exist and tried to treat her as bipolar, schizophrenic, or borderline. Every time someone tried to medicate her for another disorder, she’d get way worse and I’d be the main one seeing her very clear and distinct personalities manifesting. Things definitely go much smoother when she has a doc that actually acknowledges that it exists. I feel as though I know more than some of them. I’ve been her friend for decades and have lived with her as roommate several times. At least I know the disorder well enough from observation to know that it is frickim real.
@vcool122 I've met a fee peoppe that said they had DID, and a few that seemed like it but said they didn't, but idk enough about it. I personally have ADHD, bipolar and BPD, but I don't have the gaps or the abuse, not saying that's the only thing. I do notice certain changes in people though even if they don't go by different names.
I'm not an expert and I don't know anyone diagnosed with DID, but I have some doubt about someone I know that might have 2 personalities. I've never brought it up with him because I don't know how and I don't want to stress him with that. He use 2 nicknames online and I've noticed the way he act change acording to whatever nickname he feel like using, but it doesn't entirely feels like 2 separate persons since there dosn't seem to be any memory loss and blackout like I heard DID systems have and there is an overlap in the way he act with both nicknames, it's not completly different.
It's very difficult to work with medical professionals that want to assume that you're lying or that you don't know what's happening to you. I'm sorry your friend has been through this, and I'm so happy that you're there for her.
So are you friends with some personalities more than others? I would think it would be hard to be friends with someone with DID because you'd never know who you were going to be hanging out with. It's like going to the movies with one person and then they leave half way through the movie and another person sits down beside you and then hangs out with you afterwards. You might not like the second personality as much.
My best friend is a system, and I love her to death, and just adore her Little. Though I’ll admit I’m still struggling to learn the nuances between her alters. But I love seeing more educational and advocational content about what DID actually IS and is not. Like I say. Someone with DID is DOZENS of times more likely to hurt themselves before ever hurting anyone else. So hopefully eventually we can destroy the trope of ‘multiple personalities are dangerous’
I want to just make it clear, I'd like to type some more things here in the comments, but as a note this is just my experience. And saying an alters name, can actually bring them out. For me there's a lot of us tied to certain things in the world around us and our emotions. So if you want to talk to someone, we'll be happy to bring them out!
There's actually a serious problem in online spaces for people with DID/OSDD-1/Some form of multiple identities going on where there is a vocal and large (but not majority) group who bully and harass other systems for not being "traumatized enough" and that they "must be faking" because of that. These individuals or sometimes their entire systems will go out of their way to be jerks to someone if they either had less trauma, no trauma, or dont believe their trauma is related to their multiplicity. Your comment on the correlation between trauma and DID was heartening to hear, because you're right, there IS correlation but NOT necessarily causation and there are a lot of people who don't leave that door open to hear about other systems experiences. I really feel heard and understood in this video, not just as part of a system but as someone who does try to be scientific about our situation and does try to be empathetic and listen to the experiences of everyone who goes through these things. Sometimes I feel alone in my rationale, like I'm the only one who is content to actually listen to how other people feel without telling them they are wrong somehow for it. Good to know I'm not alone in that.
For my system there's 2 kinds of co-fronting. The first being "sitting in the front room together" and the second being where one or more blend together. Their minds, in a sense, get mapped overtop one another and certain shared traits evolve into someone "new". There's 5 of us in total, and some of the blends only take certain traits from one another, and they're almost always the same everytime. The Mediator and the Aggressor have an odd balance we've classified as "Service Dog". Where they're very attentive but also capable of handling confrontation. The Child, who is non-verbal, tends to blend with the Mediator in order to speak "on their own". The Gatekeeper and the Aggressor are the only two capable of feeling physical attraction and there's time when they blend and it's their entire focus. The way they developed can be summarized pretty well. Child suffers trauma, Mediator emerges. Mediator mediating stops working, Aggressor emerges. Aggressor gets out of hand, Gatekeeper emerges. As a group they all need someone to interact with the world and "pretend" to be an at least vaguely functioning human being and handle social situations (cause all of them used to be terrified of it in some shape or form) and thus I emerge. The main front, not the original (Child), but the person who handles "the outside" 80% of the time. There can definitely be chaos, but we've started managing it all pretty well. The rapid switching can catch our husband off guard sometimes, but all of us love him and he loves all of us! As for the outloud conversations, most of the time it's just one side of the conversation that's outloud and we have to fill in our partner or roommate if the other alter said anything important. But that's only if it's just 1 "individual" fronting and someone in the back starts talking to them. TL;DR My Skull goes brrrrr. It's too damn loud sometimes 😅 Anyway, thank you guys so much for covering DiD stuff recently, we only discovered eachother about 2 years ago and this content really makes us feel seen without feeling awkward.
I remember watching a KZclipr with DID express how frustrated and annoyed she was how many people in her comment section say that they thought they now understood DID because they saw Split. The second I heard that I just put my face in my hands, gutted at how anyone could think Hollywood would ever possibly portray mental health well. They NEVER do. Not that I've ever seen anyway. My parents are therapists and they've always been irritated at how therapists have been portrayed on TV for a long time too. I recall my mum saying "TV just doesn't GET (understand) therapy." I think TV needs therapy! :D
@Rarazal Productions Yes, it was good! Also in the TV series "Modern Love" on Prime, there's a really good episode with Anne Hathaway playing someone with bipolar. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is amazing as well, as someone else mentioned
@Emma Beckett Yeah, I'm hoping if they do a second season they're not gonna go in the whole "evil personality" direction. that said, I think the fact that Moon Knight has a lot of supernatural/sci-fi stuff helps, because a lot of the inaccuracies in the portrayal of DID are attributable to that. (Not sure how to say this without spoilers, but it's not clear so far how much you-know-who is controlling you-know-who?) Someone who knew nothing about DID could come away from Split with the idea that most of the stuff could actually happen, given what the psych says (minus the growing in size, maybe), whereas what with the whole Egyptian gods and stuff, people are much more likely to take anything in Moon Knight with a grain of salt.
It's because TV and Movies are all about exaggeration, while therapy is about grounded reality. I'm an animator and if you were to do cartoon movements, your bones would be broken, not accurate at all but exaggerated.
@X X not all of it. Checking her patreon and other forum accounts she has made her own work, even the art style lines up. Also medically integration means something different from fusion. Integration is just another way to say “recovery” so saying “all recovery is this one method” is harmful.
As someone with DID (and unfortunately a lot of other disorders); you were asking if one personality suppresses the core one, the personality that was subjected to the trauma, when triggers happen or when it otherwise tries to surface. For me, yes that happens. I and other parts of me, especially in therapy, have tried so hard to get that traumatized part both out and sustained. I can't even say it lasts a few seconds completely out in the open, it's genuinely too painful. It's a shame because that's of course where all of the healing can really begin. Even when we all unanimously try to push him out so he can talk with our therapist, it never works and one of us is left with having to theorize and otherwise answer as best as we can. It's so fucking frustrating.
My mother had DID. I wish we had all this information and support when she was alive. I am still working through my therapy from my childhood. I don't blame her.
Im so glad you had the same reaction as me in terms of disgust in how they portrayed what WOULD BE a great character(s), but NOT with a DID label. Im a therapist myself, specialized in personality disorders. I teach DBT.. so mostly BPD, OCPD, PTSD, CPTSD. I remember watching this movie in theatres with glee, only to walk out extremely angry at the stigmatization and glorification this would project to todays kids, esp this new “self diagnosing” trend. BPD is already so stigmatized and i feel im constantly in comment sections just trying to spread awareness of what it actually entails when some big creator suddenly comes out with having BPD, but describing bipolar disorder. The social contagion with glorifying personality disorders is maddening to me bc i see how much they actually SUFFER daily. I wish so much M Night had taken some measure to separate this character from DID bc it def begun another social contagion of people describing just dissociation symptoms.. or something extreme like in Split. Glad for the coverage to pushback. I empathise a ton with the kids i work with and i get this extreme maternal anger anytime i catch someone trying to self label to use as an excuse to be a bad person. Its inexcusable. Much ❤. Carry on!
Alters like Hedwig are actually pretty common I think. I haven't seen the movie, but most systems do have one or more child alters in my experience. I think there's multiple reasons this might happen. Sometimes an alter might go dormant for a while and not grow up with the body. Sometimes an alter holds trauma that happened when they were formed and they have not been able to move past it. Sometimes a child alter is useful so the system doesn't have to deal with the pressure of responsibilities all of the time. Sometimes you don't know why. You just respect them and don't push them to grow up. And by the way, talking about alters that don't seem to have a "purpose", there are much weirder alters than children. There's animal alters that might form when you're treated like an animal. There's inanimate object alters that might form from being treated like one, There's all kinds of non-human alters like angels, ghosts, aliens. Basically anything you can imagine can be an alter in a system. They might all have a purpose but it's definitely not always clear.
Hi, DID system here! Thank you for that video, I was so scared it would have been stigmatizing so I was truly glad when I heard you say that you're trying to show how Split does NOT represent dissociative identity disorder. This disorder is so stigmatized, partially due to that movie, and I heard countless times people bullying DID systems using that film. Great point about the message of the therapist's death, thank you for bringing that up! The issue with the debate between responsibility of the artist vs responsibility of the audience is that the audience didn't know what DID is. This disorder is so taboo and misunderstood in general, Split was for so many people the first time they heard about DID. And this movie made so much damage because the storyline explicitly links the criminal and dangerous behavior of the character with his mental illness. He's a monster *because* he has DID. Even though the audience have the responsibility of not being gullible and thinking this is how DID presents, the director has the responsibility to not represent a minority as people inherently dangerous. We are not monsters. We exist as a consequence of what actual monsters did to us when we were a child. And it is so damaging for childhood trauma survivors to be seen as monsters for their trauma-based disorder which will never go away. Thank you for taking the time to listen to systems after your video about Gollum. To answer a few things you said in that video (and this is based on my experience and the experience of the systems I know): -Yes it is possible for different alters to be "in the light" at the same time. There is a distinction made between co-fronting (both alters being in control) and co-consciousness (one in control and one present as a spectator). In our case, we have a lot of co-consciousness where the host is present but someone else is there too in order to help them, without necessarily taking her place. Sometimes systems can communicate with each other because they're co-front or co-con, but in our case the communication is way too bad to be able to have a conversation where each alter can talk out loud. But sometimes the host will talk out loud to answer someone speaking internally, or things like that, because it can help with the communication. -Lots of people believe there is no original alter, based on the theory that kids aren't born with one unique and defined identity, but multiple emotional states that are created during the first years of their life, until a point (around 7-9 years old), when those emotional states would integrate to form the identity of the person. In that theory, DID is caused by the presence of amnesic and traumatic barriers in between those emotional states which prevents them from integrating, therefore each of them developed separately. Which is why DID is caused by specifically childhood trauma, it is caused by traumas *before* that integration could take place. -Yes it is possible to rapid switch, but it happens usually when the person is really stressed or really tired. It happened to me once, and it was an incredibly disorientating moment where I was so tired and so dissociated and in a really bad place mentally. I believe we were 3 or 4 alters rapid switching between each other, while we had a conversation with our best friend, who noticed what was happening and told us. But it's not common though. -Having child alters like Hedwig makes sense and is accurate with the actual disorder. Sometimes alters can appear as if they have no purpose, not because they don't have one but because it may not be explicit. Having littles (which is the term used for child alters) can be a way for the body to experience an innocent and happy childhood for the adult who didn't have one. From what I understand, alters are made in reaction to either a trauma or a need. If they're not based on traumas, it probably means it's the other one. Littles getting to experience bits of what a 'normal childhood' is can help the adult who needed to experience that when they were a kid but couldn't. We aren't monsters. Even though Hollywood use our disorder as a horror storyline. Between Split and the documentaries made about Billie Milligan, when DID is represented in the media it's mostly to depict us as dangerous criminals. I hope everyone could understand that DID systems are VICTIMS. They are survivors of terrible things that shouldn't happens to anyone, even more to a child. Why are we represented as the bad guys when all we did was survived to abuse so severe it changed the way our brains work? No we don't crawl on the walls. We can't physically change. We don't have a beast hidden inside. We aren't crazy. We aren't delusional. It's not role-play either, it's not a game. It's a serious psychological disorder. The only thing hidden in ourselves is the pain of what we had to endure. We're normal people like everyone, we're just like a vase someone throw on the ground: we're broken in multiple pieces. But we're still a person. And I hope one day this disorder won't be so stigmatized.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I did not have DID, I’ve only heard about it through media as a child and was so fascinated by the idea that I would look up information on it. I hope one day this disorder is no longer used as a convenient way for idiots writing TV shows (one life to live)and movies (split)to tell stories. You are a person you are appreciate. I’m not well versed on your condition, except the little things I’ve read, so please I don’t mean to offend you at all. Much love to you
@Jacob Bau In DID, each alter is here for a reason. One alter is here to deal with day to day life. They're the one being here "by default", when nothing is happening/ there is no trigger. They're called the host. I'm (host) here 95% of the time, and my other alters share the last 5%. Every system has a host, sometimes you can have multiple, which are called co-hosts. Careful, being the host doesn't mean you're the original, bc 1 there is no original in DID, 2 who is the host can change with time. The host is an alter like the rest of the system. The singular vs plural will depend on the system but usually and in my case: if you're talking specifically about one alter, use singular pronouns. If you're talking specifically about every alter, use plural. 'How are you today?' (you're asking the alter present) vs 'How are all of you guys? (you're asking how each alter is doing). I wouldn't use plural pronouns every single time you're referring to a system (unless they asked you to) because systems usually hide their multiplicity. In DID, there are two types of triggers. Negative ones, and positive ones. Negative ones are kinda like triggers in ptsd: something that unconsciously reminds you of your traumas. If you're a system, if something echoes the trauma of one of your alter, a switch can happen. There's also positive triggers: if you're doing something another alter enjoy, it can trigger them out (=make them front). Listening to another alter's music can sometimes trigger them out. But basically anything can be a trigger. Depends on what your story is. No the other alters aren't always present. Interestingly, I know a DID system with multiple alters always present in the innerworld's front room. Innerworld is kinda like a lucid dream, it's an inner place where the alters can interact between themselves. Often, a system with an innerworld will have a room/space you go to in order to front. In this system's front room, there was a TV where the alters could see what was happening irl. And 3 alters lived there 24/7. Kinda like watching a movie of what your body is doing when you're not the one controlling it. That's not what you asked but maybe that helps lol.
Quick questions: Mention of "the host" has me confused. I thought DID was simmilar to multiple people living in the same house, but you make it sound as if there is a dominant among you. Is that just a misunderstanding on my end? When referencing a system are descriptive words supposed to be singular or grouped? (Example: you vs you all). What can trigger a switch between alters? Is there any specific stimuli? Are other alters always present, but not in control? Sorta like watching a movie. Sorry if you answered any of these already, or if any of these questions are offensive in any way. I dont mean anything by it, just curious.
My opinion on the duty of an artist is simply not to misrepresent something while passing it off as realistic. However, in intentionally unrealistic media, there is another duty, which is not to perpetuate harmful patterns, which break the reasoning of "it's just one hypothetical example."
Especially when it's the only examples we see. So true for so many things in Hollywood, while it's true seeing a healthy family play games and understand each other isn't as much of a story, they can experience crazy circumstances which will be the story (ahem, Quiet Place)
10:33 they actually got this right! Co-fronting is something that often happens, although it's not as simple as she's describing it here, and I'd be very surprised if two alters could be taking different notes at the same time--because there's the dissociation, you know, and for most it gets extra bad when co-fronting, so doing anything at all is hard Edit: I really appreciate that you say things like "not to my knowledge" instead of "no". That makes it sound like you're willing to be corrected
In my experience, I don’t remember any trauma, one day I woke up as a completely different person I didn’t recognize anyone in my family and I was just going along with it because I was too scared of not knowing how I got there in the first place My self image was so vividly different and familiar to myself yet my own original persona was completely absent There’s something so scary about not having control of myself, a different person controlling my decisions and waking around, my parents mistook it for “sleep walking” but I knew better
I understand where Hedwig came from- he's the alter that got stuck at the age of the initial splitting. I think that's pretty common, one alter is frozen at the age we were when our trauma hit breaking point.
"What was the purpose of Hedwig?" I believe that Hedwig was there because Kevin never actually got to be a child. Hedwig was the child that Kevin wasn't allowed to be: playful, discovering, curious, naughty, clumsy, etc. Also, James McAvoy deserves every award ever for this role, even awards that don't strictly apply.
Miranda cutie cat honestly she didn't want to talk about the specifics of her trauma but yeah she mentioned abuse through a partner of her mother. On the station we usually knew that everyone of us was struggling with something and if the person wants to talk about it in order to process it and/or to feel better than they'd do that on their own. It's a really respectful manner that I really liked about it. I was helping two patients with their kitchen service because one, the person with DID, was new to it. That's when a switch happened. We were very worried as she just froze up and hold on to a chair while we were putting the other chairs back on the table. The night nurse had a crisis talk with another patient so we had to wait to ask for help but made sure she wasn't harming herself by watching her. I wanted to help and tried to talk to her but she didn't react. The thing that sometimes helps me with my struggle is physical reinsuring acts likes hugs etc. but because I didn't know what she had, remember a similar reaction of someone with an epileptic shock before he curled up and knew it was possible that physical trauma could be triggered by unwanted physical touch, I didn't touch her to make sure she was ok. Instead I talked to her and just made sure she knew she wouldn't be alone and be cared for. I kinda felt asleep at the table next to her and told her roommate that I'll stay behind to make sure she will be ok when she is able to regain her present conscious again. At some point I noticed her slowly coming back after tipping her fingers against the chair for a few minutes. She tried to apologize and I just said there was nothing to apologize for and that everyone here understands that people are struggling here. Her roommate came back after we talked for a while to check on her and was relieved and happy to see her regaining her present conscious. She has that tunnel vision through strong depression that her current and main personality and her teenager (16 years) self both struggle with but her teenagers self doesn't really know how to deal with it so it can cause her to freeze up. This can also bring up the child who than is confused and afraid to do anything herself both of which can cause confusion and unfocused chaos that takes a while to process. So what happened was a combination of those or at least that's how she explained it (I hope I described it right. I translate what she said because we are Germans). We asked her what the does and don'ts are when she freeze's up and she said a specific song sometimes works but most often lavender works to get her back. She also has some very strong smelling stuff something that's given to people who can get lost in such tunnel vision and have difficulties to return. Her roommate had something like that as well and both said it's awful and they hate it but it works but I kinda glad I don't know the smell after they described it. She also confirmed that touching her would be an awful idea as this is very triggering of her trauma so I'm glad I didn't do that. She's a very kind person and we are currently still in touch as we live in similar area. She has a caring boyfriend who she git engaged with while we were on the station so it's good to hear that she has someone to care for her after so many awful experiences.
@Shadow1Yaz The pain thing is very much real. My ex had an alter that emerged for the sole purpose of tolerating pain and she was clinically masochistic. Would literally giggle at extreme pain and was not allowed(by the system) to front unsupervised due to her recklessness. The only way the strength aspect played out though is that the body had a neck injury that caused chronic pain, so she pushed the body harder than anyone else did because she didn't have to suffer the consequences. However, in a healthy body this wouldn't have been a noticeable difference. The only way I can think of something like extreme strength manifesting to an observer is differences in the way an alter moves. An alter who has trained to lift heavy things or trained for rock climbing or something would be able to use the body differently in a way that appeared stronger but would really be skill. The same way an alter who has studied martial arts would move faster and have faster reflexes than other alters in the system. I have known systems with alters who were inherently weaker than the body's physical capabilities. If you had someone who only knew a physically weaker alter in a system that wasn't blatantly a muscle builder type body, I could see them being surprised when an alter who used the full strength and physicality fronted around them for the first time and started unloading heavy cargo with ease. Regarding Split, I think it's entirely fantasy for the purpose of the Unbreakable universe, as you said.
@The Cade System I agree with you! Our system also handles ailments with varying degrees and cope with them differently. I do think that some people may be mistaking another phenomenon for the whole "can benchpress 3X their body weight." Sometimes, specific alters emerge who cannot feel pain or are very insensitive to it. WIth that going on, this particular alter would be able to push the body to unhealthy levels of endurance or strength. They wouldn't be significantly stronger than everyone else in the system but they could display a lack of restraint when using strength which a layman could see as that alter being physically stronger. This is 100% speculation on my part. It's also possible that M. Night did the strength thing to link him to the Unbreakable universe.
I wish you guys would have talked about Casey in this as well, her entire story and they way her trauma molded her and helped her throughout the movies and allowed her to have understanding with Kevin was so integral to Kevin's story
Even as a 100% layman when it comes to therapy, I could guess that Split was probably even detrimental to the understanding of DID. It's nice to get confirmation from a professional. Like you say, though, as a movie it's really good and James McAvoy is unbelievably good as Kevin and his other personalities. McAvoy is one of those actors who it staggers the imagination that he's never won an Oscar or even been nominated for one.
When this movie came out it was horrible for the DID community in my area. I remember people at school talking about how "scary" DID is and equating it to be a crazy/evil person. It was really hard to listen to and I was terrified for years to tell anyone I knew what I was diagnosed with for fear that their mind would go straight to the "DID = serial killer" logic.
I've had a strange experience with an individual once that makes me think of DID.. Not naming names or anything obviously, but they were and still are a very close friend of mine. They used to be in a very bad place mentally and regularly drank to cope and relax after stressful days.. Well, maybe two or three times, early on in our relationship and not too terribly long after we first met, they had these.. episodes where they seemed to be a completely different person while under the influence of alcohol. At first I thought maybe it was a prank, but then it just got too strange and convincing to dismiss as simply that. They wrote crystal clear and in a completely unique way unlike my friend, despite being _very_ intoxicated. Unfortunately I only spoke to them this way through text, so I couldn't tell you how they were actually acting in person, but I doubt they could've faked writing so perfectly in their state of intoxication. I've heard alters can ignore the health conditions of their host and other alters, like how some have allergies and others do not, so I imagine alcohol probably can also be shrugged off in this way. Anyways.. the personality that had emerged a couple of times always spoke to me in a completely different way than I was used to from my friend. They called themself by a different name and spoke in a way that was very.. cold and apathetic toward their host. And the second time I spoke to them when they emerged under the same conditions (my friend was drunk, and in a depressed state) they seemed to remember me and we spoke in a guarded but familiar way with me asking them questions which they answered in the exact same writing style and cold manner they had shown before. They said how they weren't my friend, but at the same time they sort of were. They claimed to protect my friend because if anything happened to my friend, it would harm them as well, since they shared the same body. But it seemed reluctant to have this job, displaying a lot of distaste for their 'host'. Speaking to my friend after the fact and showing them the messages, they _insisted_ it wasn't a prank and they had absolutely no idea what had happened. To this day, we're still stumped about the whole ordeal. I've never spoken to this mysterious personality again and I don't think I will since my friend has stopped drinking as much and is also doing much better with their depression. They have never ever had any sort of alter or shift like this while sober and seem to be just one person in one body otherwise. O_O Anyone have any ideas what this could've been? It still has me scratching my head to this day..
I actually saw the Moon Knight video first and commented there, but will comment here, too. In our case never been officially diagnosed or sought therapy - mentioned that on Moon Knight - but do have multiple selves out at once. In fact, we refer to our self as a "Community of One." Our origin, as we refer to the original core personality, has never "woken up" ever since the events that started this all. One of us is almost permanently in the "driver's seat," but everyone is still there and watching/involved. Our childlike self is second most likely to slip into control in fun situations or when dealing with children, but it's not a jarring shift the average person would notice. More like a fade slider that's slipping from overlay to underlay in a movie scene when done so that the transition happens, but you can't really say where exactly it went from one to the other. The three we'll refer to here as the Scholar, the Schemer, and the Dreamer almost never take control of the body itself, though speak at times or direct where we're looking/what we're paying attention to. Lastly is the Protector who will take control when things get beyond words and a physical confrontation is occurring/likely. Them taking over is a clear shift of behavior/personality, but luckily that's only been necessary a handful of times and the change in behavior is brushed off normal for a usually calm person pushed past the limits of their patience. Most of our discussion is internal, but it is difficult to tell who is contributing what thoughts - though that's not usually an issue as long as we've coexisted. Verbal speech is used when we need to keep clear who is saying what for some reason. But again, in our case, we're all always out (except origin) regardless of who's in control of body. There was one time that our community got "broken" which resulted in rapid swapping, but not a natural thing for us: tried marijuana with a friend and it did something to screw everything up. Only one of us could be out at a time and whoever was out *had* to take control of the body at that time, but each period of control was only around 10 seconds or less. It was horrible. It was terrifying. Lasted in neighborhood of half-an-hour and was a scarring experience. Both ensured we'd never get near marijuana again and made us even more terrified of seeking professional help were they might give us medicine that separated us from each other. Imagine living a strobe-light life, only aware of approximately 10 in every 60 seconds. Each time you "wake up" you're not where you were or doing what you were doing. Like being a puppet that's randomly gaining consciousness and losing it while someone/thing is moving you around. Hate even the memory. Freaked out that friend watching us too. Had to explain things to them, which made them the first person we ever fully revealed our situation to. On the bright side, opening up to them was the first step to starting to share with others and in other places. A random personal observation: We rather enjoy playing RPGs because it's a chance for everyone to get opportunity to "solo." Our entire life we've always worked together to make a single life that people outside couldn't see as anything other than one person. And we like what we have, make no mistake, but games where one can be their self without the others is a fun little "vacation" from home life as it were. I wonder if others have found interest in tabletop gaming and similar for similar reason.
DID system here!! Going into this video, I was so worried that the video would just be full of stigma and inaccuracies, but I was so relieved you guys talked about how Split's portrayal of DID was ultimately harmful for the DID community. Thank you so much. ❤
@DrVurruct a movie that millions of people can see easily without second guessing the material, this leads to stigma and intimately widespread misinformation about people with DID
Ok ok good, this means I won’t be leaving this video wanting to punch something (probably) It’s been on my fyp for a while but I’ve been scared it’ll be awful (I’m the host of an osdd system btw, I only use I and my becuse me and the other frequent fronters have our own yt account, because different interests and stuff)
@Saddler Rye Very well said. You get at how makers of such stories can have their cake and eat it too. It wouldnt have taken much effort in making the movie to make it plain and obvious that Kevin and his alters are an exceedingly uncommon exception.
@DrVurruct The problem is that it's often hard to tell where does fiction end and where reality starts. For example when you watch an Indiana Jones movie you can tell that it's a fictional story, but you'll probably come out with the impression that 'Nazis BAD' (and of yourse you'd be right in that case). With Split most people would be able to tell that DID won't give you supernatural abilities, but it's harder to tell if the condition is inherently dangerous or not, especially as media usually portrays it as such. I think that a small disclaimer at the start of the movie would go a long way, as well as more works that depict DID in a more realistic way instead of using it a a cool setup for the crazy but pitiful villain (and yes, it's a very cool setup). There is nothing wrong with writing an exciting fictional story based on a real life condition, but it's important to make it clear that your Big Bad is 'evil' because he's a bad person, and not because he has said condition.
Hi. We're polyfragmented, so I don't know if that changes our experiences, but we are co-conscious at least 80% of the time. We talk to each other, make plans and collaborate. Sometimes the headmate in the body will talk out loud to those in the headspace. It's helps us feel sane and grounded. Usually about 3-8 of us are in what we call the board room at the same time. We don't all have control, but we can communicate. We all have different voices and our admin and primaries have gotten really good at telling us apart. We've never had two people in control of the body at one time though.
I'm here 3 weeks late, but hey- better late than never right? Anyways, as a professionally diagnosed system of 12 (OSDD) AND a filmmaker myself, these movies are incredibly interesting to me as research material for my own films I plan to put out. My Dissociative Disorder appears a little differently in the sense that we can have multiple people in/present at the same time as well as talk to each other within our own head-space (not always consistently). We did develop through childhood trauma (incredibly similar to Moon Knight- great video btw), but we have added members to our system through time with other bad experiences or through attachments to fictional characters (we only really have 1 "Fictive"). We have 2 "Littles" (like Hedwig), one of which is in place to act as our innocence if the trauma had never actually happened. Like any other human being, each alter (or "Facet" as we like to call ourselves) has a different responsibility, dream, opinion, limitations, triggers, and psyche, but we do all care for each other even if we have different ways of showing it. All in all, I think Hollywood has a habbit of combining DID with OSDD-like symptoms in order to show things easier- however more-or-less helpful it may be. I hope this was able to shed some light on some things. Thank you both for these analysis and for being able to admit when you might be wrong or need more input. It always brightens my day and gives me hope for not only our future, but the future of others as well...
As just a generally mentally ill person, I love Alan’s explanation of mental disorders, and that’s exactly what they are (to my knowledge anyway): something that most people have experience, but it interferes with and sometimes harms your life. I don’t know if that’s the clinical definition of a mental disorder or not, but I love Alan’s explanation of it
I don't know if this is a little late, but I would heavily reconsider doing another sponsorship with EstablishedTitles. They've been proven to basically sell land NFTs and use false advertising to claim Lordship even though that title can only be inherited or given by royal decree.
Great episode as always, and as for duty of the artist vs duty of the audience: as an aspiring writer, myself, I definitely believe that the artist holds a lot of responsibility especially when representing something that is often stigmatized and misrepresented in media and real world. An artist should recognize the power and influence of media, and they should recognize that their work is not an exception to that. Which is why doing plenty of research into what they’re going to represent and making sure they understand that in their work is crucial. Look stuff up and consult experts! Honestly, a great way to supplement research is to consume media that represents said something well, as it’s a way to absorb knowledge and better perspective without realizing that you’re doing it. Most importantly, I feel that artists should not be afraid to take accountability for a past work that misrepresents something and produces stigma, and they should acknowledge that and aspire to do better. And they should definitely be willing to open themselves up to other people’s perspectives and be willing to listen to what their fans and critics are saying. JK Rowling is the quintessential example of what not to do especially in todays context, because while I admire her as a writer and I absolutely adore Harry Potter, there are undeniably issues with her as an author and issues with Harry Potter in particular. She has a tendency to double down on her stance and attitude rather than listen to her fans and to valid criticisms and actually listen to what they’re saying, for example. As for duty of the audience, I think you guys put it beautifully in, I believe, your James Bond episode, where you guys say something along the lines of keeping your brain turned on. Like it’s fine to enjoy a movie but it’s definitely important to make yourself aware of its failings, especially when it comes to misrepresentation of something, and acknowledge that whenever you notice/see it in a movie or any other media
Also, it’s typically seen as disrespectful to call a particular alter the “original” personality. Unless the alter doesn’t exist anymore because they split, in which case it would be fine. But generally for existing alters, calling one the “original” discounts the existence of the others and makes them feel unwanted and misunderstood. My therapist draws a distinction between me, Emily, and the “original Emily”. The original Emily is who we all were before trauma happened. But me, Emily, am just another alter within a system, I just HAPPEN to identify with the name given to us. *I* am not the original personality, I just have the same name as her. The original personality does not exist as one anymore, she is in eight pieces which ALL have aspects of her “original personality”.
Lot of good discussion on this comment thread, and I wanna throw my 2-cent into it. I have DID as well, just two of us in here. And I am very clearly the original. And my 'skull Roommate', Trevor, is very clearly a newer entity. We both can point to the distinct timeframe where Trevor was 'born', and when he 'woke up'. When we had our split, nothing was taken away from me to form him. But rather, it's as if he's me if I'd viewed all my life through a different lens. So the idea that a split 'destroys' an psyche when it happens isn't always the case. He and I are distinct and different individuals. But I am still me. The same me from before the trauma that caused my split. I just have a 'skull roommate' now.
@zero8034 These are a bit of a different series of questions, because it has nothing to do with the experience of being a system but instead about philosophical and possibly religious implications of it, but have you ever considered the philosophical state of the original personality? Like how Skypaw3 talked about in the beginning, if the first personalities are split shards of the original personality, do you consider that personality(and any further personalities that "shattered") dead? If so, and at least one of the members of your system is a theistic person, do you(the theistic person(s)) think that the "shattered" personality has a seperate soul/will go to whatever form of afterlife/reincarnation you believe in? Do you think you are, in the eyes of whatever deity or system(like reincarnation cycles in religions without gods, not the DID terminology), considered as each individual personality, or as one entity as a whole? If you do believe in the afterlife, do you think whatever form you believe you'll take would also have DID? And the opposite, when distinct identities merge, what do you think of the new identity vs the ones used in merging? Are they dead? Do you consider the merged person an entirely new person, or something else? Back to theism, would all three personalities have their own souls(or recognition by the system of religion to be their own individual), would the merged ones have their souls but not the new one, or does it mean two souls actually merged, and there's only one now, or something else entirely? Seperate question, if you have a yet non-actualized personality, how do you think of your less distinct personalities?(like the sentient but non-actualized one a system said they had somewhere among these comments)Do they seem closer to children, Advanced but still barely functional AIs, or a mentally challenged person? Or something entirely different? If you had one that became actualized later, do they remember being in that state? What was it like? What's the absolute bare minimum a personality has to have for you to consider it an equal? Or do y'all simply not care about the philosophical implications because of how depressing and unnecessary it is? That's also a very valid answer I certainly can't blame anyone for giving.
Hedwig is actually a really important representation. It's very common for systems to have "littles" or child alters that represent the innocence that was lost following trauma. The littles often don't have memory of the trauma, and are essentially able to live out the childhood that they missed out on. There are often "trauma holders" within a system that are alters with the memories of the trauma, and they may be Protectors of the system. There are a lot of different functions for alters, and even those like Hedwig are very important for the system :)
2:28 Yok: We love to see that a therapist loves when he says "we" and "us". This is an everyday battle to allow ourselves to use theses pronouns in front of people. (Btw, it's way much more easier to be understood on the internet, with writing, while not being seen, so not being seen as "one body". That's why nowadays, many systems show themselves online, including our "happy band")
In regards to the "two alters holding consciousness at the same time" bit. Being co- consciousness is very common. Two alters being aware at the same time I mean. But in regards to two alters using the body at the same time, that's rarer but still not impossible. Once I was talking on the phone with my friend and after 30 mins I realized I wasn't in control of my hands but I was playing minecraft. Someone else in my system wanted to play but I was busy talking. I thought I was just watching minecraft videos until I realized my hands were moving lol
To clear up one thing, co-fronting and rapid switching can occur and happen quite commonly in my system, but doesn’t happen like shown in the movie. For me, rapid switching occurs usually in moments of very high dissociation and is a lot more like a blur of a bunch of different people coming and going and not understanding what’s happening rather than a continuous conversation where different people switch in to contribute. The big problem with the scene is less about how frequently the switches happen, and more that there’s seemingly no dissociation or amnesia between alters, which there usually is in DID. Also, I wanted to clear up a different thing since the video didn’t really address this. There is a type of alter called a persecutor, and many people mistakenly think that such an alter is an evil one after having watched stigmatizing media like this movie. That’s not true, a persecutor isn’t evil, instead they’re usually an alter that emerged as a way to survive a truly horrible situation, and because of that purpose they hold on to mindsets that can later cause problems. (tw, csa discussion) For instance, a child that undergoes continuos sexual abuse may split an alter that takes on the mindset of this abuse just being how love is supposed to look. That mindset would help them to stay afloat while the abuse was going on, but could then create problems in the future once the system has escaped the situation if they for instance seek out retraumatizing unsafe situations because of their flawed view of love. Persecutors do not have ill will, they’re just the gnarly reality of having to survive, and they hurt themselves by and large, not others.
You mentioned how it doesn't seem possible for two of us to be fronting at the same time, but it's quite common between Michael and I. Often times Michael will take over to help me get moving early in the mornings as he's an early rise but I am not. But once I start to wake up Michael will back off and share control to ensure we keep moving while simultaneously letting me... assist with the actions. One other thing Michael constantly gets onto me for and will control is the amount of tension in our body. I hold myself quite tense often due to stress so he'll slip through to force our body to relax while still letting me maintain control of our actions. And we are quite grateful to know that DID is being seen and not in a bad light. We are fine like this, Michael prefers to take the back burner so to speak while I maintain most of the everyday control. And it did come about from childhood trauma as he's explained to me by drudging up memories I didn't remember. Michael has said that he holds the worst of our memories to hide the trauma we have suffered. Things that trigger me specifically Michael will take over completely, to withdraw myself into him to hide me from what we shall remember. Our system works for us as we are a parent, and since becoming one we must be durable to protect our child. I hide the trauma she has suffered so she can focus her attention and happiness on our child. I hide the anger and fear to prevent her from accidentally exuding it to our child and suffer the same trauma she did as a child. Thank you for presenting DID in a non judgemental manner. We appreciate the work you have put into these videos to explain that we are not broken. We are stronger for sharing our mind space and body than we were before I stepped up to protect her.
Well..I was today years old when I learned that OCPD is a thing and that IT is what most people think OCD is...but isn't, so thanks Jono for teaching me something today!
it's unfortunate how common this misconception is. I have OCD, and it's irritating every time I hear someone casually suggest they have it simply because they're very tidy. I'm not at ALL tidy lmao. Hoarders (like that reality tv show) almost always have OCD. They obsess over what might happen if they throw something away.
Yes! I was so happy to hear about this. I hear plenty of "They don't have OCD, they are just perfectionist", which often dismisses the trait as a whole.
yeah I have autism + OCD which may look like OCPD, but I guarantee I will not come to anyone's house to clean it lmao, I avoid triggers as much as possible
I always interpreted the different identities within Split as representative fragments of a whole man. Kevin is a stand in for an average person and each identity is a component of his personality personified to examine how each can be part of a person can be altered by trauma. Barry is trust, Hedwig is innocence, Dennis is Routine, Patricia is his Reflection of Femininity, and on and on. Finally the Beast represents the capacity for extreme atrocities latent within everyone. I believe Carl Jung phrased it as “Everyone has a Nazi inside them ready to sell out their neighbors wether they know it or not.” Typically everyone keeps a handle on this inner demon but for some in traumatic circumstances the chains can break or the context for which they feel it’s appropriate to release them is permanently altered and not always for the best.
24:25 "he feels responsible for the behavior of the others" As a functional system, glad to share you this is one of the keys of "healing". It's hard to achieve. I still blame other alters for what they did, from time to time. But i know it's wrong. And this is a key to find peace. Please believe it ^^
Switching really quickly can definitely happen, especially if there’s a situation where no one knows how to handle it. Also sometimes when our brain just wants to mess with us lol. Thanks for covering this!
My sister has ocd and I didn't realize that when she got nervous and kicked me out of our room to basically take it apart and put it back together that she was trying to stop something similar to my panic attacks I have enxiaty and now that I know what she was really doing I'm a little jealous of that fact that she had a way to stop it from happening because with enxiaty you have no way to stop it from happening it just starts takes over and keeps escalating on tell it feels like you need to go to a doctor
t // as a member of a system, i will say that it is very interesting how certain traits that might seem fairly set in stone can vary between headmates/alters/identities/personalities/whatever you'd like to call them. like you drew attention to, it's nothing like it is in the movies, there are physical limits to the human body that can't be crossed, but we've noticed that within a certain margin, certain headmates of ours do actually have different levels of physical strength, or at least, they seem more or less willing to use the full range of strength that our body can put behind an action. same with pain tolerance, different headmates are more or less sensitive to pain (for example, i, taylor, definitely have the highest tolerance for pain compared to the rest of our system). i don't know if it goes much further than little things like that, but it is quite an interesting thing to think about.
As someone with a Master's in Literature I have studied this very subject during my course - duty of the artist x the audience. And the best answer I can give without going on a rant (unless someone is interested in it) is: the responsibility is always yours. If you're the audience, you should consider the responsibility is the audience's. If you're the artist, you should consider the responsibility is the artist's.
@First Last I feel like this is Split's biggest downfall. It's a well made movie, but it doesn't take into account the fact this condition is already represented really badly in pop culture. It's harder for an audience to pinpoint where the line between reality and fiction is if they don't know what the reality is. This is true of anything, but when it comes to something like D.I.D., it becomes problematic because there are real, living people who are being affected by that lack of knowledge.
@Elena Acedo as one of my professors said "Fiction cannot lie because it never says it's true." I agree with that, but that is also putting it on the audience's responsibility. Which is fair, to a degree. But there's always people who can't differentiate, don't reflect about it or don't know enough to realize aspects shown aren't realistic.
This whole comments thread is fascinating, but I couldn't help but think that the disclaimer is that it IS fiction as opposed to a factual account of the matter. I don't care if it is based on something real, if it’s fiction, I will always assume that it's an exaggeration at best or total bullshit at worst. I have more issues with media pretending to be presenting you with the “true” story or giving you the “facts” when they're not.
I don't have DID, but I do watch educational channels about it like DissociaDID and one of the important aspects that they got wrong in the scene at 20:14 is the fact that if Kevin is, in fact, the host, then he shouldn't have many memories, or at least not many, since the idea of a DID system is to protect the host from the trauma. The only time a host will receive traumatic memories is if it has merged/integrated with one or more alters. Typically the name is changed after that, but there are instances where one of the original names are kept. If I got anything wrong though someone please let me know in replies 💞
As a fan of Daniel Keyes' books, SPLIT is still on my naughty list because it portrayed itself originally as an adaptation of The Minds of Billy Milligan and as such it is doing a horrible job (only taking the core feature of Billy having multiple personalities, which story is actually a non-fiction - or so it is deemed...). That book started my journey from questioning "is everyone having a press conference for each though in their head all the time?" to figuring out that I'm a case of DID and started to get treatment to settle down on a healthy-working system of 3-4 (one of us being completely situational). James McAvoy does an amazing feat in these clips as an actor, but this movie's representation of DID from what I recollect is doing more harm than good (based on information I have read about it, I refuse to watch the movie for what it did on one of my favourite books). Regarding DID, from our little system's perspective: - I can confirm that co-steering (as we call it) exists, but it an extremely tiring process unless we are dead-set and unanimous on something, when we "act as one" anyway for half the mental cost. With my core self I have a total of 3 adults (The Core, The Protector and in emergencies, The Doctor) and a child (The Kid) in the system, which means splitting (mainly mental) tasks and operating on multiple lines is possible (and highly efficient when it comes to everyday duties and work life), but oh god so exhausting. - Switching for us is now a rare but instantaneous thing, it kind of feels like shifting the viewpoint in a video game from one character to another (I tend to watch myself from the "outside" in 3rd person anyway due to a bad monitoring habit stemming from keeping up with narcissism and abuse in my childhood). Many times we register the switch happening retroactively and the wheel comes back to the core when the task the others jumped in for is done. The wheel coming back has also been suggested by my therapist to ensure that time-losses and time-stealing doesn't happen in the long run and everyone has been time-accountable for years now. Thus, switching happening without an unanimous decision only happens nowadays in emergencies (either the Protector taking over a social situation, or Doc handling injury as we are otherwise quite squeamish). - Speaking of which: there is allocated/requestable self-time now for everyone set in a concrete-hard framework of rules to ensure no harm comes to the body or other shards (we respect eachother's privacy but also have rules set on adult activities, smoking and alcohol, and whoever steps out of line HAS to suffer the consequences), as well as everyone has a reporting duty if someone acts out of line or something is suspicious. This framework worked for us for years and many old wildshoots have faded away, because it gave them an opportunity to handle their emotions and wishes they were called to life in the first place. I don't know if this helps anyone, but feels nice to share.
One of my best friends is diagnosed DID and they “co-pilot” frequently. I don’t know the extent that it would be noticeable to anyone on the outside or whether or not they would/could actually each use one hand to write with during copiloting, but they can share the light sometimes!
As a creator, I think disclaimers are very important. If you’re going to take an artistic swing at something that actually exists (especially when the general public doesn’t know very much, if anything, about it), it’s important to remind the audience that you’re work is fictitious. People, myself included, do tend to implicitly believe what we watch, but I also agree with Alan that I want to tell the stories I want to tell. It is very important to have accurate representation. That doesn’t mean you can’t have inaccurate representation, which is why I think disclaimers, like something as simple as, “This is not accurate representation of ‘blank’,” can make a difference.
The problem with movies like Split is when people learn you have DID, they immediately go 'Ok, I believe you are not dangerous, but could you get away from me in case you are hiding a serial killer inside you, you don't know about'. That is why not many people know about my DID.
@devRat big same, & condolences had people ask us which are bad or for warnings for " the bad 1's " none of us are out-right bad . . . maybe a little defensive/protective but not mean-spirited people who ask this kind of thing probably saw this movie to even " know " about DiD
@Cyf Cyfa Hey. You're way out of line. Go away and stop bothering people. People with mental conditions are not "unsafe." And only "unpredictable" if you never, ever listen. It has been proven time and time over, that "normal" people are the more violent. You're the problem. Leave now.
@Padascos Exactly. It's always the "evil" alters who need the most love. They're struggling, often have low self-esteem and are fearful. But are still doing their best to protect the system. Anxiety from Sanders Sides is a good analogy for "evil" alters. I don't think of them as evil. I think of them as goths and edgelords. They want to put on a scary face so that people will leave them alone. Sometimes taking dorky names like "the darkness" or "calamity". But they're like a teenager going through an angsty phase. They need respect, love, and compassion.
@Ringailė Tervydienė tbh I see a lot of people imitating DID very similarly to this movie (not accusing you, bringing it up again made me think of that)
Paprika (2006) directed by Satoshi Kon is another film that I couldn't recommend more. A massive inspiration for Inception, and something I think you two could have a really wonderful and unique take on.
I'm am so excited to hear someone else recognise the absolute amazing performance of James in this movie... So, I have to mention Sally Field in Sybil, again a fantastic performance, the 1st time I saw multiple personalities.. From Sally to James I dont think anyone has done it as well as these two, it takes a certain kind of actor...
i think that while responsibility of educating yourself comes from the audience or should come from an average person, a lot of people don’t. i think that while artists should be able to story tell and have fiction in things that are in real life, that they should have disclaimers or resources for people to become more educated, ESPECIALLY when it comes to mental illness or a sensitive topic. i think that it also does give a lot of power to the community when the artist themselves does the research and implements accuracy in their creation.
I have a friend that has DID. She told me that she, through trauma, developed another main person in her. So she told me this years ago so I don't really remember how many both of them had each personalities. She told me that she would get stalked and attacked regularly from the community she was apart of. Whenever that happened, one stronger personality came out to protect her while she was attacked so the main personality never felt the pain. Anyway, the other main person was so miserable that she actually took suicide. She had control over other personalities which my friend didn't have any control over. So when her other part took suicide, they have been just trouble. She just ignores them actually because they are so negative and toxic. I think right now, everything that goes inside her mind has just gone out to her body and made it shut down. She struggles to do every day chores and work like she could before. Her body has just shut down. That is what my understanding of her situation and DID when she told me. I didn't know of DID and that she even had that before she told me years after we graduated, but somehow still kept in touch.
Hey! A system of 10 here, and we'd like to clarify a few things- Yes, two people can front at the same time, and it is known as cofronting! There are even moments where, in systems with less dissociative barriers, two or more alters (or headmates) can fuse temporarily to become someone new. For us, we are traumagenic, we experienced extreme repeated childhood trauma and this is simply the only way our brain would be able to survive. However, we have met systems that have not come from trauma or may not know of their trauma, so we don't like to enforce the barrier that "you cannot be a system without trauma". Most are, but there hasn't been nearly enough research or awareness of this state of being, and we'd rather encourage others to seek therapy than to gatekeep. We are in therapy, but we are happy as a system and don't consider it a negative or a hindrance to be what we are. If you ever would like to talk to systems more in depth about movies that reflect our experiences, we think that could be a really cool way to learn a little bit more about the spectrum of people with these circumstances. (Of course we absolutely volunteer our system as an option, lol) We love your videos! Thank you for bringing more awareness in a healthy and safe way.
@Josh Wondra God, I feel all of that so much (We also have ADHD/autism, go figure). We need more people like you in the education system. If you have a way for me to message you, I have more resources on plurality and DID that may help! (Of course as anything, it's up to you if you'd like to go through reading that)
I relate to Alan so much in each of these vids. 🤣 thank the gods for your vids. You two are both a blessing in my life. Not just a source of entertainment but educational and also extremely therapeutic and cathartic. Thank you. You have helped me in my personal life
Such an interesting episode, I needed to make a comment. As someone with OSDD (other specified dissociative disorder, specifically 1b in my case) I wanted to comment on a couple of things with my own experiences. 7:52 & 10:30 : On being co-conscious and conversations- I experience this regularly with my system, because part of OSDD-1b is that there's no amnesia between alters (primarily why it's different from DID) being co-con (or more than one personality fronting/being active at the same time) is much easier. There are often times when I'll be on the phone with someone while my most active alter, Zee, is cooking and it's quite obvious that even though I'm the one talking, he's the one preforming the actions. We all also commonly talk to each other in the mind and have active and full conversations with one another and can help each other with certain difficult situations. It's actually extremely useful in everyday life in a lot of ways, we can simply allow someone who is better at something to do that thing (i.e. Zee doing the cooking, because he's better at it than I am.) 12:50 : On different personalities having different abilities: For me that's true with limitations. For example, Zee (mentioned above) has a natural knack for cooking that I don't have, he's talented and just tends to know what a dish needs, on the other hand, he's also supposed to be able to speak Japanese and is of Japanese nationality, but because my brain doesn't hold that information, he can't simply pull it out of the air. I wager if we chose to learn Japanese, he'd pick it up very quickly compared to myself and it would be very natural for him, but as it stands now he doesn't have that ability because I don't have the knowledge. So while in some ways yes we do have different strengths and abilities, there are limitations of the body and mind. Generally, we simply see what everyone in the system is interested in and slowly incorporate more of that knowledge into the mind, as it can be distressing for them to try and access information that should (for them) exist, yet it does not exist in my mind. 19:56 : On switching on the use of their name: This is true for us in most cases. A lot of my alters like attention and if you talk directly to them, they will at least co-front to answer. All alters have their own triggers though, as is briefly mentioned here, for me often these triggers are simply met with wordless emotional reactions in the brain space, but sometimes they'll front as well, depending on what it is and what the situation is, but it does call their awareness. 21:50 : On rapid switching: This was mentioned earlier but more prominently here. Personally, rapid switching is very easy for me. It's not so easy for others I've met and talked to and what is said here is pretty accurate for most it seems like. Switching can also be harder between certain alters, for example switching between Zee and K in my system used to be very hard until they learned to get along better and settled into a comfortable place with each other. My alter Kazu takes awhile because he's far more timid and afraid to come forward. Generally though, for me, switching is easy, can be rapid and can also be partial (for example Zee making a comment out loud and my sibling or boyfriend pointing it out when even I didn't realize) but my system seems to be fairly unique and this is likely also thanks to being OSDD-1b instead of DID. Anyway that's my very long 2cents I wanted to put out there from my experience with having alters. I haven't seen Split and to be honest I probably won't, it'd probably be negatively triggering for us, but I found this episode super interesting!
Cofronting is definitely a thing, rapid switching is a very real thing and very disorienting. I front most and honestly used to have a similar attitude to Kevin in feeling like I was responsible for the others actions (although I recently discovered I'm not the original and boy was that a trip). Hedwig made the littles pop out for a bit and we had to push them back a bit cause we were worried there were scenes that would not be safe for them.
omg we didn't realize that there was a movie about D.I.D most of us is crying we thought people didn't care about us but we will say that every system is different but we would like to thank you because you guys helped me so much, Alan you help us to make us feel safe with crying in your other videos and Jonathan you help us to face our trauma thank you so much -lilly (writing what alex is saying because he can't spell)
Multiple personalities can indeed be present at the same time. In my case, all alters are a little present and one or two "take the wheel", like we're all on the same boat. I personally don't always remember what happens with them if I'm left out but they seem to all have an idea about what I'm doing all the time. Sometimes I still feel like "me" but it's "me plus so and so" and how I feel and act is like a mesh of us both.
I’m glad this one is getting covered! My S/O has DID and his mom doesn’t know. We watched it as a family downstairs and she grew to fear mental illnesses as a result, while not knowing someone with it sat right next to her. We don’t plan on telling her as this family is a bit toxic about mental disorders (even depression/anxiety) but we tried to remind her it’s just a movie. It’s definitely a roller coaster sometimes but not something to inherently fear. I love my S/O and all his personalities and do my best to help guide each one with what they need, whether it’s comfort or being treated simply as a human with real wants/fears.
@Greywolf757 It really kind of is. In my situation one of them was upset because they couldn't see an ex girlfriend (Oddly with the same name as me) but the rest had moved on. I don't consider myself to be dating three of them tbh since they are "underage" (4, 11, 15) but we are like friends! I do "date" his oldest alter (21) though and it really is like dating two different people that are very similar. I treat them the same though. I know it's probably strange to consider but I got used to it surprisingly fast, haha! In my experience even the ones I didn't like we have learned to coexist. I hope this all makes sense.
If you are dating someone with DID, isn't that like dating a bunch of people, except that you don't get to choose them and have to date a pre-made group? What if you don't love some of the alters?
Im in the same boat as u with my s/o I cant say things get easier because there are alit of misconceptions of did but they do get better I wish u and your s/o the best of luck/g
I was diagnosed with DID many years ago and had years of therapy. It was a hard and difficult journey facing pain/trauma that I couldn't face as a child. I am now a fully integrated person, which has challenges of its own. I hate how DID is portrayed in movies and tv series. My split off versions of me were for my protection, they weren't monsters. Yes, sometimes they made immature irrational decisions, but that is all. My husband would say that you could hardly tell I had DID, except that I could change 'moods' really quickly. Sometimes I would dress one way n then another the next day. My likes and dislikes could be different every day. I was terrified that if people found out that I had DID I would be harmed more, because of the stigma of mental illness n the rubbish seen in movies. We kept my therapy journey a secret. If people wondered what was wrong with me, ie why therapy, I'd just say I have depression.
I really appreciate that you guys are open to receiving critique from people with first hand experiences and that you have fostered a community of acceptance for acknowledging mistakes and learning/ growing. That community has also led people to feel comfortable commenting with first had experiences on so many videos which is a real gift for learning more about other's experiences and journeys through life. I always believe that listening to someone's lived in experience is the best source. Thanks to any systems who shared your commentary too!
2 identities can front at the same time, it's usually refered to as co-fronting or co-consciousness though I've never seen or experienced it quite as it's described in the movie. In my experience that's one of the few times you /may/ audibly hear a conversation between alters, but usually alter conversation are internal. Edit: I am part of a diagnosed DID system.
We stan Jonathan’s humility and willingness to listen to people who actually have DID, and admit when he was wrong about some things. 💖 Jonathan, you are just an incredible person, and any patient would be absolutely lucky to have you as their therapist!
It makes me so happy he's willing to listen and learn. It makes me trust the content they put out because he's ready to say, "Hey, I was wrong and here's why I was wrong so I don't spread misinformation, thank you for teaching me and I'm sorry!"
It's so refreshing to see that open mind and eager to hear experiences from people all around the world.
@Derpy Dashie Ugh, that happened to me in college. A professor of mine only wanted to oversee my honors project if the study yielded the results that he wanted. That's not how science works. 🤦♀
Heck yeah! It warms Our heart as well
I think it is important to learn from people with DID since they have the experience with it, but at the same time, we should learn from general researchers on the topic as well. People can provide a lot of insight on themselves, but sometimes they don't always have a completely accurate understanding of themselves. Sometimes an outside perspective of a person's actions can be more accurate than the person explaining their own actions.
!0
My therapist explained my condition to me beautifully 'You do not have more than one personality; in effect, you have less than one. Your personality has created specialists to deal with life for you, a child to play, an empath to sooth, a protector to stand against threats, it goes on. They are all of you, and you are all of them - all uniquely crafted as experts in their field and there to help you navigate a complex and dynamic world. Why? Well, because your mind probably feels, and quite rightly, that you've suffered enough, and its time to share that load'
Damn that is beautiful
that is beautiful
That’s beautiful
I love that sm
I LOVE that!
HEDWIG IS IMPORTANT!! littles in general play such a HUGE role in a system. They take on the role of the inner child. They are the systems sense of innocence. They are the child they never got to be. Hedwig's role is to be a child and do the things that Kevin never got to. To fill that void, to be a kid. Thats What his purpose is.
@Alex Doorn Yes! I'm glad to hear the relationship you have with your siblings is a good one; people with DID often struggle at the hands of lots of people so them having someone dependable is touching to hear. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I find your siblings' case fascinating. I'm less surprised and more intrigued that the little didn't age up but it makes sense. Especially if you're younger than them. My system has a little that's sort of similar. She's a fictional introject that formed while we were a child but hasn't aged up either even though the person she's based off was an adult. You'd think that they'd eventually become the same age as the person they're based off of but that's not always the case! The brain keeps the alter at the age it needs them to be in order to comfort itself. Truly remarkable what the brain does to survive. I've got an interest in psychology and want to specialize in dissociative disorders/ trauma so I'm sorry again if what I said might have offended you.😅
@Saturn BatistaWhat I think is interesting is that littles can be introjects. I never quite know how to describe this but the person born as my brother has DID. I have since claimed all alters of the system as my siblings. There is a little in that system that is an introject of me or more accurately the system's memories of a younger me. I have been always really close with my brother so it is no surprise that their brain created a little me to soothe and comfort the system. And to just be a little brother, like you said his role is to just be a child but in particular his role is to be a supportive brother.
@xxjosh166xx I've very aware littles can have other roles and agree with what you said too. I'm actually a system myself (DID). What I meant was that littles SHOULD (eventually) only have what I said as their "purpose" since they are just kids. Littles should not have to be protectors or persecutors or even trauma holders (they can be relieved of that role with therapy of course,) for that reason. We have 2 littles in our system, one named Marie who's currently holding trauma, and one who was a sexual protector, Veda. We relieved Veda of her role with much therapy and now she's happily dormant! I have a firm belief that littles should never have to be anything more than children and commented in that mindset. Sorry for being unclear earlier.😅
Littles are important and should be protected, but all of what you said just now is not necessarily true. Littles can represent those things sometimes, but each alter can be different. Thats true for littles too. Sometimes the littles can be protectors or even persecutors. In my system, our only little, a 9 year old girl named Elaine, is our trauma holder. She isnt a usual happy go lucky child. She doesnt like her face being seen, she doesnt like talking very much. Another example you can educate yourselves with(anyone reading this) is a youtube channel by The entropy system, specifically the video titled "evil to sweet, the truth about evil alters". Or something close to that title anyway. She had a monster alter that turned out to be a 5 year old girl. She pretended to be a monster to seem strong (so to protect). Now, if you are referring to hedwig specifically, you find out that hedwig is actually a protector. In charge of keeping kevin out of the light. That, in a way, is protecting a weaker part from things. Dennis and patricia seem like persecutors. Which are like self bullies, sometimes they take on forms of abusers sometimes not but usually persecutors are misguided protectors. I.e. a system overweight might form a persecutor that bullies the system for eating or even cause eating disorders if an outside abuser has detrimentally abused them over their weight. The round about logic of the brain creating such an alter is that by bullying and eating less, they would lose weight and therefore remedy a situation of being bullied by the outside abuser over weight. These types of alters dont usually realize that logic on their own but over time and therapy, can be made to be more actual protectors.
Osdd 1b here. Same as DID except i don't black out during switches. I go co con (co consciousness) which means im somewhat aware of things but its a different alter fronting (in control, or "in the light" as the film calls it). Osdd 1b systems have amnesia of their traumas but no or very little amnesia barriers between alters daily.
I'm a therapist who has worked with four clients with DID. The thing I tell new therapists about switching is this: it is NOT creepy, like in the movies. At least in my experience of witnessing switching, it is more organic, subtle, logical, and curious, but not creepy or scary. I think that is important to note. This has been my experience.
Yes. I've seen it happen with people I knew and it was never creepy, maybe weird until learning to adapt to it but it was like each individual emotion had its own role or personality that appeared to adapt to circumstances
My friend with DID had some seizure like symptoms during at least one of her transitions and the neurologist told us he had seen that in other DID cases.
But it's not scary in the way the film is. We just had her checked medically to make sure she wasn't dealing with something else on top of the DID.
I suspect her other transitions were less dramatic, because I trouble convincing other people she knew there was anything wrong at all.
(I was only telling people she permitted. I could tell something was seriously wrong when I met her. It just took a few months to figure out what.)
@Ray Lee Thank you for this explanation. It's good to finally hear the perspective of a person who actually knows what this is like.
@Ray Lee I completely agree. For me a conversation switch is like "you've hurt and scared me now I need to hide and this person can keep me safe amd handle this. We will escape. "
I really appreciate you saying this, because I switch even in front of people in mid-conversation and no one ever notices a difference. And it's the exact opposite of how this movie portrays; it's not like "there's now a murderer lurking in their mind and you'll never know," but rather it's because someone said something that was very triggering and so one of my other sides comes out to handle it. The impetus isn't "I don't like what you said, so now I want to hurt you," it's instead, "I've just been hurt, so now I need to handle it." It's largely due to social conformity that I even switch, because if it was just about my feelings, I'd break down sobbing or otherwise have some kind of episode; switching keeps me going either in my work, conversations, chores, self-care, so on.
my mom loves this movie universe and she could not understand why i was so upset with the DID representation. i was a psychology student at the time and it hurt to see the vilification of real mental conditions and disorders knowing that the majority of people considered mentally ill are nonviolent. i get that it's "just a movie" but why is one personality a perv, another a prim homicidal governess and one a literal monster?
I think it’s because IRL no one would think he has supernatural powers it’s not possible, they gonna look at what they can see and tell which is why he is diagnose with DID but it’s only because it’s the only diagnosis they can come up with. It’s like if doctors came across a zombie, doctors aren’t going to jump to conclusions and say it’s a zombie, they’ll look at all viruses, diseases, medications that can be causing these “zombie” like actions
@Kaitlyn Petty people can be kinda stupid though and that doesn't change the fact that this movie has done major damage to the DID community. Great movie, irresponsible filmmaking.
@Tark Surmani they have EVERY RIGHT to be offended don’t you dare even say they shouldn’t be. Would you be saying to someone with ADHD to not be offended by a character that has ADHD, and that it is said in the movie that they are, but all they do is run everywhere always forget never stay put and always yell ? Because if you would you’ve got a lot of studying to do
@Tark Surmani idk what you are talking about but their point was right and legitimate
Hedwig is in the movie to represent a “little” alter I’m pretty sure. Littles are just as necessary in a system because they help relieve stress and are also trauma holders. I loved seeing him on screen. The actor gets the childish nature down pretty good and is relatively accurate for a little.
I love that they're called littles. Thanks for telling me 🙈💕
@Robbie Johns I have a few. One is LJ. They certainly have their place.
Hedwig is defo a little gateway keeper obviously he needed one so out came hedwig but turns out he’s only a little
I have a "little" personality named lr and I have to say you are correct about why Hedwig exists and the importance
Depends on the little but a lot of times yes.
A lot of our littles take on bigger roles too.
As someone with OSDD, or called "Other Specified Dissociative Disorder", the movie Split really broke my heart. We're not overly violent monsters who have to "hold back the bad ones", it's more of just tryna remember who ate the spaghetti I put in the fridge two days ago and why I'm wearing a top I didn't wear earlier.
I have DID not OSDD but same
OMG YES THIS lol
@Rat Queen I have CPTSD as well from childhood trauma, you're not alone there. I thought this movie would've been awesome for DID representation, not to say the movie wasn't *kind of* cool at some parts, but it's just... Harmful more than anything. A huge letdown.
Thank you.
I have DID, diagnosed last year after a diagnosis of CPTSD due to childhood abuse and it breaks me that DID is so often portrayed as a forensic illness.
It is a protective response and none of my alters have ever broken the law or killed anyone. One of them is a handful but she’s not evil.
Odds isn't much like did its just the dissociating, sooooo
If I remember correctly, James did tones of research and even tried to find someone with DID to interview. He wasn’t able to find someone sadly, but very interesting how he tried so hard to bring these characters to life. It’s so sad that the writers did such a shitty job at research.
@Ariadne Wolf it could've been he was looking for someone with an official diagnosis to cover his bases. Makes it harder to find
I really wish that they'd just made a non thriller film about DID with James as the lead
He's the impressive thing about the film and it could have been a great piece of positive representation for the community
I so do not believe he wasn't able to find someone with DID to interview, but I'm glad he did all that research. It is sad that the writers clearly didn't give a s>>>.
My partner has DID. Her multiples can share "the light"/"focus"/"what have you". I think up to 4 at once, but they're all very closely related to one another (quadruplets). And focus can shift very quickly, depending on circumstances.
Furthermore, calling the name of the original personality can pull that personality's attention, which is generally why we don't use it. (She voluntarily chose to leave "the light", as she's aware alters are meant to help her cope and she wasn't coping either way. We use her middle name for legal things as much as we can.)
I hope your partner gave their consent to share that information. If not, please ask them and remove that comment if necessary. It might not be safe to leave it, especially if they did not give consent. It’s okay to share your personal struggles and feelings. Having DID is not easy, and neither is having a partner with DID. I feel that you’ve shared their personal information, hence writing this comment.
P.S. I’m using “they” because I am not sure if all of the members the partner’s system use that pronoun
@wlwskam clizzy Do you know how poly relationships work?
It's the same here, the person who commented might be in love with one alter, and the rest of them consent this, that's all
hi i was wondering about people with did and dating, how does it work? are you in love with all of the alters? are they all in love with you?
There's no original personality with did
Has she thought about legally changing her name, or is there a chance that her original personality might want to come back at some point when she feels ready?
As someone with OCD, i’m so glad you made the distinction between OCD and OCPD, it’s so often confused in modern media. There needs to be better representation of it. I don’t care if it’s represented in media, but if it is, I just want accuracy.
Thank you for this! I've just put a similar comment then saw yours!
Yes! I have OCD and people get so confused because all my clothes are lined with cat hair. I have to explain that my OCD involves taking the knobs off the stove, unplugging all electronics, because my house is going to explode and my pets will have a terrible death otherwise.
My mom didn't believe me when I said I suspected I had some form of OCD. I tried explaining to her that it's not all about cleaning and making things perfect. I went a long time without mentioning it, because I have a history of minor hypochondria. Eventually I told my psychologist about the symptoms I have that were bugging me and she said it sounded like mild OCD. I'm still keeping an open mind since it's not an official diagnosis yet, but it makes you feel a lot less crazy hearing "Yeah, other people have it too. It can be managed. You're not insane." (Not a quote, but it's the jist of it.)
While he mentions the preoccupation with cleanliness, OCPD is more about having rigorous standards (for yourself and those around you) in general. It can manifest as a very black and white sense of morality, for example.
Completely agree! I didn’t know about OCPD until I was diagnosed with it. Most people don’t know about it at all. Even though, afaik, it is the most commonly diagnosed personality disorder in the US (I live in Europe though). I recently went to a psychiatrist for another issue and the psychologist who shared my file with her told her that I had OCD, even though I make sure to clarify that I have OCPD but not OCD…
I feel like artists should have artistic liberty to portray stories that are a fantasy, and to place responsibility upon the audience to infer or recognise that aspects of the piece aren't correct to real life. But there's a line. And split took that line and just drove so far away that it became a dot.
Absolutely agree. The audience has responsibility for their interpretations, yes. However, the artist also has responsibility for their art. There’s a fine line and you’re 100% right in saying Split took it way too far. I’m astounded that nobody looked at this script and was like “hey- should we be making a movie about a guy with DID and make it absolutely clear that he has DID and also make him a monster??”
@Tark Surmani Either you chose to reply again or KZclip glitch and made it look like a fresh reply. I think I've said everything I need to cover.
@Tark Surmani I never said the ability to walk off a gun shot is from DID, that part clearly is a Super power.
If Superman developed depression, I would not say his depression is what makes him fly. His alien genetics make him fly. His depression would be a deep and consistent sadness which might be related to being the last of his kind, but that would not mean depression gives you super powers, only that someone with superpowers can also be depressed. You're insisting on an "or" when "and" works fine.
The existence of the fully formed personalities from a history of trauma is DID. Being able to turn into a bullet proof monster is a supernatural ability.
I would not diagnosis the Hulk with DID because his two sides come purely from scientific experimentation. He's more an exaggeration of someone with an anger management issue.
@Tark Surmani I watched it. But you repeating yourself and being rude about it doesn't make you right.
The psychiatrist was wrong about thinking the beast abilities were a delusion rather than a real ability. But there are reasons why people are cautioned against self diagnosing.
However DID doesn't necessarily exist in a bubble. You can have other issues alongside it to varying degrees.
I have a friend with DID and we are certain that she had it, but some of her symptoms could have been other medical conditions so we also saw a neurologist to rule out other potential issues, because if she had a medical problem too just treating the DID would not be adequate.
In comic books most super heroes face different types of villains, some are physical equals other may be intellectual superiors. Again not sure where you pulling that everyone's powers in this world are completely unique. Rare, yes, which was why Glass was so excited when he found someone.
Can we talk about how amazing these guys are? Jonathan said he got something wrong and said sorry and clarified, they are so respectful with what every they are covering and they get it right as well. These guys are my favorite people on KZclip
I loved that too. I didn't see the original mistake but did appreciate him explaining what happened, how he was wrong and taking that ownership. This is a great channel. I'm learning a lot from them. Definitely becoming some of my favorite people.
You know, it's interesting and also sad that we as humans are so bad at this that we give gold stars to people who do it. It's such a simple thing to apologize and admit to being wrong. Yet I would say that the majority of us often can't :( I think we need to do better at teaching this to our children. Why is it so hard? I think your comment is actually a great mirror to hold up to ourselves. There's a reason we need therapists. Seeing this behaviour modeled is a really good teaching mechanism so we can learn how to do it ourselves.
I'm a diagnosed sytem that has been seeing a DID therapist for almost a year now and yes 2 or more alters/identities can be at the "front" at the same time. Its called co-conscience. And rapid switching is definatly a thing. THANK YOU for covering this topic. There is a lot is missinformation out there.
I kinda imagine consciousness as swimming.
So with DID I imagine it's a bit like having more people swimming around, and of course, multiple people can kinda end up floating at the surface line.
theres a difference between coconsciousness, multiple headmates being awake and able to communicate and process information, vs cofronting, multiple headmates being able to influence the actions of the body. both are real
Thank you, was looking for this comment. As a diagnosed DID system that experiences co-conciousness most of the day, including frequent rapid switches, the whole 'co-concious and/or fronting is not a thing' and 'rapid switching super rare' can feel.. as if the way we are experiencing life and each other is not "right". Or at the very least again an outlier.
But then I encounter a comment like this with so many voices tuning in and it feels nice. Thank you everyone.
Thank you
I was feeling weird about the thought that we were in the "rare" category for rapid switching and co-fronting. If our spouse surprises us first thing when our body wakes up, we get an interesting effect of vocal control rapidly passing between us until we wake up enough to settle.
We also have a little prankster that likes to take over body parts when we're not paying attention. It's a bit unnerving to watch the left hand grab the sink sprayer, aim it at my face, and squeeze. But I agree it's quite hilarious. Though that just might be the feeling of her contagious internal laughter
Yes!! It's a popular topic in r/did , I wish more people would talk about co-conscience to bring awareness, there is nothing offensive about it as long as you don't want to impose it on a system. But I imagine how it could seem offensive if you just hear about it without knowing how it works... Like f.e. therapist advising to X alter to "control" Y alter time or something. But I don't think most systems live it that way, according to their explanations, co-conscience seems to be mostly a calming, collaborative, nice experience, something many look forward to build. Not some trick to become controlling.
Hello we would like to say thank you as a system of a girl who was abused since the age of 6. Thank you for covering DID with such understanding and realism. We are a system of 12 currently and have been diagnosed since age 8. Only started seeing a therapist recently.
@RJTJNQ quick online search, but it does say that it can come up in ages 6-10
Diagnosed at 8…? With DID?
Hi Lune
I was abused at the age of 6 too, I have DID too and, like you, began seeing a therapist recently
I hope you are well and, I have yet to see this movie, as I feel it will upset me
James McAvoy is absolutely incredible actor, the way he changes everything about himself to bring these personalities out, like you can look at him and see the different characters. Master class.
I just want to express my gratitude to all the systems in the comments sharing your experiences. I may never know what it’s like, but I find it fascinating and a good exercise in empathy to learn about how other people experience life.
as a system ourselves we want to thank you so much
I wish most people were like you and have an empathetic view towards us. Ive mostly stopped letting people know im a system. Ive been fake claimed, gaslit, insulted, laughed at, argued with about what alters can or can't be by persons lacking phd's... more often then acceptance. Someone told me that i was mocking actual systems because i had mentioned i have a fox alter and an ageless ice elemental alter in my system. Mind you, i am a diagnosed osdd 1b system in therapy. You would not believe most peoples hate and ignorance. The amount of people that have tried to "diagnose me correctly" telling me im not a system... im so sick of it. That is why most systems stay covert. Too many people just refuse to accept the reality of our lives. So thank you for your appreciation here.
indeed
I think it is a good learning experience for people to have a better understanding of mental illnesses instead of how media portrayed it as it was years ago.
My brain hurts from trying to understand how this works, kudos to those who live it.
I posted earlier that Critic was our persecutor at one point. Mom tried to make us perfect. She wanted us to be flawless in every way. Failure was harshly treated, partial success was harshly treated, being perfect was acknowledged for the slightest amount of positivity, followed by telling us that we should always perform to that level and it is inexcusable that we don't. Critic formed as part of our psyche took that lesson to heart and believed her rhetoric. He thought that she was perfect, possibly the only perfect person in the world. He thought that he was perfect, but that everyone else was flawed and worthless as people. In particular he saw myself as the most flawed and the most needing of punishment and reform. He would berate me all the time about what a horrible person I was for even the tiniest mistake, pretty much echoing the teachings of mother, but with the a harshness even she never quite reached. What eventually turned things around was my compassion for him, coupled with challenging his view of Mom as perfect. Once that got shattered he started questioning what he learned from her. The final major straw came when I realized that some of his criticisms didn't line up with my mistakes or behaviors. Turns out he hated his own lack of perfection and himself and was projecting the hatred onto me. With more compasion and much time we have grown decently close and he is now a major asset to our system as well as a valued friend.
I'm glad he changed and grew as a person, I wish him, you and all the others a nice life
@Sol System Sorry you went through all of that. I hope that things are better now. As far as trans stuff goes, my system has 1 straight female, 1 ... pan? ... female. 1 gender refusing member. 2 straight males. And myself. As my personality is kind of a mix of the others, my identity is a bit of a blur.
We had a similar journey with religion. One of our parts who was very trans and also a bi ended up getting picked to perform as the child we knew our parents wanted. It turns out all taking all her memories of internal connections, any faults in religion we noticed, memories of trand/bi thoughts, etc for years leads to a really zealous part with extreme internalized queerphobia. Tbh though idk what else we could do. Coming out went terribly after we moved out so glad we didn't do it while living at home. It took me like a decade to undo that and connect with her again (without her yelling at me for being a demon). Though a lot of compassion though I was able to get through to her. We've both fused and split since than but, still wouldn't trade our current system for the world though 💖. I don't think I would have survived the past few years without them. -Luci
What an absolutely incredible story; thank you so much for sharing. I’m glad that you’re all in a much safer situation now and wish you all nothing but happiness ❤
I forgot to post that at the height of it Critic was pushing us to kill ourselves. He at the time believed that we were beyond saving. That we were 100% imperfect and incapable of ever becoming perfect. By his old value system we were a burden to the world and needed to die in order to do the 1 perfect and good option left to us. There used to be times when I was colse to doing it. Times when I wanted to give up on the future. I'm eternally grateful to all my friends, headmates included, for anchoring me and keeping me from that path. I'm no longer in any danger of choosing that path. Also, as mentioned before, Critic has made great changes and is a force for good in our system now.
Thank you for taking the time to correct and discuss more. My mother has DID and I’ve been trying my entire life to understand her system. This movie was very upsetting when it came out because my mom was already struggling with feeling like a villain and I was a confused teen. Split influenced friends and partners to view my mother differently than they had before and I’m so glad the stigma is being broken down and better representation is being shown as time goes on.
I think Hedwig's psychological use in protecting Kevin was to emulate a fun carefree childhood that he never got initially and gets to experience that fun dopey nerdy kid life vicariously through Hedwig.
The one system I know even vaguely well has one... I think the word is "alter"? who is very similar to Hedwig as an innocent child who doesn't really do anything directly practical but gets to be innocent and mostly happy.
A number of systems have a child as part of the system.
Yes! So glad to see this. My sister has DID as well. Many systems may have a child identity in order to relive the childhood they never got, and to protect that age of tender innocence.
That's my take on it too; we have a kid who does EXACTLY that for us, and I recognized Hedwig as the same role pretty much instantly.
@Leppender THE NERVE! jk aside your little sounds amazing
I love that James(actor) actually took the time to learn about DID so that he could portray the system more accurately, it really shows with his body language when he switches! It's just so good!
The main problem is that the movie is using a disorder, that is very misunderstood, as a catalyst for terrible deeds and the idea that there is evil everyone that has DID. That's really harmful because it has such little representation that the little that is available does not show DID in a light of understanding but a shadow of ignorance.
Few people even know of its existence, let alone understand it as a whole, so when something like this comes out for a largely ignorant audience to watch, it's very dangerous. I agreed with the majority that the producers and directors should've put a warning at the beginning that this was purely fantasy and that very little is based on real research, it's the least they could've done. In saying that, it falls on both parties to bear the responsibility of what they take from this piece of media. The artist must know that their work will influence people no matter how big or small, and the audience must understand that the media they consume will very rarely ever be 100% accurate and to take everything with a grain of salt.
It's an objectively amazing movie but it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to implementing real medical diagnoses in fictional media.
I'm actually currently writing a non-horror novel about a girl who has DID and coping with it as life throws punches and she gains additional identities through the years as she tries to make it through life
@xxjosh166xx oh wow thats really neat!
Osdd 1b system here (DID without the daily amnesia barriers, just amnesia of our childhood traumas). One of my alters thought about writing a book based on some inner world events we had shared with a friend. The friend said it might make a good book. So basically, some systems have whats called an inner world or headspace, a place thats a constant inside where alters are if they arent fronting (controling body). We have had a handful of events happen inside that were basically traumatic of themselves, mostly within the first few months after becoming aware of our system. Such as one event in which our gatekeeper susan lost her arm dealing with a new alter that had come forward. Long story, triggering to share, but basically there were these things that played out in our head that were more then just imagination or thoughts. Almost like living through witnessing these things. Those events dont happen hardly now, things arent as dramatic now and we mostly all understand our situation so not as much butting heads or confusion. But ya, one of my parts thought of making those times into books.
Personally as a creator myself (but in different mediums), I place most of the responsibility on the creator to get things right. Most people just believe what they are told- I do it too. I would feel incredibly guilty if somebody got the wrong idea from one of my works, especially for something as important as mental health.
@FusionBolt27 Yeah, and when you do know the truth it ruins the whole thing (same goes for historical and science fiction). I can name a few pieces of media or even whole franchises where I read about a major inaccuracy and go like "hmm, maybe this isn't for me".
Same here. As a writer and artist, I don’t like to assume that people will go into films with a doubtful mindset- like you said, most people are going to take stories at face value.
@Just Another Animation Channel Pretty sure that's exactly what happened with Jaws.
I think it’s particularly important when covering topics that aren’t well understood. if you make a movie about a murderous shark in a world that knows nothing about sharks, people might start killing sharks out of fear. if you make a movie about a murderous system when they’re not well understood, people might start killing them too.
there are ways to lessen that impact, maybe there’s another system that’s well adjusted and works together. maybe have people say “this is abnormal shark behavior, we should keep people away from this shark” and have characters narratively punished for not listening. still, if it gets big enough, there will be ignorant and violent people who hurt others over it.
artists shouldn’t always have to spell out morals and accuracy to the real world. this is the information age, people should use the instant information boxes they always carry with them to fact check. it doesn’t matter what they should do though, they usually don’t. what can we do to stop these pointless deaths?
I just think that if a creator is going to base something on reality but completely butcher it, they better make sure to let the audience know that that's the case with a message at the beginning or something of the sort. I want to let the creator be able to create whatever he wants without the need to be accurate, unless that's what the creator is trying to do. I definitely think that when the creator makes it obvious that they're basing what's in the movie on reality and not documenting it, the responsibility is on the audience to see it.
I've been diagnosed with DID, it is possible to have multiple identities simultaneously turn up at the same time. I am constantly controlling them though, so that the arm belongs to one, another might be feeling emotions that I don't recognise, another might be reminding me of an event that happened years ago, another might be making me feel sad but I know those feelings aren't mine, child might be complaining that the shrink might not know she's there, while another thinks the diagnosis is wrong and therapy is a waste of time. Usually it's one but it's possible to have two or three out, but where one might be stronger and the other weaker. The fun bit is when none of them want to take over, so the body sits like a shell waiting for someone to take over. I don't watch movies like this, or any cruel or violent movies, disturbs the others too much. No I don't have significant switches, don't lose days, weeks, etc, there's a lot of forgetting but no blackouts where another personality takes over. For the most part, I function pretty well, no one would notice these things about me. I had to be in constant control cause I was a carer for my parents for many years. It became a blessing, cause if I didn't need to be in control, I would have been in and out of hospital if not dead.
Just here to add that co-fronting (more than one alter taking the “spotlight” at the same time) is totally a thing, a very common one too.
Plus, there are different roles for alters. Hedwig seems to be a “little”. A young alter. There are also things like protectors, persecutors, fragments, mediators, trauma holders. It’s complicated. But they don’t necessarily need to serve an obvious purpose.
Also shifting is complicated too, it can happen quickly in a super intense situation but usually doesn’t, it’s VERY rare. And would happen like only twice or thrice but that’s it. Those scenes are ridiculous.
This movie is a disgustingly horrible mockery of DID. But the actor’s acting is really good for the shit he’s been given to the point it’s upsetting.
Also, footnote, endogenic (as opposed to traumagenic - I’m a DID traumagenic system) systems are (in my opinion) valid. And Ik a lot of people will hate me for even saying this 😂
That’s not DID tho, that’s some other form of plurality, like religious/cultural stuff, tulpas and such. I find it quite interesting.
Exactly!! We always saw endogenic and traumagenic as a Venn diagram! Overlapping circles! They have commonalities, but are not the same thing. It makes us so mad when people say endogenic systems are “claiming to have did” and some probably are, there are always bad apples, but the majority understand that they are different.
I don't even know anything about DID or have even seen this movie, but when he said that thing about serving a purpose, my immediate thought was, "Just because you don't know or understand a purpose, doesn't mean there isn't one."
@Killuz way to say you don't care for racism buddy!
I still can't get over James McAvoy's performance in this movie. Dude is essentially playing an entire roster of characters in one person, and does a great job of making each personality very distinct from the others.
@Kim Kardashi-un 2.0 As a system, I loved Jane in Doom Patrol! I surprisingly related to some moments of it. Specifically with the switching (our system has very intense switches). It is better than split absolutely but it's not perfect and does still get some things wrong. It's good representation overall though and I really loved how they took away the "murderous alter" stigma. Sorry for rambling, I got carried away.
The rest of the video describes the many problems with the movie and its portrayal of DID better than I can, which is the more important issue, but I do think it's a shame it overshadows the performance, which is AMAZING work on McAvoy's part.
agreed. im a host of a system and we watched split in the filmmaking class im in. his performance is great. though me and the other alters in our system believe split got stuff wrong, james macavoys performance is remarkable.
right? I love his performance. It does fit DID (our experience) well because our posture, tone etc changes too. It feels validating to see that (although enhanced)
Its too bad the movie overall is so bad and also leads to even more bias opinion. The actor deserves a better script!
The man's a god of acting
For comparison, I have a trans friend who hates - and has every right to hate - Silence of the Lambs, because of how it polluted people's ideas about trans people with its "this creepy villain thinks he's a woman but he's not lol and also he's a sERIAL KILLER" gimmick. And what other trans characters were there in the media at that time, to portray a more realistic trans woman? Any trans person? One that people wouldn't be afraid of? I told her that Split is my Silence of the Lambs. She got it immediately. Yeah. "Irresponsible" is one way to put it.
And I still enjoy watching Silence of the Lambs in my own house because I enjoy many other parts of it, and because it exists, and me not watching it isn't going to make it un-exist... but what the movie did to people's real lives was not okay. And I don't make jokes about Buffalo Bill, because they're not funny.
If you personally enjoy Split and also know that's NOT how real life systems are? Cool, good for you. I'm sure there's many parts of it that are enjoyable. But please also remind the people around you that this is NOT how real life systems are, and don't joke about systems based on what you see in the movie.
I have a freind, and only within the last year we've identified his behavioral patterns are a result of DID. His alters have only introduced themselves to his close circle super recently, and we're learning new things as we go. A few bits of information based on my experience with their DID.
1. Every system is unique to the individual body and mind. You can use textbook examples of DID to find exactly how one's system works, but to assume how a person will function based on other's experiences or textbook examples will in most instances be misinformed.
2. Some alters may have a stronger basis of connection and communication with other specific alters that they do not share with the whole system. My friend has 3 total alters and the persona that claims the legal name, face, and most of the consciousness does not have a connection to his other 2 alters, but those 2 have some connection that we, or even they, don't understand.
3. The distinction of "I" and "we" is entirely up to the alter and how they perceive the world. There is no correct or wrong way to refer to yourself, so as long as it gets the idea across, saying "I" shouldn't be labeled as less correct than "we". All 3 of my friend's alters refer to themselves with "I" and "me", and will say "in my experience" and never "our experience", but that's just my experience with their system and they way they present themselves.
4. The phenomena of DID is fascinating, but at the end of the day, we're all just people. Treat people like people, and not a personal project. DID is odd in the way you can build different connections to one host body through their alters, but at the end of the day they're all people, so treat them as such.
It’s great that you are supporting your friend. But if he has DID, he needs professional help.
Take it from me- I was only diagnosed with DID last year and, prior to that, it caused havoc in my life.
Only now are things becoming clear.
Bless you for helping but you need to remember that this illness is the result of trauma and your friend NEEDS help
As an artist, I think duty of the artist is way bigger than duty of the audience. The artist does the research on the topic. Not every person in the audience has the time / energy / headspace / life experience or capacity to do and understand research. Movies are very emotionally charged, which sells the story even more strongly. Also, when fact and fiction are intertwined, its even harder to figure out whats real and what is not. Not everyone has a friend who can explain psychology to them. "Do your own research" is a very priviledged position imho.
Stories have power. They change our outlooks, even when we know they're fictional. I wish more people took the influence stories have on us more seriously.
Hell, the entire premise of "Cinema Therapy" only works if we accept the premise that we can learn and be influenced by fiction. For good or otherwise.
As a fellow artist, it depends on what the objective of the artist is.
Not all art is a product to consume, in fact the majority of it isn't. For a lot of artists if there is an audience to expose your art to that's great, but the audience's comprehension and approval isn't the objective of your work. So wouldn't speak so generally about it, as always there's various approaches and none of them is right or wrong.
Some movies are pure art and are the expression of a matter dear to the writer/director, expressed in whichever way they desire. Because that's what art ultimately is, expression, and it could be done for whatever reason and there shouldn't be rules of how to do art besides the ones the artist imposes to themself (and obviously, in this era, the general consensus of being a decent human being to collaborators, just because people are artists and geniuses, we live in 2022 and it doesn't justify being a jerk).
Some products made to be consumed (Hollywood Movies, some novels, some paintings, sculptures) end up being great and the line between a product and a work of art slims itself.
In this case I would say I agree with you. This movie is obviously not a Kubrick movie, it's a product. It's a well acted, not very sensibly written movie and it shouldn't force the audience to educate itself alone (but we also know most of the people who went seeing it didn't bother to comprehend if it was an accurate depiction of DID or not, even if the protagonist lives in a universe with mutants and crawls onto walls).
@Lynnerry I agree. On the other hand I think that its also the harsh reality that people will not be aware that media is not reality. So I think the only thing we can do is keep informing people, artists as well as audiences.
I agree that it should be the duty of the artist to do their research and potray things properly but the harsh reality is that most of the time that wont be the case. I think everyone should go into media aware that it might misinform or mislead you.
I think there is a certain level of responsibility on the artist however, I feel like everyone is able to access wikipedia and read the page on DID... You don't need to have a degree in psychology to do your own research on topics. I think the main problem is with the audience if they watch a movie about a guy with supernatural abilities, and assume everything to be factual.
when you started the video off saying how inaccurate the movie was it made me smile. I feel like Split really was one of the big things that contributed to all the stigma surrounding DID and it feels amazing to be seen and heard when we say it's not true. It was a good movie though, acting and story-wise. I'd have been happier if they'd rethought the character and made some better decisions.
7:27 I'm so glad this was covered
As a Co-Conscious/Fronting System I wouldn't know what I'd do if I lived without my alters after all these years. My therapist has asked me about integration before and maybe when I was younger I would have liked that idea, because I did not understand my System and it scared me, but now I rely on it and everyone in the system is like my family.
Edit: 10:34 Yes Co-Conscious/Fronting Systems are a thing, it just takes time
Edit 2: I'm pretty sure Hedwig is supposed to represent a little in the System
Edit 3: 22:16 I don't think I've experienced it myself but it's called Rapid Switching
@Greywolf757
I’m going to help answer some of these questions (as someone that as far as I’m aware doesn’t have DID).
Co-consciousnesses question-
It depends on the system on if they can hear the other alters talk. Really it’s a talking over them type situation. Not easily defined but as a system described, “think of it as you driving a car” or washing dishes. Someone may want to do this dish first. Another may want to cook something. Maybe they want avoid eating altogether and run outside.
It’s tad exaggerated but very possible conversation that the different alters can have amongst them.
2) Do you go unconscious when another alter controls your body?
The word you’re looking for is dissociation. Psychologically speaking, the body uses it a coping mechanism and in “extreme” cases can cause amnesia walls even for those without DID. You may also say retriggered and be able to remember it then, while another time you won’t.
The simplified answer to your question is yes. The person who fronts the most or another alter in the “light,” will result in the other alters remaining in the background. This all depends on the system of course but with DID and switching there’s an amnesia block. The host or other alter may not know what occurred in the conversation before. Or they may know and can be retriggered.
3) Do you experience the world as another alter?
It depends on the system. Within early stages from what I’ve seen. No because of the amnesia barrier. When that barrier comes down, it becomes easier to experience the world but they don’t “live” as another alter. Secondly, regardless if they’re a multiple system (recovered) or a singleton (can’t think of the proper time) with years of healing and therapy it can feel as if they experience the world as another alter. The system will usually communicate more which aids in healing the body as well.
Note: My answers are based off of systems that I know. They’re not poly-fragmented, which would change the response to these questions
So do you experience the consciousness of one alter or all of your alters? Do you go unconscious when another alter controls your body or do you experience the world as another alter when they take control?
As a spouse to someone with DID, I truly appreciate you taking the time to clarify that they can be happy and healthy as the system they are. You guys are great!
I'd think it would be hard to be married to someone with DID because basically you'd be married to several people in the same body. It's like polygamy except you don't get a choice with each member and have to marry a preformed group.
@Ben League DID is survival. Having been in situations that is killing the system, it can protect itself, but most often do whatever it can to avoid more harm. In that regards it isn't different from singletons (not DID people aka only one person). Put under enough stress and situations that becomes survival mode, most people would defend themselves any way possible. It is annoying how DID is so often portrayed in the media as murder plots. It just increases fear mongering and makes it harder to talk openly about. How often it is used as a defence in trail is also annoying "I didn't do it, my bad side did, and I don't remember it" - I could see how systems could end up in a situations that requires anger and attack-like defence, but I think most systems are so buissy surviving that going out hunting to hurt other people on purpose are stretching the plot frigging thin. It is also NEVER as black and white as "good vs bad", not the mr Jekyll & Hyde twist so commonly portrayed.
❤️ That gives us hope ❤️ Maybe we'd one day have a life with love and family of our own
@Rheyn hi, as someone who suspects I have DID I can’t speak from the perspective of someone who has been diagnosed, but I will say that from my own personal experiences and from my understanding that it wouldn’t be fair on the system to be accused of something like cheating due to the fact that they had no control of being in one single body. Not to say that alters can’t lie to and/or betray each other tho
@Rheyn yeah i don't have personal experience but i would compare it to like living in a house full of people. One of them might be your spouse. The others probably are not. Some are kids, some older, some you know really well, others you rarely even see. You get along with all of them on different levels. It's something similar to that, only that there's only one body shared between all those people 😁
For me it's kind of like we have a driver's seat and navigator's seat and fronting can be the headmate in question taking either seat. Sometimes a headmate will kick me out to do a particular task, but more typically I will be too tired to front and one of them will step up to fill the empty seat. I keep learning small things about my headmates, such as for Emma, the emotional motherly one, was kind of created when I pushed my emotions away to try and live exclusively in logic. This move also seeded the creation of Kevin. But also, because my mentally abusive mother was what made me want to run from my emotions, the shape the personality of Emma ended up taking was essentially a photo negative of my mother. Emma is Mom's polar opposite in nearly every aspect.
Im a OSDD system host (basically another form of a System) and as much as I hate this movie, I love how respectful you guys are being with it, using the right terms and talking about how alters are real and separate people like rapid switching and hosts and even the fact that alters *can* be different and also just “different shades”
There isn't a system with odds its just dissociating, I have it and I'm also a physiologist in training
I was diagnosed with DID in ~2016, and I would just like to say that co-fronting can occur on occasion, most often as a sort of transition as sometimes switching is more gradual than films lead people to believe. Switching for me is often instantaneous, but it can sometimes happen gradually over the course of an hour or longer.
As for the bee stings and high cholesterol and probably the ambidextrous writing, those are more on the hollywood side for sure.
I am often asked "which of your personalities are gonna kill me?" when people find out and I usually (jokingly) say "All of us will if you keep making shitty jokes about my mental health"
Having more than one alter actively in the "driving seat" is called co-consciousness or just "co-con"! This is what is great about Jonathan, he is exactly how mental health professionals should be, open to learning about new medical discoveries, actually listening to the people with the disorders themselves, and admitting where he's given misinformation and actively working to correct himself and bring more accurate information to light.
woah THE caitlin koi!!
So, I'm one of the people with DID. And just like Jonathan says, it's trauma. I had a series of events that caused me to have a severe mental breakdown. The worst part of the entire breakdown was this mass of swirling negative thoughts, intrusive and always present that I just could never shake. I did get help and the treatment I needed. It did take medication to bring me out of it. But as I collected myself and pulled myself back together, those swirling negative thoughts did too. And then one day, the other part of my system kinda 'woke up' too. Just two of us 'skull roommates' as I call it, and we're pretty stable now. And yeah, like they say in the video, nothing there to treat.
And to answer Jonathan's question, Trevor and I can swap back and forth at-will. And yes, it can happen rapidly. But too many swaps too quickly become immensely tiring. And we'll get massive headaches from it that can last all day.
My best friend I’ve known for over 30 years has DID (and it was originally called multiple personality disorder). Not only does Hollywood get it wrong, but so called pros do as well. Several of her psychs tried to say DID doesn’t exist and tried to treat her as bipolar, schizophrenic, or borderline. Every time someone tried to medicate her for another disorder, she’d get way worse and I’d be the main one seeing her very clear and distinct personalities manifesting. Things definitely go much smoother when she has a doc that actually acknowledges that it exists. I feel as though I know more than some of them. I’ve been her friend for decades and have lived with her as roommate several times. At least I know the disorder well enough from observation to know that it is frickim real.
@vcool122 I've met a fee peoppe that said they had DID, and a few that seemed like it but said they didn't, but idk enough about it. I personally have ADHD, bipolar and BPD, but I don't have the gaps or the abuse, not saying that's the only thing. I do notice certain changes in people though even if they don't go by different names.
I'm not an expert and I don't know anyone diagnosed with DID, but I have some doubt about someone I know that might have 2 personalities. I've never brought it up with him because I don't know how and I don't want to stress him with that. He use 2 nicknames online and I've noticed the way he act change acording to whatever nickname he feel like using, but it doesn't entirely feels like 2 separate persons since there dosn't seem to be any memory loss and blackout like I heard DID systems have and there is an overlap in the way he act with both nicknames, it's not completly different.
It's very difficult to work with medical professionals that want to assume that you're lying or that you don't know what's happening to you. I'm sorry your friend has been through this, and I'm so happy that you're there for her.
i'm borderline, and, gotta say... we're nothing alike, nothing
So are you friends with some personalities more than others? I would think it would be hard to be friends with someone with DID because you'd never know who you were going to be hanging out with. It's like going to the movies with one person and then they leave half way through the movie and another person sits down beside you and then hangs out with you afterwards. You might not like the second personality as much.
My best friend is a system, and I love her to death, and just adore her Little. Though I’ll admit I’m still struggling to learn the nuances between her alters. But I love seeing more educational and advocational content about what DID actually IS and is not. Like I say. Someone with DID is DOZENS of times more likely to hurt themselves before ever hurting anyone else. So hopefully eventually we can destroy the trope of ‘multiple personalities are dangerous’
I want to just make it clear, I'd like to type some more things here in the comments, but as a note this is just my experience. And saying an alters name, can actually bring them out. For me there's a lot of us tied to certain things in the world around us and our emotions. So if you want to talk to someone, we'll be happy to bring them out!
There's actually a serious problem in online spaces for people with DID/OSDD-1/Some form of multiple identities going on where there is a vocal and large (but not majority) group who bully and harass other systems for not being "traumatized enough" and that they "must be faking" because of that.
These individuals or sometimes their entire systems will go out of their way to be jerks to someone if they either had less trauma, no trauma, or dont believe their trauma is related to their multiplicity. Your comment on the correlation between trauma and DID was heartening to hear, because you're right, there IS correlation but NOT necessarily causation and there are a lot of people who don't leave that door open to hear about other systems experiences.
I really feel heard and understood in this video, not just as part of a system but as someone who does try to be scientific about our situation and does try to be empathetic and listen to the experiences of everyone who goes through these things. Sometimes I feel alone in my rationale, like I'm the only one who is content to actually listen to how other people feel without telling them they are wrong somehow for it. Good to know I'm not alone in that.
Split actually got me to kearn about DID. It also was one of the most scary movies I've ever sense as a small female. It made me physically ill.
For my system there's 2 kinds of co-fronting. The first being "sitting in the front room together" and the second being where one or more blend together. Their minds, in a sense, get mapped overtop one another and certain shared traits evolve into someone "new". There's 5 of us in total, and some of the blends only take certain traits from one another, and they're almost always the same everytime.
The Mediator and the Aggressor have an odd balance we've classified as "Service Dog". Where they're very attentive but also capable of handling confrontation.
The Child, who is non-verbal, tends to blend with the Mediator in order to speak "on their own".
The Gatekeeper and the Aggressor are the only two capable of feeling physical attraction and there's time when they blend and it's their entire focus.
The way they developed can be summarized pretty well.
Child suffers trauma, Mediator emerges.
Mediator mediating stops working, Aggressor emerges.
Aggressor gets out of hand, Gatekeeper emerges.
As a group they all need someone to interact with the world and "pretend" to be an at least vaguely functioning human being and handle social situations (cause all of them used to be terrified of it in some shape or form) and thus I emerge. The main front, not the original (Child), but the person who handles "the outside" 80% of the time.
There can definitely be chaos, but we've started managing it all pretty well. The rapid switching can catch our husband off guard sometimes, but all of us love him and he loves all of us!
As for the outloud conversations, most of the time it's just one side of the conversation that's outloud and we have to fill in our partner or roommate if the other alter said anything important. But that's only if it's just 1 "individual" fronting and someone in the back starts talking to them.
TL;DR
My Skull goes brrrrr. It's too damn loud sometimes 😅
Anyway, thank you guys so much for covering DiD stuff recently, we only discovered eachother about 2 years ago and this content really makes us feel seen without feeling awkward.
I remember watching a KZclipr with DID express how frustrated and annoyed she was how many people in her comment section say that they thought they now understood DID because they saw Split. The second I heard that I just put my face in my hands, gutted at how anyone could think Hollywood would ever possibly portray mental health well. They NEVER do. Not that I've ever seen anyway. My parents are therapists and they've always been irritated at how therapists have been portrayed on TV for a long time too. I recall my mum saying "TV just doesn't GET (understand) therapy." I think TV needs therapy! :D
@TransScriber Geniunely can't tell if you're serious or if you're making fun of people that think this way?
@Rarazal Productions Yes, it was good! Also in the TV series "Modern Love" on Prime, there's a really good episode with Anne Hathaway playing someone with bipolar. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is amazing as well, as someone else mentioned
@Emma Beckett Yeah, I'm hoping if they do a second season they're not gonna go in the whole "evil personality" direction. that said, I think the fact that Moon Knight has a lot of supernatural/sci-fi stuff helps, because a lot of the inaccuracies in the portrayal of DID are attributable to that. (Not sure how to say this without spoilers, but it's not clear so far how much you-know-who is controlling you-know-who?) Someone who knew nothing about DID could come away from Split with the idea that most of the stuff could actually happen, given what the psych says (minus the growing in size, maybe), whereas what with the whole Egyptian gods and stuff, people are much more likely to take anything in Moon Knight with a grain of salt.
It's because TV and Movies are all about exaggeration, while therapy is about grounded reality.
I'm an animator and if you were to do cartoon movements, your bones would be broken, not accurate at all but exaggerated.
@X X not all of it. Checking her patreon and other forum accounts she has made her own work, even the art style lines up.
Also medically integration means something different from fusion. Integration is just another way to say “recovery” so saying “all recovery is this one method” is harmful.
As someone with DID (and unfortunately a lot of other disorders); you were asking if one personality suppresses the core one, the personality that was subjected to the trauma, when triggers happen or when it otherwise tries to surface. For me, yes that happens. I and other parts of me, especially in therapy, have tried so hard to get that traumatized part both out and sustained. I can't even say it lasts a few seconds completely out in the open, it's genuinely too painful. It's a shame because that's of course where all of the healing can really begin. Even when we all unanimously try to push him out so he can talk with our therapist, it never works and one of us is left with having to theorize and otherwise answer as best as we can. It's so fucking frustrating.
My mother had DID. I wish we had all this information and support when she was alive. I am still working through my therapy from my childhood. I don't blame her.
I literally ended up writing a paper on DID for an intro to psychology class after watching this movie because I found it so fascinating. Got an A😌
Im so glad you had the same reaction as me in terms of disgust in how they portrayed what WOULD BE a great character(s), but NOT with a DID label. Im a therapist myself, specialized in personality disorders. I teach DBT.. so mostly BPD, OCPD, PTSD, CPTSD. I remember watching this movie in theatres with glee, only to walk out extremely angry at the stigmatization and glorification this would project to todays kids, esp this new “self diagnosing” trend. BPD is already so stigmatized and i feel im constantly in comment sections just trying to spread awareness of what it actually entails when some big creator suddenly comes out with having BPD, but describing bipolar disorder. The social contagion with glorifying personality disorders is maddening to me bc i see how much they actually SUFFER daily. I wish so much M Night had taken some measure to separate this character from DID bc it def begun another social contagion of people describing just dissociation symptoms.. or something extreme like in Split. Glad for the coverage to pushback. I empathise a ton with the kids i work with and i get this extreme maternal anger anytime i catch someone trying to self label to use as an excuse to be a bad person. Its inexcusable. Much ❤. Carry on!
Alters like Hedwig are actually pretty common I think. I haven't seen the movie, but most systems do have one or more child alters in my experience. I think there's multiple reasons this might happen. Sometimes an alter might go dormant for a while and not grow up with the body. Sometimes an alter holds trauma that happened when they were formed and they have not been able to move past it. Sometimes a child alter is useful so the system doesn't have to deal with the pressure of responsibilities all of the time. Sometimes you don't know why. You just respect them and don't push them to grow up.
And by the way, talking about alters that don't seem to have a "purpose", there are much weirder alters than children. There's animal alters that might form when you're treated like an animal. There's inanimate object alters that might form from being treated like one, There's all kinds of non-human alters like angels, ghosts, aliens. Basically anything you can imagine can be an alter in a system. They might all have a purpose but it's definitely not always clear.
Hi, DID system here! Thank you for that video, I was so scared it would have been stigmatizing so I was truly glad when I heard you say that you're trying to show how Split does NOT represent dissociative identity disorder. This disorder is so stigmatized, partially due to that movie, and I heard countless times people bullying DID systems using that film. Great point about the message of the therapist's death, thank you for bringing that up!
The issue with the debate between responsibility of the artist vs responsibility of the audience is that the audience didn't know what DID is. This disorder is so taboo and misunderstood in general, Split was for so many people the first time they heard about DID. And this movie made so much damage because the storyline explicitly links the criminal and dangerous behavior of the character with his mental illness. He's a monster *because* he has DID. Even though the audience have the responsibility of not being gullible and thinking this is how DID presents, the director has the responsibility to not represent a minority as people inherently dangerous.
We are not monsters. We exist as a consequence of what actual monsters did to us when we were a child. And it is so damaging for childhood trauma survivors to be seen as monsters for their trauma-based disorder which will never go away.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to systems after your video about Gollum. To answer a few things you said in that video (and this is based on my experience and the experience of the systems I know):
-Yes it is possible for different alters to be "in the light" at the same time. There is a distinction made between co-fronting (both alters being in control) and co-consciousness (one in control and one present as a spectator). In our case, we have a lot of co-consciousness where the host is present but someone else is there too in order to help them, without necessarily taking her place. Sometimes systems can communicate with each other because they're co-front or co-con, but in our case the communication is way too bad to be able to have a conversation where each alter can talk out loud. But sometimes the host will talk out loud to answer someone speaking internally, or things like that, because it can help with the communication.
-Lots of people believe there is no original alter, based on the theory that kids aren't born with one unique and defined identity, but multiple emotional states that are created during the first years of their life, until a point (around 7-9 years old), when those emotional states would integrate to form the identity of the person. In that theory, DID is caused by the presence of amnesic and traumatic barriers in between those emotional states which prevents them from integrating, therefore each of them developed separately. Which is why DID is caused by specifically childhood trauma, it is caused by traumas *before* that integration could take place.
-Yes it is possible to rapid switch, but it happens usually when the person is really stressed or really tired. It happened to me once, and it was an incredibly disorientating moment where I was so tired and so dissociated and in a really bad place mentally. I believe we were 3 or 4 alters rapid switching between each other, while we had a conversation with our best friend, who noticed what was happening and told us. But it's not common though.
-Having child alters like Hedwig makes sense and is accurate with the actual disorder. Sometimes alters can appear as if they have no purpose, not because they don't have one but because it may not be explicit. Having littles (which is the term used for child alters) can be a way for the body to experience an innocent and happy childhood for the adult who didn't have one. From what I understand, alters are made in reaction to either a trauma or a need. If they're not based on traumas, it probably means it's the other one. Littles getting to experience bits of what a 'normal childhood' is can help the adult who needed to experience that when they were a kid but couldn't.
We aren't monsters. Even though Hollywood use our disorder as a horror storyline. Between Split and the documentaries made about Billie Milligan, when DID is represented in the media it's mostly to depict us as dangerous criminals. I hope everyone could understand that DID systems are VICTIMS. They are survivors of terrible things that shouldn't happens to anyone, even more to a child. Why are we represented as the bad guys when all we did was survived to abuse so severe it changed the way our brains work?
No we don't crawl on the walls. We can't physically change. We don't have a beast hidden inside. We aren't crazy. We aren't delusional. It's not role-play either, it's not a game. It's a serious psychological disorder. The only thing hidden in ourselves is the pain of what we had to endure. We're normal people like everyone, we're just like a vase someone throw on the ground: we're broken in multiple pieces. But we're still a person. And I hope one day this disorder won't be so stigmatized.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I did not have DID, I’ve only heard about it through media as a child and was so fascinated by the idea that I would look up information on it.
I hope one day this disorder is no longer used as a convenient way for idiots writing TV shows (one life to live)and movies (split)to tell stories.
You are a person you are appreciate. I’m not well versed on your condition, except the little things I’ve read, so please I don’t mean to offend you at all.
Much love to you
@Emmie thanks for answering! Was very insightful.
@Jacob Bau In DID, each alter is here for a reason. One alter is here to deal with day to day life. They're the one being here "by default", when nothing is happening/ there is no trigger. They're called the host. I'm (host) here 95% of the time, and my other alters share the last 5%. Every system has a host, sometimes you can have multiple, which are called co-hosts. Careful, being the host doesn't mean you're the original, bc 1 there is no original in DID, 2 who is the host can change with time. The host is an alter like the rest of the system.
The singular vs plural will depend on the system but usually and in my case: if you're talking specifically about one alter, use singular pronouns. If you're talking specifically about every alter, use plural. 'How are you today?' (you're asking the alter present) vs 'How are all of you guys? (you're asking how each alter is doing). I wouldn't use plural pronouns every single time you're referring to a system (unless they asked you to) because systems usually hide their multiplicity.
In DID, there are two types of triggers. Negative ones, and positive ones. Negative ones are kinda like triggers in ptsd: something that unconsciously reminds you of your traumas. If you're a system, if something echoes the trauma of one of your alter, a switch can happen. There's also positive triggers: if you're doing something another alter enjoy, it can trigger them out (=make them front). Listening to another alter's music can sometimes trigger them out. But basically anything can be a trigger. Depends on what your story is.
No the other alters aren't always present. Interestingly, I know a DID system with multiple alters always present in the innerworld's front room. Innerworld is kinda like a lucid dream, it's an inner place where the alters can interact between themselves. Often, a system with an innerworld will have a room/space you go to in order to front. In this system's front room, there was a TV where the alters could see what was happening irl. And 3 alters lived there 24/7. Kinda like watching a movie of what your body is doing when you're not the one controlling it. That's not what you asked but maybe that helps lol.
Quick questions:
Mention of "the host" has me confused. I thought DID was simmilar to multiple people living in the same house, but you make it sound as if there is a dominant among you. Is that just a misunderstanding on my end?
When referencing a system are descriptive words supposed to be singular or grouped? (Example: you vs you all).
What can trigger a switch between alters? Is there any specific stimuli?
Are other alters always present, but not in control? Sorta like watching a movie.
Sorry if you answered any of these already, or if any of these questions are offensive in any way. I dont mean anything by it, just curious.
Thank you for taking the time & sharing with us. I've started dating someone with DID and I'm trying to be sensitive and empathetic to them.
My opinion on the duty of an artist is simply not to misrepresent something while passing it off as realistic. However, in intentionally unrealistic media, there is another duty, which is not to perpetuate harmful patterns, which break the reasoning of "it's just one hypothetical example."
Especially when it's the only examples we see. So true for so many things in Hollywood, while it's true seeing a healthy family play games and understand each other isn't as much of a story, they can experience crazy circumstances which will be the story (ahem, Quiet Place)
👆 exactly this is how I feel about so so many representations of mental health in visual media.
10:33 they actually got this right! Co-fronting is something that often happens, although it's not as simple as she's describing it here, and I'd be very surprised if two alters could be taking different notes at the same time--because there's the dissociation, you know, and for most it gets extra bad when co-fronting, so doing anything at all is hard
Edit: I really appreciate that you say things like "not to my knowledge" instead of "no". That makes it sound like you're willing to be corrected
This video needs to get so much more attention. DID needs more accurate info in media.
In my experience, I don’t remember any trauma, one day I woke up as a completely different person
I didn’t recognize anyone in my family and I was just going along with it because I was too scared of not knowing how I got there in the first place
My self image was so vividly different and familiar to myself yet my own original persona was completely absent
There’s something so scary about not having control of myself, a different person controlling my decisions and waking around, my parents mistook it for “sleep walking” but I knew better
Did is very rare many people do experience repression or dissociation, pretty normal with trauma or you just have shit memory and nothing happened
I understand where Hedwig came from- he's the alter that got stuck at the age of the initial splitting. I think that's pretty common, one alter is frozen at the age we were when our trauma hit breaking point.
"What was the purpose of Hedwig?" I believe that Hedwig was there because Kevin never actually got to be a child. Hedwig was the child that Kevin wasn't allowed to be: playful, discovering, curious, naughty, clumsy, etc.
Also, James McAvoy deserves every award ever for this role, even awards that don't strictly apply.
Thats what I was thinking.
Most of our child alters are 100% from not being able to be a kid. We have 4 and all but 1 are our brain trying to give us a childhood/innocence.
Miranda cutie cat honestly she didn't want to talk about the specifics of her trauma but yeah she mentioned abuse through a partner of her mother. On the station we usually knew that everyone of us was struggling with something and if the person wants to talk about it in order to process it and/or to feel better than they'd do that on their own. It's a really respectful manner that I really liked about it.
I was helping two patients with their kitchen service because one, the person with DID, was new to it. That's when a switch happened. We were very worried as she just froze up and hold on to a chair while we were putting the other chairs back on the table. The night nurse had a crisis talk with another patient so we had to wait to ask for help but made sure she wasn't harming herself by watching her. I wanted to help and tried to talk to her but she didn't react. The thing that sometimes helps me with my struggle is physical reinsuring acts likes hugs etc. but because I didn't know what she had, remember a similar reaction of someone with an epileptic shock before he curled up and knew it was possible that physical trauma could be triggered by unwanted physical touch, I didn't touch her to make sure she was ok. Instead I talked to her and just made sure she knew she wouldn't be alone and be cared for.
I kinda felt asleep at the table next to her and told her roommate that I'll stay behind to make sure she will be ok when she is able to regain her present conscious again. At some point I noticed her slowly coming back after tipping her fingers against the chair for a few minutes. She tried to apologize and I just said there was nothing to apologize for and that everyone here understands that people are struggling here.
Her roommate came back after we talked for a while to check on her and was relieved and happy to see her regaining her present conscious.
She has that tunnel vision through strong depression that her current and main personality and her teenager (16 years) self both struggle with but her teenagers self doesn't really know how to deal with it so it can cause her to freeze up. This can also bring up the child who than is confused and afraid to do anything herself both of which can cause confusion and unfocused chaos that takes a while to process. So what happened was a combination of those or at least that's how she explained it (I hope I described it right. I translate what she said because we are Germans).
We asked her what the does and don'ts are when she freeze's up and she said a specific song sometimes works but most often lavender works to get her back. She also has some very strong smelling stuff something that's given to people who can get lost in such tunnel vision and have difficulties to return. Her roommate had something like that as well and both said it's awful and they hate it but it works but I kinda glad I don't know the smell after they described it.
She also confirmed that touching her would be an awful idea as this is very triggering of her trauma so I'm glad I didn't do that.
She's a very kind person and we are currently still in touch as we live in similar area. She has a caring boyfriend who she git engaged with while we were on the station so it's good to hear that she has someone to care for her after so many awful experiences.
@Shadow1Yaz The pain thing is very much real. My ex had an alter that emerged for the sole purpose of tolerating pain and she was clinically masochistic. Would literally giggle at extreme pain and was not allowed(by the system) to front unsupervised due to her recklessness. The only way the strength aspect played out though is that the body had a neck injury that caused chronic pain, so she pushed the body harder than anyone else did because she didn't have to suffer the consequences. However, in a healthy body this wouldn't have been a noticeable difference.
The only way I can think of something like extreme strength manifesting to an observer is differences in the way an alter moves. An alter who has trained to lift heavy things or trained for rock climbing or something would be able to use the body differently in a way that appeared stronger but would really be skill. The same way an alter who has studied martial arts would move faster and have faster reflexes than other alters in the system.
I have known systems with alters who were inherently weaker than the body's physical capabilities. If you had someone who only knew a physically weaker alter in a system that wasn't blatantly a muscle builder type body, I could see them being surprised when an alter who used the full strength and physicality fronted around them for the first time and started unloading heavy cargo with ease.
Regarding Split, I think it's entirely fantasy for the purpose of the Unbreakable universe, as you said.
@The Cade System I agree with you! Our system also handles ailments with varying degrees and cope with them differently.
I do think that some people may be mistaking another phenomenon for the whole "can benchpress 3X their body weight." Sometimes, specific alters emerge who cannot feel pain or are very insensitive to it. WIth that going on, this particular alter would be able to push the body to unhealthy levels of endurance or strength. They wouldn't be significantly stronger than everyone else in the system but they could display a lack of restraint when using strength which a layman could see as that alter being physically stronger.
This is 100% speculation on my part. It's also possible that M. Night did the strength thing to link him to the Unbreakable universe.
I wish you guys would have talked about Casey in this as well, her entire story and they way her trauma molded her and helped her throughout the movies and allowed her to have understanding with Kevin was so integral to Kevin's story
Even as a 100% layman when it comes to therapy, I could guess that Split was probably even detrimental to the understanding of DID. It's nice to get confirmation from a professional.
Like you say, though, as a movie it's really good and James McAvoy is unbelievably good as Kevin and his other personalities.
McAvoy is one of those actors who it staggers the imagination that he's never won an Oscar or even been nominated for one.
When this movie came out it was horrible for the DID community in my area. I remember people at school talking about how "scary" DID is and equating it to be a crazy/evil person. It was really hard to listen to and I was terrified for years to tell anyone I knew what I was diagnosed with for fear that their mind would go straight to the "DID = serial killer" logic.
I've had a strange experience with an individual once that makes me think of DID.. Not naming names or anything obviously, but they were and still are a very close friend of mine.
They used to be in a very bad place mentally and regularly drank to cope and relax after stressful days.. Well, maybe two or three times, early on in our relationship and not too terribly long after we first met, they had these.. episodes where they seemed to be a completely different person while under the influence of alcohol. At first I thought maybe it was a prank, but then it just got too strange and convincing to dismiss as simply that. They wrote crystal clear and in a completely unique way unlike my friend, despite being _very_ intoxicated. Unfortunately I only spoke to them this way through text, so I couldn't tell you how they were actually acting in person, but I doubt they could've faked writing so perfectly in their state of intoxication. I've heard alters can ignore the health conditions of their host and other alters, like how some have allergies and others do not, so I imagine alcohol probably can also be shrugged off in this way.
Anyways.. the personality that had emerged a couple of times always spoke to me in a completely different way than I was used to from my friend. They called themself by a different name and spoke in a way that was very.. cold and apathetic toward their host. And the second time I spoke to them when they emerged under the same conditions (my friend was drunk, and in a depressed state) they seemed to remember me and we spoke in a guarded but familiar way with me asking them questions which they answered in the exact same writing style and cold manner they had shown before. They said how they weren't my friend, but at the same time they sort of were. They claimed to protect my friend because if anything happened to my friend, it would harm them as well, since they shared the same body. But it seemed reluctant to have this job, displaying a lot of distaste for their 'host'.
Speaking to my friend after the fact and showing them the messages, they _insisted_ it wasn't a prank and they had absolutely no idea what had happened. To this day, we're still stumped about the whole ordeal. I've never spoken to this mysterious personality again and I don't think I will since my friend has stopped drinking as much and is also doing much better with their depression. They have never ever had any sort of alter or shift like this while sober and seem to be just one person in one body otherwise. O_O Anyone have any ideas what this could've been? It still has me scratching my head to this day..
I actually saw the Moon Knight video first and commented there, but will comment here, too. In our case never been officially diagnosed or sought therapy - mentioned that on Moon Knight - but do have multiple selves out at once. In fact, we refer to our self as a "Community of One." Our origin, as we refer to the original core personality, has never "woken up" ever since the events that started this all. One of us is almost permanently in the "driver's seat," but everyone is still there and watching/involved. Our childlike self is second most likely to slip into control in fun situations or when dealing with children, but it's not a jarring shift the average person would notice. More like a fade slider that's slipping from overlay to underlay in a movie scene when done so that the transition happens, but you can't really say where exactly it went from one to the other. The three we'll refer to here as the Scholar, the Schemer, and the Dreamer almost never take control of the body itself, though speak at times or direct where we're looking/what we're paying attention to. Lastly is the Protector who will take control when things get beyond words and a physical confrontation is occurring/likely. Them taking over is a clear shift of behavior/personality, but luckily that's only been necessary a handful of times and the change in behavior is brushed off normal for a usually calm person pushed past the limits of their patience. Most of our discussion is internal, but it is difficult to tell who is contributing what thoughts - though that's not usually an issue as long as we've coexisted. Verbal speech is used when we need to keep clear who is saying what for some reason. But again, in our case, we're all always out (except origin) regardless of who's in control of body.
There was one time that our community got "broken" which resulted in rapid swapping, but not a natural thing for us: tried marijuana with a friend and it did something to screw everything up. Only one of us could be out at a time and whoever was out *had* to take control of the body at that time, but each period of control was only around 10 seconds or less. It was horrible. It was terrifying. Lasted in neighborhood of half-an-hour and was a scarring experience. Both ensured we'd never get near marijuana again and made us even more terrified of seeking professional help were they might give us medicine that separated us from each other. Imagine living a strobe-light life, only aware of approximately 10 in every 60 seconds. Each time you "wake up" you're not where you were or doing what you were doing. Like being a puppet that's randomly gaining consciousness and losing it while someone/thing is moving you around. Hate even the memory. Freaked out that friend watching us too. Had to explain things to them, which made them the first person we ever fully revealed our situation to. On the bright side, opening up to them was the first step to starting to share with others and in other places.
A random personal observation: We rather enjoy playing RPGs because it's a chance for everyone to get opportunity to "solo." Our entire life we've always worked together to make a single life that people outside couldn't see as anything other than one person. And we like what we have, make no mistake, but games where one can be their self without the others is a fun little "vacation" from home life as it were. I wonder if others have found interest in tabletop gaming and similar for similar reason.
DID system here!! Going into this video, I was so worried that the video would just be full of stigma and inaccuracies, but I was so relieved you guys talked about how Split's portrayal of DID was ultimately harmful for the DID community. Thank you so much. ❤
@DrVurruct a movie that millions of people can see easily without second guessing the material, this leads to stigma and intimately widespread misinformation about people with DID
Ok ok good, this means I won’t be leaving this video wanting to punch something (probably)
It’s been on my fyp for a while but I’ve been scared it’ll be awful
(I’m the host of an osdd system btw, I only use I and my becuse me and the other frequent fronters have our own yt account, because different interests and stuff)
@Saddler Rye Very well said. You get at how makers of such stories can have their cake and eat it too. It wouldnt have taken much effort in making the movie to make it plain and obvious that Kevin and his alters are an exceedingly uncommon exception.
@DrVurruct The problem is that it's often hard to tell where does fiction end and where reality starts.
For example when you watch an Indiana Jones movie you can tell that it's a fictional story, but you'll probably come out with the impression that 'Nazis BAD' (and of yourse you'd be right in that case). With Split most people would be able to tell that DID won't give you supernatural abilities, but it's harder to tell if the condition is inherently dangerous or not, especially as media usually portrays it as such.
I think that a small disclaimer at the start of the movie would go a long way, as well as more works that depict DID in a more realistic way instead of using it a a cool setup for the crazy but pitiful villain (and yes, it's a very cool setup).
There is nothing wrong with writing an exciting fictional story based on a real life condition, but it's important to make it clear that your Big Bad is 'evil' because he's a bad person, and not because he has said condition.
Hi. We're polyfragmented, so I don't know if that changes our experiences, but we are co-conscious at least 80% of the time. We talk to each other, make plans and collaborate. Sometimes the headmate in the body will talk out loud to those in the headspace. It's helps us feel sane and grounded. Usually about 3-8 of us are in what we call the board room at the same time. We don't all have control, but we can communicate. We all have different voices and our admin and primaries have gotten really good at telling us apart. We've never had two people in control of the body at one time though.
I'm here 3 weeks late, but hey- better late than never right?
Anyways, as a professionally diagnosed system of 12 (OSDD) AND a filmmaker myself, these movies are incredibly interesting to me as research material for my own films I plan to put out. My Dissociative Disorder appears a little differently in the sense that we can have multiple people in/present at the same time as well as talk to each other within our own head-space (not always consistently). We did develop through childhood trauma (incredibly similar to Moon Knight- great video btw), but we have added members to our system through time with other bad experiences or through attachments to fictional characters (we only really have 1 "Fictive"). We have 2 "Littles" (like Hedwig), one of which is in place to act as our innocence if the trauma had never actually happened.
Like any other human being, each alter (or "Facet" as we like to call ourselves) has a different responsibility, dream, opinion, limitations, triggers, and psyche, but we do all care for each other even if we have different ways of showing it.
All in all, I think Hollywood has a habbit of combining DID with OSDD-like symptoms in order to show things easier- however more-or-less helpful it may be.
I hope this was able to shed some light on some things. Thank you both for these analysis and for being able to admit when you might be wrong or need more input. It always brightens my day and gives me hope for not only our future, but the future of others as well...
I have odds and doesn't relate to did how the ducks are they the same and differemt in your world
As just a generally mentally ill person, I love Alan’s explanation of mental disorders, and that’s exactly what they are (to my knowledge anyway): something that most people have experience, but it interferes with and sometimes harms your life. I don’t know if that’s the clinical definition of a mental disorder or not, but I love Alan’s explanation of it
I don't know if this is a little late, but I would heavily reconsider doing another sponsorship with EstablishedTitles. They've been proven to basically sell land NFTs and use false advertising to claim Lordship even though that title can only be inherited or given by royal decree.
Great episode as always, and as for duty of the artist vs duty of the audience: as an aspiring writer, myself, I definitely believe that the artist holds a lot of responsibility especially when representing something that is often stigmatized and misrepresented in media and real world.
An artist should recognize the power and influence of media, and they should recognize that their work is not an exception to that. Which is why doing plenty of research into what they’re going to represent and making sure they understand that in their work is crucial. Look stuff up and consult experts! Honestly, a great way to supplement research is to consume media that represents said something well, as it’s a way to absorb knowledge and better perspective without realizing that you’re doing it.
Most importantly, I feel that artists should not be afraid to take accountability for a past work that misrepresents something and produces stigma, and they should acknowledge that and aspire to do better. And they should definitely be willing to open themselves up to other people’s perspectives and be willing to listen to what their fans and critics are saying.
JK Rowling is the quintessential example of what not to do especially in todays context, because while I admire her as a writer and I absolutely adore Harry Potter, there are undeniably issues with her as an author and issues with Harry Potter in particular. She has a tendency to double down on her stance and attitude rather than listen to her fans and to valid criticisms and actually listen to what they’re saying, for example.
As for duty of the audience, I think you guys put it beautifully in, I believe, your James Bond episode, where you guys say something along the lines of keeping your brain turned on. Like it’s fine to enjoy a movie but it’s definitely important to make yourself aware of its failings, especially when it comes to misrepresentation of something, and acknowledge that whenever you notice/see it in a movie or any other media
Also, it’s typically seen as disrespectful to call a particular alter the “original” personality. Unless the alter doesn’t exist anymore because they split, in which case it would be fine. But generally for existing alters, calling one the “original” discounts the existence of the others and makes them feel unwanted and misunderstood.
My therapist draws a distinction between me, Emily, and the “original Emily”. The original Emily is who we all were before trauma happened. But me, Emily, am just another alter within a system, I just HAPPEN to identify with the name given to us. *I* am not the original personality, I just have the same name as her. The original personality does not exist as one anymore, she is in eight pieces which ALL have aspects of her “original personality”.
You sure it’s not just a made up coping mechanism
Yeah, it's kind of like dropping a ceramic bowl and asking which broken piece is the original bowl. Every price is a part of the whole.
Thats sad so the "original emily" being who you were before the split has ceased to exist? To me that sounds like death
Lot of good discussion on this comment thread, and I wanna throw my 2-cent into it.
I have DID as well, just two of us in here.
And I am very clearly the original. And my 'skull Roommate', Trevor, is very clearly a newer entity. We both can point to the distinct timeframe where Trevor was 'born', and when he 'woke up'. When we had our split, nothing was taken away from me to form him. But rather, it's as if he's me if I'd viewed all my life through a different lens. So the idea that a split 'destroys' an psyche when it happens isn't always the case. He and I are distinct and different individuals. But I am still me. The same me from before the trauma that caused my split. I just have a 'skull roommate' now.
@zero8034 These are a bit of a different series of questions, because it has nothing to do with the experience of being a system but instead about philosophical and possibly religious implications of it, but have you ever considered the philosophical state of the original personality?
Like how Skypaw3 talked about in the beginning, if the first personalities are split shards of the original personality, do you consider that personality(and any further personalities that "shattered") dead?
If so, and at least one of the members of your system is a theistic person, do you(the theistic person(s)) think that the "shattered" personality has a seperate soul/will go to whatever form of afterlife/reincarnation you believe in? Do you think you are, in the eyes of whatever deity or system(like reincarnation cycles in religions without gods, not the DID terminology), considered as each individual personality, or as one entity as a whole? If you do believe in the afterlife, do you think whatever form you believe you'll take would also have DID?
And the opposite, when distinct identities merge, what do you think of the new identity vs the ones used in merging? Are they dead? Do you consider the merged person an entirely new person, or something else? Back to theism, would all three personalities have their own souls(or recognition by the system of religion to be their own individual), would the merged ones have their souls but not the new one, or does it mean two souls actually merged, and there's only one now, or something else entirely?
Seperate question, if you have a yet non-actualized personality, how do you think of your less distinct personalities?(like the sentient but non-actualized one a system said they had somewhere among these comments)Do they seem closer to children, Advanced but still barely functional AIs, or a mentally challenged person? Or something entirely different? If you had one that became actualized later, do they remember being in that state? What was it like? What's the absolute bare minimum a personality has to have for you to consider it an equal?
Or do y'all simply not care about the philosophical implications because of how depressing and unnecessary it is? That's also a very valid answer I certainly can't blame anyone for giving.
Hedwig is actually a really important representation. It's very common for systems to have "littles" or child alters that represent the innocence that was lost following trauma. The littles often don't have memory of the trauma, and are essentially able to live out the childhood that they missed out on. There are often "trauma holders" within a system that are alters with the memories of the trauma, and they may be Protectors of the system. There are a lot of different functions for alters, and even those like Hedwig are very important for the system :)
2:28 Yok: We love to see that a therapist loves when he says "we" and "us".
This is an everyday battle to allow ourselves to use theses pronouns in front of people.
(Btw, it's way much more easier to be understood on the internet, with writing, while not being seen, so not being seen as "one body". That's why nowadays, many systems show themselves online, including our "happy band")
In regards to the "two alters holding consciousness at the same time" bit. Being co- consciousness is very common. Two alters being aware at the same time I mean. But in regards to two alters using the body at the same time, that's rarer but still not impossible. Once I was talking on the phone with my friend and after 30 mins I realized I wasn't in control of my hands but I was playing minecraft. Someone else in my system wanted to play but I was busy talking. I thought I was just watching minecraft videos until I realized my hands were moving lol
To clear up one thing, co-fronting and rapid switching can occur and happen quite commonly in my system, but doesn’t happen like shown in the movie. For me, rapid switching occurs usually in moments of very high dissociation and is a lot more like a blur of a bunch of different people coming and going and not understanding what’s happening rather than a continuous conversation where different people switch in to contribute. The big problem with the scene is less about how frequently the switches happen, and more that there’s seemingly no dissociation or amnesia between alters, which there usually is in DID.
Also, I wanted to clear up a different thing since the video didn’t really address this. There is a type of alter called a persecutor, and many people mistakenly think that such an alter is an evil one after having watched stigmatizing media like this movie. That’s not true, a persecutor isn’t evil, instead they’re usually an alter that emerged as a way to survive a truly horrible situation, and because of that purpose they hold on to mindsets that can later cause problems.
(tw, csa discussion)
For instance, a child that undergoes continuos sexual abuse may split an alter that takes on the mindset of this abuse just being how love is supposed to look. That mindset would help them to stay afloat while the abuse was going on, but could then create problems in the future once the system has escaped the situation if they for instance seek out retraumatizing unsafe situations because of their flawed view of love.
Persecutors do not have ill will, they’re just the gnarly reality of having to survive, and they hurt themselves by and large, not others.
You mentioned how it doesn't seem possible for two of us to be fronting at the same time, but it's quite common between Michael and I. Often times Michael will take over to help me get moving early in the mornings as he's an early rise but I am not. But once I start to wake up Michael will back off and share control to ensure we keep moving while simultaneously letting me... assist with the actions.
One other thing Michael constantly gets onto me for and will control is the amount of tension in our body. I hold myself quite tense often due to stress so he'll slip through to force our body to relax while still letting me maintain control of our actions.
And we are quite grateful to know that DID is being seen and not in a bad light. We are fine like this, Michael prefers to take the back burner so to speak while I maintain most of the everyday control.
And it did come about from childhood trauma as he's explained to me by drudging up memories I didn't remember. Michael has said that he holds the worst of our memories to hide the trauma we have suffered. Things that trigger me specifically Michael will take over completely, to withdraw myself into him to hide me from what we shall remember.
Our system works for us as we are a parent, and since becoming one we must be durable to protect our child. I hide the trauma she has suffered so she can focus her attention and happiness on our child. I hide the anger and fear to prevent her from accidentally exuding it to our child and suffer the same trauma she did as a child.
Thank you for presenting DID in a non judgemental manner. We appreciate the work you have put into these videos to explain that we are not broken. We are stronger for sharing our mind space and body than we were before I stepped up to protect her.
Well..I was today years old when I learned that OCPD is a thing and that IT is what most people think OCD is...but isn't, so thanks Jono for teaching me something today!
Me too. Now I know my family has OCPD.
it's unfortunate how common this misconception is. I have OCD, and it's irritating every time I hear someone casually suggest they have it simply because they're very tidy. I'm not at ALL tidy lmao. Hoarders (like that reality tv show) almost always have OCD. They obsess over what might happen if they throw something away.
Yes! I was so happy to hear about this. I hear plenty of "They don't have OCD, they are just perfectionist", which often dismisses the trait as a whole.
I learned it from Rhett and Link years ago, but yeah it's a real eye opener.
yeah I have autism + OCD which may look like OCPD, but I guarantee I will not come to anyone's house to clean it lmao, I avoid triggers as much as possible
I always interpreted the different identities within Split as representative fragments of a whole man. Kevin is a stand in for an average person and each identity is a component of his personality personified to examine how each can be part of a person can be altered by trauma. Barry is trust, Hedwig is innocence, Dennis is Routine, Patricia is his Reflection of Femininity, and on and on. Finally the Beast represents the capacity for extreme atrocities latent within everyone. I believe Carl Jung phrased it as “Everyone has a Nazi inside them ready to sell out their neighbors wether they know it or not.” Typically everyone keeps a handle on this inner demon but for some in traumatic circumstances the chains can break or the context for which they feel it’s appropriate to release them is permanently altered and not always for the best.
24:25 "he feels responsible for the behavior of the others"
As a functional system, glad to share you this is one of the keys of "healing".
It's hard to achieve. I still blame other alters for what they did, from time to time. But i know it's wrong. And this is a key to find peace. Please believe it ^^
Switching really quickly can definitely happen, especially if there’s a situation where no one knows how to handle it. Also sometimes when our brain just wants to mess with us lol. Thanks for covering this!
My sister has ocd and I didn't realize that when she got nervous and kicked me out of our room to basically take it apart and put it back together that she was trying to stop something similar to my panic attacks I have enxiaty and now that I know what she was really doing I'm a little jealous of that fact that she had a way to stop it from happening because with enxiaty you have no way to stop it from happening it just starts takes over and keeps escalating on tell it feels like you need to go to a doctor
t // as a member of a system, i will say that it is very interesting how certain traits that might seem fairly set in stone can vary between headmates/alters/identities/personalities/whatever you'd like to call them. like you drew attention to, it's nothing like it is in the movies, there are physical limits to the human body that can't be crossed, but we've noticed that within a certain margin, certain headmates of ours do actually have different levels of physical strength, or at least, they seem more or less willing to use the full range of strength that our body can put behind an action. same with pain tolerance, different headmates are more or less sensitive to pain (for example, i, taylor, definitely have the highest tolerance for pain compared to the rest of our system). i don't know if it goes much further than little things like that, but it is quite an interesting thing to think about.
As someone with a Master's in Literature I have studied this very subject during my course - duty of the artist x the audience. And the best answer I can give without going on a rant (unless someone is interested in it) is: the responsibility is always yours. If you're the audience, you should consider the responsibility is the audience's. If you're the artist, you should consider the responsibility is the artist's.
@First Last I feel like this is Split's biggest downfall. It's a well made movie, but it doesn't take into account the fact this condition is already represented really badly in pop culture. It's harder for an audience to pinpoint where the line between reality and fiction is if they don't know what the reality is. This is true of anything, but when it comes to something like D.I.D., it becomes problematic because there are real, living people who are being affected by that lack of knowledge.
@Elena Acedo as one of my professors said "Fiction cannot lie because it never says it's true." I agree with that, but that is also putting it on the audience's responsibility. Which is fair, to a degree. But there's always people who can't differentiate, don't reflect about it or don't know enough to realize aspects shown aren't realistic.
This whole comments thread is fascinating, but I couldn't help but think that the disclaimer is that it IS fiction as opposed to a factual account of the matter. I don't care if it is based on something real, if it’s fiction, I will always assume that it's an exaggeration at best or total bullshit at worst. I have more issues with media pretending to be presenting you with the “true” story or giving you the “facts” when they're not.
Love it! Thank you
@Rasmus n.e.M Yes, definitely true that.
I don't have DID, but I do watch educational channels about it like DissociaDID and one of the important aspects that they got wrong in the scene at 20:14 is the fact that if Kevin is, in fact, the host, then he shouldn't have many memories, or at least not many, since the idea of a DID system is to protect the host from the trauma. The only time a host will receive traumatic memories is if it has merged/integrated with one or more alters. Typically the name is changed after that, but there are instances where one of the original names are kept. If I got anything wrong though someone please let me know in replies 💞
As a fan of Daniel Keyes' books, SPLIT is still on my naughty list because it portrayed itself originally as an adaptation of The Minds of Billy Milligan and as such it is doing a horrible job (only taking the core feature of Billy having multiple personalities, which story is actually a non-fiction - or so it is deemed...). That book started my journey from questioning "is everyone having a press conference for each though in their head all the time?" to figuring out that I'm a case of DID and started to get treatment to settle down on a healthy-working system of 3-4 (one of us being completely situational). James McAvoy does an amazing feat in these clips as an actor, but this movie's representation of DID from what I recollect is doing more harm than good (based on information I have read about it, I refuse to watch the movie for what it did on one of my favourite books).
Regarding DID, from our little system's perspective:
- I can confirm that co-steering (as we call it) exists, but it an extremely tiring process unless we are dead-set and unanimous on something, when we "act as one" anyway for half the mental cost. With my core self I have a total of 3 adults (The Core, The Protector and in emergencies, The Doctor) and a child (The Kid) in the system, which means splitting (mainly mental) tasks and operating on multiple lines is possible (and highly efficient when it comes to everyday duties and work life), but oh god so exhausting.
- Switching for us is now a rare but instantaneous thing, it kind of feels like shifting the viewpoint in a video game from one character to another (I tend to watch myself from the "outside" in 3rd person anyway due to a bad monitoring habit stemming from keeping up with narcissism and abuse in my childhood). Many times we register the switch happening retroactively and the wheel comes back to the core when the task the others jumped in for is done. The wheel coming back has also been suggested by my therapist to ensure that time-losses and time-stealing doesn't happen in the long run and everyone has been time-accountable for years now. Thus, switching happening without an unanimous decision only happens nowadays in emergencies (either the Protector taking over a social situation, or Doc handling injury as we are otherwise quite squeamish).
- Speaking of which: there is allocated/requestable self-time now for everyone set in a concrete-hard framework of rules to ensure no harm comes to the body or other shards (we respect eachother's privacy but also have rules set on adult activities, smoking and alcohol, and whoever steps out of line HAS to suffer the consequences), as well as everyone has a reporting duty if someone acts out of line or something is suspicious. This framework worked for us for years and many old wildshoots have faded away, because it gave them an opportunity to handle their emotions and wishes they were called to life in the first place. I don't know if this helps anyone, but feels nice to share.
One of my best friends is diagnosed DID and they “co-pilot” frequently. I don’t know the extent that it would be noticeable to anyone on the outside or whether or not they would/could actually each use one hand to write with during copiloting, but they can share the light sometimes!
As a creator, I think disclaimers are very important. If you’re going to take an artistic swing at something that actually exists (especially when the general public doesn’t know very much, if anything, about it), it’s important to remind the audience that you’re work is fictitious. People, myself included, do tend to implicitly believe what we watch, but I also agree with Alan that I want to tell the stories I want to tell. It is very important to have accurate representation. That doesn’t mean you can’t have inaccurate representation, which is why I think disclaimers, like something as simple as, “This is not accurate representation of ‘blank’,” can make a difference.
The problem with movies like Split is when people learn you have DID, they immediately go 'Ok, I believe you are not dangerous, but could you get away from me in case you are hiding a serial killer inside you, you don't know about'. That is why not many people know about my DID.
@devRat big same, & condolences
had people ask us which are bad or for warnings for " the bad 1's "
none of us are out-right bad . . . maybe a little defensive/protective but not mean-spirited
people who ask this kind of thing probably saw this movie to even " know " about DiD
@Cyf Cyfa Hey. You're way out of line. Go away and stop bothering people. People with mental conditions are not "unsafe." And only "unpredictable" if you never, ever listen. It has been proven time and time over, that "normal" people are the more violent. You're the problem. Leave now.
@Padascos Exactly. It's always the "evil" alters who need the most love. They're struggling, often have low self-esteem and are fearful. But are still doing their best to protect the system. Anxiety from Sanders Sides is a good analogy for "evil" alters. I don't think of them as evil. I think of them as goths and edgelords. They want to put on a scary face so that people will leave them alone. Sometimes taking dorky names like "the darkness" or "calamity". But they're like a teenager going through an angsty phase. They need respect, love, and compassion.
@Ringailė Tervydienė tbh I see a lot of people imitating DID very similarly to this movie (not accusing you, bringing it up again made me think of that)
@Splorby well we got back to my initial comment, that movies like Split is a problem because they make the environment for DID people hostile.
Paprika (2006) directed by Satoshi Kon is another film that I couldn't recommend more. A massive inspiration for Inception, and something I think you two could have a really wonderful and unique take on.
I'm am so excited to hear someone else recognise the absolute amazing performance of James in this movie...
So, I have to mention Sally Field in Sybil, again a fantastic performance, the 1st time I saw multiple personalities..
From Sally to James I dont think anyone has done it as well as these two, it takes a certain kind of actor...
i think that while responsibility of educating yourself comes from the audience or should come from an average person, a lot of people don’t. i think that while artists should be able to story tell and have fiction in things that are in real life, that they should have disclaimers or resources for people to become more educated, ESPECIALLY when it comes to mental illness or a sensitive topic. i think that it also does give a lot of power to the community when the artist themselves does the research and implements accuracy in their creation.
I have a friend that has DID. She told me that she, through trauma, developed another main person in her. So she told me this years ago so I don't really remember how many both of them had each personalities. She told me that she would get stalked and attacked regularly from the community she was apart of. Whenever that happened, one stronger personality came out to protect her while she was attacked so the main personality never felt the pain.
Anyway, the other main person was so miserable that she actually took suicide. She had control over other personalities which my friend didn't have any control over. So when her other part took suicide, they have been just trouble. She just ignores them actually because they are so negative and toxic.
I think right now, everything that goes inside her mind has just gone out to her body and made it shut down. She struggles to do every day chores and work like she could before. Her body has just shut down.
That is what my understanding of her situation and DID when she told me. I didn't know of DID and that she even had that before she told me years after we graduated, but somehow still kept in touch.
As someone with DID, I thank you for actually listening to our community!
Hey! A system of 10 here, and we'd like to clarify a few things- Yes, two people can front at the same time, and it is known as cofronting! There are even moments where, in systems with less dissociative barriers, two or more alters (or headmates) can fuse temporarily to become someone new.
For us, we are traumagenic, we experienced extreme repeated childhood trauma and this is simply the only way our brain would be able to survive. However, we have met systems that have not come from trauma or may not know of their trauma, so we don't like to enforce the barrier that "you cannot be a system without trauma". Most are, but there hasn't been nearly enough research or awareness of this state of being, and we'd rather encourage others to seek therapy than to gatekeep.
We are in therapy, but we are happy as a system and don't consider it a negative or a hindrance to be what we are.
If you ever would like to talk to systems more in depth about movies that reflect our experiences, we think that could be a really cool way to learn a little bit more about the spectrum of people with these circumstances. (Of course we absolutely volunteer our system as an option, lol)
We love your videos! Thank you for bringing more awareness in a healthy and safe way.
@Josh Wondra got it, I'll send you a request- go ahead and delete the comment so other people don't see it
@Enbyrd yes
@Josh Wondra do you have discord?
@Enbyrd I am the biggest nerd in the universe, of course I want to read it 😂
@Josh Wondra God, I feel all of that so much (We also have ADHD/autism, go figure). We need more people like you in the education system. If you have a way for me to message you, I have more resources on plurality and DID that may help! (Of course as anything, it's up to you if you'd like to go through reading that)
I relate to Alan so much in each of these vids. 🤣 thank the gods for your vids. You two are both a blessing in my life. Not just a source of entertainment but educational and also extremely therapeutic and cathartic. Thank you. You have helped me in my personal life
Such an interesting episode, I needed to make a comment. As someone with OSDD (other specified dissociative disorder, specifically 1b in my case) I wanted to comment on a couple of things with my own experiences.
7:52 & 10:30 : On being co-conscious and conversations- I experience this regularly with my system, because part of OSDD-1b is that there's no amnesia between alters (primarily why it's different from DID) being co-con (or more than one personality fronting/being active at the same time) is much easier. There are often times when I'll be on the phone with someone while my most active alter, Zee, is cooking and it's quite obvious that even though I'm the one talking, he's the one preforming the actions. We all also commonly talk to each other in the mind and have active and full conversations with one another and can help each other with certain difficult situations. It's actually extremely useful in everyday life in a lot of ways, we can simply allow someone who is better at something to do that thing (i.e. Zee doing the cooking, because he's better at it than I am.)
12:50 : On different personalities having different abilities: For me that's true with limitations. For example, Zee (mentioned above) has a natural knack for cooking that I don't have, he's talented and just tends to know what a dish needs, on the other hand, he's also supposed to be able to speak Japanese and is of Japanese nationality, but because my brain doesn't hold that information, he can't simply pull it out of the air. I wager if we chose to learn Japanese, he'd pick it up very quickly compared to myself and it would be very natural for him, but as it stands now he doesn't have that ability because I don't have the knowledge. So while in some ways yes we do have different strengths and abilities, there are limitations of the body and mind. Generally, we simply see what everyone in the system is interested in and slowly incorporate more of that knowledge into the mind, as it can be distressing for them to try and access information that should (for them) exist, yet it does not exist in my mind.
19:56 : On switching on the use of their name: This is true for us in most cases. A lot of my alters like attention and if you talk directly to them, they will at least co-front to answer. All alters have their own triggers though, as is briefly mentioned here, for me often these triggers are simply met with wordless emotional reactions in the brain space, but sometimes they'll front as well, depending on what it is and what the situation is, but it does call their awareness.
21:50 : On rapid switching: This was mentioned earlier but more prominently here. Personally, rapid switching is very easy for me. It's not so easy for others I've met and talked to and what is said here is pretty accurate for most it seems like. Switching can also be harder between certain alters, for example switching between Zee and K in my system used to be very hard until they learned to get along better and settled into a comfortable place with each other. My alter Kazu takes awhile because he's far more timid and afraid to come forward. Generally though, for me, switching is easy, can be rapid and can also be partial (for example Zee making a comment out loud and my sibling or boyfriend pointing it out when even I didn't realize) but my system seems to be fairly unique and this is likely also thanks to being OSDD-1b instead of DID.
Anyway that's my very long 2cents I wanted to put out there from my experience with having alters. I haven't seen Split and to be honest I probably won't, it'd probably be negatively triggering for us, but I found this episode super interesting!
Cofronting is definitely a thing, rapid switching is a very real thing and very disorienting. I front most and honestly used to have a similar attitude to Kevin in feeling like I was responsible for the others actions (although I recently discovered I'm not the original and boy was that a trip). Hedwig made the littles pop out for a bit and we had to push them back a bit cause we were worried there were scenes that would not be safe for them.
omg we didn't realize that there was a movie about D.I.D most of us is crying we thought people didn't care about us but we will say that every system is different but we would like to thank you because you guys helped me so much, Alan you help us to make us feel safe with crying in your other videos and Jonathan you help us to face our trauma thank you so much -lilly (writing what alex is saying because he can't spell)
Multiple personalities can indeed be present at the same time. In my case, all alters are a little present and one or two "take the wheel", like we're all on the same boat. I personally don't always remember what happens with them if I'm left out but they seem to all have an idea about what I'm doing all the time. Sometimes I still feel like "me" but it's "me plus so and so" and how I feel and act is like a mesh of us both.
I’m glad this one is getting covered! My S/O has DID and his mom doesn’t know. We watched it as a family downstairs and she grew to fear mental illnesses as a result, while not knowing someone with it sat right next to her. We don’t plan on telling her as this family is a bit toxic about mental disorders (even depression/anxiety) but we tried to remind her it’s just a movie. It’s definitely a roller coaster sometimes but not something to inherently fear. I love my S/O and all his personalities and do my best to help guide each one with what they need, whether it’s comfort or being treated simply as a human with real wants/fears.
@Greywolf757 It really kind of is. In my situation one of them was upset because they couldn't see an ex girlfriend (Oddly with the same name as me) but the rest had moved on. I don't consider myself to be dating three of them tbh since they are "underage" (4, 11, 15) but we are like friends! I do "date" his oldest alter (21) though and it really is like dating two different people that are very similar. I treat them the same though. I know it's probably strange to consider but I got used to it surprisingly fast, haha! In my experience even the ones I didn't like we have learned to coexist. I hope this all makes sense.
If you are dating someone with DID, isn't that like dating a bunch of people, except that you don't get to choose them and have to date a pre-made group? What if you don't love some of the alters?
Thats tough I hope they came come around to be more accepting
Im in the same boat as u with my s/o I cant say things get easier because there are alit of misconceptions of did but they do get better I wish u and your s/o the best of luck/g
🙌🏽❤
As someone who was diagnosed with DID I am so glad you've covered this!
I was diagnosed with DID many years ago and had years of therapy. It was a hard and difficult journey facing pain/trauma that I couldn't face as a child. I am now a fully integrated person, which has challenges of its own. I hate how DID is portrayed in movies and tv series. My split off versions of me were for my protection, they weren't monsters. Yes, sometimes they made immature irrational decisions, but that is all. My husband would say that you could hardly tell I had DID, except that I could change 'moods' really quickly. Sometimes I would dress one way n then another the next day. My likes and dislikes could be different every day. I was terrified that if people found out that I had DID I would be harmed more, because of the stigma of mental illness n the rubbish seen in movies. We kept my therapy journey a secret. If people wondered what was wrong with me, ie why therapy, I'd just say I have depression.
I really appreciate that you guys are open to receiving critique from people with first hand experiences and that you have fostered a community of acceptance for acknowledging mistakes and learning/ growing. That community has also led people to feel comfortable commenting with first had experiences on so many videos which is a real gift for learning more about other's experiences and journeys through life. I always believe that listening to someone's lived in experience is the best source. Thanks to any systems who shared your commentary too!
2 identities can front at the same time, it's usually refered to as co-fronting or co-consciousness though I've never seen or experienced it quite as it's described in the movie. In my experience that's one of the few times you /may/ audibly hear a conversation between alters, but usually alter conversation are internal.
Edit: I am part of a diagnosed DID system.