To the DID Community, from an elder “system”

I wouldn’t ever call myself a “system”, but that’s another post entirely.

Tumblr is not my natural habitat. I made a site in 2012, but never built a following. I’ve dipped in again after hearing that there is a community here of people who write about their experiences with Dissociative Identity Disorder. I was astonished however, to discover that there appears to be a significant number of people “adopting” the DID diagnosis as an “identity”. Adopting identities seems to be an affliction of the younger generation, the product perhaps of taking identity politics a bit too far combined with gaming culture and the nature of contemporary social media. Still, I’m quite stunned by this occurrence, although I shouldn’t be, I suppose. People will do whatever they must do in order to divorce themselves from the cruelest of realities, especially realities that threaten world views, or in other words, threaten perceived communal bonds.

This is a long way round of saying, for those of you on tumblr who are rather publicly working out your issues in the aftermath of extreme and ongoing trauma, keep up the good fight. Also, consider adopting a modified approach. Is making a spectacle out of the unique features of an adaptive response to trauma like DID really the most beneficial way to go about affecting change? Are you a person with a fascinating, or dare I say, entertaining mental condition or are you someone who’s been a victim of unacknowledged and unaddressed criminal activity? I suggest the latter is far more important. Trafficking, non-state torture, state torture, war, child abuse, these are the central issues. There’s no use in creating spectacle if it doesn’t lead to a more productive focusing of attention.

Regardless, there is some value in just putting it all out for all to see. Good luck & heal well.

