The Regent System
[terms in italics are blanket terms; terms in ‘quotes’ are specific to me]
Hello Tumblr. I have a confession to make-
I am a plural.
I suffer from a mental illness called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). What that means is that there are other identities (multiples, headmates, etc) that exist within my conscious self (headspace, innerworld).
My headmates are completely developed identities, entirely separate from myself. That being said: they are people too! They have their own feelings, thoughts, desires, needs, fears, interests, mannerisms, accents, sexualities, senses of humor, favourite foods, colours, etc- they are diverse and multidimensional, just like people who do not experience multiplicity (singletons).
These multiples operate within a central system within my headspace. The system that my active multiples currently reside in is called ‘The Regent System’. From inside this system my headmates are free to interact with each other and myself as they please. They are generally very involved, present at the forefront of my consciousness (the meetspace), and offer a running commentary on the day to day events of my life. However, sometimes they return inworld and do not wish to participate in the meetspace.
There are currently six active headmates functioning within this system- Ren, Levi, Anna, Fawkes, Juno, and myself.
Ren and Levi identify as male- Anna, Fawkes, and Juno identify as female, the corresponding sex of the body. I, myself, tend to lean towards genderqueer* and often tessellate between the two binary sexes, generally hovering in a non binary zone.
I am what is called the main or core- I am the dominant identity, the earliest inhabitant of the original system. Because I suffer from DID, the multiples in the active system do not appear at random- they are formed by me, in times of distress or overwhelming emotional stimuli, as a result of trauma that I experienced during my childhood and adolescence. My headmates are restricted to their active system. They cannot come and go as they please- they are bound to the ‘Regent’.
However, all of my headmates have the ability to front- to be the functioning identity in charge of the body and its mechanisms. For me personally, switching identities is a painful process- however, this is typically not the case for most plurals. Switching between Ren and myself tends to take the most effort, as he is my ‘keeper’- a scribe/ librarian (for lack of a better word) who attends to cataloguing/organizing my memories and allowing/disallowing my access to said memories. This is a very specific trait to my system, and does not necessarily mean that every plural has the same functions within their systems.
Do not assume that every system operates in the same ways. If you are curious, ask questions!
If you are still confused about something, check out the link below-
http://livingplural.tumblr.com/Faq
My askbox is always open- if you wish to know more about my own personal multiplicity, feel free to inquire.
NOTE: Please try not to make blanket statements, and ask specific questions. It is easier for everyone if we have something precise to speak about, as we do not wish to give anyone the wrong perceptions of plurals in general- we are only one system, so we cannot answer for the general populace of plurals.
-Nym
oh my god i’m at the grocery store and there is a guy in the frozen section who is tweaked off his balls on some kind hallucinatory drug.
i’m in the next isle meowing softly through the cereal boxes where he can’t see me and he is losing his shit pulling pizza boxes out of the freezers and yelling that he needs to save the popsicle cat
am i a bad person
