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Here I go, rewriting my pIuraIgang experience with a clearer head, hoping my concerns will be more straightforward [thread]
Upon reflection most of my concerns from my personal experience with them is the part of their subculture that promotes thoughtforms/tuIpamancy. There is also an issue in how they describe being a system that is damaging to spread.
Not until I interacted with the DID community did I see a fault in certain ideas regarding end*genic systems, but I'll talk about that elsewhere.
For those who don't know: thoughtforms/tuIpas are alters formed willingly. You form these by engaging with an entity that isn't there until it forms as an alter, essentially. Assuming this works, it's forcing dissociation on your brain. Dissociation is a stress response.
When I first encountered pIuraIgang, it was in a discord server I joined to learn more about DID, because a friend of mine had come out to me as an OSDD system and I wanted to support them.
When I had learned about OSDD however, I felt connected to it. Something about it interested me. It was kind of relatable. But I brushed it away because it's really not something you decide about yourself on a whim anyway.
At the time, I suffered from intense feelings of isolation (basically because of depression). The server in question had a channel where systems could ask singlets questions.
I loved sharing experiences and having others share their experiences at me. But the channel was mostly filled with questions about "isn't it so lonely in your head?". I can't remember how many times I admitted it but I said that yes, I was lonely.
Eventually my depression got to me, and I trusted the server at the time, so I vented there about my isolation feelings. Essentially a feeling that it's "me against the world". It was intense, distressing, and I was vulnerable at that time.
One of them suggested I could become a system. I could make a tuIpa if I was lonely. After all the questions about being lonely as a singlet, and now this person offering this solution, I was beginning to think maybe pIuraIity was the only way to fix my problem
When thoughtforms/tuIpas are encouraged to be created by this subculture, it's promoting maladaptation. It's promoting avoiding the problem, making a permanent change to the structure of your brain (assuming it works), to cope with an issue.
DID/OSDD, and similarly dissociation, are caused by unbearable stress to the brain that it has to find a way to take it. Dissociation disconnects you from the stressor. DID/OSDD disconnects and splits the workload to multiple people.
So essentially it'd be promoting severe stress on your brain. It also ignores any issues the disorders come with. Yes you can have a happy, healthy life as a system, but frequent dissociation, memory gaps, and the severe stigma against multiplicity are nothing to take lightly
Yet they promoted it as a healthy solution. As if it were no different than talking to a therapist, or taking some time off for self care. Dissociation and DID/OSDD are a brain's *last resorts* to survival, to retaining sanity. It should not be forced.
This idea has been seen spreading beyond my situation as there's been groups of pIuraIs asking how to learn to dissociate. This, to me, implies that pIuraIgang is promoting maladaptation
After I'd left the server I dropped the question of multiplicity for a while. I did not want to create a whole person to fulfill one single need of mine. They'd have a right to their own life, not to serve me. But, I started questioning again, and I re-entered pIuraIgang via twt
Now, validation and acceptance are great things, but there can be too much of a good thing. Similar to the concept of toxic positivity. If you were to ask if "such and such" was a system experience, youd be met with validation that it is.
Which sounds wonderful! Because diverse experiences do happen, and it's nice to be validated that the experience, though unusual, can align with your label. The problem is, from what I saw, they did that for everything.
I have never seen them say that something isn't a system thing if someone asks, including myself. It felt repetitive and monotonous so I didn't take their thoughts to heart this time. But when I was questioning back in that server, the same thing happened.
This lead me to believe I might have more alters that I actually have. And when I figured out that these are probably not alters afterall, I disregarded the alter I might actually have as fake. Nova was either buried among false alters or assumed false himself by proximity
Questioning from there was complicated, because I couldnt tell if what I was experiencing was true, or if I was imposing it on myself, like when I convinced myself I had several alters
When everything is validated, the difference between being a system and not becomes nonexistent
When everything is validated, the difference between being a system and not becomes nonexistent
So you'll get people claiming something about their mental health that isn't true, as well as erasing the distinction between DID and being a singlet. This is harmful to the singlets, who won't get the help they need should they need it, because they have the wrong understanding.
This is also harmful to people with DID/OSDD because equating all experiences to being a system, even singlet experiences, takes away the word we can use to describe our experiences and needs. This is why we have a diagnostic criteria.
Yes, there is a lot we don't know about the brain, and experiences could extend beyond what is listed, but the DSM still describes what we *know so far*. At the very least it is a baseline for judging being a system. Or else we risk losing the language we use for ourselves.
The purpose of this thread isn't to accuse anyone of faking multiplicity. Tbh that's kind of a dick move. But if we are to expand our definition of being multiple, the way it's happening right now is unhealthy
