Please take a moment with me to indulge my hypothetical situation.

Imagine a bizzarro world where a therapist gives a patient therapy. It's a brand new therapy, it's never been tested; but you don't know this. It's called Existential Reframing Therapy. Or "ERT."

So you sit down in a comfy therapist chair, and they tell you that this therapy works. That it is THE treatment for your Existential Reality Disorder.

The disorder you have causes you to feel constant fear over whether anything is actually real.

The therapist tells you that it's okay if nothing is real, since everything is subjective. Each day, this is what you do. Reaffirm that subjectivity is important. They tell you that everyone defines reality differently.

They get you to focus on the present.

Something strikes you as odd. They never reaffirm that you yourself are in fact real. You can't remember them even bringing up the topic.

Therapy continues, and you begin to feel better. Your disorder starts to abate. Some days it's hard. Some days things are much better.

It's almost 2/3 of the way through your therapy. And your therapist sits you down and says that the next step is the most important.

They tell you...that you need to lie in a black room with soundproofed walls. And you need to repeat "I am not real." Over and over again.

You trust them. You're scared, but you want to get better. You don't want to do it. But you say to yourself, "I'll be alright, they know what they're doing."

So you agree to it.

A week later, you enter your therapist's office. They ask you to follow them to a room down the hall. A persistent feeling of dread fills you.

You enter the soundproofed room and lie down on a small bed, one that is incredibly comfortable.

Through a small earpiece your therapist feeds you the line, "I am not real."

They turn off the light in the room. And you begin to chant along with the earpiece. Your doctor says that you'll begin doing this by yourself now that you've got the line memorized.

You do this for what seems like forever. But instead of feeling relieved like they told you. You feel terrified. You're sweating, and shaking. You no longer know if you're real or not.

By the time they open the door, you aren't any better than when you entered. You're worse. But you've been told by them that, "Sometimes you have to get worse before you get better."

They reassure you repeatedly. And not once do they mention that the therapy hasn't been studied.

[End of story]

What I just described to you, is how DID systems are treated by therapists. Metaphorically speaking.

The first 2/3 of treatment involves communication and cooperation between alters/headmates. The last third, is "integration of alters" into one person.

DID systems are repeatedly reinforced throughout therapy not to see their alters as people. It's subtle at first. At the end, the therapist forces them to integrate by coercion. Telling them that integration will make them better. Make them "normal and healthy."

This, is why we have plural acceptance week, and plural pride day.

Because doctors want to fix something that isn't broken. It's just different. They provide therapy that helps, but then turns into coercion, grooming, and conversion therapy.

We've never been in such a situation. But it isn't hard to internalize the sort of ideas that these "DID therapists" believe so strongly in.

I (Hyacinth) internalized those beliefs. About my headmates being parts. About them being "dysfunctional and abnormal."

I know first hand the amount of damage and chaos it can create within a plural system. I know how badly it can mess up communication, and functioning. How it can cause headmates emotional harm.

If you're a singlet, I want you to imagine a therapist telling you, "You aren't a real person. You're fake."

Can you imagine having that said to you repeatedly. Can you imagine the amount of existential damage that causes?

Does that seem okay to you?

If systems want to integrate to become a singlet. That's fine by me. As long as it's a choice. Not coercion. Not grooming. And not continual devaluation by a supposed "medical professional."

It's sick. And I wish more people knew this was happening.

If you want a paper to read about it, I'd recommend "Critiquing the Requirement of Oneness over Multiplicity" by Kymbra Clayton. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228978385_Critiquing_the_Requirement_of_Oneness_over_Multiplicity_An_Examination_of_Dissociative_Identity_Disorder_in_Five_Clinical_Texts

I was debating tagging this in #PluralGang but I figure, hey, people like my thread. Why not?

If you're anti-endogenic/plural please don't interact. I won't reply, I'll just block you.

Clarification: Anti-endogenic/Anti-plural LOL my bad.