multiplicity_archives | symptoms anyone?

I have been wondering since a previous post what the symptoms of multiplicity (not the disordered view) actually are. I mean I know what you read on other websites, but they seem more to do with post traumatic stress than multiplicity, or someone that thinks Sybil is the only multiple known in the last 50 years. Now I don’t mean what makes someone multiple, we are fine with our definition of that, the debate here is what would be on a checklist. I hate the word symptom because it does imply illness, maybe characteristics would be a better word. Things like time loss.. which I know a lot of multiples don’t actually have, I suppose we do lose time, although as Tryall said it isn’t so much that we lose time as much as someone’s life/activities/ are so boring no one else pays any attention. We lose time by a conscious choice. We hear voices but in a study we took part in the woman running it said that hearing voices is something a large part of the population does anyway. Maybe there aren’t any clear cut symptoms/characteristics that are relevant to multiples/plurals as a group, and maybe we are all just so bored that the most exciting thing for us to do is argue amongst ourselves on this foggy day… which is more likely

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Actually it's not the best ever worded question we have made. I have my own definition for what makes someone multiple, very basically for us it is if there is more than one person that does or can have some sort of executive control over the body. it might not be everyone's definition but it works for us.

See what happened was in the recent post by golovelovekitty there was some discussion about symptoms and it got us talking amongst ourselves what those symptoms would be. I remember when we first came online there were these sort of checklists, most of the symptoms I think are debatable, things like, do you lose time, do you have stuffed toys, do you have items of clothes you don't remember buying and the like. There was a non-multiple woman on a list who was writing a book to "help the poor multiples" (*blah*) and she had a strange list, in her opinion anyone that had a shirt with a disney character on it must be multiple (or just have really bad taste in clothing). So being incredibly bored, and the kids couldn't be bothered watching their tv programmes we got into a discussion about what would be the checklist for functional/healthy or just plain old every day multiplicity would be, whether there would or could be a list of characteristics symptoms that would point to multiplicity in people's lives.

So I don't know if that made any more sense than my original question

It might be hard to come up with any sort of checklist about something that is NOT a disorder, because for a disorder, there are certain things that happen... The major one being that whatever it is interrupts daily living.

But for healthy, functional multiplicity, at least what we've seen/experienced, it seems like there are almost as many takes on it as there are people experiencing it. Yes, there are shared experiences, but the overall experience gets largely defined by the individuals/groups experiencing it...

Yes and I think that's why all we ended up doign was arguing amongst ourselves, because multiplicity (removed from disordered view) is far too individualistic and well.. mundane

"Do you have stuffed toys." *snort* I remember that checklist. At the time, I worked in an office where men kept a stuffy or two on their desk -- they were parents. And the women, I won't even go into what they had.

We don't have any stuffed toys - I gave all my old ones to my daughter when she was little. We don't have any clothing with cartoon characters on them either, and never have had, not even in childhood - I never liked them; I don't even really like prints. Crist-Erui doesn't seem to care at all what his clothes look like; just how they feel. He never went shopping in his life - heh, he wouldn't set foot in a mall; all those lights and noises and strangers. I'm the one who buys all our clothing; it's like pulling hen's teeth to get Kír to even express an opinion about what he likes or doesn't like.

What's up with this idea that every multiple House has to have children? We don't, and I know other Houses that don't - that sounds like another of those "DID Model" fallacies, based on the erroneous notion that the only way multiplicity occurs is through severe trauma in early childhood.

Oh, all those things we won out of claw-catcher machines at restaraunts because we were bored? Dead giveaway, I guess. :p

But do you have a winnie the pooh t-shirt??

LOL, no-- I don't recall that we ever really liked Winnie the Pooh that much, even when the body was younger.

I suppose that's supposed to imply having littles in the system? That's just steriotyping all around. It reminds me of the Hollow Men sketch where an marketing group was trying to associate ham with being gay. Not all systems have children, not all system children have or want plushes, and there are plenty of adults who have plushes.

It's been my experience that legos, and erector sets aren't nearly as immediately associated with system children, and it's something that kind of bothers me, because these toys could be both fun and educational.

Other possibilities to consider:

You're a pack rat and never threw out your toys.

You've never outgrown collecting memorabilia.

You have kids.

You are susceptible to nostalgia induced impulse purchases.

You are secure enough in your adulthood to purchase childish things.

The plush is just that cool.

Anyway, I have toys, some of them are plush, some aren't. Sometimes it's because of pure dorkdom. The plush Venom is mine dammit, and I'll be first in line for an Omega Red plush.

--Me

Legos, Diskit, and other building toys are what our system children really like! They were never into stuffed toys that much, except for a lovely white cat when we were about six. In college, we got something that looked like a stoned little green alien that said "Blorp" on the tag, just 'cause it was cute, but a young adult bought that. The kids think of it as her mascot.

Anything where you build or create something, or that involves music. Our enormous collection of vinyl records -- everything, classical, rock, religious, not just children's -- actually belongs to them. They love compact discs and love making their own records from the massive mp3 collection which they also helped on. Shadow, who's 3, assisted with the setup for our computer audio recording, so we could make mp3s from vinyl records. Then they had to get every color of Sharpie there was to write titles and decor on the CDs they made. (But jade, who slides between nineteen and twenty-one, also does this.)

Have you seen the plush toys from the Unfortunate Animal of the Month Club (http://www.morbidtendencies.com/botmc-details.html)? I think the Gnashers are my favorites!

No, but it sounds like something we should look into as possibilities, esp. as gifts for like

ihcoyc and others!

symptoms anyone?

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