symptoms anyone?

[idianshire.livejournal.com]

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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[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, there's "owning far too many books", which is probably the major 'symptom' around here: Kír's the serious scholar, and I collect fantasy and SF, so our combined library is rather vast.

There's "changing clothes a lot" - Crist-Erui takes off anything he finds uncomfortable; a lot of the stuff he does find comfortable would not survive his wearing it outdoors; Kír objects to feminine clothing. So... we may go through several different outfits in a single day. We've all got our own favorite boots, coats, etc.

What else? Well, I never knew I did this, until jhonathand came to live here and pointed it out: apparently fairly often when I'm talking I'll pause, then totally revise what I was saying. This isn't because we've "switched", though - it's still me; just that Kír's listening to the conversation too, and sometimes - okay, often - makes remarks about what I'm saying. He objects to me being vulgar, bitchy, or "overly forthcoming", and a lot of times I don't realize that I am being so till he mentions it, so then have to back-track.

My kid says she can always tell when Crist-Erui 'flickers in' when I'm performing (I'm a Ren Faire musician) because he gets "that deer-in-the-headlights look" for just an instant. His guitar-technique is more fluid and powerful than mine, so when he 'flickers out' again, a lot of times I'll fumble a little before I catch my flow again. I don't think anyone but another guitarist would notice this, though, and certainly nobody would guess the cause if they didn't already know.

People who do know don't seem to have much trouble telling us apart. Our posture and movement is different enough that we can't "pass" as one another even if we don't talk - this is kind of a problem for Kír at present; he'd like to go do archery with one of my friends who doesn't know him, but doesn't want to reveal himself as a different person. (Kír is generally opposed to revealing himself as a different person; he says that people who don't know or can't tell don't need to know.)

Both my daughter and our housemate jhonathand say that our scent changes when we 'switch' - that we bring forth different notes of whatever fragrance we're wearing. This would probably only be noticeable to someone who spent a lot of time in close proximity to all three of us, so as to have a basis for comparison.

LOL, if the glasses are off outdoors, that'd be Crist-Erui, because Kír and I can't manage without them. If we're striding happily out the door - without the glasses - an hour before dawn in the midst of a howling January gale, that would be Crist-Erui. He is very shy, though, and Kír is very paranoid about strangers learning of his existence, so unless you're on the 'short list', your chances of seeing him for more than a moment or two are negligible.

We've spent our whole lives learning not to "show symptoms of multiplicity", and I think we're pretty damn good at it. People who know can tell us apart, but I don't think there's any way that someone who didn't know could tell for sure. My daughter says she figured it out when she was 6, because she followed Crist-Erui into the forest and watched him, but I don't think she really *knew*, and she didn't ask directly till she was 14.

LOL, jhonathand and I got all kinds of hilarious, sitting out on the porch while I tried to imitate Kír's voice and manner of speaking. I thought I did it pretty well the last try, but both he and Kír say no, not convincing. Ohh well - *grins* - I'm a bard, not an actress.

[unknown-tales.livejournal.com]

This isn't because we've "switched", though - it's still me; just that Kír's listening to the conversation too, and sometimes - okay, often - makes remarks about what I'm saying. He objects to me being vulgar, bitchy, or "overly forthcoming", and a lot of times I don't realize that I am being so till he mentions it, so then have to back-track.

That happens a lot with me, though I'm on the other end from you. My sister has social problems, and we work together on trying to get better at it by me guiding her in certain situations. There are a lot of times I will make my sister go back and change her words, because I'm more conscientious of how they will be taken. I like to be careful about how we come off to other people. But then again, I do it sometimes just to annoy her. :)

[idianshire.livejournal.com]

A few of the people that know about us joke in a good way about the deer in the headlights look that comes over us when there is a switch without prior information gathering. That momentary, oh shit I should have paid more attention before stepping in. Another friend said we sometime look vague, what they knowing enough about how we work recognise as me listening to other people talking, passing along information or just being amusing (or a pain in the butt depending on who you are talking to). The way we work there is often a large "peanut gallery" around, talking amongst themselves, making inappropriate (but often amusing) comments, or if Kate is part of it, correcting my grammar.

I think for someone we have allowed into our lives enough for them to be told about our multiplicity, they can pick up signs of it pretty easily, but most people unaware of what they are seeing don't get shown much.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

LOL, I'm pretty sure Crist-Erui can see and hear what's going on with us physically when he's not corporeal, the same as Kír and I can. What I think is that he gets drawn in by the music - he loves music, and he's fast enough at 'switching' to sing duets with me - but then he gets stage fright about all those strangers looking at him. After all, he's lived most of his life with the ironclad rule of No One Must Know; it's only a year and a half since that rule was changed to allow him to make contact with a few close friends.

Looking vague... LOL, I suspect I look kinda vague a lot of the time. It was funny, this past June Faire (http://www.dragonslaire.org/Events/junefaire.htm), my dear friend had told her visiting cousin (who takes an interest in multiplicity) about my brothers, and the lady thought she'd seen one of them. Well, no, in fact she hadn't - Kír didn't take form once that whole weekend, and while Crist-Erui was corporeal a lot, he spent all his time with the dogs; the only non-canine person he spoke to was my kid. My friend's cousin thought I was 'somebody else' because I didn't seem to recognize her... LOL, I'm prosopagnosic (http://www.spidernet.nl/~martijn_dekker/otsp/prosopagnosia.html), June Faire is a huge event, and the lady in question is kinda short, kinda plump, kinda middle-aged, has kinda neutral-colored medium-short medium-curly hair, just like thousands of other women at the event. So my not-recognizing her had nothing to do with my brothers; t'was all just me.

*grins* Actually, I'm sure she did see Crist-Erui at some point - everybody must've seen him, but only as a laughing blur in green as he raced past with either the adorable golden puppy or the big black wolflike critter. He's too fast to catch, though, both in his physical running and in his ability to "flicker out" of situations he can't cope with, like having to talk to someone.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Owing to the presence of Gabriel Ragland, Soriya Ruka, Various and Sundry, Paralegals at Large, and the Children, just don't even get us started on the book situation around here. This apartment is exploding. This has been a plural service announcement.