Faking DID isn't actually that big of a deal, being a DID cop is. - The Crystal Website A common cause of discourse in DID spaces, and around DID in general, is the concept of "fakers"
basically, the idea is some people apparently 'fake DID' for some reason. (usually the claim is its 'for attention' but occasionally others exist) and that its some sort of popular trend from TikTok or something, This general discourse is often more harmful to the community and people with the condition, than any actual harm from so called 'fakers' and more generally it kind of contributes to the idea that DID itself isn't real, and is instead a (.. 500 year old) "trend"
that people just claim to have because some movie you've probably never heard of popularized it.
and more reports of it came about after that or something .. (it was also standardized in the DSM around that time too, but im sure that had nothing to do with it /sarcasm) this kind of reputation both by complete random and also even *within* the community has caused me to fall into spirals of
denial and self-doubt and self-blame towards myself, basically whenever anything happens that don't perfectly match some
idealized case of what it 'should be' like. it makes us feel when we are accepted that our acceptance is conditional, and we have to never do anything 'wrong'
ive become more private about stuff and dont talk about things as much as i would sometimes like too, as a result There have been times where the opposite has happened too, where its been like "oh i was expecting you to be one of those fakers,
but you actually seem to have it", you would think this would make you feel better, however it actually just tells me that
you started interacting with me in bad-faith, you still came into it doubting what i was going through, what is actually happening with me
the fact i later seemed 'good enough' to you, only further reinforces the feeling that acceptance and support is conditional. and its especially frustrating when you consider People w DID need help and support,
not to be met with immediate distrust and having to prove themselves..
and more generally that "catching fakers" causes more harm to people with DID. than any "faker" ever could; but more generally- this is not my first rodeo; and i have seen this whole 'faking for attention' claim thrown around in a bunch of other places.
over and over again, almost always being completely bullshit, and dare i say. is quite often is an excuse for ableism or punching-down at people with mental issues; it was said about trans people, whenever anyone uttered the word "MOGAI" (though, it was complaining about "tumblr" back then not tiktok. )
i heard someone claim it about PTSD back in the day, because "they weren't in a war" or some shit heck i even saw it claimed about people in neo-pagan religions primarily Wicca (and to an extent also Satanism);
where apparently people would only be part of it 'for attention' or 'to be edgy anti-christians' recently even i saw a similar thing speedrunning community, where because of a couple viral of videos about cheating scandals,
everyone is assuming every random speedrunner they come across is a cheater (just like how say, every random system they come across is fake) often bullshit back then too, (but it was "tumblr" back then instead of "tiktok" but it was the same shit.) like basically i have seen this before; and it was nonsense at best, or thinly disguised bigotry at worst, the last 10 times,
so god forbid i think it might just be that again this time; especially when those i see targeted it, are often those who are more 'public' about it;
and disproportionately are those who have some kind of 'weird' or 'cutesy' aesthetic like pixielocks and usually its just some alter is publicly themselves with something or has a not completely negative experience;
someone is making relatable memes or joke kinda 'bit' content, (which is common on places like TikTok ...) another observation about this (and every other instance of this happening) is;
although some might outright claiming the thing isn't real, another thing is common; that it is real, and some people really are this; like e.g "some people really do have DID"
BUT that no one you ever encounter online ever actually is, its some super specific idealized version of the group,
which no one ever perfectly fits. if this is targeting trans people this is often like the perfect trans girl who knew since she was 5,
went on puberty blockers, later went on estrogen, and who presents super hyperfeminine in every possible aspect
only played with barbies and doll houses as a kid, always wanted super long hair, etc ..
never ever call out transphobia, and have no issues with people being denied autonomy or being gatekeeping of HRT ..
and when its autistic people its, stim exactly the way i expect, have special interests in trains or whatever;
have no problem with the world trying to eugenics you & always talk over victims of conversion therapy, when its targeting people w DID, its not too dissimilar either; its often like you have to have perfect 100% memory separation at all times
your alters must always be conflicting on every single issue ever, you must never enjoy any interaction with yourselves ever;
and you never speak of or even hint at any of this; very few, if any people actually meet this criteria, often its self-contradictory;
for example you might be 'too overtly feminine so your fake' or 'not feminine enough so your clearly fake'
maybe your special interests 'aren't specific enough' or there 'too specific';
or perhaps 'you know too much about your alters' or .. 'you know too little about your alters' your not supposed to actually meet this, no one is its just some 'other' they can use
to say their defending the "REAL" (group); whom your somehow negatively impacting-
in a way that is only "solved" by calling out and invalidating you;
the fact that free HRT for all would still be beneficial to the hyperfeminine trans women doesn't matter,
because its not about that, its about having an excuse to invalidate trans identities; likewise, easy access to DID and trauma care for basically anyone who wants it;
and alters being freely able to be themselves without any issues and recognized separately
would be beneficial to all of us; but again that doesn't matter, that was never the point the point was to white-knight on behalf of the 'true systems' against the evil fakers ruining everything! i suspect that what i have just described, is a fairly common reasoning for most of it,
having an excuse to invalidate or bully someone is definitely the primary motivator for certain subreddits with 'cringe' in their name;
and various websites that definitely have no ties to targeted harassment sites however- i think the reasons this happens are sometimes a bit more nuanced and don't have one single cause;
it is often also caused by alot of other issues, like the plurality vs DID divide, endogenic vs traumagenic stuffs;
as well as probably differences in online/offline identity, and other personal issues and so on;
The DID & Plurality divide; So, the most obvious reason is that there is also massive discourse around the concept of "Plurality".
if you don't know, basically "plurality" is a very broad term to describe any individual who feels they are comprised of 'more than one' in some way; this typically is inclusive of DID, however crucially, does not have too actually be DID,
it includes philosophical concepts, religious and spiritual practices, 'occult' practices; and more its a very broad range of concepts that just so happens to include dissociative disorders;
despite this, they still almost universally use "system" related terminology, like "Fronting" and "Switching"
and call themselves a "System" .. even if whats actually going on with them is Not DID another result of this is that often "Plural" spaces are not as focused on trauma, dissociation, typical forms of healing, etc;
and more about individuals within a system expressing themselves, and interacting with eachother and it's for this reason, some people with DID do not like this terminology and may even consider it something separate entirely-
some go as far to claim its generally harmful to them and should be avoided. however. some others, don't mind this. or may even prefer this approach, and/or find it beneficial in some ways;
usually feeling the way others react too it is unkind, unfair or otherwise misinformed; sometimes both sides to this can be very vocal and honestly say things that are kind of hurtful to eachother;
often some will claim those other types of systems "aren't real"; and/or are "faking DID";
and that DID systems are the ONLY systems; which is in turn seen as gatekeeping and hurtful, often pointed out that they are not even claiming to have it; and overall is just a huge freaking mess, frequently devolves into "us-vs-them narratives"
that frankly you probably shouldn't get involved with; like honestly we should just ✨be kinder✨, of course no one is going to react well to being told their entire lived experiences are fake,
or accused of lying, and no one is likely to react well to their trauma and issues not being addressed; if you have a reason to want to avoid this, feel free too, if you don't feel free to not either;
im not about to tell you what's secretly super harmful to you despite you not feeling harmed by it in the slightest;
just do whatever works, because ultimately, this whole thing just comes down to
language prescription and semantics over what words mean- it just ends up at "What does 'system' mean" (and more generally, 'Plurality or DID' is just "Social model vs Medical model" discourse all over again ..) you have better more important things to worry about, i promise <3
Differences in online identity and offline identity: a common thing said as to why someone is "fake" is that DID patients are typically ashamed or otherwise closed-off about their symptoms
and often don't want to talk about it however a thing not often discussed as much is why exactly this is the case, and in what ways it can presents; often the only extent of this you ever hear is "people with DID often are closed off or and ashamed about their DID;
and dont want to talk about it, (insert openly DID content creator here) must be fake!" first why, the reason is generally because its not really too safe to do so. you were often raised in an environment where if you did say anything
it would probably put you at risk, and another reason is that its kinda common to self-blame yourself in a kind of "ugh why cant i just not be like this" however these safety issues do not exist in the same way on the internet, or at the very least are not often as apparent;
many people (myself included honestly) feel alot more comfortable sharing things about ourselves online than in person- for a number of reasons, the most obvious one is people online cannot easily physically hurt you, however another reason is the 'feeling' of being more anonymous;
of course, this is not to say that sharing things online actually is completely safe or that theres nothing to worry about, there are; just its different.
but also it only needs to *appear* safer, not actually necessarily *be* safer. or more generally is 'different' its not uncommon have a fairly high seperation between you online, and you in-person
and its not actually a given that they might have significantly harder time talking about or interacting with these things in-person than it is online this is particularly common for generally younger people, than it is for older people, and you often become more aware of issues that still exist online
as you get older, which could explain why its seen more around younger people. i know that atleast for me personally, i definitely do keep online/offline worlds separate, and feel much more comfortable writing things
online than i do in-person, and i am definitely significantly more reluctant to talk about our DID to anyone who i actually know like physically. there is of course also the possibility that they are somewhere down the path of recovery and have improved on this
or just generally were in a different situation that made these things happen slightly differently. where this just didn't happen in the first place another aspect to this is that in general, you only see the aspects of people they choose to share with you, and nothing else
and people typically dont want to share the really hard vulnerable parts of their lives with just anyone; so in a very real sense they might be more closed off or 'ashamed' of the really bad times; and opt not to share them,
whereas more 'an alter made a nice artwork' like moments; are maybe fine.
Conditional acceptance leads to more conditional acceptance, a common thing shared by those who do fakeclaim stuff, is this idea that its somehow "making us seem like a joke"
i.e that because theirs 'plurals' and 'endogenics' and whatnot, running around, this apparently leads to " psychology professionals don't take us seriously ";
and thus makes it harder for us to access healthcare services. But to be honest, the issue here lies with psychology professionals not random people on the internet trying to understand themselves;
if someone did this id be pretty sure they'd be basically looking for any reason to dismiss DID outright; and this is just their latest excuse in general, trying to find some reason to dismiss DID outright and claim the entire thing isn't real is not really anything new;
not to mention just doing this in general seems to mirror Respectability Politics quite a bit; i am not the first one to recognize this, i mean there is a reason the word 'sysmed' gets thrown around often in these spaces,
because what they are doing here somewhat mirrors what happened with transgender people,
and the 'transmedicalist' things that came up as a result of that, to be honest this kind of thoughts is kind of very common in DID, i mean its kind of the thing with persecutors too right
like 'oh yeah, if only i just did what (abusive person) demanded of us better, maybe they wouldn't have abused us'
and pushing self-blame towards yourself; so to an extent its not too weird to see that here too but yeah its "if we just appear more palatable to those who refuse to acknowledge us, then maybe they might do so"
however, all people need support and care, regardless of how 'palatable' they are; and this effects people w DID diagnosis too;
even if it didn't everyone needs support and care, regardless of what they mean when they say 'system.' but also just, what exactly do you expect to happen?
i highly doubt wider "plural systems" are going anywhere; telling them their fake or 'impossible' just makes you come off as a dick, its clearly not doing anything.
And ultimately if someone is actually faking DID, i really don't care that much,
like what? they get treated like multiple online? if they want to be treated that way, you should probably already be doing it; some 'attention-seeking' teenager online gets the attention they need and is on the spotlight for 5 seconds?
oh no! the horror, anyway who cares, i get more attention from releasing vita homebrew than from having DID; they might be able to access disability benefits and welfare programs everyone should have access too anyway?
so some people might fake DID as a last resort to survive in a world thats hostile to them?? or gasp they might use it to avoid having their rights systemically violated and avoiding having violence committed against them by the state?
okay. so faking DID is sometimes a form of non-violent self defense? (albeit; an often ineffective one) why am i supposed to be mad again? however on the contrary; every single system basically being met with doubt and or distrust whenever they do anything anywhere,
is something that makes me mad though; everyone who is publicly a system having to deal with tons of shit
claiming their just faking for attention or somehow "harming real systems", well i have a medical diagnosis; i still get this shit; ive done all that; yet, i dont feel harmed or even slightly threatened by a bunch of random tiktok creators ive never interacted with;
i do about people claiming im somehow not *really* a system, i mean we live in a society thats obsessed with trying to "prove" you "deserve" help;
and it seems pretty close to saying i dont really 'deserve' help .. | 
