#corvidforest asks

[thecorvidforest]

I have had a situation recently, and I would like your advice on it. I run a gaming discord server, with private servers for a few games. A streamer joined who claimed to have DID. They seemed to flaunt it all over their streams, seemingly very attention seeking. This, to me, seems likely to be fake, but I am unsure. Can you give any input? I don't want to have someone who makes up mental illnesses, discrediting those who actually have them, around, but I also don't want to falsely accuse someone.

sure, i’m happy to give my input, but it might not be what you’re looking for. you seem to have good intentions and this isn’t meant to bully or shame you at all, i just want to gently push back on this a little bit.

i personally believe there is never a good enough reason to accuse someone of faking a mental illness, especially something like DID/OSDD. there is no reliable way to spot a faker, and accusing people of lying does far more to hurt the community than faking does. let me explain.

some systems like to talk about their experiences, some don’t. same goes for anyone with any condition. talking about one’s plurality frequently is not automatically them flaunting it, and it’s certainly not grounds to assume they’re faking. plurality informs one’s entire life, we should be allowed to talk about it without having to worry if we’re being perceived as attention seeking.

here’s the thing. it’s wonderful that you want to help protect people who have DID/OSDD from people who might be faking it and i don’t doubt for a second that your intentions are genuine, but accusing someone of faking based on how you perceive them will do far more to discredit them than someone who’s actually faking it.

because here’s what’s going to happen if you remove them from your space because you think they’re faking: everyone around you who may be a closeted system - or even just anyone with a highly stigmatized disorder - is going to know that your acceptance of them isn’t based on their self-report, it’s based on your own perception of their symptoms. they will no longer feel free to be themselves, because showing their symptoms comes with the risk of being kicked out. you’ll have effectively made your space less safe for people with stigmatized conditions. and for the accused person, you’ll have removed them from a space that’s meant to be safe and completely invalidated their lived experience based on them choosing to speak about said experience.

on the flipside, let’s say they are faking and you do nothing. most likely scenario, they’re attention seeking and using DID to get the attention they want. what ends up happening most of the time is the person faking it eventually gets tired of the harassment and of having to keep all their lies straight and they stop.

of course lying about an already stigmatized condition for attention is an awful thing to do, and i’m not defending people who do it. what i am saying is that it is far less harmful to accidentally include a liar than it is to exclude someone who may or may not be lying with no way to know for sure if they are.

TLDR: whether they’re faking or not, them talking about it isn’t a reason to assume they are. and regardless, it’s always better to assume they’re telling the truth.

i hope this helps! we had a few switches in the middle of writing this so i’m sorry if the phrasing doesn’t flow well lmao

#corvidforest asks #dissociative identity disorder #did system #osdd #other specified dissociative disorder #osdd 1a #osdd 1b

[thecorvidforest]

CW: claiming RAMCOA is a conspiracy

this popped up on our dash from someone we follow(ed, just unfollowed them after this)

sorry if you don’t want to see this stuff, please ignore this if it’s crossing any boundaries

(IDs: two screenshots of a tumblr post with the username blocked out claiming that RAMCOA is a conspiracy theory that people made up to be cool, that ritual abuse doesn’t exist because the satanic panic was incorrect, and that mind control only happens in movies.)

oh my god, i’m so sorry you had to see that. that’s awful. and so factually incorrect too. “no one would be alive if they were actually trafficked or tortured” is a ridiculous thing to claim.

to anyone who believes this shit - please understand that while there is no shame in being wrong, that doesn’t mean everyone else is wrong too. torture and trafficking are both extremely well documented, as are ritual abuse and programming (aka mind control).

surviving these things is absolutely possible. to claim otherwise when there’s a plethora of documentation is both ridiculous and insidious. people who make claims like these are speaking in the face of hard proof and an entire community of survivors.

i didn’t claw my way to freedom to be told by randos on the internet that my trauma is a conspiracy theory. i don’t watch my friends regularly have to be hospitalized because of programs being activated to be told mind control only happens in movies. my friends don’t have to live their lives in hiding because their abusers will murder them if found for people to get on the internet and say they made it all up to look cool.

like, congrats OP, you were wrong. glad you figured it out. that doesn’t mean everyone else is wrong too. like i said there’s no shame in being wrong, but there’s a whole lot of fucking shame in trying to tell other trauma survivors that they made it all up to be cool.

#corvidforest asks #ramcoa #ramcoa survivor #tw ramcoa #tw torture #tw mind control #tw trafficking

[thecorvidforest]

🌙🎶🎁 thank you for the ask !!

ofc! :)

🌙 - do you have subsystems?

we have one confirmed subsystem of the “alter with alters” variety and are in the process of system mapping to try and figure out if there are more.

🎵 - what songs remind you of your alters/headmates?

of those who i know for sure have introduced themselves/consented to be talked about on our blog, i’d say Be Gay, Do Drugs, Hail Satan (by Super Cassette) for Thresh and Oh No! (by MARINA) for Avian. pretty sure there are more who have spoken on this blog but either i’m remembering wrong or tumblr ate their posts lmao.

🎁 - have you ever bought your alters/headmates things?

yes! we very rarely have spare money but when we can afford it, buying things for each other brings us a lot of joy. most recently we got a pink hat for Avian and deodorant in different scents for those who have dysphoria around what they smell like (e.g. feminine-aligned alters feeling dysphoric about traditionally masculine scents).

#corvidforest asks #destructionsys

[thecorvidforest]

Opinions on systems with trauma outside of Torture/Physical abuse... My system has been struggling to deal with or believe in their existence for a month.

Hello anon! Thanks for the question.

Trauma outside of extreme cases like torture and physical abuse can absolutely cause someone to form a system. The only real qualifiers for what trauma is “bad enough” to cause a system to form are 1) that the trauma was repetitive and overwhelming, and 2) that the trauma happened in early childhood (estimates vary, but generally between 5 - 10 years old). Our brains don’t care what type of trauma it was - all they register is that it was traumatic.

While DID/OSDD is often seen alongside abuse, this just means that abuse is thought to be more likely to cause a system to form. It doesn’t mean it’s the only thing that can cause a system to form - far from it. Children’s brains are very susceptible to being traumatized, even by things that our society tends to think of as “normal.”

Some examples of other things besides torture and physical abuse that could cause someone to form a system are chronic bullying, medical trauma, untreated medical conditions, neglect, emotional incest, adoption, being in foster care, poverty, homelessness, religious trauma, war, institutional violence (e.g. systemic racism), natural disasters, family trauma (e.g. a parent with a severe illness), and so on. Really any type of chronic childhood trauma you can think of could be enough to cause the formation of a system.

I hope this helped, and I hope your system is able to find peace. Take it slow, you’ll be okay.

#corvidforest asks #if i need to add more tw tags to this let me know #good lord i used the word trauma so many times in this #abuse mention #abuse #torture mention #torture #tw abuse #tw torture #trauma mention #dissociative identity disorder #did system #osdd #other specified dissociative disorder #did osdd

[thecorvidforest]

taro, jasmine?

i was so confused by this until i remembered we had reblogged that ask game lmao. thanks for the asks :)

taro ⇢ if someone called you right now to catch up, what’re the things you’d tell them about?

we just got into a queerplatonic relationship and we’re super excited about it! we also recently were able to get on food assistance, which is helping a ton with our bank account and with accommodating our ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder)!

jasmine ⇢ do you have a movie or book you loved but will never watch/read again?

ohh yeah for sure. there are certain books and movies that were comfort media for us during times of trauma that we can’t read/watch again because now we associate it with that trauma. there’s a whole list. some of them we weren’t even able to finish (RIP The Stormlight Archive, we hardly knew ye).

#corvidforest asks

[thecorvidforest]

is your dni for willogenic systems a personal thing or is there a reason why you dont mind sharing? (not an endo btw just curious)

sure, i don’t mind! there are a couple reasons, some personal.

we generally don’t care what willogenics think and do and call themselves, and we’re not fakeclaiming them. we don’t think DID/OSDD is the only form of plurality, we have nothing against them as individuals, and we wish them the best in life.

however as an extremely traumatized POC it makes us very uncomfortable when they interact with our page. a massive amount of cultural appropriation goes on in willogenic circles (which as far as i’ve ever seen are vast majority white) with them picking and choosing pieces of religions and closed practices that they like (such as appropriating the term Tulpa from Tibetan Buddhism) and lashing out when corrected. cultural appropriation is not just tolerated in willogenic circles but actively encouraged, making them unsafe for us as a POC.

we’re also deeply uncomfortable with their insistence on being included in DID/OSDD spaces and using DID/OSDD terms. regardless of plurality itself, a willogenic experience is completely, fundamentally different from a DID/OSDD experience, and the space we’ve created here on tumblr is not for them. it’s for traumagenic systems, because we are a traumagenic system. DID/OSDD is a trauma disorder that forms in early childhood. it cannot be simply willed into being, and anyone who wants to be in our spaces because they think they want and can create the disorder for themself has a complete lack of respect for us and a complete misunderstanding of our experiences.

there’s also the aspect of us having some extremely intense anger holders & protectors in our system. some of them have very strong reactions to people who make us feel unsafe, and willogenics fall into that category for all of the above reasons. it’s legitimately safer for both us and willogenics for them to be on our DNI.

TLDR: we recognize and respect non-disordered plurality, but willogenics in particular generally have yet to demonstrate the maturity to stay out of DID/OSDD spaces and reject racism & ableism in their circles, making them unsafe for us to interact with. it’s safer for everyone involved for them to be on the DNI.

#corvidforest asks

[thecorvidforest]

Uhm anyways we came on your blog to do a compliment but we got distracted bc of how much we love your art and also your blog and so. The compliment is you’re a very rad artist and follow follow follow uwu

-@narcissism-positivity

oh wow tysm!! that makes me very happy :)) i’m glad you like it!

#corvidforest asks #witch-crip-is-this

[thecorvidforest]

☀️ for the ask game?

☀️ do you have any non-human alters (including hybrids)?

we do! among the ones who have talked or introduced themselves on our blog, Azrael and Arael are both angels, and Thresh is a human-shark hybrid. PIXEL identifies as a vocaloid and not a human, which…ngl i don’t understand, but good for sun.

we also have birds, demons, more angels, at least one dog, a handful of unspecified cryptids, and a whole bunch of hybrids. we also have a couple of alters who straight up don’t have physical forms in IW, they’re either shadowlike voids or just…invisible presences.

#corvidforest asks

[thecorvidforest]

✨⭐🌎🥀

✨does anyone in the system have a pet?

yes! we have a lovely cat named Tala (we just call her Kibby or Bibbles though. and some of the littles just call her Cat).

⭐️ does your system have a name?

yes, our system name is The Corvid Forest! it’s because we have a massive forest in the innerworld that’s guarded by corvids (a family of birds including crows, ravens, jays, etc) and a general love for forests & corvids.

🌎 any demon/angel/god alters?

we have quite a few demon/angel alters from christian mythology! Azrael and Arael have both talked on our blog a bit, and we have a good handful of others who haven’t introduced themselves yet.

🥀 any childhood things that should’ve tipped you off to being a system?

lmaoo yeah there are so many. things like eating a food i liked and then suddenly hating it, having to be re-introduced to people over and over, my memories feeling like they didn’t happen to me, my interests and hobbies fluctuating day to day or even hour to hour, and on one notable occasion waking up in my childhood home and not knowing where i was.

#corvidforest asks

[thecorvidforest]

how do i tell someone i’m having a breakdown over the fact that i spent all my formative years in a cult & will never have a properly functioning nervous system but like in a cool sexy way

#/joke #/rhetorical #corvidforest #am i making jokes to cope with the crushing weight of my trauma? #yes i am ty for asking