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#Ritual Abuse
creature-wizard · 11 months
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What's up with the Satanic Panic, in a nutshell.
Around the 1970's, conservative Evangelicals began weaponizing a number of conspiracy theories against anyone who wasn't a conservative Evangelical. These conspiracy theories were essentially repackaged witch hysteria (IE, the conspiracies pushed by early modern witch hunters) and antisemitism (especially blood libel).
The core conspiracy theory was that a global satanic cult was working behind the scenes to manipulate politics and lead people away from Jesus. The exact practices of the cult depended on who you asked, but common allegations were practicing human sacrifice (including plenty of child sacrifice), drinking human blood, engaging in sex slavery, producing CSE and snuff films, doing drugs, and having orgies.
Numerous people stepped forward claiming to have been either former cult members, or cult survivors. Pretty much all of their accounts are full of blatant absurdities, and anytime someone was actually investigated, pretty much all of their claims fell apart. For example, Mike Warnke, one of the earliest self-proclaimed ex-satanists, was found to have made up his entire story. One woman, Lauren Stratford, was not only revealed to be a fraud, but afterward claimed she was a Holocaust survivor to collect benefits.
Some examples of claims made by people who claimed to be ex-members/survivors include:
Neopaganism was created by the global satanic cult, and Aleister Crowley was their main agent in this.
All neopaganism and modern witchcraft is a slippery slope to human sacrifice and "hardcore satanism."
All media that depicts magic or the supernatural in any way is part of the satanic agenda. Yes, literally all of it. Yes, even that.
Homosexuality is part of the global satanic agenda.
Rock and heavy metal music are part of the global satanic agenda.
Fluoride, artificial sweeteners, and various food additives are actually mind control drugs.
Electromagnetic waves are used to control people's thoughts.
Marxism was created by the global satanic agenda.
If you know anything about QAnon conspiracy theories, you might notice that some of these look awfully familiar. This is because QAnon was another manifestation of Satanic Panic. They updated "electromagnetic waves" to 5G, and largely replaced homosexuality with transgender, but it's the same thing.
The conspiracy theory about cultists creating mind controlled slaves by inducing dissociative identity disorder through torture (all that Project Monarch stuff) is purely a product of the Satanic Panic. People's supposed "memories" of this abuse were generally produced via recovered memory therapy, which is now known to be more effective at implanting memories rather than recovering them. No serious investigations ever produced any evidence of the supposedly widespread and incredibly elaborate torture of tens of thousands of children.
Now, there have been actual isolated cases of what might be considered satanic ritual abuse. But they do not constitute evidence of a global satanic conspiracy. Rather, they constitute evidence that the perpetrators were inspired by the conspiracy theory.
Additionally, they had a very pseudoscientific view of DID, and the horrible practices allegedly used to induce it and create mind controlled alters were pure pseudoscience, as were the alleged symptoms that someone might be a victim of satanic ritual abuse and just didn't remember it. Everything from autism to having conflicted feelings about your abuser to liking BDSM could be construed as a sign that you had been ritually abused. With a bunch of therapists fully convinced that thousands of people had been ritually abused and armed with hypnotic techniques that allowed them to implant memories of abuse, you can see where things could turn messy in a hurry.
Those who claimed to be former satanists/SRA victims were extremely clear in their assertions that this global satanic conspiracy really did exist, and that the only way to escape and stay safe from it was to accept Jesus. Tales of demonic attacks that could only be stopped by the power of Jesus were common, as were other claims of grandiose supernatural power.
In short, the Satanic Panic was - and still is - a means of demonizing anyone who isn't a fundagelical Christofascist, and scaring anyone who already is, into remaining such. Many of the conspiracy theories have made their way into supposedly progressive circles, so you'll occasionally come across the Project Monarch stuff in DID communities, or see pro-LGBTQ people subscribing to conspiracy theories about the wealthy elite drinking blood or adrenochrome.
But make no mistake, there is no "grain of truth" to these allegations of a global satanic conspiracy. There was no "time before all of this was corrupted by evil agendas." It was all created by people with with hateful agendas, and continues to be perpetuated by people with hateful agendas. And that's all, folks.
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granulesofsand · 8 months
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Reasons people underestimate the prevalence of RAMCOA:
Untraumatized people don’t think about trauma nearly as much as survivors
People don’t know what the signs are. Trainings are shitty when given, attendees don’t think they’ll need to use the information, and trainings offered are usually online and easy to walk away from
Mandatory reporters don’t usually follow through their contracts. This is sometimes a good thing, but it can leave room in the wrong places for endangered children
People who know the signs will ignore them. They think it unlikely, that they’re overreacting, or they just don’t notice
Survivors are quiet. Speaking up puts us in danger, and more people think of us as media material than peers
The police don’t do jack shit for us. Some stations train officers to overlook our cases, and it’s difficult to take to court if a survivor wants to. In larger cases, government works with organized criminal groups that perpetrate or do so themselves for research
We’re a test question. The only time we are brought up in psychology classrooms is if they want to nod to a DID diagnosis. Few therapists are educated and willing to take us on as clients
Abusers know how to make connections with local authority. In high control groups, members may be taught how to abuse and evade interception
All of this makes it hard to report anywhere how many survivors exist free, and the low numbers in turn make us less believable when we do report
RAMCOA includes severe religious abuse, manipulative coercion, programming, cults, trafficking rings, criminal gangs, and more. Survivors are your coworkers, neighbors, cashiers, librarians.
Signs to look for:
Ritual Abuse
History of self-harm, substance use, sui/homicidality, especially with prescribed patterns
Unusual phobias (red or brown foods, kinds of houses, churches, hospitals, fear of the dark or being alone in adults)
Aversion to or obsession with the occult/witchcraft or other faith traditions
Patterns of nightmares, aversions or obsessions with common or nondescript themes (gore, needles, bugs, rodents, monsters, babies, men or women)
Sudden or irresistible urge to relocate, recontact abusers, participate in abusive ceremonies
High pain tolerance
Repeated phrases with violent, aggressive or religious themes
Mind Control and Coercion
Unquestioning obedience of a person or doctrine
Defers to another, speaks as though scripted, frequently accompanied by another or has to ask permission inappropriate for their age
Sudden or dramatic change in behavior, hobbies, or long-standing habits
Refusal to consume media unless approved by another/without further explanation
Anxious or idealized descriptions of childhood home and family, unable to recall these things
No memory of childhood or missing years
Multiple self-states, especially in high quantities
Organized Abuse and Trafficking
Disconnection from peers, family and friends
Does not attend community events or faith services or is perpetually preoccupied with a single group
Repeated unexplained absences from work or school
Disoriented, confused or dissociated for long periods of time or without explanation
Fearful or self-persecutory behavior, especially with allusions to another person or group
Bruises, broken skin or other wounds in various stages of healing
Minors engaging in commercial sex (including CSEM or survival sex)
Timid, skittish, fearful or submissive behaviors (including when this is the norm)
Malnourished, dehydrated, exhausted or with untreated ails
Without belongings or suitable living space
Many indicators of abuses flow together, as do the events themselves. It’s common that RA and OA perps use MC to keep victims in line, and techniques are often implemented by default in abusive environments. A group using RA or MC also qualifies as OA. This is why the community acronym includes all three.
There are more discreet examples for each. It’s possible to find many symptoms of RAMCOA and have none of those maltreatments as the cause. It’s possible to have none and still be abused.
Noticing indicators in children should be followed up by alerting any available reliable authority. Children sometimes disclose using metaphors or slang words they have been taught, so keep this in mind if you work with them.
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ecoamerica · 23 days
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sys-thoughts · 5 months
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Friendly reminder
You can choose to not have a stance. You don't need to have a stance on everything. It's okay to choose to not have an opinion on discourse. It doesn't make you stupid, or indecisive. It might just mean you aren't educated enough, or it's a topic you aren't really bothered with.
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mischiefmanifold · 11 months
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Do you have any resources for RAMCOA? Resources for like...the types of programs and stuff like that. We're going through things and trying to research and pinpoint things, but finding resources has been absolute hell. If you get this twice, I'm sorry. Our tumblr is kind of shit.
Hello! I have several resources that I think may be helpful to you:
This document (LINK) of "rare programs" and their descriptions, posted by @killercatboys.
Chapters 4 and 7 of Becoming Yourself by Alison Miller (LINK) discuss programming and chapter 7 includes an anecdote with specific programs and definitions. The entire book is really a great read and is geared towards survivors of RAMCOA, just be sure to take it slow and take care of yourself.
Common Programs Observed in Survivors of Satanic Ritualistic Abuse by David W. Neswald (LINK) - massive trigger warning for suicide, self-harm, and abuse.
Spin Programming: A Newly Uncovered Technique of Systematic Mind Control by John D. Lovern (LINK) - includes symptoms, implementation, and uses of spin programs; trigger warning for abuse/torture methods.
Healing the Unimaginable by Alison Miller (LINK) is geared towards therapists and professionals and includes more in-depth information about RAMCOA than Becoming Yourself does. Again, massive trigger warning throughout the book for RAMCOA.
Kinds of Torture Endured in Ritual Abuse and Trauma-Based Mind Control by Ellen P. Lacter (LINK) - partial list of torture methods used in RAMCOA; trigger warning for abuse, near-death, and torture.
Mind Control: Simple to Complex by Ellen P. Lacter (LINK) - describes twelve "stages" of mind control and programming, going from outward compliance to torture/trauma-based mind control; trigger warning for descriptions of abuse.
Some Indicators of Trauma-Based Mind Control Programming by Ellen P. Lacter (LINK) provides common indicators of TBMC; most survivors of programming will have many of these indicators, but their presence does not prove the existence of TBMC and their absence does not prove that one has not experienced TBMC.
Adult and Adolescent Indicators of Ritual Trauma by Ellen P. Lacter (LINK) provides indicators of ritual abuse in teens and adults; as with the last bullet point, their presence does not prove ritual abuse and their absence does not disprove it.
Child Indicators of Ritual Abuse Trauma in Play and Art by Ellen P. Lacter (LINK) provides potential indicators of ritualized abuse in children and pre-teens; as with the previous two bullet points, their presence does not prove ritual abuse and their absence does not disprove it.
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sugar-pills-overdose · 7 months
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to non-ramcoa survivors:
please stop treating us as fragile.
be mindful of things that may trigger ramcoa survivors, yes, but please do not spread the narrative that we will die or get seriously injured if you even breathe the word programming in our direction. we have survived a lot, we have survived torture.
encourage people questioning a ramcoa history to have coping methods and overall stability before looking into ramcoa, yes, but please stop saying we can never look into it because we will die and that it's so horrible to even read about that we will become traumatized by just reading about it. we have already been traumatized by things far worse than reading information on a website online.
be mindful of terminology that may be insensitive to ramcoa survivors, yes, but please do not police our language for us. it is not your place to do so, and it leads to spaces that question people on whether they're a ramcoa survivor or not in order to "make sure" they can use a word or a name or not, which is really invasive and potentially dangerous.
ask people to censor graphic in-depth talk of torture and programming, sure, but please do not silence survivors on our experiences. it really sucks when other people get to talk about their trauma and experiences and we do not, and have our experiences treated as too taboo to mention. it can also trigger silencing programs.
also, please stop making assumptions about what is more or less common in programming. the information online is not going to give you a complete enough overview of what programming involves for you to make generalized statements about what "most" programming looks like or what kinds of programs "almost always" are used, it really depends on the abuser group and as a community we keep most information offline or within private survivor circles.
a lot of this behavior has become extremely common in system spaces recently especially as more awareness of ramcoa becomes public, and it makes system spaces a lot less accessible for me and others.
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scavangers-daughter · 3 months
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Transramcoa people stop cross tagging in RAMCOA tags challenge
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magnetothemagnificent · 7 months
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Just saw someone say that RAMCOA "isn't real and is an antisemitic conspiracy theory" which... I don't know. I think that's dismissive of the pervasiveness of Xian abuse and the actual context of RAMCOA. A lot of Xians are involved in organized cults and traffic/abuse people through various means. At the very least I think there is nuance here. I'd like to hear your take though
For those who don't know the acronym, it stands for Ritual Abuse, Mind Control, and Organized Abuse, and was coined by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), and organization with a history of past and present abuse and corruption.
It's not real. It's a conspiracy that began in the 1980s and 1990s with the Satanic Panic. Some corrupt psychologists practiced "repressed memory recovery", where they convinced their patients that they were ritually abused by satanic cults as children, but forgot about it due to trauma. In reality, it's actually very easy to convince someone that they remember something, even when it didn't actually happen. There is no nuance. While cults absolutely do exist, there is no underground network of cults (Christian or otherwise) engaging in occult ritual sacrifices and abuses. To assert that there is leans deeply into antisemitic and xenophobic conspiracy.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying that certain dissociative disorders aren't real. They've existed before the Satanic Panic and before the epidemic of false memory implanting by psychologists. However, people with trauma disorders are very susceptible to manipulation, especially by mental healthcare professionals. Someone can genuinely believe they were kidnapped by a network of occultists, that doesn't mean it actually happened to them. It also doesn't mean that they're malicious liars- false memories can feel very real, and as we've learned, it's quite easy to convince someone of a memory that didn't happen. People who believe they were victims of these things deserve our compassion- the bad-faith actors are the doctors and therapists who manipulated them, not the people suffering from mental illness.
More reading:
Evidence Against Dr. Colin A. Ross
Dangerous Therapy: The Story of Patricia Burgus and Multiple Personality Disorder
Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend
Martha Ann Tyo v Ross
Satanic Cults, Ritual Abuse, and Moral Panic: Deconstructing a Modern Witch-Hunt
Dutch Investigators Find No Evidence Of Ritual Child Abuse
Supernatural Support Groups: Who Are the UFO Abductees and Ritual-Abuse Survivors?
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furiousgoldfish · 1 year
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I finished reading "Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse" by Alison Miller, and it was filled with incredibly useful information for those who struggle with a dissociative identity disorder. It was also filled with descriptions of some of the most extreme and atrocious kinds of abuse, so to anyone wanting to read it, there's a trigger warning for cult abuse, rituals, childhood sexual abuse, satanic rituals, child trafficking, child murder, brainwashing, mind control, and every form of religion used against the mind of a child.
I was reading this book to figure out if I had gone thru any kind of abuse of the sort, and I didn't, one of my abusers was utilizing religion against me and had done enough of brainwashing to construct several brainwashed and controlled parts, who were still under the influence, but that was it. The book is extremely clear and it will not confuse you about what happened to you, it tells you the intention behind every type of abuse, and often, how to resolve the results. The books also notes that the word 'alter' is triggering to those who went thru ritual abuse and developed a dissociative identity disorder, for similarity with the word 'altar', which is used in rituals, so they prefer to use the terms 'insiders' and 'parts', which I found to enjoy as well.
One of the repeating points in the first half of the book was on insiders who pretend to be something else, for instance, insiders who pretend to be your abusers, pretend to be demons, pretend to be gods or powerful entities, who believe it's their job to hurt you, or to control you, who are made to bring out consequences if you attempt to act against your abusers. I had something like that in my head, but I had refused to believed it was an insider, because it looked just like a case of 'internalized abusive voice', and I had fought against it viciously and focused on shutting that voice down and keeping it scared, often via imagined torture if it was making me feel anxious. Reading about these other scary entities, who would, when asked, admit to just being an insider pretending, I became curious enough to engage with the abusive voice and ask it, 'are you just an alter pretending'? The voice laughed at me and admitted to being found out, and then promptly stopped pretending and showed themselves as a child part. It took me several weeks to admit to myself that this was real, because it was mortifying. I had fallen for the trick, and even tortured a child part for doing their assigned job – this part now believed their only function was to be tortured. I feel responsible for that. But there was no way for me to know. Insiders are good at keeping up a pretense.
You can sometimes recognize that an entity in your head that is scaring you, claiming to be able to control you or triggering you on purpose, or pretending to be evil, demonic, terrifying, animalistic, powerful, magical, godly, is actually a child part, just because they often act the version of that thing that a child would believe is real. If your entity is often repeating the same lines, only knows 1 way of behaviour and has predictive responses, believes to be your abuser or something similar to it, doesn't follow any real-life logic and seems to belong to another world that a child would think is accurate, then it's likely a child part, for some reason programmed or brainwashed to believe they're what they're pretending to be. I should note that when children think of these scary entities, they're often very creative, and put their whole heart in it, so it's going to be an entity that is engaging, feels powerful, doesn't back down easily. Parts who pretend to be evil or demonic will sometimes cling to what they think they are very dearly and will not allow themselves to think of themselves as humans or children, this is for their own emotional protection. All they had in their childhood was being tough. They cannot let that go.
Another incredibly useful information I got from the book was on how to process trauma if you are a multiple. I had never seen instructions on how to do this before, and I'm going to share them in another post that should be posted right after this one, and I'll put a link to it here.
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Here’s some positivity for HC-DID systems!
Highly complex DID, or programmed DID, is a colloquially coined label for systems who have faced programming in some way as an aspect of their trauma history. This form of DID can occur as a result of ritual abuse, organized abuse, and/or mind control, and can leave systems with purposefully formed alters, polyfragmentation, complex internal structures and splitting patterns, and more. HC-DID systems are important members of our community, and deserve to be shown kindness and positivity and treated with respect! Here’s to all the HC-DID systems out there!
🌱 Shoutout to those who are questioning if their system is complex or highly complex in some way!
🌺 Shoutout to HC-DID systems who cannot remember any of their trauma or effectively manage triggers!
🌿 Shoutout to systems with programmed alters who are working to understand how being programmed has impacted their life!
🌼 Shoutout to HC-DID systems who are unable or unwilling to learn about programming at all!
🪴 Shoutout to HC-DID systems who learned about their highly complex nature through therapy or some other form of recovery!
💐 Shoutout to HC-DID systems whose alters have highly specific or specialized roles!
☘️ Shoutout to HC-DID systems with clusters, side systems, or subsystems that are difficult for them to interact with or understand!
🌹 Shoutout to polyfragmented HC-DID systems with a very high alter or fragment count!
🍃 Shoutout to HC-DID systems who have no fully formed or developed headmates, with all alters or parts having a predefined program, role, or purpose!
🌷 Shoutout to those in HC-DID systems who are afraid of their own systems or who are scared of interacting with certain parts, alters, or memories!
🌾 Shoutout to those who wish it was easier to talk about and try to understand their own experiences as HC-DID systems in plural spaces!
To any HC-DID system who sees this, we want to let you know that we see you, we care about you, and we want to support and uplift you however we can! Your voice matters, your system matters, and we are so very proud of all that you have accomplished. Know that just by taking it day by day and trying to live your best life, you have achieved so much, and you deserve recognition and celebration!
We genuinely hope that you can find peace, rest, comfort, recovery, and self-acceptance in your future. Know that no matter how much or little you know about your system, you are real, your trauma was real, and you are deserving of respect, kindness, and understanding today and every day! We are wishing the very best for you and your system, and are rooting for you in all that you do. Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day!
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artisticdysfunction · 7 months
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Fuck. Cults count as RAMCOA?
I’m a cult survivor and I’ve always been afraid to use the term RAMCOA for myself
So… cults count?
Cults absolutely, positively count, anon. They fall under both ritual abuse, mind control, and organized abuse. Mind control is more than just programming, the BITE model is one great example of the kind of mind control that cults use that isn't programming. Other than that, cults are often organizations or part of larger organizations that orchestrate the abuse. The kind of religious abuse done within cults that are specific rituals, counts as ritual abuse.
You count, anon. You're welcome here.
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granulesofsand · 1 year
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I lost the posts we wanted to respond to, but I think I remember what we were gonna say
🗝️🏷️ RAMCOA with vague examples, syscourse?
Highly Complex DID
What “Complex” Means:
From what we’ve read, it seems like Complex refers to the specific disorder’s criteria. C-PTSD is PTSD with a different presentation; in this case, multiple/prolonged trauma causes difficulty tracing symptoms in the same ways as other PTSD cases. C-DID is DID with a different presentation; here it’s more intricate mechanisms that lead treatment down another path. Even CDD, which is dissociation into self-states instead of one dissociating self-state. The C just means that thing, plus some extra. There are going to be cases where a Complex patient is actually more simple to care for than a non-Complex patient — it’s just a matter of narrowing it down with more criteria.
Highly Complex:
As far as I know, there are no other communities that use Highly Complex as a label. It’s a specific word to whittle down the topic even further; C-DID but with more specifiers. For HC-DID, the specifiers are programming and structuring. Every human who experienced programming and lived is a RAMCOA survivor. Not every RAMCOA survivor considers themself a HC-DID system. Some survivors didn’t form systems at all. Others don’t think their system qualifies. Maybe people just don’t want to identify themselves this way. Even if it were a medical diagnosis — it’s not — forcing people to use labels they don’t want is rude at best.
What RAMCOA Is:
RAMCOA stands for Ritual Abuse, Mind Control, Organized Abuse. Surviving any of those is enough to belong in the community.
Ritual Abuse - maltreatment (of anyone) including ceremonies or traditions. It can be anything from religious sacrifice to underage marriage.
Mind Control - manipulation of psychological processes. I genuinely don’t know if there has to be negative intent or a specific plan from the abuser to qualify, but even targeted McDonald’s ads make use of mind control (probably not abusively, I’ve never looked into that).
Organized Abuse - maltreatment that involves multiple perpetrators collaborating in their perpetration. If two people meet at a bar and then hurt a child together, that’s enough. It can be elaborate groups like churches or criminal groups, but the only requirement is more than one perp.
It can be one or a mix of any, but it’s still RAMCOA. Usually, the DID community uses RAMCOA to talk about surviving programming (Trauma-Based Mind Control for the purpose of creating a system), and we label our systems Highly Complex.
Extra Criteria:
To be Highly Complex, survivors are usually closest to C-DID. But wait, there’s more!
HC-DID systems also receive:
Programming - I only know of TBMC being used to split off dissociative alters, but I’d budge on that if someone knew otherwise. Abusers control the child (body) by causing calculated suffering until they get the results they want. Perps split off alters with goals in mind for them, and continue to break them until they fit the desires of the abusers. This control extends to every other aspect of HC-DID, and is the reason another label exists at all.
Layers - different dimensions of innerworld. Sometimes this looks like literal other realms inside, but it could also be like floors of a building or planets or other separate worlds. Layers are often assigned a name or cue that allows outsiders to maneuver a system’s landscape from the external world. Perps don’t go in as much as they bring out, by assigned alter or other cued manipulations.
Subsystems - alters with alters, except also programmed. Cues are assigned to each subsystem alter as well, usually related to the subsystem as a collective. Just like programmed singlet alters, subsystems can be arranged by outsiders for memories, tasks, etc.
Sidesystems - kind of multiple systems within the metasystem. Groups might be contained in a separate innerworld pocket, unwilling to communicate with other alters, or otherwise unreachable in the same way other groups are. These sidesystems usually have a collective task, or function as a whole other system in the body. Details of what they do and why are also conditioned.
Programs - conditioning attached to cues. Programs might force amnesia, give body memories, set off chains of tasks, or any other typical or atypical system capability. Programs might be perceived as wires and buttons, or files, or whatever else programmers decide.
Not all HC-DID systems will have the same level of programming. Not all programmed systems will be more “complex” that other systems. Having a term to describe our unique experiences helps a lot of survivors to feel understood, especially if they’re already open about their past.
RAMCOA survivors are kept in a strange position online and irl. We’re used as examples of “unimaginable trauma” and “extreme abuse”, but are largely told to sit down and shut up; we’re too dangerous to speak up about what was done to us, too unbelievable, or too much at all. Finding help is a nightmare, sucks butt for everyone involved, and is fairly necessary for long term recovery. Like many systems, we beat the odds time and time again to call ourselves “survivors” instead of “victims”. Like many systems, we are rejected by most of society. Unlike most systems, we are a secret within system communities.
Being Complex is not being special, it’s just a haughty way to say there are extra requirements. Recovery for many systems is already a stretch. For HC-DID systems, we are healing the impossible.
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ecoamerica · 23 days
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sys-thoughts · 4 months
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Traumautized people are going to produce traumautized artwork.
Whether it's a person writing about pedophilic / incestuous relationships in their fanfiction
Or a person painting horrible gore
Art is a coping mechanism. Art does not translate always to beliefs or instructions.
Someone writing a fanfiction about a pedophilic relationship is almost always a way to process their emotions about whatever may have happened to them, and that is okay and beautiful.
Love your art, it probably helped you in many ways
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reclaimingsomethings · 7 months
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Reclaiming: Trans-Ramcoa
Trans-Ramcoa, being trans and a survivor of Ramcoa.
This identity is NOT for those who Trans-Id or are Rad-Queer
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[ IMAGE ID. ] A series of 4 pictures. First picture is of a flag with a strips of dark red, dull blue, dull/lighter purple, pastel nearly white yellow, dull/lighter grey, dull pink, and dark red from too to bottom. The next 3 photos are the flag with additions. First one explaining the meanings, red for community, blue for mascs, purple for those who are nonbinary, yellow for hope/the future, grey for those who don't identify with traditional terms, pink for femmes. The next photo is the flag with the angel emoji, a symbol of ramcoa. The last photo is the flag with an angel symbol for those who don't like the emoji. [ END ID. ]
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borderlinedolly · 4 months
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What Is Clocking?
Clocking is an ability many RAMCOA survivors have to varying degrees. They can tell when someome is a RAMCOA victim. Certain survivors (typically high ranking ones) can clock victims down to their rank and possibly branch. Less common are the ones who can clock victims down to their role and sect. Low ranking victims can typically clock those who are superior to them.
Logically, this is a useful ability as sects can have thousands of members and you can't possibly remember all of them. Being able to tell who your superiors are will help keep you alive. Similarly, you can also tell when someone is lower than you/"usable". Programmers can clock people to know who they can exploit.
It is a real ability and dangerous people can and will use it to their advantage. It is not fear mongering, it is the horrifying truth of being a RAMCOA survivor. We are not safe anywhere, pretending we are will not protect us or help us survive. Being aware of the dangers can help you try to keep yourselves as safe as possible.
Here are some ways to protect yourself: keep yourself as grounded as possible while outside and avoid switching to vulnerable alters, don't talk to strangers and stay away from anyone who gives you a weird feeling.
Saying clocking isn't real won't help you if a programmer spots you.
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sugar-pills-overdose · 7 months
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something that i really need people to understand is that when you treat programming and ramcoa like a topic that should never ever ever be spoken about or looked into under any context because it's dangerous, you feed into what our abusers told us - that our memories are dangerous and will kill us.
yes, many groups do program self-destruct or recontact programs when memories are remembered or spoken about. this is important to mention. but just saying "looking into or talking about programming/ramcoa is dangerous" does not explain that. explain the full thing, say it is because many groups construct programs to prevent remembering or talking about the abuse, and for god's sake never say "it is too dangerous to ever look into ramcoa period". encourage people to have a support system and coping methods, and let them know it's a good idea to step back from research if they start feeling off physically or emotionally, but stop saying we are incapable of safely looking into the topic at all. it just reinforces what many survivors were told by their abusers and can honestly be far more triggering programs-wise than anything else.
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suwisuwii · 8 months
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Astarion's story made me think a lot and reflect on how freedom after a lifetime of captivity and abuse can be difficult to get used to. I think most people who have never experienced that don't realize how intense of an experience it is.
I might go into some details on my own life experience as a survivor of ritual abuse and human trafficking, I still don't know to which degree as I'm trying to organize a pool of thoughts, so scroll past if that's triggering to you. It's going to be somewhat lenghty.
I started really "living" around 3 years ago.
To give some context, the approximate timeline of what happened to me:
--- birth-18 y/o: grew up in a cult, I was ritually abused on a regular basis as a child, developed DID (I wasn't diagnosed until adulthood) I endured physical and psychological torture. I mean forced food purging, forced food poisoning, waterboarding, scalding with boiling water, smothering with pillows until I almost passed out... I could go on. I lived behind a wall in the living room and my wardrobe was a bin bag.
18 y/o: I ran from home after my father threatened to kill me. I was poor (I left with 50€ and nothing more) and answered an ad that offered a job in a pub and a place to stay. It required me to travel to another city, so I spent some of that 50 for the train ticket. Desperation makes you do some careless things. I was picked up by what would become my pimp (we called him "the entrepeneur" ). I travelled all across italy like that. Spent some days in a place and then was sent off to another. The day I escaped, I didn't know where I was.
19 y/o : I escaped! I had been sent to a new brothel, and noticed the club owner flirted with me the whole night in between customers. Once the night was over, I seduced him, stole some money and RAN.
The brothel was in the countryside, but I eventually found a bus stop. I got on and asked where I was.
19y/o to 28 y/o: I got into a relationship. Forced pregnant, had a child. Forced back into sex work because my partner took me to his home country and we were both unemployed and he had no intention of finding a job, 3 months after I almost died giving birth and had an emergency c-section.
---END TIMELINE
That has been my life up until 3 years ago. I'm 31 now. The pandemic gave me an out (won't go into details). I broke up with the guy. I ended up in therapy suicidal because I felt I had no purpose (not because of the breakup, I did it and it was my choice). I was free. It's all I wanted, right? I DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MY FREEDOM. I was useless. I still struggle with it. I remember the first time I went shopping for food and my mind went blank! I did not know how to shop for food I liked. I didn't know what to get. I always bought things for others. I always ate the scraps and the leftovers. It seems like such a silly stupid thing but once I was done and came home, I looked at my full fridge and I cried. I felt a mix of things. Guilt, selfishness? Also happiness, I was grateful. But freedom felt like such a big, black abyss with nothing to hold me from the fall. I am discovering who I am and coming to terms with it. I have bodily autonomy.
I think Astarion's scene with the mirror, where he looks in and can't see himself, holds a second deeper meaning other than just "a vampire that doesn't have a reflection".
I am now free to do whatever I want to my appearance. But I've always mirrored what other people wanted of me. Hair colours, clothes, style, makeup, weight. I was never in control of it. And now it's so hard to look in the mirror and know what I'd look like if I was me. I don't know. Who do I want to be? It's easier if someone else told me what I look like so I could just be that.
It felt good for Astarion to be "reflected in someone else's eyes" because he still doesn't know who he is. He can't see who he is, because he has been made a vampire. Because of what was done to him.
I hope I explained my point, but anyways, this was more for me, to let out some thoughts. It's 5am I probably have more to say, but I need some rest. I feel better letting some of this out.
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