DID and OSDD explanation

As a system, it’s super hard to find a listener who understands. I’m sure many, if not all of you here understand that. Often, we’re asked what DID is, or for definitions of certain terms. So here we go, a comprehensible (hopefully) explanation of DID and OSDD.

So, what is DID in the first place? It’s a mental disorder. A common misconception is that DID is rare, when in fact it’s really not. Statistics show the rate of dissociative identity disorder is .01% to 1% of the general population. It’s the result of intense trauma, and usually begins to develop around the ages of 6-9. However, many people don’t discover it until much later. Simply put, the trauma caused the victim’s brain to split itself into parts, also known as alters.

Each of these alters are their own individual, and they live in something within the mind that people call the landscape. What the landscape looks like depends on the person, but if you’d like an example, our landscape looks like a forest, with an underground base where meetings are held. These alters can have varying appearances, species, gender, sexuality, likes, dislikes, abilities, ages, and personality. A myth about DID is that the alters are actually the host from different times in their lives, when in fact this is far from true. Alters are completely different people from the host. Even though some may be similar, that does not make them the host when they were younger. Alters can take over the body, either when they’re triggered out, or if they just want to have fun in the body. Some systems, like us, have a gatekeeper, who controls to some extent who fronts at what time. However, this does not mean that anyone can just ask to speak to any alter at any time. This can either hurt the feelings of the alter currently fronting, or hurt the alter you want to speak to in one way or another. Another big thing that people tend to not understand is that alters do not always have the same physical abilities as the host. Take, for example, our system. Our host is fully abled. About half of our alters, however, are mute. Some alters in other systems may have worse sight than the host, may be blind, deaf, etc.

Let’s move on to roles. First is the host. No, the host is not the “original”. There is no original. We are all one person, just different parts. On top of that, hosts change all the time, so the current host may or may not have been the host all the system’s life. But the host is the one who fronts the majority of the time. Our system is OSDD-1b, so our host is the only one with amnesia. Next up is the primary protector. We are unsure if every system has these, but from what we’ve seen, most do.

Primary protectors tend to be rather aggressive and distrustful of any people outside the system. We are unsure how other protectors are within their systems, but ours, Lynn, is super sweet and caring. Lynn can be triggered out through any narcissism, touch, insults, so we’d appreciate it if people tried to avoid such things.

There are also emotional, physical, and s*xual protectors. Their names are rather self explanatory, if you’ve read the previous paragraph. And their triggers would probably be pretty evident too.

Next is the gatekeeper. As we said above, the gatekeeper can control to some extent who can front and when. On top of that, the gatekeeper can also control what information and memories go to which alter. Our gatekeeper, Xin, has taken it upon themself to hold our trauma, and has only given the rest of us the most basic information, for our mental health. This gives Xin the title of trauma holder.

Next up are the littles. In stereotypes, little are always sweet, innocent, cheerful. Even though ours reflects this stereotype, many others’ littles don’t. Littles are usually alters aged 8 or younger.

Prosecutors are next. These are alters that are misguided in their beliefs, which leads them to either harm the body, or try to prevent healing. We’re unsure if all systems have one, but we do.

Caretakers come up next. They’re very sweet alters who take care of alters within the landscape, and help with the mental health of individual alters. In our system, our caretakers often co-front with our little, just to keep an eye on him. They also cheer up our host sometimes when needed.

Next are introjects. These are alters that are basically the alter recreation of a person from the system’s life. Introjects can be modeled after emotional support pets, best friends, abusers, etc.

So, what’s the difference between DID and OSDD? Well, OSDD has four different types, but seeing as we don’t know much about the other three, we’ll simply explain the difference between DID, and OSDD-1. DID has two criteria that people will OSDD-1 may not meet. DID requires amnesia between alters. Systems who do not fit that requirement are known as OSDD-1b. DID also requires alters to be distinct personalities. Those who do not fit that criteria are considered OSDD-1a.
We hope you enjoyed and learned from our explanation, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask :)
− Xin, V, Lynn, Kat