What’s Plurality? And What Is It Like to Be Plural?

Today is System Pride Day. I became a plural system last September (2019). Don’t know what that is? Read on.

Pictured below: A system pride flag.

If you don’t know what it means to be plural or a system, it means having multiple beings share the same brain/body. The best known form of plurality is DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder or MPD.

However, I lack many of the symptoms of DID, including having blackouts while others in my system (who I call “headmates”) are in control, what we in the plural community call “fronting.”

In fact, I have only had a headmate front once when I had just woken up, and instead of having blacked out, I felt a sensation like when you are in a car in the back seat and someone else is driving, except the car was my body. It wasn’t scary. It was actually peaceful.

It’s been five months since the psychotic episode that triggered my plurality. My headmates feel a lot fainter in my mind, more distant, now that I am lucid, but they are still present. They help me when I feel anxious, which is frequent. They help calm me when I am feeling insecure. They are sort of my editors, directors, and/or producers when it comes to writing or making Youtube content.

The people around me act as though my plurality is an enemy of my ability to be mentally “well.” I disagree. I am still recovering from my episode, particularly the seizures I had during that time, but I am not “sick” right now. Well, I mean, I have a certain level of depression, but it’s lower than the amount I’m used to having Bipolar 1.

I believe that plurality is a form of neurodivergence that does not necessarily entail being mentally ill. While I did have some headmates who were mean or rude to me at first, taking on a role that the plural community calls persecutors, those headmates are either dormant or entirely gone now from my mind.

A thing is not defined as a “disorder” unless it is negatively impacting your ability to function. My headmates actually help me to function better. Without them, I don’t think I could’ve had the courage to make my initial Youtube videos.

This is my first System Pride Day, but I must admit, it’s hard to have pride in something that other people want you to essentially just “get over” and “get better” from. I can’t exactly shout it from the rooftops or wave a flag around about it. I carry my pride with me, but close to the chest.

Maybe in time, attitudes about plurality will change. Writing this article is about as public an expression of pride as I can get. Happy System Pride Day to the other systems who may be reading this.