Everything you need to know about DPD (and friends):
Disclaimer:
I don’t know everything. I’m trying to give you the realest, most comprehensive understanding of this topic. I will update constantly (and will mention when I do) because sometimes when I’m in an episode I like to lie, I’m a liar, I lie. So, sometimes the info will be wrong, and sometimes I just will get it wrong. I will do my best to make sure everything is correct. Please feel free to correct me where you see an issue.
Also, a lot of this will be confusing, because it’s literally super confusing, you will see in the controversy part. It gets ghetto. I will give my own opinion on the matters discussed at the very end. Please appreciate because it’s currently 2am and I am literally hyperfocused I haven't eaten in hours send help
Delusional Disorder:
- What is delusional disorder
- It’s a type of psychotic disorder
- Causes
- you guessed it, delusions that can last for 1 month or longer. Some can be shorter, but yeah, the One Month thing is pretty vital for the diagnosis.
- It’s on the schizspec (controversial)
- What is included in it
- Bizarre and non bizarre delusions
- Unlike other psychotic disorders, this doesn’t really affect day to day life
- Though sometimes it can
So on so forth
People with delusional disorder tend to be predisposed genetically.
It can be caused by your environment but yeah
Psychotic disorders, Psychosis, delusions, hallucinations and more:
- What it is
- Psychotic disorders are disorders that affect the mind. It makes it hard for us to think clearly, make good judgments, respond emotionally, communicate effectively, understand reality, and behave appropriately. Lots of people with psychotic disorders have trouble staying in touch with reality and often are unable to handle daily life
- There are 9 psychotic disorders which are, Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective disorder, Schizophreniform disorder, Brief Psychotic Disorder, Delusional Disorder, Shared Psychotic Disorder, Substance-Induced Psychotic Disorder, Psychotic disorder (due to another medical condition), Paraphrenia. There’s also Schizotypal Disorder.
- What causes it:
- Genetics, your environment, aka the usual.’
- Symptoms:
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
- Disorganised/incoherent speech
- Confused thinking
- Strange, possible dangerous behaviour
- Detached/cold manner. Inability to express.
- Mood swings
- Psychosis (hallucinations and delusions) can also be caused by many other things. Just not to the same scale, level or frequency as these.
Also this. This is just so wrong brah.
“Psychosis is tossed around like hot potato these days. Can you name the different types of delusions? Ask anyone with supposed psychosis how long their episodes last. It should be a few weeks to a few months, not hours, and often ends in an inpatient stay or other professional intervention. No focus on the internet let alone friends. I'd like to see somebody post a case study in here.”
Psychosis is a symptom of MANY illnesses, like mentioned before. If your psychosis lasts months, you have a psychotic disorder. Saying people don’t /actually/ experience psychosis because it only lasts a few hours is some of the misinformation that harms us. Anyway! On that note, for those whp are self dxing, like said, it can be many things, even physical things. And it'll be hard to know which one. (Example of things that cause psychosis, all the psychotic disorders mentioned before, bipolar, major depression, lupus, lyme disease, alcohol, anxiety, low sugar, lack of sleep - these are called secondary psychosis)
‘Controversial’
Kins. Read all about it!
Let’s start with what Kins are. The general definition with no controversy (lol) attached. -
Kinning is when you relate to a character, in basic terms. However, it goes deeper than that. You feel as though you have a connection TO the character, as in, you feel as though YOU ARE the character. Characters you kin don't have to be your favourites, they simply have a connection to you and ARE you, per se. There are certain types of kinning, such as factkin (kinning a real person which is uh, eh), otherkin (where you feel as though you are an animal), fictionkin (kinning a fictional character) and subcategories of all. [1]
A large community generally centred around "relating" to a character one way or another, also the act of doing so. Essentially, after looking at a character and identifying with or as them, the definitions split.
- Coping; many people kin characters to cope with their situation or illness.
- Reincarnation; others believe in the Multiverse Theory and when someone dies, their soul may hop between universes.
- Just for fun; kinning isn't that serious, so some may identify with characters for the fun of it [2]
Kinning is a spiritual belief, based in beliefs of the multiverse theory, the belief that there are infinite universes, and reincarnation.
Infinite Universes is a theory and belief that isn't new, or out of the possibilities of reality. There are lots of scientists who have studied this theory and are working to find more information on it every day. It's been around for a long time. The concept is that there are infinite universes, for every thing you do, there's a universe where you did it differently. It's far beyond our capacity to even imagine or barely conceptualise. Everything you consume, there is a universe where that exists. The outcomes, the different universes, they're all endless. Under this belief, there are universes out there in which things that are considered 'fictional' actually exist as fact. Anything you can think of, there's a universe for. That's what we believe. Now, onto the reincarnation part. Reincarnation is a belief that has been around for centuries, and even reincarnation has scientific studies. Reincarnation/Past lives are very easy to understand and there's lots of other information on them, so I'll pass on explaining all of that. The point is, our energy goes somewhere when we die. People who kin believe that the energy that passes after we die (or our souls), don't know the boundary of one single universe, because why would they? It's energy. What does this mean then? Well, this is the core of kinning: You can have had a past life as a fictional character, or a number of 'fictional' characters or creatures or people. Those who Kin don't just wake up one day and decide "Oh, I like this character, I must have had a past life as them." Usually there's an extreme awakening of some sort. We get actual memories, we find past loved ones. It's an extremely emotional and personal thing for many of us, and it deserves to be respected just like any other spiritual belief. [3]
kinning has two definitions!! the one everyone else is explaining is the more common one, but the older definition is the reason it gets so much hate
kinning used to mean when a person truly believed they were either the physical embodiment of a character/person/animal or that they were that character/person/animal in a past life. (fictionkin/factkin/otherkin)
looking up tumblr otherkin will find you the exact reason kinning gets so much hate (posts like the dragonkin who ate their parents jewelry)
when you see something like “no doubles” on a kin post that’s usually someone running on the old definition, they believe they are the character and nobody else can be. to avoid confusion in those spaces, the new definition is actually called a synpath, which is just strongly relating to a character (aka kinning, but not in those spaces) [4]
So, these are people given definitions. I decided to give a range, but I’ll summarise it here anyway.
Kinning is the belief that you are the reincarnation of a different person. You believe that in a past life you were that person and you still are, but in a different body.
Now. Onto the controversy. I’m gonna throw a bunch of words out and let’s get into it.
- The beef: Systems, psychotics/delusionals, tumblr users, otherkin
- Matchups: Systems vs Psychotics, systems and psychotics vs tumblr users, otherkin vs the trans community.
- The terms: Fictives, factkin, fictionkin, otherkin, IRLs, delusional attachments, Delusional Misidentification Syndrome, IDs, reality check, (will add more when im back)
SO. Let’s get into it. I’ll explain the premise of it. Delusions. It has nothing to do with hallucinations. Pretty much only delusions. Anyway!
To explain this I’ll explain the delusion in question. Delusions that you are another person. This is commonly MISUNDERSTOOD to be DMS. DMS is not a diagnosis, it’s a name for a collective group of delusional disorders. So when people say
‘ummm u dont mean DAs u mean DMS’
that is literally fucking WRONG because it’s like saying you’ve been diagnosed with psychosis it literally makes no fuckin sense.
Anyway, Back on topic.
Delusional people have delusions that they are other people, real or fictional. (I’ll get into the real beef later). Kins have spiritual belief that they are other people, usually fictional. Systems have introjects. All of these are different, but along the years the lines have blurred due to our common enemy, tumblr users (and danganronpa fans).
As far as I know, in the cases of Delusional people, Kins and Systems the process is involuntary. We don’t choose who, there’s no process behind it. There are people we may be more likely to feel this way towards if they are someone we like, but it can happen even with people we don’t.
People that KFF (kin for fun) do this at will. They create copinglinks and synpaths. This is a /choice/. They do this to cope with trauma or whatever.
NOW!
People that like to KFF, heard about these communities and decided to use the terminology they saw for themselves, without actually understanding, and made a mess of everything. They are a large part of all the hate these communities get.
Beef explained:
Systems vs delusionals:
Pretty simple to explain. Some people have delusions that they have systems. This leads to: delusional people invalidating systems and angry systems misinforming others. Do people that believe they have systems have systems? No. Does this mean you should get mad at them and call them freakshows or whatever? No. Delusions are involuntary, and the delusional person has complete belief that it’s true - they aren't trying to hurt anyone, they are mentally ill. This doesn’t mean systems have to be okay with them.
Systems vs KFFs:
Again, pretty easy to explain. KKFs when they have multiple people they kin, then tend to co-opt system terms. Such as referring to themselves as a system so on and so forth. This is ableist and not okay because they are literally stealing from communities who don’t experience these things for fun. These guys suck and deserve to be called freakshows.
Otherkin vs Trans community:
Kinda more hard to explain. Otherkin basically believe they are a nonhuman in a human body and fully believe this. [Note: ‘Otherkin being delusional’ is a messy topic because their main arguing point is: delusions are characterised by being obviously not true/can be proven to be false. You can't prove that their souls aren't someone else's]. Anyway, trans people are mad because otherkin are usually used as a way to make fun of trans people, otherkin get mad because it’s not their fault people suck. A lot of the beef is rooted in ableism tho so idk why we get hit in this abled battle but whatever.
Now for the mess.
Delusionals/psychotics vs KKFs:
I’ll make a key term glossary here.
IDs: ID is just short for identity, it's who they are
IRLs: IRL is used by these individuals to explain how they are LITERALLY that character/person/thing in real life. "IRLs' ' are a common and episodic delusional occurrence among individuals with psychotic disorders. As a subconscious, involuntary and dissociative coping skill for stress, anxiety, depression, overwhelming feelings and/or past trauma, the brain of an individual with a psychotic disorder may "latch", or form a deep connection with, the identity of a (commonly) fictional character or person.
To the individual in question, they fully (in personality, identity, memories, experiences and more) become the character in question. In many episodic cases, their base reality, or "physical self", can be completely lost in the dissociation.
An IRL may form from a character that makes the individual happy, a character they can relate to, a character that helps them come to terms with bad feelings or trauma, a character they wish they were like (in cases of body/gender dysphoria, personality/social issues, etc) or a character they're frequently exposed to.
Doubles: Someone who kins the same character
DMS: ^^^^
Otherkin: ^^^^
Fictionkin: ^^^^
Factkin: You are an irl person
Synpath
CopingLink
Delusional Attachments: Long story short, a term used to describe how delusional people attach to characters and believe they are them
Endel: A nonhuman or Alterhuman self-identifier to describe one’s identity being caused by, rooted in, or greatly influenced by [a] delusion.
The beef between these communities stems from 3 things. Terminology, beliefs and attitude.
Let’s start with terminology. Similarly to systems, there's beef about who stole what and what does this actually mean?!?! To be quite honest, I’m pretty sure psychotics stole the terms from kins. But let's not get into that lol. Anyway, the terms used are just poorly explained and promote crazy amounts of misinformation! What do I mean? Well. DAs is a doozy. Explained further here and here (read w caution tho lol). IRLs, well, have multiple meanings. KKFs stole it and made a mockery of it which is always super funny cuz well if you were an IRL you wouldn’t KNOW that you were an IRL … cuz you ARE that character. Sure, I’ve said it before that some delusions can have awareness, but tbh you can really just tell lol.
Beliefs. Well, here’s the beef. Are delusional people kins? When they’re having an episode they fully believe they are that person/character. But outside of an episode, they know they AREN’T that character. Kins believe they are that character all the time. Both are involuntary. KKFs blurred the lines between these two beliefs and caused conflict.
Attitude: Both sides are mean to one another. Kins are all ‘IRLs are ANTIRECOVERY. You shouldn't ENCOURAGE OR FEED INTO THEIR CRAZY ASS DELUSIONS!!!!” Which is super fucking dumb. Psychotics are all, ‘You guys are delusional cringe weirdos who are in denial’. Won’t comment on that.
Anyway, That’s generally it. I was gonna add more but I got tired. Like I said, I’ll constantly update this.
As for my thoughts, I think DAs is a ghetto term. I always say it. I think KKFs should stop co-opting terms. I think Psychotics can use whatever Kin terms they think fit. There are different Kintypes anyway. When I have my delusions I LITERALLY think I am that character. They are me, I am them. I have the memories, their personality, likes, dislikes, whatever. Maybe this is something I should unpack with a therapist because Kins apparently don’t have independent personalities from you they MAKE you, but I experience each of them as THEM. Like, I AM Senku. Ya know? What do I want you to do for me? Just vibe. If you notice I’m being delusional just reply to me as you normally would, try to change the topic if you can. Depending on the character… I will react better or worse than if you refer to me as that character's name or something else. I will make this clearer. Or, if you don’t know or don't wanna mess up, just ignore me! 9/10 times it will not last longer than a week. This is because I usually only experience these episodes as Brief Psychotic episodes. Do I care about doubles? Well. Idk. Similar to the name, different times I will be affected by things differently. View here for more info ‘Yes. Some days their identity may not be as influential on their life because delusions can flare, though. Evidence or proof of non-existence has no effect on delusions, and if it does, it is not a delusion. It should be noted that Endels may double bookkeep their delusions. Sometimes I can be more aware of the delusion’. Similar to Heeseung. Sometimes I am completely in the belief that we’re dating and that we are together. Other Times I am aware that we are not dating. I do have ‘factkin’. Also remember that my experience won’t be the be all and end all for other people because my parents directly block my access to therapy and I also have a dissociative disorder which may or may not impact my experiences with this lol as it causes me dissociative amnesia and identity disturbance, confusion and alteration (this person explains it perfectly) . Bleh. ANYWAY. TLDR: it dont fawkin matter brah. We (psychotics) barely know ourselves. I prefer endel. But like i always say, i doubt u will experience it. buttt if you do...
Here’s a glossary of terms: (i didnt try with thisw im sorry)
High Kin - You kinshift to that certain character often, if not most or all of the time. You believe you are that character more than others.
Medium Kin - You kinshift to that character every once in a while. You believe you are that character sometimes, but other kins will be higher than this one.
Low Kin - You do not kinshift to this character often. This character will be the lowest you think that character is you.
Kinmem/Mem - A memory that you may get from one of your Kintypes. It can be anything, from just an idea that you 100% know is true, a feeling, thought, a smell, taste, or physical feeling from your Kintype's life, and even whole "scenes' ' that can play out in your head. Parts of the canon that you vividly remember from your Kintype's life count as mems as well!
Canonmate - Someone who shares the same memories/feelings/etc. as you! You can become canonmates.
Canon - Someone's life/reality/what they lived through or are living through (Hard to explain. Used typically such as: "were you _____ in your canon?")
Canon divergent - Someone's canon that does not follow the "canon" anime/manga/game/etc. (Ex: Their scar was on the other side of their face, they're a different sexuality, etc.)
Canon call - A message or post looking for people who might share memories with the poster and be from the same canon.
Kinbait/kinbaiting/baiting - Luring or baiting someone to kin as a certain character or from a certain source (typically done just for fun with friends!)
Source - Where your kin comes from (which game, anime, manga, etc.)
Shift - Which kin is presenting themselves the most at any given moment. Usually, images, songs, or objects will make someone shift into one of their kins. Depending on what shift they're in, their mood or attitude might change.
Valid - When someone is feeling like themselves and real! This is a VERY good thing to feel!!
Invalid - When someone isn't feeling themselves/as their kin, usually happens when they see a double or kin hate.
Double - Someone who also kins as the same character as you. Some people do not like doubles, some are iffy, and others are okay with doubles (usually depends on which kin specifically). [there's hoohaa abt whether this was stolen]
Dissociate/dissociative/dissociating - Dissociation is a mental process that causes a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memory, and sense of identity. (Varies from person to person. Dissociation might happen when encountering a double.) Also on THIS note, disssociation is a very tricky topic, and can be a SYMTPOM of many things, similar to psychosis. This is very different to having a disossociative disorder. All disossocative disorders experiebce disoccsiaotn (duh) as well as DP and DR, but you cannot (AFAIK) be diagnosed with multiple dissoaciatibe disorders. Also, whilst people with disaoccisyve disorders may experience DP and DR it's never to the same extent or intensity that those with DPDR disorder will have. Similar for the others, which is why they are different disorders. (appreciate how i fucked up the spelling each time <3)
Kin-Shift: a kinshift is simply defined as when you feel much more connected to that particular kintype than usual! Psychological shifts are the most common, in which you begin to think and act a little bit more like the kintype you are shifted as at the moment. Phantom shifts are when you feel as if you are missing a body part/limb that one of your kintypes has. These are called astral limbs! Not to be confused with phantom limbs, which is a term used for amputees. PHANTOM LIMBS CAN BE SCIENTIFICALLY EXPLAINED, ASTRAL LIMBS CANNOT. This is kind of a no-brainer, but anyone who claims to be able to “physically shift” is duping you. The physical strain that would put on the body would quite literally kill you.
Permashift: Similar to ID, this is a kintype that you tend to be in shift for more than just a couple hours. This could be for days, weeks, or even months.
Fictionflicker: Flickers are basically what the name implies, kintypes that aren’t permanent. Your kintype may be a flicker if, once you start to distance yourself from the source, it starts to “fade away.” Fictionflicker has a nearly identical dichotomy to being kin, but they eventually fade away. Kin mems, kin-shifts, and everything else occurs for them too!