Ah the free market at work. (Similar to when I went to CVS to pickup a 90$ prescription and they had their own generic version for 7.99).

This is important! Tell your Friends.

I can’t believe some insurances quit covering them 😐

From Slate:

The generic Adrenaclick will cost $109.99 for two doses, compared with $649.99 for the same amount of drug in an EpiPen. That’s good news, both for financial and safety reasons: STAT reported last year that some parents and institutions had begun filling up syringes with epinephrine as a cost-cutting measure, a DIY solution that could pose great risk to the children who may have eventually needed injections. A more affordable alternative will help ensure safer epinephrine injections.

That’s assuming, though, that the people who need these devices know exactly what to ask for when they’re sitting in their doctors’ offices. Otherwise, they’ll still be stuck with the overpriced product. Here’s why: The mechanism by which Adrenaclick injects the drug is slightly different from EpiPen’s mechanism, so the Food and Drug Administration has ruled that the two are not therapeutically equivalent. That distinction is important because it means a prescription for an EpiPen cannot be filled with Adrenaclick. If you want the cheaper option, you have to have an Adrenaclick prescription.

You must ask your doctor for an Adrenaclick prescription! 

I also found a coupon from Impax on 0.15mg and 0.3mg epinephrine injection, USP auto-injectors, which appear to be the generic version of Adrenaclick; these coupons cover up to $100 per pack for 3 packs of these injectors (6 total injectors).

Some customers may be automatically eligible for $100 off the retail price thus only paying $10 for a pack, but this may be good backup for those who for whatever reason do not meet those requirements.

Pass this information on, potentially save a life.

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

Happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

Happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

Happy Pride!

Every pride, you must reblog this. No exceptions

Anyone gonna mention how this guy actually preformed live with Carly Rae Jepsen?

I’m gonna scream is2g

I was thinking of reblogging this again just because the original video is still amazing, but then I see the second video and lost my mind. The upgraded fan, the body glitter, the sheer fact that he got to do this with the actual singer.

This is Mark Kanemura, he’s worked closely with Gaga and been a finalist on So You Think You Can Dance twice. He didn’t “get to do this”, she hired him and he’s been in her music videos. He’s not just some nameless funny queer on the internet, say his damn name lol

I reblogged this last month, tagged it, and said “might as well see if it works.” I used this video as a reference to find all the forms that i needed (which is A LOT, especially if you’re a dependent) and sent them through the mail, not really allowing myself to hope.

dude.

$2,714 of medical debt from my top surgery - gone. im shaking this was such a weight on me for 2 years and it fucking worked. what the fuck.

good morning to all black alternative folks. this is a reminder that you shouldnt have to pick between your identity and your interests, and your blackness is hardcore as fuck. poser paste (and other hair colour waxes) is a great way to colour your hair bright vibrant colours without chemical treatment, i personally think bantu knots are the afro equivalent of liberty spikes, protective style mohawks are always sick as hell, and i think the anarchist symbol would make a hella cool mark. i love you!

btw this is okay to reblog for nonblack people!! this post isnt for you, but think of it as a message from you to your black alternative friends and followers!

Calling a canon bisexual woman a lesbian becuase she has a female love interest or is in a wlw relationship is bisexual erasure and biphobic!!!!

Same thing goes for bisexual men and mlm relationships!!!!!

REBLOG THIS VERSION TOO YOU COWARDS

Same thing for bisexual people in m/f relationships that people call straight.

hey man i haven’t seen a single similar post (concerning???) so i feel like it’s important to make this.

tomorrow is ramadan. your eating disorder will not magically disappear in ramadan.

allah will not hate you if you relapse in ramadan. be it that you faint or you binge, if you need to break your fast because of your eating disorder THEN YOU BREAK YOUR FAST.

You are not supposed to fast when you are sick. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FAST WHEN YOU ARE SICK. IT IS HARAM TO FAST IF YOU ARE SICK BECAUSE IT BRINGS HARM TO YOUR BODY. If you start feeling horribly sick and you know, you haven’t had sufficient suhoor or iftar for a few days or anything of the sort, it is okay to break your fast and even go to the hospital if you need to.

habaybi that have eating disorders, PLEASE take care of yourself during ramadan. It is a month of cleansing and forgiveness, so forgive yourself if you relapse. You can always redo your fast after ramadan.

Jazakallah please reblog this post and ramadan mubarak to you all! ♡

i love abortion and i love divorce

i pop some pills and i ride my horse

i log onto tumblr and i start discourse

eyyyy macarena

this has the strongest 2014 tumblr vibe i’ve seen in a while, can’t believe this post is 5 days old

THIS POST IS FIVE DAYS OLD???? I THOUGHT IT WAS AT LEAST 2 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!

happy 9 day anniversary to this post 💖

A list of popular(?) media that has seizure-inducing imagery in it.

before we begin, this is not intended to say no one can watch/be into any of the things listed below, it is to simply warn my fellow epileptics of things that could cause a photosensory-induced seizure. that is, to also say, some of these things have other flaws and issues within them, and anything listed here is not exempt of problems/criticism, but i am not here to criticize them for the flaws within the thing itself. once again, this is a warning so people can avoid having seizures.

neon genesis evangelion - this series has extremely bad flashing, i could not finish it because of this. nearly every fighting scene (which there are a lot of) has intense flashing lights and colors.

revolutionary girl utena - from what i have heard, this, along with many other old anime (such as eva, listed above) have a big issue with flashing colors and strobe effects. generally, i would advise doing your research/asking people around you before watching an older anime. these can be very dangerous.

genshin impact - the game's fight mechanics are filled with bright colors and flashing lights, and there isn't a warning until you've already installed, and opened the game (and even that is very vague). it's caused people headaches, so i would not be surprised if it would cause seizures as well. luckily, there is a manga if you want to get into the story, however, if you have epilepsy, i would be wary of the game itself.

metalocalypse - in the intro specifically, there are many flashing lights and colors. they are also sprinkled throughout the show itself. these scenes are skippable, but i would recommend someone else (who knows when these happen) watch it with you, and give you time to look away or warn you before the flash.

nbc hannibal - there are very few flashing scenes in this show, and the places where flashes happen are skippable. the most prominent are when dr. lecter is brainwashing will and another girl (who i do not remember exactly who right now). these scenes are entirely skippable, and i absolutely would recommend doing so. ps., there is also a scene where will graham has an on-screen seizure. while there aren't any strobe effects happening at the time, the scene itself was very triggering for me, and upset me for a while after watching it.

homestuck - if you have epilepsy, i cannot stress this enough, do not look at homestuck, or anything homestuck related. this comic is literally seizure hell. there are an incredible amount of strobes, intense flashing colors, and general flickering images. (the original google document listing out homestuck's issues did not mention this. so i am.)

spiderman: into the spiderverse - while the animation is beautiful, this movie is chock full of bright colors and flashes. i was able to sit through it, but did get a headache afterwards. i would especially not recommend watching it in a dark-lit room, as it makes this issue worse.

mob psycho 100 - this show has a lot of bright colors that flash and are generally very eye-strainy. i had to skip out on a lot of this, but it may be watchable with the screen dimmed, depending on person to person.

dorohedoro - in most, if not all, of the dorohedoro openings, there are intense flashing colors and strobe effects. the rest of the show is pretty okay, but i would skip the openings (and endings) whenever possible.

half life - this has very minor flashes around the resonance cascade, but other than that, ive been told its fine to watch.

rwby - there are some flashy scenes, but i have never watched this show, so i can not elaborate in full detail about them. just be wary!

ghost (vocaloid producer) - many of the music videos include flashing colors and strobe effects in them. if you want to listen to their music, i would recommend going into a different tab or avoiding the actual music videos themself.

lisa the painful - this game has red flashing screens throughout the game, if you are going to try to play, i would advise having someone tell you when exactly these flashes are, or just watch a playthrough of it, but you may need to avoid it entirely.

if you're not epileptic, i encourage you to reblog this post and add any media you know that could be seizure-inducing (please include a small blurb on what the flashing is, whether it's avoidable, etc.) please do not start fights in the notes. this is a resource for people who experience seizures and want to avoid having them. thank you. ❤️

see also “credit belongs to the artist”. Stop that. Reblog the original posts from the original artists.

Some of the notes in that one post about gen z and cults going around: “I would start a cult but I don’t have money 😔” “lol new heavens gate here we come” “aren‘t fandoms cults already lol”

Me, a tired cult survivor: you have no idea what you’re talking about. shut tf up.

seriously.

everytime i ssee a "join thhe ___ cult uwu" i have a fuckijg stroke

stop. please.

also the posts about Gen Z having a cult boom are 100% true

and its partially bc no one litsens to cult survivors

no one takes us seriously when we say stop normalizing this shit

and now no one knows the actual signs

we think we’re safe from cults. we think its a thing of the past

when you hear cult you think of blood rituals and shit on tv right? well the one I was in was on a fucking google classroom

so learn the fucking signs and stay aware for goodness sake holy shit

Hi, my name is Nina and I left a cult in 2006.

It is not a joke.

If I told you the name of this church, you’d look it up and go “but Nina, that’s a normal branch of evangelical Christianity, which has its own problems but is not necessarily a cult,” and you would be correct, so we’ll leave the name out of it. This was one specific church that decided to spin right off the rails, in the same way that Westboro is “Baptist.”

It started when a new preacher came, and it started small. He and his wife made us feel special. We were family. Truth-seekers in a frightening world. And at first it seemed so normal. Christians shouldn’t smoke, for example, because the body is the temple of Christ. Okay, sure! Reasonable. It’s not anything that’s not backed up by medical science, even.

Then they started introducing this concept called “Bible quizzing.” It’s actually a whole thing with that denomination, basically teaching kids scripture by having them memorize it and take part in competitions. So far, so good—except that for some reason....if we failed a question, we got in A LOT of trouble. I missed one once because of a typo and I was DESPERATE to get the judges to change their ruling. And this was not a huge error, either. It was like “will enter in the kingdom” instead of “will enter into the kingdom.” The reason for the error did not matter (even though it was outside my control). The tininess of the error did not matter. Only the error mattered, and I was pulled aside by the pastor’s wife when we returned home from the competition to find out if I was “really serious about learning the word of G-d” or if I was “struggling in my faith.” She was “disappointed” I had “allowed Satan” to “confuse me.” And I was devastated. If I was a victim of Satan then I wasn’t special. I wasn’t one of the truth-seekers. I didn’t belong....and oh, I wanted to belong. I had no friends at school. At church I was part of a family. Everybody loved me. I couldn’t “fall away.”

Over the next few years, the weirdness intensified. It became unacceptable for girls to show their knees because it was a “temptation” to “our brothers in Christ.” I picked out a dress for the homecoming dance and was told I should “cover my knees and then get on them and pray for forgiveness” because the hemline of the dress hit mid-knee. I was shamed in youth group because one of our youth leaders said he was going to trace his genealogy all the way back to Adam and Eve and I said “but that’s impossible, even if your family had written records all the way back the ones from before the flood would’ve been destroyed.” The pastor began speaking of receiving “visions from G-d” telling him about the sins of the congregation, which he recited in detail while exhorting us to come to the front and pray. At one point I brought the whole service to a screeching halt by saying my grandfather was an atheist and I wanted to pray for his soul to find Jesus. (And oh boy did they pray.)

All of this culminated in me being kidnapped.

That was the point where I was starting to have doubts. Things between the old and New Testaments didn’t add up and also I didn’t understand how I was supposed to be going to hell for wearing jingly earrings when earrings were right in the Bible. At this point I was seventeen, and I stopped attending. My family moving made it easy; I had to find a 20-mile ride most weeks to attend, and it wasn’t easy. But then I started college literally within walking distance, and my previously-clockwork attendance remained patchy, and became moreso after I got enmeshed in what very quickly (like, two dates quickly) proved to be an abusive relationship. The pastor told me it was my duty to stay in this relationship because I’d been “chosen by G-d” to “heal this man’s soul.” I’d already tried to kill myself once for the sake of the church, because I couldn’t pray myself straight and I didn’t want to go to hell for lust.

So here I am, 18 years old, for the first time telling my pastor “I’m not so sure.”

Within two days the youth leader showed up at my door and told me I’d been sponsored to go to an event called Acquire the Fire. I said I couldn’t go because of midterms and was told that I would go, or they would tell my professor I’d had a family emergency and they’d pick me up.

I went. It was three days of hell—Christian death metal bands physically hurting me due to problems with my ears, and a “laying on of hands” right in front of the speakers while I sobbed because “the devil is in you, or the name of the lord wouldn’t be causing you pain.” (Spoiler alert, it wasn’t the name of the lord, it was the insane decibel level.) At one point the pastor’s daughter took me outside to get away from it. It was three days of being told so many lies, hearing that I should completely obliterate my identity in the name of Christ, being told AIDS was a judgment from G-d, cancer was a judgment from G-d, Starbucks was a tool of the devil, that the speaker could hear our thoughts and none of us were heavenbound.

I got back home and alerted campus security that I was under risk.

I never went back—that was one of many reasons, but it was the biggest, and I was done. But I spent another five years slowly deprogramming. “Our G-d is an Awesome G-d” is still a trigger for me. I’m religious (I eventually converted to Judaism), but walking into a church for any reason makes me profoundly uneasy.

And it all started with a lonely ten-year-old who wanted to be special and was told you are, you are, you are, that’s why you get to know so many special things, that’s why people are cruel to you, they just don’t realize the truth....and it ended with me nearly dying.

You may think this sounds wild. It is. But I’m still in touch with another survivor who’s here on Tumblr, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they make themselves known.

It isn’t a joke. It isn’t funny. It is a very real danger and the smarter you think you are, the worse it is, because these cults are savvy and they know just how to deal with people like you.

Don’t fuck with cults unless you want to die miserably, probably alone and in pain.

Just don’t.

I never managed to get that deep into shit at any of the churches I went to, but I know it was going on. Hell, I've been to Acquire the Fire rallies, more than once, willingly because that level of fervor is how I was raised, and lemme tell ya that shit is insane to look back on, it's the worst kind of big tent revival hellfire stuff but it's aimed at teenagers. Fucking children.

Hell, a close friend of mine had ended up in a household-sized cult of personality that revolved around one very manipulative abusive person (very Andy Blake in many many ways, and google that mofo if you want to see how that shit can get heavy fast)

And there was the period of me and my wife's life where - very recently - our finances were almost entirely managed by a cult bc my dad helps us financially and he was friends with the "Pastor"/cult leader, and decided he wouldn't help us anymore unless we let the cult be in charge of a bunch of shit in our lives. We knew basically from day 1 what it was, but we didn't have a choice, and even though we were members they tried their damnedest to control us a lot more than they had any right to.

Cults are not funny. They're not quirky. They're destructive and terrifying and I am begging all you younger folks who don't know about red flags for shit like that to please educate yourselves, and be wary and cautious, because this shit can fuck you up for life, even if you escape it.

Also a quick google showed the cult that we had running our finances for a while is now reaching out to gen z/teenagers specifically, so if you see the accounts @nffrecovery or @nffgenz anywhere, or hear about a group called New Found Family in the Largo/Clearwater/St.Pete area of Florida? STEER FUCKING CLEAR, they are manipulative abusive bastards, and they will fuck your life up. At least four separate people who worked directly with us - including the Pastor's wife - ended up leaving or being full on driven out of the group because they weren't blindly obeying the things they were told to do, and saw how culty and manipulative things were. Stay away from them, and learn to recognize cults on your own.

WARNING!!!!

People, please be careful. There are also people tracking children and people and putting bids on them based on their profile pictures on whatsapp, tracking and kidnapping them. Especially young children, so please be cautious, especially parents who have their children as their profile pictures.

Please pass this on to everyone so that they are aware of the danger. I don’t how it is all around the world but I know it can’t just be here so please please spread the word. Thank you.

oh my god

I HAVE BEEN GETTING THIS TEXT REGULARLY FOR WEEKS

HOLY SHIT THANK GOD I DIDN’T

I’ve gotten a few of these. Never ever click a link from an unknown number!!!

oh yeahhhh, I saw that on snapchat. it’s been freakin’ EVERYWHERE lately. i haven’t been getting the text, luckily, but im still extremely cautious about it. shit’s scary.

not just girls, but boys and other genders have to be careful as well. this could happen to anyone. please be safe, my friends <3

FOR ALL THE YOUNGER PEOPLE THAT FOLLOW. YOU GUYS ARE SMART. YOU KNOW THIS. BUT JUST IN CASE THERE ARE SOME WHO MIGHT NOT. THAT DOESN’T MAKE YOU NOT SMART, PERHAPS JUST LESS INFORMED. 

DO NOT CLICK LINKS IN TEXTS EVER. GO TO ACTUAL WEBSITES FOR ONES YOU RECOGNIZE AND TYPE IN THE URL. OR A BOOKMARK IF YOU HAVE ONE. DON’T CLICK LINKS IN TEXTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGES/DMS AND EMAILS. EVEN IF YOU KNOW THE PERSON. TAKE EXTREME CAUTION. 

IF YOU’RE GUTS SAYS EH WOULDN’T DO THAT BUDDY. LISTEN. 

ALSO SIGNAL BOOST THE HELL OUT OF THIS

I DON’T CARE WHAT YOUR BLOG THEME IS!! REPOST THIS TO SAVE A LIFE!!

I got a text from a random # like this yesterday. I’m terrified.

Good stuff.

This. This is good fiction writing advice. I really appreciate how it was formatted as “this is a common problem, here is a solution to try in your own work” and not “oh god, don’t do that!” without any extra help. And I extra appreciated the “don’t rely on adverbs” bit, because they do have their place but they aren’t the only way actions can be emphasized.

a few days ago i woke up thinking: snails are cute, but what if they had legs?

so i made this, and i was like "aww yeahhh such a funny animal"

and then a second image popped up in my head

what if they acted like dogs?

YEAAAAHHHHH HAPPY PUPPY SNAIL

don’t get me wrong, im SO excited that people are discovering their genders and coming out as trans, but GOD so many of y’all are coming out as not-cis and then stopping there and not learning anything about the community.

like yall will come out and then continue to be just as transphobic as cis people? like you do NO research on the trans community, no talking to other trans people, then say transphobic shit and use “im [x] so i can’t be transphobic 😌”

like

if it’s needed

Let me make this post about accessibility a bit more accessible./hj

[ID: an list titled “Tone Tags” with the subtitle “These help neurodivergent people as well as others who simply need help conveying tone of voice over text” List is as follows:

/j = joking

/hj = half-joking

/ij = inside joke

/c = copypasta

/ly = lyrics

/t = teasing

/lh = light-hearted

/s = sarcasm

/rt = rhetorical question

/srs = serious

/g = genuine

/r = romantic

/p = platonic

/neg = negative connotation

/pos = positive connotation

At the end of the list is a subtitle reading “These might seem silly, but they prevent distress created by missing social cues” End ID]

Note from the IDer: Positive and negative connotation are very much like the trend of putting (affectionate) and (derogatory) after nouns.

I have seen "/gen" as "genuine", too!

reblogging cause i forget what these mean and other people probably do too.

"x isn't trans, they're nonbinary!"

is this not a commonly known fact??? what?!?!

how does being punched in the face feel like

literally i just wanna know

It depends on where you get hit

Cheek: a round dull pain that clocks your entire head in a different direction. It’s painful and throbs but the main effect of a punch to the cheek is how jarring it is. You feel it in your mouth, your teeth. And no matter how you position that punch the knuckles will always hit the jaw and cheek bones adding a frame of sharp pain in which the redness will be painted.

Temple: getting hit on the temple pushes your head to the side rather than turning it. It’s disorienting because it leaves you very off balance. It essentially feels like a bad pressure headache, like when you have a sinus infection on a plane, but in one spot and on the outside. It’s sharp in the middle and radiates outward and even after the initial impact it pulses like an earthquake epicenter. It easily causes long lasting headaches and is the most likely of these examples to cause a concussion.

Eye: this is a weird one. The fist doesn’t fit within the eye socket so either the knuckles on the brow and cheeks bones protect the actual eye or they don’t. The former option gives a full spreading pain below the eye which results in the classic black eye look and a sharp pain on your brow similar to hitting your shin on the couch. The latter option, well bad things can happen when a hard fast object makes direct contact with your eye but for the sake of this it feels like a vacuum bc the concave shape is being covered and pressurized. The eye feels pushed back and pulled forward all at once. It doesn’t necessarily hurt that bad for that long unless the punch was meant to do damage. I’m fortunate to say I don’t know what it would feel like then.

Nose: remember that prank kids used to pull where they’d line up their hands with their nose, push them in one direction and crack a knuckle at the same time to pretend to break their nose? Yeah that’s what it looks like when someone punches you from the side in the nose, except it’s someone else’s hand and your nose makes the sound instead of their knuckle. It’s just like breaking any bone where you hear it and feel the action if it being done but that moment of shock blankets you for a split second until all the pain comes rushing back. It’s sharp and needlelike and can give you black eyes just to add insult to injury. If you get hit in the nose from the front it’s like the uncomfortableness of when you have to sneeze but can’t. Except that feeling took all the steroids and is now using your face as a punching bag to express its roid rage. It crackles outward like static electricity under your skin, your eyesight gets fuzzy and you can’t tell if it’s because you’re tearing up, it’s hard to open your eyes, or you’re momentarily stunned and blinded. Just know it’s all three. I find that this one knocks the wind out of you the most. Gotta remind yourself to breathe just don’t try to do it through your nose.

If you really want to know what this feels like I’d suggest joining a mixed martial arts because they’ll teach you correct form and power distribution and you can spar with pads and actually hit each other.

I’d also recommend learning what it feels like to punch someone in the face. It’s much more fun and pretty damn cathartic when they deserve it.

i was just being stupid but these descriptions are actually so well written i could feel them lmao bless

Well, thanks for “being stupid,” because this is a great ref for writers.

this reads like the bee sting guy

Man, I’m kind of bummed out that the best resources for deer anatomy and body language are all on hunting sites. I mean, it makes sense, but it’s still kind of disorienting to be reading along and then have a description end with like, “…so if you see the buck’s ears do that, stay still and keep your gear from making noise”. I’m not crouching in the grass with a compound bow, I’m just an artist! I just want to draw a bunch of fake fictional deer and deer-adjacent creatures, not put on some forest camo and hunt me a Big Antler Boy or w/e in real life!! 

Yeesh, I bet I’m going to get targeted ads about hunting equipment now. Just another way that the Research Struggle can be really real sometimes.

Here are amazing deer skeletal references by Rico LeBrun! They were created during production of Disney’s Bambi, to help aid the artists.

The link to download the images in their full glory:

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1548

Oh whoa, thank you so much!! This is awesome. I’ve seen some of these drawings before, but never the full set!

Edit: oh wow I just looked at the URL and it’s.. hmm. Hmmmmmmmm

Unsure.jpeg but thanks for the images in the post

@c-rowlesblogs it’s OK, we’re gonna be OK

Oh my god

I’m gonna say something….. controversial

if you’re writing a story and your villain has (or is) dissociative identity disorder then your art is bad and you should feel bad.

you know how straight people are really terrible at telling gay jokes because they don’t understand what the actual funny parts of being gay are?

Yeah people without DID who try to use the disorder for horror/thriller purposes fail at it because they don’t understand how DID actually effects people and their lives and behavior and relationships

In fact every piece of dramatic media I can think of that depicts DID kinda relies on the audience not understanding how DID actually works

And if the audience being educated ruins their suspension of disbelief, you’ve fucked up

And if you have to demonize highly vulnerable abuse survivors to create drama, you might not have any business writing fiction to begin with

Fictional DID is always depicted as dangerous to everyone but the person with the disorder and it makes me wonder what amount of research is acceptable in Hollywood and TV these days

like in Split they’re all “different alters have different biological realities” as some kind of edgy “what if the hulk but real” thing, and as far as I know, the idea that different alters have different physiologies is not accepted by modern psychology, and was likely falsified by an extremely abusive, immoral, and sadistic psychologist who gave his patients dangerous experimental drugs just to see how they would react, and then when the patients complained of trouble breathing or heart problems, this doctor told the nurses that it was all part of ~multiple personality disorder~ so that they wouldn’t like. I don’t know. Tell someone that this doctor was poisoning his patients in a wholly unscientific manner for apparent shits and giggles.

So yeah, that such a good sign for that movie huh?? //sarc

Look I don’t have DID, but I did live with someone who did for a year. It barely affected me. The person told me because they assumed I would notice something odd if we were living together, but tbh if he hadn’t I probably wouldn’t have thought anything except maybe that he was forgetful and disorganized.

I only ever knowingly interacted with one alter, who a psychologist might describe as an “angry part”, as sometimes alters experience limited emotions and are classified as “emotional parts”. This is the kind of alter that movies like Split want you to think is a rage-crazy murder monster with no impulse control.

The real-life “angry alter” my roommate had? I mean he was kind of a dick. He always seemed generally pissed off but he wasn’t a threat to me. I think he maybe wasn’t very nice to my roommate but since that happened internally I never saw, I could only guess. Hardly a hulk-like sex murderer.

And actually the majority times I talked to this alter I didn’t even know it. Because usually he made a point of acting like my roommate so that no one would give the system any trouble. Because DID is a highly specialized, involuntary coping mechanism created to protect a victim of trauma or abuse. Alters form so that the victim can continue with their life and grow and develop. If all alters were dangerous volatile monsters that you could easily tell the difference between at a glance, they wouldn’t be a very effective defense mechanism.

So I would talk to my roommate as usual, and then like an hour later he would be like “whoa how long have I been gone, what was my body doing all day” and I would be like uhhh I literally don’t know dude if you hadn’t said that I wouldn’t have realized you weren’t the one fronting all day.

In Split it’s like “if I lose control of my alters they kidnap and murder people!!!” and meanwhile in reality it’s more like….. System needed to go to class today but Alter B was fronting when it was time to leave for class and they didn’t feel like going, so the whole system missed out on class and that sucks.

And when alters do hurt people its…. pretty much always the body of the system. There are suicidal and self-harming alters for sure. But I’ve never found a medically or scientifically valid article or study about homicidal alters. And certainly not alters who carry out complex kidnapping plots of multiple people.

And obviously fiction that demonizes any mental illness makes the world a more dangerous place for people with that mental illness, and I’ve even met mental health workers who believed the horror movie depiction of DID and thought my roommate was going to kill me. That is a serious problem. It’s one thing for Average Joe to think Split is a legit portrayal of DID, but when the people whose job it is to help mentally ill people believe this?? At best it’s going to be harder for systems to find the help they need. At worst, the mental health system becomes hostile and dangerous to those with DID.

Oh, let’s all get into this post

Research and sensitivity writers. I cannot stress how important they are.