Many Minds on the Issue

Sometimes things happen, and we get shame-triggered. This week, when something happened, we realized almost immediately that it was an attempt to exile us from community and that we were feeling shame and where it originally came from. We were able to work on it and heal it. We share a post-mortem of that exploration and journey as an example of memory reconsolidation. We wrote & recorded that section of this post on Monday (May 22, 2023) & Tuesday (May 23, 2023), respectively. Saturday — we're positive this bit of healing really took. We're good on this issue. It's been put to bed. Start a new chapter.

Trigger warning: This episode contains 2 sound effects, talk of bullying, fighting, our ex-husband is in the hospital. We cry a bit (about him), sorry about that. He's doing OK — but that was where we were at that moment. More warnings in the episode. As always, these episodes may not be appropriate while driving. Please mind your triggers, and put our podcasts on broadcast in your internal landscape so anyone who wants to can listen in.

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Onboarding is what we call helping stuck residents become more present in the Here & Now, and work on coconsciousness.

What does it generally take to help system members who are stuck in PTSD loops or trapped in the There & Then to get free, or become more present in the Here & Now? We give a little history for how we figured it out, and an overview and big picture of the process we use in the United Front Boot Camp and the book United Front: Recruits, with hints on how you can work on freeing your lost headmates.

Trigger warning: As always, these episodes may not be appropriate while driving. Please mind your triggers, and put our podcasts on broadcast in your internal landscape so anyone who wants to can listen in.

Everyone needs an anchor or a base for exploring life. Some get it from family or friends, and if something shakes it, it can be devastating. Join us for an episode exploring how to have a reliable way to depend on your own internal system for structure, support, and safety so that you limit your reliance on externals for your deepest and most dependent needs.

Content Warning: our young folk front, discussing the topic, and we dissociate through a large portion of the episode. We do not consider this content to be appropriate for young folk to listen to and work on. There are mentions of how external folk may be unreliable, or even dangerous, and even when children are speaking, none of this is child's' play.

Recorded May 21, 2019, and we finally got housing March 2020. This episode is finally being published July 6, 2020.

There will be a related session at the Plural Positivity World Conference called "Building a Reparenting-Focused Community".

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Important concept for our System Trust Issues series. Do other people's emotions overshadow your own? Do you have a hard time protecting yourself from emotional outbursts? Do you know where you end and other people begin? More on what is separate, and what ought to be.

When the world pushes up against us, it can penetrate our defenses and leave us defenseless, or with unmanageable boundaries and leaks inside and out. What are boundaries? How do boundaries relate to empathy and what do we need to fix them?

This is part of a series of podcasts leading up to a capstone on System Trust Issues. And this will also tie in to a later episode on Cording & Decording.

Trigger warning: Panic attack, crowded subway car. Mentions of anger, emotional manipulation and blackmail. Someone theoretically punching a wall. This is a high-level theoretical episode and should not be specifically triggering, but you still may not want to be operating machinery while listening to it and of course anything can be triggering to someone with a history of abuse. It's always possible others in your head are interested, so a little tip: Listen with the intent for everyone in your system to be able to hear it too: put it on an internal loudspeaker, so that they don't need to front to hear.

We happily interrupt our regular podcast to say it's DID Awareness Day! And as such, we're giving you all a special episode — the January 13th recording of our lecture Beyond the Movies: Debunking myths about DID & plural systems.

This is long. Just over 1 hour and 20 minutes. You may have heard it before. Feel free to skip it if you don't need it!

The original recording is available for download, there's a script/transcript, and a call-in playback phone number which are all here:

A discussion of how important names and re-naming can be for individuals, both external and within a plural system.

Names have power, and what we name our headmates can create harmony or friction within the plural system. Buck of Crisses takes us through several types of hurt we can commit from mis-naming, labeling, and dead-naming.

Trigger warning: If you have a problem with a certain nickname of `Richard`, this episode may bother you. As always, these episodes may not be appropriate while driving. Please mind your triggers, and put our podcasts on broadcast in your internal landscape so anyone who wants to can listen in.

A daily exercise in serenity; one of the many ways to be more present and less dissociated.

The opposite of dissociation is presence. Presence is not just one thing going on, it's a collection of subtle arts including being mindful, anchored in the Here & Now, calm or serene, and being aware of one's surroundings.

It was during a daily course in self-improvement that we discovered the passage "Serenity" from James Allen's As a Man Thinketh (1903), made a personal recording of it, and for a period of time we listened to it daily. Between the words and our own voice reading it calmly, it instilled in us a sense of safety. Listening mindfully, while breathing and calming down, became one of the ways we reminded ourselves to remain in the Here & Now, and to exercise our presence muscles.

At the end of the episode we read the original 1903 "Serenity" passage including it's either (hu)man or male-centric verbiage and pronouns. At the time, it was popular to use "he" as a generic third party singular pronoun, and "man" could well mean "mankind" or any one person on the planet. When we read at the beginning of the episode, we read a version we modified. Both versions are available in prose (linked below) so you may record your own if you like.

You do not need to listen to Serenity as your daily reminder to calm yourselves, or to have an anchor within your system who remains a point of serenity inside the system. You may use any other recording you'd like, or a painting on the wall, or look outside at nature, or play with a zen garden, etc. The point of the episode is to find this calmness inside, any one of you or more than one, and build your skill in finding it frequently.

Trigger warning: As always, these episodes may not be appropriate while driving. Please mind your triggers, and put our podcasts on broadcast in your internal landscape so anyone who wants to can listen in.

FULL SHOW NOTES & EPISODE UPDATES!! Important updates here:

https://kinhost.org/ManyMinds/ManyMinds020IntegrationIsNotWhatAnyoneThinks

If you have to ask what they mean, maybe they should use a different word?

Going over the whole lot of confusing words used between psychology and psychoanalysis and while they may think they have their terminology straight, it's quite likely that 2 professionals would use the I-word and not know what each other means exactly by it. If no one knows what anyone else means, then maybe we shouldn't use the damn word in the first place? Self-advocacy episode — just say "No" to using the word "integration."

Brief negligible spoiler with mistake about Heroes the TV series. Note to selves: fact check everything. We got a name wrong. It's not Tracy -- it's Gina.

Note: We are pro-empowerment. We are not anti-integration nor anti-merging nor anti-unification. When therapists start talking about integration at the first meeting with a new DID client, that's absurd. That makes us upset, and we get very passionate about this. Our "just say no" is not to the idea of unification, but to the word "integration" in itself, and its introduction too soon in the therapeutic process.

Trigger warning: Some people find the entire concept of anything using the I-word to be triggering, so obviously this episode wouldn't be for you if that's the case. As always, these episodes may not be appropriate while driving. Please mind your triggers, and put our podcasts on broadcast in your internal landscape so anyone who wants to can listen in.

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Starting with and expanding on the United Front Boot Camp post of the same name: leaving your baggage and triggers outside of your meetings and greetings to form internal community.

When you're starting your internal community, it's best to be on your best behavior with one another and leave your mess outside the meeting room. We go into our "As inside, so outside (and vice versa)" metaphor of treating your system like any household, and wiping the slate and starting over again as new acquaintances in your internal "home".

Trigger warning: As always, these episodes may not be appropriate while driving. Please mind your triggers, and put our podcasts on broadcast in your internal landscape so anyone who wants to can listen in.

The not-ranty version, covering much of the same ground as episode 017 with an update for new developmental models of DID.

I had to apologize for the quality of the 2005 recording in episode 017 — and maybe apologize for the rant, too. People with mental health issues get the short end of the stick, but with DID, we often get it from inside the mental health community, and that's just not acceptable. So I can get pretty ranty.

In this episode, you get information and less rantiness. Much less cursing, but that's not hard lol. Same topics plus 1 more on Developmental Theory. More organized, more coherent, less ranty.

Trigger warning: There's a lot less cursing, maybe no cursing here, less vehemence and a much more positive ending with the information on recent developmental theories on DID. This episode is not particluarly triggering but of course, please be careful about your own triggers and if you think others want to hear it, put it on the Public Address System in your head so they don't have to front to listen.

Rant alert!! Dug up an old poor-quality recording, remastered it, and posted it.

I recorded many episodes for the original Many Minds series while driving to and from work, then found out the hard way that my audio editing prowess was not up to the task of remastering them after work. This is an episode I think is necessary and powerful, but suffered because I had plugged my iPod into the car charger. It was a total disaster with a very loud electronic hum in the middle of my vocal range. It's now remastered to "somewhat acceptable". I apologize for the quality of this recording.

We go into a few different theories of multiplicity, and then it becomes a rant.

Trigger warning: There's quite a lot of cursing in this episode. We're pretty vexed by accusations that we don't exist or that we're faking it, or that it's somehow convenient to forget things or suddenly have a change of religion or dietary preferences. If you're multiple, maybe you'll enjoy us ranting on your behalf. But we do curse a good bit especially towards the end of the episode where we rant about FMS.

Recording on trigger deprogramming and managing triggers from 2011 when we were triggered by the smell of coffee.

Even once you have managed to work on most of your triggers, new ones can come up, ones you didn't expect or new aspects of old triggers. Here's a recording of when we were triggered in May 2011 and some of the ideas we've used to manage and work on triggers.

Trigger warning: This discusses an active trigger, having switched between a protector or persecutor and a little, and is recorded by Hart, who is working on managing the trigger and discussing different ways the Crisses manage triggers. There's some minor cursing and discussion of different things that play into our coffee trigger.

What's the opposite of losing time? Does time really go faster as you get older, or are you simply allowing it to rush away from you?

Where anxiety is "What if…?" and depression is "If only…" it takes mindfulness to help pull us back into present time and reality. We can become more firmly anchored in the Here & Now, in our surroundings and in the reality of our current circumstances, rather than replaying the past or dreading the future.

This episode is for anyone who is not firmly anchored in the present, who watches time go by too quickly, who is uncomfortable in their body, and needs to get reacquainted with true present-tense reality.

Trigger warning: Definitely don't listen to this episode while driving. Once you are good at being mindful, you can do it whenever you'd like to — so long as you keep your open eyes on the road and two hands on the wheel.

System Trust Capstone, Part 2: Now that you've stopped the constant eroding your system trust, what can you do to proactively build it up?

System Trust Capstone, Part 1: What is happening in your system that erodes trust and makes it so that it's impossible to even tread water?

Foundational concept for our System Trust Issues series. We've all heard of "fight or flight" reactions. In this episode we outline 8 different panic reactions and how they play out in multiplicity.

Why are there predictable roles in a multiple system? We outline 8 "F-Word" panic reactions: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Follow, Fortify, Fabricate and Facilitate, and then tie them into roles we play in our multiple system and why it's important to helping build system trust.

This is part of a series of podcasts leading up to a capstone on System Trust Issues.

Trigger warning: A few mentions of panic-worthy situations, internal prosecutors, and as usual we could always trigger something. It's always possible others in your head are interested, so a little tip: Listen with the intent for everyone in your system to be able to hear it too: put it on an internal loudspeaker, so that they don't need to front to hear.

Foundational concept for our System Trust Issues series. The permeable membrane, internal organization, integrity, the cause & effect of being a team player, externalization, acting out, echoes and co-owning your shared life.

After about 25 years of knowing I am multiple, hanging out with multiples, working with my system, and so on, I came up with this theory that things correlate across the boundary between our internal landscape or reality and the external, consensual reality. This concept of "as inside, so outside" is something we can use to empower us and inform us. When we are more cautious about this permeable boundary, we can craft our external life to have a positive impact on our internal life (and vice versa).

This is part of a series of podcasts leading up to a capstone on System Trust Issues. 

Trigger warning: This is a high-level theoretical episode and should not be specifically triggering, but you still may not want to be operating machinery while listening to it and of course anything can be triggering to someone with a history of abuse. It's always possible others in your head are interested, so a little tip: Listen with the intent for everyone in your system to be able to hear it too: put it on an internal loudspeaker, so that they don't need to front to hear.

This is an internal persecutor's mini manifesto on behalf of all your headmates, especially those you haven't met, and your potentially intimidating internal prosecutors. Buck of Crisses gives a prosecutor's perspective on internal politics, self-discovery, and a way to help you adjust to your new reality in dealing with DID and when you are experiencing excessive internal chaos. Your headmates are your potential allies, but pushing them away can create more problems for you and your system than you think. 

A message for your inner buddies: this is our smack upside the head for the main front(s) of your system. We're trying to change the paradigm in regard to dealing with the unknown or feared portions of your system so that you don't have to focus your energy inwards towards getting room to breathe from your headmates, and you can spend more time protecting the system from things outside your body.

This is part of a series of podcasts leading up to a capstone on System Trust Issues. 

Trigger warning: This is an episode specifically advocating on behalf of internal unknowns and non-co-conscious people, etc. As such it may cause them to have opinions about it. This episode may be very triggering. You may want to find someone safe to listen to it with, or find a way to stay grounded during this episode. See the message for your inner buddies above, too. Tip: Listen with the intent for everyone in your system to be able to hear it too: put it on an internal loudspeaker, so that they don't need to front to hear.

Hiring Health Consultants: Hiring, Firing & Self-Advocacy (008)
You are your own best case manager, and here's how to do it.

In today's healthcare climate, it's more important than ever to be in charge of your own care. You live with your body, mind and spirit 24/7/365, and even if the signals your body gives you are muddied by dissociation or medication, no one else lives with you or can tap into your inner wisdom.

Whether you choose to use allopathic/Western conventional healthcare, to use alternative or Eastern health care, or any other means of caring for yourself, you should be empowered to be in charge. Your professional team are your consultants, and you should be directing them in how you want your care handled.

This is an issue of our times, not a specific DID issue. Every person who requires health care (whether medical, mental, or spiritual) should listen to this episode for tips on controlling who is on your health care team, and what your treatment plans will be.

Trigger warning: This episode may not have any specific triggery content. It may not be easy to transition from "patient" to "client" of your health, there's plenty of reason to.

Do you include your body as an ally for your system?

It's actually quite common for people — with or without DID — to "disown" their body and dissociate from it. We may have issues with pain, sex, weight, congenital issues, disability, race, capabilities… (anything associated with our body at all) that cause us to disavow our connection to our body.

It's time to re-connect, and to own our body again. Whether or not we want it to change, this is our body today. And our body is an important ally in making decisions, in caring for ourselves, in managing our health, and much more.

This issue goes beyond being a DID issue and may play into any body-dismorphic issues you have. If you have body-image issues, or any other reasons you don't have a stellar relationship with your body, you may need this episode.

Trigger warning: This episode may not have any specific triggery content but the entire concept can be an issue for persons with DID or other issues.

Who needs the United Front Boot Camp?

The first step is figuring out where you are and where you'd like to go. In this episode, we consider how chaos and anarchy don't work for any group entity, internal or external, and how to take a stand and decide you are not going to participate in chaos any longer and invite others to join you. Also includes an effective way to address behaviors that bother you borrowed from The Feedback Model from Manager Tools.

Trigger warning: United Front is a progressive path towards building internal community and it isn't going to be for everyone. However these principles can be used to create communities from chaos both internally and externally so it may be of use to anyone. Please mind your own triggers: there is nothing in this episode that particularly stands out as a common trigger; it addresses internal disorganization and chaos versus communication methods and coming to consensus with few examples.

What is United Front and the United Front Boot Camp? Why did we make it?

In 2011 we started creating the United Front Boot Camp, a preliminary blog to share the ideas for our self-help book in The Crissing Link Series: United Front: Positive, proactive and collaborative self-help for people with multiple personalities.. We knew we needed to get some input and opinions on United Front before publishing it, before knowing whether our ideas would work for other people.

We've gotten some opinions, and at least some multiple systems find it useful. Now it's time to introduce it to a wider audience in the hopes of helping more people and hopefully getting more critical input.

Realizing something is a trigger that we hadn't thought of before, we explore it live on-mic as an example of examining a trigger.

Explore a newly discovered "trigger" with the Crisses. What is it about conformity that disturbs our system? Where might it come from, and how is the trigger applied to our current life in the business world? How is the trigger serving us?

Trigger warning: This episode discusses a trigger, and mentions cults, cult criteria, mention of possible coersion in childhood abuse and sexual abuse situations, how that applies to participation in adult group settings. Mentions adult women's groups and circles, etc. We may use harsh, rude language or even curse in this episode.

The contents of this podcast are meant for informational purposes only. This podcast is meant only for adults, and listener discretion is strongly advised. By no means are the contents of this podcast series intended to diagnose any illness or replace the treatment or therapy of persons in need. Please seek professional assistance if you are in distress in any way.

Music and intro vocals by The Crisses, created in Garageband. All contents © Criss Ittermann. Permission to share. And share again.

How do the DSM-V criteria (the standards by which diagnoses are given) fit?

A multiple's-eye view of how people become multiple, from experiences with many different multiple systems.

Originally Published April 30, 2005.

This is a remastered version (2017) of the second podcast for Many Minds on the Issue (2005).

The Crisses come to you from the NYC streets, with a discussion of how some people believe they become multiple. This episode takes a multiple-eye view of the phenomenon.

This episode gives an idea of the range of subjective experience and sleuthed-together origin stories within the community. Note that psychology cannot identify subjective experience, and we go a little into objectivity in psychology in the next episode. 

Trigger warning: This episode goes into a variety of ways people believe they became multiple. This is a rough consolidation of The Crisses' experience in the multiple community and mentions situations such as Walk-Ins. Also note, The Crisses are from Brooklyn, and episodes may contain what you consider to be cursewords.

What qualifies The Crisses to give a podcast in multiplicity? In this introductory episode we cover who The Crisses are to some degree, podcast goals, basics of mulitple vs. otherkin host, etc.

This is a remastered version (2017) of the first podcast for Many Minds on the Issue (2005) for improved sound and editing quality. We haz mad skillz now.

In this introductory episode we cover who The Crisses are to some degree, some of the ideas we have for future episodes, the basics on what a multiple is versus an otherkin host (we'll go into the idea of psychological models vs. subjective experiences later), and brush on many topics that we'd like to cover in later episodes.

The main purpose of this podcast is to lend some credibility so that people will know who I am (we are?). Some people already know who I am (we are?) through our extensive work on Kinhost.org, Multiplicity: The Missing Manual (on that website), and our books & self-help materials.

Trigger warning: this episode contains one curseword. This episode confronts the idea of being "multiple enough" and whether anyone has the right to challenge for proof.

Easter Egg: There are some switches during the episode. Can you spot them?

Introduction to the reboot of the Many Minds on the Issue podcast, 12 years later…

It's been 12 years since we published episode 001, so here's an introduction to the reboot of Many Minds on the Issue, the podcasts for multiples by The Crisses.

The contents of this podcast are meant for informational purposes only. This podcast is meant only for adults, and listener discretion is strongly advised. By no means are the contents of this podcast series intended to diagnose any illness or replace the treatment or therapy of persons in need. Please seek professional assistance if you are in distress in any way.

Music and intro vocals by The Crisses, created in Garageband. All contents © Criss Ittermann. Permission to share. And share again.