[ SECRET POST #133 ]

[shahni.livejournal.com]

⌈ Secret Post #133 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

- Posting for Sonny-Boy! Last day to submit secrets for next week!

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #019.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, [1] not!secrets, 0 not!fandom.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Saturday, May 19th, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: Here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[des-butterfly.livejournal.com]

Isn't hearing voices in your headspace called schizophrenia? Or a psychotic break?

Schizophrenia doesn't happen to everyone, but it sure isn't something to brag about.

[climbatize.livejournal.com]

No, schizophrenia is something completely different (http://community.livejournal.com/multiplicity/692804.html). People with schizophrenia actually hear voices; being a soulbonder/multiple means you communicate in thoughts that are clearly different than actual outside voices.

I don't get why everyone thinks it's so weird.

[(Anonymous)]

...maybe 'cause it's freakin' weird? ^^;

[climbatize.livejournal.com]

It's just different. I don't think you'd be saying stuff like that if the secret had been about how everybody in the world is completely straight and anyone who says they're not is insane or anything.

[des-butterfly.livejournal.com]

I don't think you can compare the issue of sexuality to having fictional characters living in your head.

Ah, the internet once again provides comfort that somewhere, there will always be someone weirder than you. XD

[climbatize.livejournal.com]

Why not? Everyone has a sexuality like everyone has a plurality (totally wrong usage of that word, but I'm blanking out on the real term so let's pretend). They're both something you can't change and sometimes know about from early childhood, and can get into some pretty bizarre stuff like being pansexual or median, or even transgender or otakin. (Also, soulbonds are not so much "fictional characters" as they are "people with fictional origins.")

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think most of them actually hear the voices. It's like having imaginary friends; you like pretending that they exist, that you can see and hear them because they're real people, but deep down you know it's only a game. Some people take it way too far, but it's not schizophrenia until the person is actually incapable of distinguishing fact from fiction.

It's just really fucking weird.

[climbatize.livejournal.com]

Do you mean soulbonders or people with schizophrenia? Because if you're talking about soulbonders, you've really got the definition off.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry if I wasn't clear or if I misunderstood or something. Er, I'll try explaining myself, and you can tell me if I'm still wrong.

Truth is I don't know much about soulbonding, so maybe the line isn't as clear as I'd have thought. Maybe I don't even have the right definition... the ones who explained the concept of it to me haven't had an experience like that, so I guess they wouldn't know what it's really like.

You don't see or hear characters like you would a real person, do you? You know that they're fictional; you just feel a very strong connection with them, as if they were more than just words and images, as if they were living, breathing, thinking people that just didn't happen to be on the same plane of existance. And eventually they sink in and become a part of you, so they're not so much characters anymore but another piece of your personality. Is that right? It's not quite the way it was explained, but I get that sort of thing sometimes (not so extreme though). Most writers do, I think. It starts getting a bit weird when the person stops refering to herself as one person because then it sounds like DID... but whatever.

Schizophrenia would actually be seeing them and hearing them and not being able to tell if the character was a real person or a hallucination. Really, the point of that post was that soulbonding =/= schizophrenia. :D;;

[climbatize.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that was a really, really wonderful explanation. ♥

Soulbonding is something different for everyone, I think. I know someone who just experiences it as feeling the character's presence, but then for me, it is like DID. My soulbonds have always been separate people, so while it maybe starts with some deep bond with a fictional character, after that, it's more like I just meet all these people who happen to have fictional origins. So the initial empathy comes from them having similar pasts. If that made any sense... I'm terrible at explaining things, so, um, sorry. ^^;; And normally they're not too much like the characters at all, and don't like to be compared to them. (Sometimes I don't even like the original character. XD)

I think your definition is what it's like for most people, though, except for the referring to yourself as one person thing, because while I am one person, all my bonds are definitely separate people too. I think all soulbonders would agree on that.

But, yeah, I know they're not actual outside people. Soulbonders don't actually see or hear anything, and it's not at all like schizophrenia. So, best comment ever. :D You rock.