Ego Suppression States and Accidental Switching

[Glaurung26]

I was curious if anyone had instances where an accidental switch occurred or the host ego was completely suppressed for a time.

 

Nsfw content example:

Spoiler

After finishing often times I'm out cold, and only Jaina is conscious for some time. She is left awake for the warm fuzzies and emotional rush after. She has to use our backup subroutines to steer us to somewhere to lay down until I regain consciousness. It doesn't happen every time and to varying degrees but it's fairly common. 

 

I don't mind extended snuggle time. It puts him completely at my mercy. 😏

 

[Ranger]

We don't have issues with accidentally switching. In rare cases we need to do a switching correction, but after getting used to switching we mostly did those to feel better rather than actively correct anything. (We did use them if the wrong person woke up in the morning)

 

If your switching is mapped to who moves around, I suspect Jania wanting to move towards the front may trigger a switch.

 

I'm hoping you guys didn't map switching to your nsfw activity, but if you did I think a possible solution could be establishing you're not allowed to switch while doing nsfw stuff.

 

If you guys really struggle with accidental switching, you may want to associate switching to something other than your movement in the front. We have a long ritual we do with symbolism, and only then with outlined and agreed upon exceptions can we switch.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Ranger

[Glaurung26]

Yea I think we may have some mental spaghetti wiring. A hazard of going the natural, free-form route of growth and development for a long time. Jaina's always been my co-pilot and support friend. I guess in such circumstances she's like the sober friend without a license driving me home after I've tied on one too many. Metaphorically. She's knows better than to try to pilot an inebriated body. I guess my point is it might be irresponsible or ungrateful of me to expect her to always rescue me or take care of me. That's something I can work on is establishing some guidelines or boundaries. We've always just kind of done our thing and it hasn't caused any problems yet. Jaina hasn't fully switched very often and only for limited periods of time. My life is structured around the person of Darron taking the lead and being system rep. She's never spoken with anyone IRL and only my therapist knows of our situation. I probably should schedule some fronting time more often. I don't want her to get in a situation where she's in over her head. She's only had to pilot us on emergency subroutines times I was exhausted from work and needed assistance or when I've been really sick. The rest of the time she watches the controls and meters, letting me know if there's any problems and helping me watch on the visuals. I've let her practice a little driving (again, while we were both sober) and she seems good at it. She walks us around once in a great while but 99% of the time it's me at the helm. As I said, I don't see any imminent danger, haven't had any problems yet from accidental switching but it never hurts to put preventative measures in place. Thanks for the advice.

[Ranger]

If accidental switching every now and then is harmless, then it's probably harmless. Believing accidental switching could get out of control could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, and as someone who hates the idea with a passion, I'm sorry if my alarmism rubbed off onto you.

 

There are also downsides to having a strict switching ritual. Since we're lazy, switching in of itself can be a big ask. As a result, we tend want to possess instead of switch or avoid situations where we need to switch. Also, our list of exceptions and establishing the rules for those is a tedious process that not everyone needs to do or even should do.

 

Ultimately, it's up to you what you guys prefer. If things become undesirable, they can be adjusted. Switching is very sensitive to your mindset about what it is and how it works, most if not all switching related problems can be solved just by embracing a new perspective.

[Glaurung26]

Yea that makes sense. 🤔

[TB]

My first switch was an accident while meditating, but since then it's just been trying to replicate it. I don't really accidentally switch otherwise, unless me emoting rena's feelings counts that I made a thread about once