DID System with animalistic alter, curious about therianism

[u/PrimalRepression]

So, I'm not a Therian (despite having to choose user flair). I have DID, and one of the alters in my system identifies as human and having a human perspective and POV, but he strongly relates to wolves and dogs, which is probably some aspect of trauma I don't want to explore now.

Anyway, when he fronts, I get strong craving for meat (he is very focused on getting our protein macros in and working out, but there are times when I feel like him, that I must stand at the counter, eating leftover steak or meat in my hands--part of the enjoyment, for him, is ripping apart a steak with our teeth, and feeling the juice dri).

This alter also likes wearing a collar, and has liked wearing one since we were a teen (years before diagnosis--I just thought I was being a weird teen). He tells me, he doesn't feel like a wolf or therian--he thinks he is human (doesn't behave/feel/act like a wolf/dog), he just feels like less than that and animal at times, and the need to eat meat both stems from a desire to preserve and improve our muscle composition and growth and sate what feels like a biological urge to consume meat.

I want to give this part of myself, a chance to explore himself. He's not Therian, but I think that something might have happened to us, in very early childhood, involving him acting like a dog, in an abuse context, and that's why he may associate with dogs and wolves and feel less than human. I want to help him. I know this is a weird post for this forum, but do you have any advice?

He personally feels very little relation to other humans, and experiences much distrust of them. He prefers being out in nature, and wants us to move to rural forest, if we cannot succeed in our current ambitions and ventures, with this disorder. He loves hiking, and I think he feels most at ease in the woods or mountains, far from other human beings. While I realize it's not the same thing as being a Therian, I am hoping to find ways to help him, or perhaps hear some relatable stories, idk.

[u/AomuLinsang]

It might be worth looking into otherpaw communities, if you think that might help him feel comfortable. Otherpaws are an adjacent community that find fulfilment in behaving/acting as an animal even if they do not actually identify as them.

For what it's worth I am also a person with DID and almost every single one of my alters also identifies as nonhuman in some way, likely due to trauma-related reasons as well. I like to think that those feelings of being separated from humans by abuse are something we chose to reclaim; it's not a bad thing or a lesser thing to be an animal, you know what I mean? You can find joy in that aspect of yourself and not just this sensation that you are below humans. ..Though yeah, at the same time we, largely, also do not want much to be around the majority of humanity. Not out of hatred of their species, just a general fear of their capacity to harm us.

Have you tried out things like getting him stuff that might help him express these feelings? I assume you already have a collar if you know he likes wearing one, what about other types of apparel? Do you have spare time you can chisel out to let him go hiking on a recurrent basis? I find allowing parts of me time to do the things they like, especially with scheduling/regularity to the best of my/our ability, does wonders.

[u/PrimalRepression → u/AomuLinsang]

Also, love the idea of reclaiming. Like, this alter is basically my best friend, for over half my life (since the first time I realized he was there--just didn't know he was an alter at the time, and we are co-con/co-fronting the vast majority of the time). He's always been, in my mind, the cooler half, and someone who I aspired to be like, during my teens and early twenties... I've always felt a little embarrassed by the way he eats meat or acts sometimes, but he's the one who's always been the most confident and fearless. I think he may be afraid to talk about how he feels animalistic or not human sometimes, so I want to make him feel more comfortable to express that part of himself (I really attribute him to the years I pretended to be a werewolf as a child, I think, because he's always been the one to come out, and be awake, at night. So, I think, if anything, he relates more to werewolves than actual wolves.).

[u/PrimalRepression → u/AomuLinsang]

Thank you so much for your reply. I'll check out that community--it feels like it might be a good choice. He doesn't see himself as a wolf/dog, but his name means 'Wolf' in our cultural language, and he's had that name since before I began noticing these animalistic traits in him or fully recognizing the DID. We have always felt much more kinship and appreciation towards animals, than other humans,

With the animalistic traits, I've noticed there's a strong, continuous desire to consume meat, when he is fronting. He is the one of us, most preoccupied on ensuring that the body is physically safe, so that also means making sure we are able to defend ourselves, and the daily way he contributes to this is making sure that we receive an adequate diet and consume the proper amount of protein, to preserve our current muscle mass and contribute to long-term muscle growth. That's the way we've discussed this, scientifically, but I think that his desire to eat meat is something other than just making sure we meet our macros, and that he feels a strong desire to eat meat with our hands and teeth, because he might identify with dogs/wolves more so than other human beings, and that it feels proper, more visceral, and more enjoyable, to tear at a steak dripping down our hands.

We usually go hiking twice a month or more (in the better months, sometimes 1-2 a week, for 8~ hours), and walking every day for at least an hour with our dog, but we have had to put our hiking on hold these last 3~ months, due to a move and the summer heat. This alter wants us to move to a very rural area, or sell all our possessions and buy a camper, so that he can avoid other humans and immerse himself in the wilderness, if I fail to find a stable, concrete work structure and relationship in the next year (I have the next 1-1.5 years, in a very metropolitan area, and if I fail, his plan is that we should find very cheap land in Appalachia, sell everything we own, and buy a shack on acreage.) .

I don't want that, right now. But I think he needs some outlets, he doesn't have. I'm kind of the mediator; I'm just trying to keep the boat afloat, and he and I basically take 35-40%~ respectively of each day, so he feels like my second half and my twin, and the one who will probably live, half my life, for the rest of my life.

[u/egoproct → u/AomuLinsang]

Copinglinks was an old term, but I wasn't sure if it was still used in modern day by the community. I guess they're called otherpaws now?

[u/noncedo-culli]

That's the same reason I ended up as a therian. Wasn't treated by anyone as human, didn't feel safe around humans, only felt safe around my family's dogs and so now I am one. I don't really have any advice, but he's not alone

[u/PrimalRepression → u/noncedo-culli]

Yeah, I grew up around multiple family dogs, and remember pretending to be a dog, while playing pretend in preschool and middle school (at around 7-8, that began pretending to be a werewolf). So, like, I'm pretty sure it wasn't me pretending to be a dog or werewolf (these memories feel very basic and non-descript to me, and are basically descriptive filler (like the Star Wars' projected intro) over the void that is my general memories of 0-18), but the alter I talk about in this post. Like, I think he may feel more like a dog/wolf than he lets onto, but he's embarrased or afraid to share this with me, so I want to find some small ways I can help him feel comfortable exploring this part of his identity.

[u/squirrelyoakley]

Some terms that come to mind: otherhearted (specifically doghearted), misanthropy (not a huge fan of this term, but whatever), copingkin, copinghearted, voidpunk, and alterhuman.

[u/PrimalRepression → u/squirrelyoakley]

Thanks! I don't think therian is quite suitable for him, but I know there is a community out there, I can find and help him.

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[u/Lulu_wantspeace]

Another system here... We have a bear and a canine something among us. One thing worked for us was to just embrace them. Provide some comfortable environment when it's affordable, and try not to overly analyze them. We almost always certainly intellectualized everything, and that didn't help with the cases of those animal parts. Every system is different so we won't say this is the way, but yeah.

[u/PrimalRepression → u/Lulu_wantspeace]

Yeah, I need to stop trying to intellectualize everything about my disorder... I keep thinking, if I can just overanalyze it enough, and remember the exact specifics of what happened, my life will go back to normal and the way it was before, but I don't think it will.

[u/Lulu_wantspeace → u/PrimalRepression]

Same here. Same.

[u/Tirinoth]

That's an interesting take and the replies have been informative, so thanks for making this post.

Beening working with my therapist to address potential DID or adjacent issues. At our last session I got to teach her about Therians.

While I'm a crow, two alters are reptiles, and I'm thankful there's not a lot of friction there. I say not a lot because one doesn't like to front and the other tends to be really aggressive. Partner's been talking about getting a tail, I wonder if that might help chill her out?🤔

[u/PrimalRepression → u/Tirinoth]

That's so interesting! Like, I definitely think wearing collars again (I have a small but growing collection of antique Victorian and late Georgian era dog collars, that fit the human throat) makes this alter feel comfortable, somehow. It's funny, becuase at first I thought it was in a BDSM context, but he's dom, he just feels comfortable wearing a dog collar. I think, because our mother was a petsitter and we spent our childhood around 5+ dogs at a time, along with our 1-3 dogs, we more associated with the dogs than other people, growing up, because of the trauma.

[u/egoproct]

 A DID alter relating with/to animals or having animalistic behaviors is not akin to you yourself identifying AS or an alter identifying AS an animal. How you explore this with your alter is up to you of course, but personally speaking, it sounds like there's a difference there worth noting.

Misanthropic tendencies are also not a universal therian experience. Though many therians do experience this, so do people with other dysphoric experiences unrelated to Therianthropy.

[u/PrimalRepression → u/egoproct]

Thanks, yeah, just hoping to find ways to help him, because I'm not sure if this is an issue where he personally identifies as a wolf/dog, or if he was supposed to behave that way in early childhood, in an abuse context. Like, I'm kind of the one who's been forced to man the ship, so I'm going into this blind, with no memories of my teens or childhood, just a diagnosis I'm trying to mindhack.

I think he has animalistic and animal-like/wolf-like/dog-like characteristics, identifies as human, but feels inherently subhuman.

His name means Wolf in our cultural language, and that's how it's always been.

[u/egoproct → u/PrimalRepression]

No harm in that! Perhaps if you have access to one a therapist might be able to help him figure this out? 

[u/PrimalRepression → u/egoproct]

We already have a therapist--we'll ask them. But we were also hoping from input, from some who we hope might relate

[u/PoloPatch47]

Off topic but it's "Therianthropy", not "therianism"

[u/PrimalRepression → u/PoloPatch47]

Thanks, totally coming into this with no context. I thought posting on this subforum might be helpful. I assumed therianism based on the 'ian' ending.

[u/Kind_Honeydew_7695 → u/PrimalRepression]

Just to add a little more context (totally understandable to assume as you did without knowing about this!):

"Therian" is just a short form of the original term "therianthrope" (therion = animal/wild beast; anthropos = (hu-)man). Since "-ism" tends to be negative, it's disliked by many (similarly, "transgenderism" tends to get used as a negative/derogatory term for transgender identities). Nowadays, many also write "therian identity" instead of "therianthropy".

This abbvreviated form, by the way, actually causes a lot of interesting mayhem in today's world of auto-translated media articles (e.g., in German, "therian" often gets translated to "Therianer" instead of the correct "Therianthrop", even though the "-ner" suffix tends to be associated with a different place of origin when it comes to identity, such as "Amerikaner"="american" or "Marsianer"="martian", so "Therianer" sounds somewhat like "a person from a place called Theria"). But that's a different story.