Moon Knight triggered TF out of me (trigger/spoiler free)

If any of you do watch it, here's some things you may watch out for. I'll just say give general things to avoid spoilers, but I guess I should still give a very mild spoilers and trigger warning.

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Episodes 1-4

From what I saw in social media and TikTok, there were some in the DID community who were upset with the first couple of episodes because the main character was a mercenary type. IMO, I think the story writers did a good job with not correlating or implying his violence is due to his DID. In later episodes we find out it isn't the cause at all. Still, I can see the correlation being triggering.

His symptoms were also a bit exaggerated for effect, e.g., having to chain his ankle to his bedpost at night. But TBH, none of it was really all that far fetched. There's times where he sees his alter in the reflection of things, which is how he communicates with them, but I just took this as a creative way to show how one with DID has the ability to communicate with their headmates.

Some of the emotions the characters portrayed were spot on to me, e.g., the disorientation and confusion when we lose time, the mix between anger and sympathy and skepticism when another character finds out the main guy has DID, etc. These were slightly triggering for me just because they rang true, but moreover I appreciated having something soooo much more accurate than any other fictionalized DID story out there.

Episode 5

This was trigger central for me. The entire episode was about his DID. Here are all the ones I could find. (Again, spoilers are just mild, just a heads up so you can be aware)

* Implications that the main character could be crazy (asylum scenes in episode 4 and 5)

* Alters finding out they're alters

* Main character in the past as a little boy crying for help

* Full backstory scenes of how main character came to develop DID (shame/verbal and physical abuse/neglect) they don't show any violent scenes with children, so that was a plus.

* Full scene of main characters first switch

* Implications (super subtle but still there) of alter death or integration being necessary for main character

Honestly, I think it was a beautiful story in a way, but it was stilly really hard to watch. The first time we watched it we all had a tough day and I had a couple of drinks in me, which was super dumb of me. I'm usually pretty good at co-piloting but I only caught about half of it because I kept losing time. Me and three alters and a couple rough days after it. Like an idiot, I watched it again yesterday because I was having a calm and nice day and was sober and thought I would do better knowing what I was in for. Still triggered the hell out of a few of us.

FinneganThePup wrote:His symptoms were also a bit exaggerated for effect, e.g., having to chain his ankle to his bedpost at night. But TBH, none of it was really all that far fetched. There's times where he sees his alter in the reflection of things, which is how he communicates with them, .

It sounds intriguing, shame I don't have the Disney + subscription, but the series will have probably ended by the time I got it set up.

These two points stood out to me and triggered a few memories!

I seem to know that one of our Hosts used to tie her leg to the bed after finding she'd wake up with dirty feet and (bedclothes at the bottom of the bed) it left her paranoid and confused as at that point none of us knew about each other plus the host had been a wheelchair user for years and could barely stand without her legs beginning to shake so how could anyone be walking round at night??? She also knew it was neurological and worried she was developing dementia and would be put in a home and seperated from her beloved dog if she told anyone.

She did wonder if maybe she could sleepwalk when in a more relaxed state and wondered whether she was sleep-walking but once awake the muscles were too tight and the fear of falling dominated. But again the fear of being seperated from her dog meant she daren't tell anyone at the very least not until after her dog had passed.

Also I remember in my teens talking to others by sitting at my dressing room mirror and talking to them or putting a photo (or sometimes cut out of a magazine if it was a celebrity or TV character) so I could visualise who I was talking to. I guess the 'others' would then take on the appearance of who I was pretending to talk to, to talk back to me! I thought this was what 'imagination' was. I had no idea that other RL people didn't experience people in their 'daydreams' talking back at them with their own replies (ie not imagined by me).

If this program had been available years back we may have realised we possibly had DID alot sooner. The body was in its forties before we all started to emerge and become aware of each other we believe triggered by the hormonal changes and severe mood swings of per-menopause starting in the body.

Hello Yuna!

I'm so sorry for the memory triggers! My timeline is similar to yours in that we weren't diagnosed until age 38. It's a bit wild to look back at my life and think, "Ohhhh so that's why I did that! It makes so much sense now!"

I can't go into a lot of details right now, but in general we were surprised with Moon Knight. The early buzz was leaning heavily into being "crazy" or "mentally unstable" and "dangerous"... even the lead actor called it "Psychological horror" in an interview. THAT had us VERY concerned it'd be a Split like hot mess...

In some ways, it checks the tropes boxes... but in others, it wasn't terrible... and in a few ways, it wasn't even bad.

Is it "good" representation? No, not necessarily... but it's far better than we were expecting in a few ways... It HAS served as a way to get people talking without the "so are you a monster/which is your monster part" sense that Split did. I guess that's a little in its favor...

I won't say we enjoyed all of it, or liked it as a whole... BUT... it wasn't terrible or intentionally harmful like it could have been. Pixie will give a better reply later, I'm sure.

Zor

-- Fri May 27, 2022 6:53 am --

FinneganThePup wrote:Hello Yuna!

I'm so sorry for the memory triggers! My timeline is similar to yours in that we weren't diagnosed until age 38. It's a bit wild to look back at my life and think, "Ohhhh so that's why I did that! It makes so much sense now!"

We weren't dx'd until 39... That "oooooh things make so much sense now" feeling I totally understand!

Zor

i am partway through ep 2. (almost halfway through. watching it slowly i guess. heh. and yeah several parts are interesting, yeah there is a very heavy nod to did so far. more so than i would expect for a show like this.

Trigger/spoiler free -

I personally really enjoyed the show, but I can understand why some people are upset by choices the showrunners made, and REALLY understand why it was triggering for many systems. It wasn't very triggering for us, but we also watched it with our partner, with ideas of what was going to happen, and only while in a good head space. Sending much love to those negatively affected by the show