I decided to actually google it! I have a couple different options open in tabs and I gotta figure out which one feels like it would be the best for my situation. Also I gotta figure out what I really want to....do.
Like we are functional most of the time. We've never really dealt with any of the horror stories I've heard other systems go through, like waking up in foreign places, an entire closet full of clothes they have no memory of buying, losing jobs, relationships, homes from being so disordered...we're...fine.
But, of course, as I'm typing that, I know that's not really true. We can't do as many things as we did from before I thought I was the only one (or, to be more specific, that Aether and Aelita were external entities and Karu was an age-regressing "persona" and that there was no one/nothing else going on). We get more easily overwhelmed. I get more distracted from the things I want to do because someone else just kinda slides in and takes over and then I feel guilty about wanting to limit their outside time and realizing that that's even a problem I have to deal with now also makes me overwhelmed.
I tell my friends a lot that you don't need to hit rock bottom to start reaching out for help. If you can address stuff before it gets to the point of losing your job or your home, then it's probably a good idea to do that. So I should really listen to my own advice and work on All Of This before any sort of permanent damage is caused.
idk this is still all so weird and hard because nothing externally changed, I just realized what was going on and things just kinda broke so I seem exactly the same to everyone who doesn't know but they have no idea that things are a lot harder from me and it's not like I can go on a vacation and escape all of this since it's all inside my head and it's just. hard.