hii! i enjoyed making the alterhuman guide i posted, so i'm making a guide to shifts now! ! i know less about shifts than i do alterhumans, so some of this may be wrong. ! ~what's a shift?~ a shift is when an alterhuman like a therian or otherheart takes on the mindset, behavior, senses, or experiences of their therio/kin/hearttype. not all alterhumans have shifts, and while they are more common in therians and are associated with them, otherhearted people and other nuanced labels can also have them. there are many different types of shifts, so let's go into those now. ~types of shifts~ 1. Phantom Shift. These are very common in the alterhuman community. They are when the alterhuman feels as if they have a body part of their animal, like wings, ears, a tail, or claws. It could be any body part. Some alterhumans experience constant or near-constant phantom shifts. I, for one, have lots of phantom shifts especially of ears, a tail, or wings. (These can also be your entire body.) 2. Mental Shifts These are also really common, and when someone says they had a shift, they're probably referring to this one. Mental shifts are when an alterhuman partially or fully takes on the mindset of their animal. This can show in many ways, from fear of other humans to not recognizing a man-made object to simply acting like your heart/kin/theriotype. 3. Dream shifts. Dream shifts are when an alterhuman dreams they are one of their therio/heart/kintypes. These aren't super common, but they might happen more than we think since we do end up forgetting most of our dreams. 4. Sensory Shift A sensory shift is when an alterhuman feels heightened senses related to their animal. This could be better vision, hearing, smell, or any other sense, including intuition, i think. 5. Cameo shifts A cameo shift is when an alterhuman experiences a shift of an animal that is not one of theirs. these aren't very common, but do still happen, which can cause people to think they have a kin/therio/hearttype they do not have. 6. Berserker shifts Berserker shifts are when an alterhuman loses all self-control and begins to act entirely like an animal. These are very, very rare, but can be dangerous and it's important to inform people about them. If you experience a berserker shift, talk to someone right away. There are so many more types of shifts, but I've just touched on the more common or important ones. You might experience something that doesn't fit any of these labels, and that's fine-- as long as it isn't dangerous to yourself or others, don't worry too much about it. ~ continued in notes and credits ~
-continued- ~how to trigger or suppress shifts~ -triggering shifts- if you want to trigger a shift, try thinking about that animal or purposefully acting like them. i trigger my wolf shifts by watching videos of wolves! reading about the animal or watching them helps a ton too! -supressing shifts- let's say you're in an uncomfortable or public place and feel a shift coming on-- what do you do?! try grounding yourself by touching something solid like a wall, or having a grounding object like a rock or something you can focus on. look down at your human hands. this'll help remind you you're not physically an animal. breathe, relax, and wait for the feeling to pass-- if you ground yourself it should be over pretty quickly. ~ thank you for reading! ~ comment "shifting" if you read it all and i will consider following you! i hope this helped! have a great day/night! <33
