Long vs short switches

I was curious which was more normal for everyone.

I'd classify, excluding my childhood, my switches to an alter and back as short. They last from as long as five minutes to about four hours. Four hours seems to be the longest.

And I wonder if how long they last is related to the environment. I hardly ever leave the house and /i consider my house very safe because you can't get into the building without a key or someone buzzing you in. The four hour length was when I had my first therapy appointment and Michael took over and got me home.

So how is it for everyone else? It would be interesting to compare.

Well I know that Duke seems to be more 'active' inside at night. I work the night shift alone, so he is most active when i'm at work at night. So i'd imagine when i'm alone and it's dark out is when he is most comfortable to come out, something like that.

And he can come out between a few minutes, and a few hours. It really depends. Depends on the 'way' he came out (the specific trigger, or anything else.). Plus if he has something to keep him out, like talking to others, and perhaps doing certain things to keep triggering so he'll stay out, stuff like that.

It seems he likes to come out when i'm driving sometimes too. But he definitely seems to be driven away mainly by other people. Like if i'm driving, once i get somewhere and have to go in a store or something with other people, he'll go away. Or if he's out at work, once it starts getting light out and/or people start coming in soon, he'll disappear then too.

I can elaborate if needed, not sure what info you wanted.

Yeah that seems to be the way it is with my alters, too.

When triggered I noticed they usually stay out for as long as the danger (real or otherwise) lasts, then they're gone unless they get interested in something. The same applies to when they come out due to something attracting them. Like when I'm on here they seem to pop in and out to reply to stuff.

I'm sorry I'm being kinda stupid but do you mean how long at a time an alter is in charge, or how long time it takes for the switch itself to happen (how long you're in the "in-between type thing"? Sorry but I'm pretty tired

ANP's (hosts) can stay in charge for over a month. I don't even know how long exactly but for a long time. That doesn't necessarily mean that I lose time for the whole month completely, as we can often watch inside. Longest time-loss (that I'm aware of) since after becoming aware is 2 weeks.
EP's usually up to about half a day, sometimes a day.
Both of these types can pop out for a few hours, minutes or even seconds too.

I have no idea about the longest time an alter has ever been out in the past, but I know that right now, in the middle of treatment, that usually no one else is out longer than a day, but once in a while I'll lose 3-5 days. That's pretty unusual at this point in time, and even when I do lose a couple of days, I usually have a vague idea of what happened. It's very rare at this point in time, that I am completely gone for more than a few hours. (That being said, I did lose an entire day at work a couple of weeks ago, and I'm STILL trying to figure out how many people and who I trained. I'm glad people are used to the fact that I usually ask them things 4 or 5 times.

On a related note, I'm glad my boss has started writing me notes instead of trying to tell me aurally what she wants.

lifelongthing wrote:I'm sorry I'm being kinda stupid but do you mean how long at a time an alter is in charge, or how long time it takes for the switch itself to happen (how long you're in the "in-between type thing"? Sorry but I'm pretty tired

I mean how long the alter is in charge.

Makes sense, sorry 'bout that
It's kind of hard to tell, because I can't always tell if the others have switched between themselves too but since working on the DID and communication the longest I know the same alter has been out has been for about a week or so. If you count Ana & Lin I've lost about 3 weeks to the two of them.

Mostly we switch many, many times a day - not giving each alter a massive amount of time at each time, but sometimes someone will get stuck out for a few days at least.

This is not counting my childhood, where I would usually lose hours, weeks and months, as well as 2 years at one point etc. Then I'd usually miss huge chunks of the day and often several days or week(s). It's thankfully happening that often now that we're more co-conscious and communicate better.

For us, a switch can last anywhere from mere seconds to 3-5 days consecutively. The most common switches we experience depend on what environment we're in.

If we're in a place where we feel comfortable/safe, such as our home, then the most common switches we experience are short, 5-30min long switches. Sometimes, though, switches can be as short as 1-3 min long.

If we're out and about in public, such as running errands or going to a social event, the most common switches we experience are longer, 30min-3 hr long switches. Usually, the switches will be an average of 2 hrs long.

If it's everyday life and no one wants to be out, or if there's something that calls for "normality", then the host switch usually lasts for 1-3 days (usually lasting 1 now though).

If a "new" alter has come to awareness, then they'll usually be the ones out for usually 3-5 days consecutively.

Hmm...I think that's about it. Hope that was relevant. I'm kinda fuzzy. It just took me 5 attempts to spell relevant.


~The Hawk

It be interestin' how every system is different and yet similar.

I seem to be comin' out the longest most frequently in our system, even if it's only for a couple hours. Like right now, I've been out for about forty-five minutes and I'll probably be out for another hour or so, unless one of the little ones wants to come out and chat with ya'll, then I be lettin' 'em.

- Michael