Question about Animal Alters

How can you tell if something is an alter or just an eccentricity? I have a problem with physical contact and I find it nearly impossible to ask for or initiate physical affection (hugs, snuggling, etc.)... unless I pretend to be a cat . I'll get this compulsion to be 'cat-like'. I'll get down on all fours, crawl over to my husband, rub my face against him like a cat does, try to curl up in his lap, try to purr, the works . He used to find this strange, but he's totally used to it now, just says, 'Hello, Cat!' and strokes me and stuff. Thing is, I'm aware it's me doing it, but it's also hard to resist doing it, if that makes sense. How would I go about finding out whether this is an alter, or just me being odd?

Could be either really

I guess ask around inside if you have a cat? See if it's someone who's just passively influencing you or blending with you?

Sorry I don't have any other tips right now.

a lot of us have very animalistic characteristics sometimes. this is because animalistic behaviour is the basic behaviour of all animals, humans included, so it's natural for someone to, for instance, "bare their fangs" (aka show their teeth) when they get really angry, or to head-butt gently as a call for attention (much like a cat might), or something like that. especially if there's issues with talking, being able to talk easily, or being able to find words, especially when one is feeling strong emotions (like the want to be comforted/paid attention to or given physical contact or something).

like kat, when she gets angry, she'll look like snarling wolf, be in an aggressive stance, teeth bared, all that stuff, but it's not an animal alter coming through.

or me, when i really just want to be noticed or have physical contact or something, i'll just walk up to mikey and bump! put my forehead into his back, or the back of his shoulder, or the side of his shoulder, or something. or sometimes mikey will mistake me for ray even because i'll just be "whining" (not in a sad/scared way) and rubbing my face against his shoulder/chest or crawling around or something. (sometimes it's just easier to resort to basic behaviours and not be so "human").


so sometimes it's hard to tell. this could either be an animal alter that you might have co-consciousness with or be co-hosting with without realizing it, or it could simply be you resorting to basic primal behaviours. it might take some time to be able to tell, but keep open to either possibility for now, and maybe try to ask others if they know about anything, or maybe try to call/contact any possible animal alter and see if they come out or if you feel the same way after calling/trying to contact them, or if you can maybe try to look around inside (or ask other alters to look around inside as well), stuff like that.


- cassie (age ?)

When I used to date my friends alter I used to nuzzle into his neck, curl up or hide in his cloths. I feel like I lose a bit of control but not an alter. He does light nuzzling to. but everyonce and awhile I'd violently bite him with no control Barry does this aswell with his partners. Man now I kind of miss him.

Barry when Loosing his humanity state has been said to actually sound like a wolf about to rip a head off. Hades I think was told was hissing(bl**d triggered him) whilst barry was screaming at the who was attacking technically are partner protective animal instcints there -Channelle

Still trying to figure this out, but just wanted to say thank you for the replies. My best guess at the moment is this is a little one who pretends to be a cat, rather than an animal alter as such. I guess all will become clear eventually.

I think I turned into a cat once when I was out... I think. My fingers were curled toward the inside of my palm and I was feeling uncomfortable sitting down regularly and I couldn't really talk. I was meowing and when I started to speak normally it felt really uncomfortable and I was meowing every few seconds trying to say something, luckily the parents weren't around. It passes after a little while but I really wanted to stay a cat. Anyways, I don't really know if I was feeling really cat-like or if I had turned into one. On the inside I looked like a cat...
Just wanted to share, I thought it might help.
-Ivory

Owleyes, that really does sound like an alter to me. If you didn't have DID, I'd probably have a different answer. But I've found that so many of those odd moods or sudden behavior that isn't normal for me is either switching or heavy influence of someone else. It's not always something so strikingly unusual as you're describing, sometimes I'm influenced by someone who is more understated than me because I tend to be on the dramatic or emotive side. If you're switching but weren't initially sure it was a switch, that's something interesting to learn. I definitely have had hard switches and "slide-ins" and the latter are less conspicuous but still switches of some kind. There's something here where Jonathan can switch to the front and neither of us is aware that it's happened.

I would think developing cat-like behavior would be useful because it's pretty innocent but still allows physical contact. Cats like to be touched in a nice way and most people are designed that way too, without all the crap some of us had to go through.

Desiria wrote:My fingers were curled toward the inside of my palm and I was feeling uncomfortable sitting down regularly and I couldn't really talk.

This is sort of how it is for me, too. I've never spoken when I'm like this because, well, cats don't talk I probably could speak if I really wanted to, but I don't want to, I meow!

Johnny-Jack wrote:Owleyes, that really does sound like an alter to me. If you didn't have DID, I'd probably have a different answer. But I've found that so many of those odd moods or sudden behavior that isn't normal for me is either switching or heavy influence of someone else.

I think it could be an alter. The thing is, the behaviour feels so much like I'm doing it deliberately, but at the same time it's hard to resist or stop doing, so it's very difficult to tell if it's 'me'. But I know that a lot of Gemma's behaviour, for example, feels like 'me' and I don't always realised we've switched, but I'm damn sure she's an alter (she'd kill me if I said otherwise ) I'll just have to look out for it happening again and see how it feels, I guess.

Best of luck