Variations of co-hosting/co-consciousness? **slight TW**

**Trigger warned just for possible term dropping**

Just curious to see what variations of body control people have experienced with DID.

-For example, Something I like to call "the council": Most of my usual co-conscious moments feel like me as the driver of a car or sitting at the head of a large table with 2 or more alters sitting beside or around me, with no physical body control but perfectly capable of also seeing the world around us and make internal judgement just the same as myself. They talk clearly in our system, and if an emotional reaction from one of them is suddenly very powerful, my face's expression may briefly change, but that's all.

-The second most common type I experience, I call the "two-headed beast", in which I am co-hosting with a singular second Alter, (typically it's F., sometimes Big M. ), and the physical motor function is split directly down the center, where I have control of the left arm & leg, and they have full control over the right. Actual facial-expression and voice can jump between the two personalities, but it's typically me still talking unless the other Alter has something important to say to the people around us.

-Third, though less common, has no nickname, but it's pretty much visual co-hosting, with me still in control of leg movement/walking and voice, with a specifically Alter controlling both our hands. (this is typically used for letting the little/middle-Alters play with crafts or their toys, or to let some of my feminine alters paint our nails or style our hair).

-Fourth, and pretty much rarest, is almost a full-front switch. I only have shared control of sight (to supervise), where as the other Alter has full-control of the bodies actions, walking, talking, arm movement, etc. (this is typically only given out to my alters as a reward for super good behavior, Or if an Alter is so badly triggered by a situation and overwhelms me for control of the body as a fight-or-flight response.)

Anyone else share these same styles of co-hosting/co-conscious? Do you experience other various types (that you can remember)?

I don't have most of these except the last one but that's the variety within DID. Usually, it's just one of us in full control of the body, with up to a couple watching. We can "reach in" and move parts of the body or the whole body but it can get messy if there are simultaneous conflicting desires so we prefer to send a mental packet of intent or instructions and the one out front will comply unless it's likely to bring someone else up front. So if someone grabs a book to read and I suggest bringing one of mine, they may choose not to so I won't take over while they're in a lull.

We have a lot of blends, where someone who was just out lingers and one of the hosts feels like himself plus the other. Thinking clear thought is challenging at this point, the voice and body movements are halfway between the two. We used to get stuck like this, two alters out simultaneously blended (squished) together for a few minutes or a few hours, but not anymore. Now it feels voluntary and comfortable. It's a preferred method of switching now, a slow drawn-out switch with a period of overlap.

It's really interesting to hear how your system works. None of these are types I haven't heard of before.

I enjoy reading about these. I don't have myself figured out yet but will comment on what I know.

My most common experience is probably strong influence, so that my urges, feelings, words or actions seem out of character given what I would prefer to do, and sometimes I will feel completely on board with whatever it is, so I guess that is a form of blending. I don't know if that even fits in the realm of co-presence.

Sometimes I feel what I guess is an inner switch or activation, like suddenly an alter and its ideas have a light shined on them, and either strong influence or a full switch is possible.

With me and Alex, who is my closest alter, I guess we are co-present often. What it feels like is that we are superimposed on top of one another, but slightly off center, and we take turns being in control of the body's actions, voice, words. It is a very peculiar feeling that can change moment by moment. I can feel his confidence and uprightness as a presence in myself at times, and I think at those times, I can hear his thoughts. Other times he feels completely separate like a person standing next to me. While writing this, we have gone through all of the variations described in this paragraph. I have been out of touch with Alex (but still often copresent, as I don't function well without him--he keeps me sane somehow) for some weeks, and writing with him, I feel overwhelmed by his presence and his strong thinking/will.

The description of hands being controlled by another part does seem to happen with me, or other parts, like my facial expressions. There is a mischievous part of me that sort of sparkles out and people seem attracted to her. I am not sure how they respond to her, what of her shows through me, but I feel her connecting with other people without me doing anything that I am aware of, and people respond.

I also enjoyed this topic a lot, and the different ways Wild-Isles wrote about.

By the way, nice picture Johnny-Jack. Did you draw/paint it?

Sea

I got the first one and the last one.

I got full switches that are the most common ones, but it's still co-consciousness. At the beginning though, there was little co-consciousness and no co-hosting.

Johnny-Jack wrote:We can "reach in" and move parts of the body or the whole body but it can get messy if there are simultaneous conflicting desires so we prefer to send a mental packet of intent or instructions and the one out front will comply unless it's likely to bring someone else up front.

This sounds kind of vague. The communication is words or a visual moving image of us doing what we want the person out to do. Communications used to be more primitive, specific instructions spoken internally and pictures, one by one. (Think showing a little how to do something they don't know how to do, like operate a dish washer.) But I think we now send kinesthetic memory, or the sense of how one's body moves to achieve something. Sometimes they just pull a how-to from some area of shared memory but if they aren't old enough to understand what's being done, we have to show or tell them.

The avatar is a photo of an oil painting of Jack (with gun), Johnny lying down, and our childhood dog, but I didn't paint it. I used it a couple years ago here then didn't figure how to put it back until recently.

Johnny-Jack wrote:The avatar is a photo of an oil painting of Jack (with gun), Johnny lying down, and our childhood dog, but I didn't paint it. I used it a couple years ago here then didn't figure how to put it back until recently.

: )

In my journey to 'normalcy' and functionality, which was difficult and in some ways destructive I found it helpful to take a long time to make decisions or even statements sometimes. I would take a vote internally, sometiems taking several weeks to do so, this was to confuse those around me less, have a more stable direction and of course appear more normal.

I think it has made me an excellent diplomatic sort of person, i can see the viewpoints also of nearly everyone I meet. I think it has forced me to get to know other me as well. Coconciousness can be a babbling brook at times and very very hard to maintain-sweating just while doing something like grocery shopping, but it made me more self sufficient and less easy to dissaccociate.

**trigger warning?**
After I started enforcing it for instance, I caught and remembered someone sneaking into my room at night and was able to put an end *to THAT*...

At the same time the less socially appropriate parts of myself have been extremely frusrated and there has been a lot of pain from not getting to *really*express all parts of myself. I have met one person that i feel I can openly do this with and which the darker parts like but he's a bad person mostly so who knows, anyway at least he understands. I dont think I can do it with people who I'm super worried about loosing because duh they will be like 'wtf!'...oh well

Coconscious cuts down on the contradictory statements that people interprete as lies or you being insane when tehy are just different viewpoints or feelings on the same events or stuff.