Alter with memories from another life?? Does this happen?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I want to know if this is an experience that anyone else has.

I have an alter who grew out of a fictional source (a show I watched when I was young) and he has very vivid memories of what he considers his "past life." Recently, those memories have become very upsetting to him, as they included traumatic events, and he's been having PTSD symptoms as if these things really happened even though they definitely didn't happen to me--I may have experienced abuse, but not at all the kind that he's remembering. The things he's struggling with are starting to have an effect on my life, because he's breaking down so often with the stress of it all. And his status as an alter makes it hard for him to seek support on his own.

Basically, does anyone have any idea what's going on here and why an alter of mine is experiencing stress from imaginary trauma that I never had? Do your alters ever have really vivid memories totally disconnected from your experiences?

Basically, does anyone have any idea what's going on here and why an alter of mine is experiencing stress from imaginary trauma that I never had?

that is probably on the same page as the "false memory syndrome". it doesnt really matter if it is true or not, the experience is still experienced.
However, have you tried to show him pieces of the movies he believes he comes from? a good thing is that you can press pause and go forward/reverse and look at it in different ways on a real screen

Hi zakuro.

Yes, this happens. Alters may have a different life narrative, different history, different memories, etc. This is no different for alters who are introjected from fictional narratives (often called "fictional introjects"). We also have a fictional introject who struggles with flashbacks of traumatic events during his past life. While the memories may have "never happened", the symptoms of PTSD are real and deserve attention (as well as the person experiencing the symptoms).

TeddyBear the helper wrote:have you tried to show him pieces of the movies he believes he comes from? a good thing is that you can press pause and go forward/reverse and look at it in different ways on a real screen

The weirdest thing about it is actually that the trauma he remembers didn't happen in the original source material. He has very extensive memories from things that were never in the show. So the only person who really knows what happened is him.

It is very validating for him to hear, though, that the symptoms he's having are still important. He's really nervous about talking about it because he feels like it's insulting to survivors of abuse, even though he really relates to how they've described their problems.