Hearing Your Alters

Hi all, I have a quick question for you.

When your alters are speaking, what does it sound like? Like a normal person? Are you able to carry on conversations? Please excuse my ignorance, I am not very knowledgable on the subject.

I'm not automatically assuming I have alters, I've been told that what I experience are hallucinations. But then again, I'm not sure.

Once again, excuse me if this is a dumb question.

25(?) yrs ago, before my Dx, I was home alone & looking out my kitchen window just thinking about nothing in particular when I heard, inside my head, in a voice not my own, someone say my name not necessarily as if to call out for me but just sort of to get my attention. The voice sounded as though it could have come from a person standing behind me or next to me (calm like that) but instead, it was heard from inside my head. I heard during this same time frame my name being called 2 or 3 more times in the same manner. I wasn't in therapy at the time so I just ignored it & hoped it'd go away. It did.

Working in therapy now, I try to communicate with my inside others & sometimes it is successful. My 4-5 yr old & I speak often, but her voice does not sound like I described above. Instead, her voice sounds to me as though it is more like we had the conversation yesterday & I am just recalling it as you would recall a conversation with someone you had yesterday, remembering their voice as you recall their words. I guess you could say that we speak in thought, as opposed to that described above: more of a 'we speak in voice' type thing.

I described this all to my T 3 years ago & asked him when the voices start, will I experience it as hearing an actual voice in my head or will it be more of an exchange of thoughts with no actual (real) voice being heard? He replied, "More like a real voice."

Still waiting for that to happen. I'm kinda worried that I'll freak out, especially if everybody is talking at once

justjesse wrote:sometimes Like a normal person.
sometimes knowledgable it voice in head

able to carry on conversations

alters sometimes like hallucinations

sometimes hallucinations are of alters

not dumb question

Mostly they sound like my thoughts, except I can't shut them up! And sometimes they say things 'I' wouldn't know, or use phrases 'I' wouldn't use. They also repeat things over and over in my head if they think I'm not listening or not believing them. And, yes, we can carry on conversations. We always have, to some extent, althought I didn't realise it or know it wasn't 'normal'. I've often referred to myself as 'we' in the past without really realising it. I do have one classic 'hearing voices' type voice which definitely feels 'not me'. I used to think it was God. It doesn't speak often, and I don't yet know who it is. What are your hallucinations like?

Thanks for the replies.

Owleyes: They sound like voices coming from inside my head. I've always ignored them, never thinking they would talk back. Well I started talking to them and they do talk back. There's only two of them at the moment, and they talk very softly, but I can still hear them. I know their names now. Only thing is I also have visual hallucinations. I don't know if people with DID also experience visual hallucinations.

I hear some people experience visual hallucinations, some people can see their alters as real external people sitting beside them, stuff like that. It's great that they are talking back to you

Interesting. Well, if they are indeed I'll find out eventually I suppose. I'm having an appointment with a new psychiatrist next week. I guess for now I need to attempt to get my thoughts together for talking with him. I get very forgetful sometimes.

Thanks again,

Voices can range from sounding like real voices outside your head to sounding like whispers in the back of your mind. It differs from person to person. It's a good sign they started talking back to you, though. That means you have communication with your voices/possible parts, and that's great!

People with DID can experience visual hallucinations, and they don't have to be anything to do with your parts/alters. I experience hallucinations of bugs mainly. I know Luna and Damone experience hallucinations of animals (mainly cats) and people who aren't really there (the people not being anyone specific, more like if you saw a person from the corner of your eye). Damone also experiences hallucinations of things moving when they're not; and Luna sometimes hallucinates over existing objects/people/animals. (Example: she saw my friend's dog as an ugly little goblin/gremlin thing once and screamed bloody murder. Took a couple minutes for the hallucination to go away and for her to see the dog).

It can be easy to confuse DID with schizophrenia depending on your symptoms and how severe they are. Just remember: never rule out DID just because of hallucinations or something. Lots of things are possible with DID. Perhaps start asking your voices things like how long they've been there, who they are, how old they are, what they like, etc. If they start answering and taking "shape", I guess you could say, then it's possible you could have alters/DID/DDNOS.

justjesse wrote:Only thing is I also have visual hallucinations. I don't know if people with DID also experience visual hallucinations.

Visual hallucinations are a very common experience among people who have DID; they are common also in other conditions and in "normal" people too. I have had some, mostly interesting but benign. How about yours? Are they causing you distress?

I see, thanks for the insight, tomboy24.

Una+: No, they don't cause me great distress. It's just like, I don't know what to think of them. I experience a lot of the same ones tomboy listed; people (whether they be fully formed or shadowy), animals, and occasionally writing on the walls.

I don't want to jump to conclusions, so I'm taking this slow.