How did you know you were Polyfragmented?

I want to hear your story - how did you know you were Polyfragmented?
I don't think I am, but I am very overwhelmed by how many alters I know of. It seems like the ones I know dissappear for weeks, and others who I don't what to call are present . . . I'm so confused.
My therapist seems to think she meets a new alter every session. . . . I'm starting to see that there are many others but I don't know what to do with it. It's so foggy that mapping seems impossible.
Even if you aren't polyfragmented, how did you map your system and start to recognize alters?

We're ~30 that I know of.
By asking lots and lots of questions, to be honest.

I started with having other people ask them questions for me (when we had no communication or co-consciousness what so ever), then went over to asking them things in documents etc.

Now we let everyone answer things like
* what makes you happy (like, write a list of everything that makes you happy in life, little things, big things, things you like to do etc) - many have answered this
* who you are (this is usually written by those who know the person best of a collective effort. This is just a short "this is who we are, when we were made, how old we are, our name, what our jobs used to be, what our job is now etc.) - we write this together now mostly, and most are on there.
* what we look like (extremely detailed) - many, if not most, have answered this
* inner world (very very detailed. we've let everyone who's wanted to write about their part of the inner world, how it works, extremely detailed what it looks like etc) - most have answered this
* totem animals (this is private so I won't go into it more than this)

It gives is a good idea of who they are and gives us a chance to get to know them. Of course we also let people draw or express themselves through songs etc. Our SO talks to everyone and tries to get to know them. Also, we have M and Leo inside who gets to know most everyone. Lin gets to know all the kids as she watches over them. So asking those we do know well what they know about the others have helped a lot too. Frankie seems to know an extreme amount about the inside and outside world in regards to who's who, who lives where, what has happened and when - but we usually forget to ask her because she's so little We're starting to learn though

It can be very overwhelming, I know. I'm currently fighting denying some of my newly uncovered alters (I know I have DID, it's just the existence of these "new ones" I'm struggling with). Best of luck

I started out slowly mapping what I knew of each dissociated part that presented. It was a struggle at first just to tell one dissociated part from the other. During this process we found a way to communicate, so I was able to ask questions of them. After that mapping was far easier! I was able to ask alters that easily communicated about other alters. This went on until I reached 58. I so thought I was done! I was exhausted!!!!

Then one day driving I saw an animal. Someone inside got excited and indicated we have one of those inside. I worked on this. I had to pull over and start to write to figure it all out. It was driving me crazy. This is when I learned there was another subgroup. This alter was not known to very many in the first subgroup.

I started to think of these as levels, but they are more commonly known as subgroups. Then over the next few weeks, I mapped more. I would ask anyone in level II if they knew of another subgroup. Once I knew of one in the subgroup, I was able to call forward everyone in that group. I mapped them like the rest of my system. I asked them to choose an image that fit what they look like. I asked their age at the moment. I asked anything I could and recorded it. This went on for 25 subgroups. In these alters were my Observing EP and ISH, but I did not know it at the time.

Much later - a year or more later I found while working on integration (pre-trauma processing integration) I found 71 dead alters.

I have since mapped all the alters many different ways!

[quote="tylas"] Once I knew of one in the subgroup, I was able to call forward everyone in that group. I mapped them like the rest of my system. quote]

How do you call them forward? I constantly feel like there is a brick wall in between me and the others. Sometimes it's like I can peek through, and see others moving about, but then the cracks get filled! It seems like I have a group that doesn't want to be found. . . or maybe I just have a handyman in the crew. lol.

How do you call them forward? I constantly feel like there is a brick wall in between me and the others. Sometimes it's like I can peek through, and see others moving about, but then the cracks get filled! It seems like I have a group that doesn't want to be found. . . or maybe I just have a handyman in the crew. lol.

None of the Observing EP or the ISH was helping me at this time. I did not know about them.

I would ask the one alter in the level that answered me 'how many others are on that level with them'. They were all quite anxious to have me know about them. It was beyond this though. Most were learning for the first time about all the others in the system. Curiosity was rampant!

Later after I found Sage, who I thought was an ISH, but is actually an Observing EP, I really nailed the mapping. Her jobs is to keep track of everyone in the system. Times, dates, names, etc...

Hi'ya.

We have about 7000-10 000 parts in our system. I kinda always knew that we would have thousands of parts inside...but I kinda tried to block it because it feels so...CRAZY!!! I still feel everyday that there's something very wrong in us because there's so many of us... But we try to come into terms with our polyfragmented DID. In our country we don't even have a decent diagnostic system for dissociative disorders... T_T But luckily we have a therapist that understands how DID works and how much "crazy stuff" it can hold!

Basically the bosses just bumped into more and more parts from the "depths of the darkness" (black area outside the system's living areas but still inside our head) or the parts were found by others. It's like a steady or not-so-steady stream of parts!!! The doors are almost always open - unless someone is blocking them/holding them closed so new parts have easy access to come forward.

I think that we might even have around 20 000-40 000 parts... I have heard that it's possible...but it feels kinda CRAZY!!! *nervous laughter*

Triggers! Oh well...I guess being a child sex slave for 14 first years of your life does that to you. Makes you an extreme case of DID! Not cool...