How did you meet your alters?

Hard to tell. The origins are really foggy so I couldn't tell you.

Leopard (though I didn't know her exact form/personality at the time) has been with me as long as I can remember (I'm 21).

Mars too has been with me for a long long time, my first distinct memory of him I was no more than 7 or so. Could he have been with me from earlier? Probably. Before 7 (which is when most of whatever caused us to be multiple happened---don't have access to those feelings/memories---at least not coherently enough) everything is fuzzy. He 'disappeared' from me for many years (and I suspect is to blame for my many years of what I thought were gender issues) and I think for a while I lumped him in with Firebird (she was my catch-all for everything that 'wasn't me' for a while). He resurfaced (after I was in therapy for a bit) all like 'errr....dude remember me? I'm not part of that crazy &^$#'

Firebird has been like I said, more of my dumping ground for all the miscellaneous 'alters' that I had---namely anything that 'wasn't me'. Which pissed her off. She at one point like I mentioned was a catch-all for the little one, leopard and Mars. Which caused her a lot of stress because she simply wasn't all these things.

Little One (hasn't named themselves yet): again, has probably always been there. I don't know the specifics.

My alters were always sort of there in my head. The hard part for them was making me see the distinctions between them. I used to think they were all 'just not me'. Yet whenever we'd ask ourselves what do I look like/feel today whoever was 'in the driver's seat' would show their self-image---which wasn't my own.

Firebird has been like I said, more of my dumping ground for all the miscellaneous 'alters' that I had---namely anything that 'wasn't me'.

I did the same with Lin & No one.. Turns out No one was a small part of what I thought she was and was a whole different person more or less than what I had thought. Lin turns out encompassed in my head about 5-6 alters. Thankfully I can tell them apart now and have communication. This was when I had no co-consciousness, just pure amnesia. Was hard to tell when they didn't let themselves be known much to others, so..

lifelongthing wrote:I did the same with Lin & No one.. Turns out No one was a small part of what I thought she was and was a whole different person more or less than what I had thought.

I had something similar. When I was like... completely out of control two weeks ago or so I at first thought one had control (it wasnt wanted) but it turned out it were two - one of which seemed much younger. And they were much more confused than I was! The other probably was the one dealing with my parents (giving a happy face and such) so they didnt notice a thing at first.

uraeus wrote:They talk to other people occasionally and sometimes can identify themselves but it's rare.

Yes! I suspect they hardly know they're different from me. Huh? This doesn't cause tension? Aren't they there (conscious)? (This kind of thing usually causes tension). Well, whatever.

One of them literally wrote down 'I don't know why I'm here' (just after I was out of control the first time I was aware of it and that I know now). So I guess they struggle with it too (and are far more confused about the whole thing, they usually don't want to 'talk' about it*).

* This is done when I'm inside and they are out, via tapping or sometimes very soft speech. (Separate thread.)

Dreams, meditation, the voices, people telling me they've seen new alters, and for Mae, she was around as an imaginary friend/sister--just like tomboy said about Kat. Which is weird because Kat and Mae have similar personalities..

Recently it seems, if new alters' names are said or discovered, they come out. Like Aurora, my boyfriend and I were talking about the Northern Lights, and as soon as I thought "aurora borealis" she appeared, as if she was called out.

Others step forward from the Void, as we call it. The never-ending darkness just outside the parameter of our home inside. They stumble into being, or, they were there all along, but just lost.

Then there's splitting. We still have trauma happening, so there's a need for splitting still. Or, what happened with me, was Ellie used to be a slider, from 4 to 13, and they became so extremely different that I split off to form the 13 year old version. (And I've aged since then..)

We're up to 35 now with 1 missing, and I have a feeling we have more. Especially when we keep hearing voices we can't place with anyone in particular.