Can a child alter grow up?

TheGangsAllHere wrote:DID and OSDD "work" the same, and the same theory underlies them both. The only differences have to do with 1) sense of agency as defined in the first DID criterion i.e. whether there is ANY switching or ONLY passive influence 2) amnesia as defined by the DID criterion--whether it's present AT ALL.

Those are both very arbitrarily defined (where is the line between actually switching vs. very heavily influencing the one so they're feeling what you're feeling and doing what you want them to do? And where is the line between having no amnesia at all vs. things being fuzzy and gray and lacking emotional context to the point where information has been lost?), which is why most experts feel that it's fairly meaningless to make a distinction between OSDD1 and DID. The cause is the same and the treatment is the same, so getting stuck "in the weeds," as my T would put it, trying to figure out an arbitrary label, is fairly pointless.

Yes, someone who NEVER switches and ONLY ever experiences passive influence would probably be diagnosed with OSDD, but that wouldn't mean that the host was the "original" self because there was never a unified identity to start with. The host would still be an alter, but maybe could be viewed as a larger "piece" of the puzzle. That wouldn't make them more important, or more "original," whether or not they use the birth name. The others are still individuals with needs and feelings that are just as important as the host's.

I guess what I'm saying is like I 'awake' from a stroke to find myself up front and have autobiographical memory of childhood and the birth name etc so I 'wake-up' feeling the body is mine as the memory that there were others has not yet occurred. Of course society only see' s me as one treats me as such, they are only treating the stroke... and no-one knew so there's no-one to remind me until I found that scribbled note.


Still after discovering someone on here was 'a past me' I cannot see or find 'the others' - other than 'spirits' that I believe in that are helping me and remind me of past 'childhood fantasies' and role play.


I know which part of the life is being described but I cannot find or see 4 seperate individuals called Kit, Maddie, Jody, Thea.

'Bobby' and 'Little Susie' were obviously me as a child though I can't remember their era. Other than a strong residual feeling that I enjoy Animal Crossing controlling 2 characters at once named after myself and my mum so we can meet on the island. I'm not feeling 'Susie is out front now' or 'Bobby is out front now' no messages have been left 'by others' either in the game or anywhere! ..and I can't 'see' any children on the inside. (unless I have a dream at night and remember it when I wake up). This seems very different to 'Kits' description of the system and everyone in it??

I can't help wondering what would have happened if I had never found out? What if I was still in hospital and had never discovered all this? would 'a system' still be there somewhere inside? Have they blended with me is that why I can't find 'seperate alters' inside? or am I mistaking thoughts of my own that are communication from others that I have missed or just assumed everything that is not my thought is Juno's? why can I not reconnect with them after 6 months even after becoming aware of their existence?

I guess I'm saying something like a stroke (or possibly an head inury or dementia etc) seems to change how you perceive your 'self', even if you had more than one self before it.There seems to be very little literature or studies though about how something like a stroke would affect someone who already had something like DID.


Yuna