How do you share a mind with someone?

I do not have this disorder, but I would like to hear your thoughts about it, and how the disorder applies to you.

Answer these questions however you want. Overelaborate, if you can. I'm not looking for right answers, just everyone's *individual* responses.

That's a little vague, so I'll give some sample questions:

How do you know which alter you are?

How do you know you are not *the* alter itself?

Are alter's lifelong?

What if you spent more time as your alter(years) than you did as 'yourself'? Would that mean to your original personality? That it is now the obsolete one?

Would you change anything(Be a whole Identity, no alters)?
Are you happy the way you are?

Do you believe that there are people that fake this disorder, or are not truely experiencing it?

Do you you know anyone that claims to be DID but is not in your opinion?

Do you have control over when you switch?

What does switching alters feel like?

How do you communicate with them? Is it a voice, or a thought?

Are your alters aware of you? Are they aware of one another(if multiple)?

Do you have just one alter?

Why do you think you have alters? What are their purpose?

Does anyone outside of your family know of your condition?

Could you say all of your alters are similar to yourself in some way? Like a piece of you that is taken to an extreme and given it's own identity? Or are they entirely different people?

I know nothing about DID. These are just questions that spring to mind. Help me understand.

sure i don't mind. i wish more people were interested.

1.) how do you know which alter you are?
by my behavior, what i'm interested in. it does matter what each part is called. i know what i like to do, but i am also aware other parts that think very differently than i do.

2.) how do you know you are not the alter it's self? . i am me at all times.

3.) are alter's lifelong? i don't know, i haven't died yet.

4.) ...i am one person, with various personalities.

5.) would you change anything? yes! i if it was up to me nothing would have happened in the first place. unfortunately i don't have a choice.

6.) yes

7.) no, i'm the only one i know that has been dx d.i.d..

8.) do you have control over when you switch? no

9.) what does switching feel like? like coming in and out of anesthesia. very confused, but trying to act normal.

10.) we talk to each other with unspoken words. so i guess that would be thoughts. only the voices sound very different, and have different opinions.

11.) some are aware, some are not aware.

12.) do you have just one alter? no, i have many.

13.) why do you have alters, what is their purpose.
i think some parts of me would not make it if they knew everything that happened in the past. some hold memories. having to live in very different environments. each environment had completely different rules to live by. in oder to survive i had to be more than one person. of course that can't be done literally, so i'm guessing that's why "we" formed mentally.

14.) does anyone outside your family know of your condition? professionals and a couple close friends. no one in my family knows, but my husband.

15.) we all share the same body. most try to work together for the common good. we are not different people. that is just the best way to explain what it feels like.

i hope that answered some of your questions. you can ask me all the questions you want, i don't mind.

How do you know which alter you are?
We all have names. We know our names. We know who we are. Me personally, being the original, it might be easier for me than some of the others, but in retrospect, they seem to have very clear cut knowledge of who they are and what they're about when, some days, I'm not sure. I just know my given name applies to me. If we end up all mushed up near the front (or a lot of us anyhow) it gets difficult.

How do you know you are not *the* alter itself?
I have a birth certificate. Furthermore, D.I.D. is a disorder caused by great (and generally repetitive) trauma. It's not about delusions. If it were, then one might think that.

Are alters lifelong?
Pretty much. Even for a system that chooses to integrate, that alter just integrates into the original.

What if you spent more time as your alter(years) than you did as 'yourself'? Would that mean to your original personality? That it is now the obsolete one?
My alters and I are very separate people. I didn't spend time AS one alter. They lived for me, to keep me safe. And they lived my childhood, teenage years, and into my early 20's for me. It means I am missing memories, time, experiences, and so forth. As far as I know, I am still here.


Would you change anything(Be a whole Identity, no alters)?
Are you happy the way you are?
I'm perfectly fine like this. WE are perfectly fine. I wish what had happened to me had not, but that's the past. When I came back and they went inside, I felt very empty (and confused!) until I found out about them and got to know them. I don't feel "shattered" now. I feel whole with them.

Do you believe that there are people that fake this disorder, or are not truly experiencing it?
I've known some. I can't imagine wanting it. I can't imagine wanting a horrible past. But I think some people thinks it would make them special. That's sad.

Do you you know anyone that claims to be DID but is not in your opinion?
Yep. I made no conclusions until I caught two friends faking.

Do you have control over when you switch?
Not always. If I am triggered, I have no control. If I am unsafe, I have no control. But general daily stuff... yes. I am eager to give them their time out front when they want it.

What does switching alters feel like?
I think it's different for everyone. I get a headache that is hard to describe, chills up my spine, and get very disoriented. With one alter, I used to have trauma seizures before she would come out.

How do you communicate with them? Is it a voice, or a thought?
A voice inside my head about an inch inside my ear.

Are your alters aware of you? Are they aware of one another(if multiple)?
Yes and yes.

Do you have just one alter?
Not even close. LOL! More like 23, that we're aware of.

Why do you think you have alters? What are their purpose?
I know why and don't feel like going into each story as I don't want to trigger anyone. In short, years of every kind of abuse there is, witnessing a suicide, and some other things I won't talk about here. Their purpose was to keep me alive and safe. Now they are helping me to have the childhood I didn't have and to heal.

Does anyone outside of your family know of your condition?
Yes.

Could you say all of your alters are similar to yourself in some way? Like a piece of you that is taken to an extreme and given it's own identity? Or are they entirely different people?
They're all different.

1- How do you know which alter you are?

That's easy. How do you know which alter YOU are? It's no different for multis than for singletons. We exist with our own sense of consciousness. I can only speak for myself, but I believe it's true of others in my system as well. When we're in control we just ARE. We're not an "alter". The others in my system are aware that they are "alters", are aware of my life (mostly), and know that they're just temporary. But that doesn't change how they perceive their own existence. To them, they just "are", and all else (including other alters in the system and including me) are "others".


2- How do you know you are not *the* alter itself?

Maybe I am. I think that the host ("main person") is just another alter. If I am an alter I don't mind. My goal is to become healthy, complete, and unified (either through integration or co-consciousness). If my function is temporary and I am an alter, I am fine with that.

3- Are alter's lifelong?

Unless something happens to them, yes. Therapy can integrate them, or they can disappear/go into hibernation and new alters can come out.

4- What if you spent more time as your alter(years) than you did as 'yourself'? Would that mean to your original personality? That it is now the obsolete one?

I don't know that there IS an "original" personality in my system, or how I would identify it. I'm fragmented because of intense and ongoing childhood trauma. If there is an "original" personality, it's locked up inside to keep it safe, and I doubt that it would be able to come out and be functional. My "original" personality would be something like 4 or 5 years old. How would that personality function in the life of a nearly 30 year old woman?

The alter that spends the most time in control is technically the "host". So if I don't spend as much time in control over the years as one of my alters, then it's a good indicator that I'm an alter, and not my "alter".

5- Would you change anything(Be a whole Identity, no alters)?
Are you happy the way you are?

My alters have some skillsets and talents that I would love to possess. I am also a little bit paranoid that their ability to do certain things with as much finesse as they are able to achieve may be related to the fact that I am fragmented. If they were weighed down by the realities of everyday existence would they still possess that capacity for brilliance? Would integration result in something more bland than the sum of my parts? So I'm mixed. The idea of integration is very appealing and somewhat disturbing at the same time.

My main goal is really to eliminate some harmful behaviors and cope with the trauma that I suffered so that the others inside aren't still suffering and aren't still acting out on it.

6- Do you believe that there are people that fake this disorder, or are not truely experiencing it?

It's a hard disorder to fake. It requires the ability to hold a tremendous amount of information in your head. From mannerisms to memories to mood sets. It's not something that's easy. It's like a one-man Shakespearean improv that lasts over years. If someone CAN fake this successfully I'd love to meet them.

That said, I'm sure that there have been people that have tried to fake it for SOME reason. People can be incredibly damaged.

7- Do you you know anyone that claims to be DID but is not in your opinion?

Some of my alters insist that I'm faking DID. I'm sure you see the humor in that statement.

8- Do you have control over when you switch?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

9- What does switching alters feel like?

It varies. Usually colors go all wrong and my eyes go out of focus then I fall asleep. Or sometimes I watch and feel out of control. Or sometimes I watch and feel "I should stop this" but have no power or real desire to stop it. Sort of like being at the dentist on Nitrous Oxide as they drill. You sometimes feel the pain and you know that they're drilling holes in your mouth, but somehow you have no ability or desire to do anything about it.

10- How do you communicate with them? Is it a voice, or a thought?

It's thoughts that I argue with, debate with, that try to convince me of things, that say things I disagree with, that chatter constantly.

11- Are your alters aware of you? Are they aware of one another(if multiple)?

Yes and no.

12- Do you have just one alter?

I wish.

13- Why do you think you have alters? What are their purpose?

That's a difficult one. Primarily to offload different parts of traumatizing experiences to different parts of me and keep the "whole" broken up so that I don't ever have to deal with the actual emotion or the reality of things that have happened to me.

14- Does anyone outside of your family know of your condition?

Only three people know.

15- Could you say all of your alters are similar to yourself in some way? Like a piece of you that is taken to an extreme and given it's own identity? Or are they entirely different people?

Some are very similar, some are polar opposites.

I'm sure Mike (the host) would love to play 20 questions with you, but I find this $#%^ obnoxious and rather tell you to kindly ###$ off. No offense sport, but I find it irritating when a singleton sticks questions outright in a multiple's face. I know who I am, Mike knows who he is, and D knows who he is. You can just feel it. When you're in an apartment with a few roommates, do you feel like you are one in the same? Not at all, thats exactly how it feels. Like living in an apartment witha few other individuals who come and go. And you can always tell who's out cuz if you're not doing anything but the body is, its definitely not you behind the wheel.

-Frank

Sorry about Frank, I was kinda dispatched at the moment and he was doing all the typing. He can be a bit aggressive, as you may have noticed, but he really is a good guy.

thanks for posting you guys! i needed to read them. one of those days. just one of those days. i've been wishing for the end. feel like giving up. i needed to have someone, something to relate to. thanks!

How do I share a mind with someone?

Well, I have one roommate named Seth.
I have the small part of the room (typical!).

He comes and goes as he pleases.

But that's just my mind, which I share with Seth.

The others (Harri etc) live further down the street. I prefer goin to visit them. Harri's mind is far more interesting, haha. Whenever I feel like goin out to party, I grab one of em (I'm great friends with Harri and Stella) and I do.

That's about all there is to it really.

How do you know which alter you are?
i sit in the back of my head and watch, they'll usually tell ppl their name
How do you know you are not *the* alter itself?
i dont...
Are alter's lifelong?
i hope so... i luv my invisibuddies =)
What if you spent more time as your alter(years) than you did as 'yourself'? Would that mean to your original personality? That it is now the obsolete one?
probably
Would you change anything(Be a whole Identity, no alters)?
Are you happy the way you are?
i cant imagine not having anyone inside my head =(
Do you believe that there are people that fake this disorder, or are not truely experiencing it?
its harder to fake than u think... but im sure someone could
Do you you know anyone that claims to be DID but is not in your opinion?
nope
Do you have control over when you switch?
no
What does switching alters feel like?
i watch frm the back of my head... its like being in the back seat of a car
How do you communicate with them? Is it a voice, or a thought?
we talk, usually not out loud but it can be.
Are your alters aware of you? Are they aware of one another(if multiple)?
i think they all know me but i dunno if i know all of them
Do you have just one alter?
no...
Why do you think you have alters? What are their purpose?
...no idea
Does anyone outside of your family know of your condition?
my boyfriend knew b4 i did...
Could you say all of your alters are similar to yourself in some way? Like a piece of you that is taken to an extreme and given it's own identity? Or are they entirely different people?
i dunno


these questions were hard =(
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