Can a Dream Cause a Split?

I have officially been diagnosed with DID. I have 9 known distinct alters that are very set in all their...characteristics and habits.

I/we've been having dreams lately that are extremely violent, violence caused by people in authority. I maintain a very amiable co-conscience with my very forward alter, Jen. She says she's noticed this too: whenever we see a police officer or even police car, there is a surge a violent emotions that wants to kill for vengeance.

My question is: Can dreams cause a new alter?

This new part wants vengeance for the violence and abuse that has happened in our dreams. The dreams are awful, of some of the worst brutality that they don't even show in movies. Always the Abu is caused by police officers/detectives, etc.

This has also caused another part to show up. One I believe is potentially more dangerous to my family than the violent one. This one shows/feels very sexual towards certain other men that aren't my husband. There have been no actions on their part, just, urges. I'm afraid simply because of of our other others nearly caused a severe separation over the summer.

Jen and I work so hard to keep him and the others in line so I don't lose my husband by being in any kind of questionable situation.

My world is so confused right now.

This isn't me prying or anything I assure you, and you can just answer with a simple yes or no. Do you happen to know precisely what began splitting your mind in the first place (cause of DID)? If not, your dreams might be subconsciously relating to something in your past. And it might not be that those dreams are creating a new alter, it may be that this alter already existed at some point and was either dormant or was a fragment that is beginning to take shape.

I'm an SO of a guy with DID, by the way. See, dreams seem to have different meanings to different people, or different alters. One alter in his system, Johnny, has premonitions of coming events - he even predicted the most traumatic experience of his life three months prior to it happening but was unable to prevent it. He continues to occasionally have those premonitions about other bad things that are about to happen, and that only happens to him. Jack, on the other hand, has visions when he's conscious where he sort of zones out for a few minutes. Only...these visions don't even pertain to him, he explains them as if he's inside the body of a soldier at war, and he can explain down to the gruesome details precisely what he's seen or felt even if he knows these soldiers would have (or have) died many year before he could have these visions. Yohann (the host) has nightmares almost every night for reasons we can't begin to understand, but they certainly put his protectors on-edge.

I guess I don't see anything that says a dream can't cause a split, but since dreams have to come from some part of the subconscious, something has to be triggering that instinct.

My original split started at two and a half years of age. My siblings and I were badly abused in every way imaginable, but I got the DID. Fun.

It's strange because some of our dreams have been known to be prophetic in ways. We've even dreamed of the End Times, but very rarely have we ever had such horrifically violent dreams. It's causing focus problems in waking life, I just don't understand the newness of the situation when we are pretty sure we know of all the abuse we endured.

Rather than the dream creating a new alter, I would say it's most likely the dreams are either a replay of actual events or are dramatizations of the emotions of some part of you, that is, one or more of existing alters, perhaps one you don't know about. Or a mixture of reality and dreamlike representation. I think we've seen on this board that alters can communicate via dreams. Actually, whether they are trying to communicate in dreams or whether they are simply dreaming themselves in any one dream is up for grabs. But the images are likely coming from them or from your collective mind.

Pandoras9 wrote:My siblings and I were badly abused in every way imaginable, but I got the DID. Fun.

Ditto for my siblings and me.

Pandoras9 wrote:...very rarely have we ever had such horrifically violent dreams. It's causing focus problems in waking life, I just don't understand the newness of the situation when we are pretty sure we know of all the abuse we endured.

The timing might be related to a recent diagnosis or something significant happening in your system or the time of year or something else. It does not sound random. You may know of the abuse but do you know all of it? I thought I had remembered the worst stuff at one point but I had yet to learn about what was less violent but more emotionally devastating to my young mind. Have you and/or Jen made every attempt at trying to share the emotional impact of the abuse with the alters who suffered the abuse?

A couple questions. Do you lose time or are you mostly in control of switching? Are you in full communication with everyone, especially with the most violent or angry alters? They hold your anger, that of your entire self who went through these things. Given that, they have every right to be heard and allowed to express their fury -- in safe ways that are acceptible to your selves. They have every right to expect attention and help.

If you're not in full communication, it would be best to focus hard on that. Even a move toward that can lead to greater stability fairly quickly. Even if some of these alters don't want to, refuse to communicate with you, you can still journal your thoughts to them, speak to them aloud (it's mighty hard not to listen to conversation from someone when you yourself are addressed directly), write them notes, go inside and talk to them, etc. Can you ask inside what events or emotions the dreams are referring to? Who has them or who is most likely to be feeling these things?

The alters having those thoughts actually sound reachable. They're having these violent thoughts, and they have a right to have them, but they're not currently acting on them. If you haven't listened to them or tried hard to listen, I recommend you to apologize for not doing so. An apology costs nothing and let's them know you're on their side, that you're open to righting the wrongs they feel stuck in. Playing out vengeance on those not involved, or even playing it out on those who were involved in a way that re-traumatizes the person originally injured, is not an acceptable way, nor is it the best way, to right a wrong.

I have a part - Helga on Level 25 - closest to the Self.


She is the one I call Dreamweaver. She not only sends me the dreams, but she is there in the morning to answer my many questions about them.

I agree with the others that this is likely not a new alter but perhaps an alter new to you.

Pandoras9 wrote:This has also caused another part to show up. One I believe is potentially more dangerous to my family than the violent one. This one shows/feels very sexual towards certain other men that aren't my husband. There have been no actions on their part, just, urges. I'm afraid simply because of of our other others nearly caused a severe separation over the summer.

I have something similar going on too, and a thread here about it. Parts (!) of my system have a love obsession with one other man and for me it helps to talk it out, over and over again. I post about it rather freely here, talk it out to my husband, my therapist, and several other confidantes. Recently my husband did something wonderful. He told me that whatever may happen with the other man, it will not be a deal breaker for my husband. I believe he means it because this weekend during a minor upset with my husband I heard a voice in my head saying "I want a divorce" and then out of my mouth saying "I want [other man]!" My husband took it all calmly. I believe we are hearing from my Alter 2.