A question about alter "creation"

Try not to obsess over the "why it happened" part, and focus more on living well in the here and now.

Splitting off new dissociative identities is a bizarre defense mechanism but I would not call it perverted. It is a natural human response to an extreme threat.

One of the major goals of psychotherapy for DID is to learn and practice using other coping strategies and stop using this one. Splitting and then subsequently switching worked very effectively to protect us when we were very young children, but isn't nearly as safe or effective as other strategies available to us now as adults.

safeway wrote:Thing is I am really ashamed in front of you guys... I mean the thought that I could have so perverted a defense mechanism which you need to use to survive... That is one of the biggest burdens to carry, that shame. Yet it seems you do understand -- thanks for that!

Una+ wrote:Splitting off new dissociative identities is a bizarre defense mechanism but I would not call it perverted. It is a natural human response to an extreme threat.

I don't mean to step on any toes or start anything, but I don't think safeway was calling it perverted. I think safeway was explaining how they felt and talking about how they could have twisted it in how they thought it worked and what they wrote on here and stuff. I mean, they said "the thought that I could have so perverted a defense mechanism which you need to survive", they didn't say anything like "it's a perverted defense mechanism" or "I could have a perverted defense mechanism" or anything like that.



And to SAFEWAY: There's voices saying stuff to you (sorry if that sounds weird, I'm kinda new to all this stuff ).
They're saying: "It's never easy to acknowledge any type of trauma", "We wouldn't doubt it if you had some level of PTSD or something from the trauma, but it's doubtful it'd be a full dissociative disorder such as DID", "There's no shame to be had, and of course we understand. You were asking legitimate questions and were honestly confused", "Try not to focus on why it happened, but perhaps take note of it, such as in a journal or something, and then move on from it and focus on the here and now. If it happens again, then record it, and start thinking about possibly looking into it more", ...and? That it? I guess that 's it.

~Kyra (13 yr old)

`Do alters age with you or always stay the same age?

Check this thread out, it discusses all the different ways alters can age. (Aging varies from person to person, because everyone's different, and every system is different).

-- Alters & aging? : http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic97811.html



-Cassandra

Everyone's different. I have a spectrum of ages (I'm either 10, "teen", close to body-age, midlife or older mostly). Others in here have set ages. Some age yearly or at different rates. Each to their own.