curious as to how people have met alts

Una+ wrote:

Hornet339 wrote:I feel like he is in the background watching me from inside. I see a mental image of him in a dark area and it's always towards the right side. (It's SO hard to explain. Hahaa) [...]

Are any of those similar to your experience?

Oh yes. Very similar. I can relate to all of what you describe, but especially this part. Your inner world is a rudimentary one, like mine. Mine is a black void, the vacuum of infinite empty deep space, somehow somewhere inside my body. At times I feel that I am just a shell, a thin facade, around this nothingness, this spaciousness, this vast unknown that obviously is not as empty as it seems because after all it contains alters...! And from in there somehow our alters, when they are co-present with us, can see and hear at least some of what is going on outside.

Some therapists devote a lot of effort to helping the DID client build a more elaborate inner world, others just leave it alone. The inner world construction is a feature in many of the memoirs of people with DID and in some DID fiction too.

I am very interested in this. My inner world has an area with a citadel outside the woods, by the sea. But I noticed that in one chamber, there is a double-door that when I open leads out into an endless black void, just expansive space with nothing in it. I've always wondered what this was. It sounds like the same sort of place you find yourself in.

Found the thread I wanted to post earlier that deals with the same topic (if anyone's interested).

-- How did you meet your alters?: http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic105563.html


-Cassandra

alice89 wrote:my boyfriend...has this reoccurring person showing up in his dreams (that isn't someone he's met in real life) he's asked the person who they were and the person replied "I am you and you are me, we are two different body's and face, but we share the same in darkness, for we both are creatures"

Pretty sure I had this type of dream when I was younger but I'm very vague on the details because memory recall isn't working right. My sense is that before Jonathan went inside into hibernation years back I had dreams about him and he would say something reminiscent of "we're together" or "I'm here when you're not." If I met him, I'm pretty sure I met others too but I can't confirm. It sounds familiar though. In any case, I've had many dreams of doppelgangers, having a long lost twin (especially one that didn't quite look like me), being separated at birth, being mistaken for someone else, and meeting myself or a version of me, that type of thing.

thank you everyone for telling your stories and giving your imput it's all greatly appreciated keep it coming even if it has nothing to do with dreams I love hearing the stories plus it'll give us some idea of what could happen or whatever... anyway ya'll are wonderful people and i greatly appreciate you taking your time to reply to my post

If he has DID, a move toward real health and stability nearly requires that he come to accept the reality of his life at some point. I think if you were to tell him the positives of what you know about DID, that unlike a genetic disorder like bipolar usually (or always?) is, DID is a coping mechanism developed by young children to deal with overwhelmingly negative experiences. People with DID can and do become stable, their lives more and more free of pain and chaos and limitations as they gain internal communication.

What he needs to hear is that there is hope, a promising prognosis. He should be aware that a DID mind is a strong one, resilient enough to segregate traumatic abuse memories in one of the only ways available to young children. He should hear that you're aware of people (here, hopefully) for whom facing the DID is a far better path than continued denial. A DID mind with good communication among alters has more in common with a non-multiple mind that is pulled in many different directions simultaneously due to real life situations than with a mind struggling with full-blown schizophrenia. For an example, imagine a young, stressed mother who is a college student and an athlete, whose parent is seriously ailing and needs assistance, gets invited to attend a party she knows will be wild but fun. One mind, many conflicting needs and desires. In fact, the young mother may be facing greater internal conflict than many multiples.

I would say that your friend needs to get as far away as possible from most media images of multiplicity or other stereotypes and see it as a coping mechanism he developed quite early which he can learn to deal with as an adult. It may also help him to know that to move towards health and stability he does not have to face every horrible thing that ever happened to him first. Your friend should also know that, although DID was valuable to a child under siege, untreated and unacknowledged, it can make things very difficult as an adult.

Getting to know yourself, all of yourself, whether you're multiple or not, and coming to accept yourself are primary keys to mental health. It's not a wise strategy to stifle, ignore, squelch, avoid, deny, belittle, dominate or attempt to destroy parts of yourself, certainly not indefinitely. It's much better to acknowledge and deal with them.

I first came to Jo in a dream. She was having a s.ex dream she couldn't handle so I took over while she watched. Then I started coming out in the clubs, but that too was like a dream to her.

Most of us met her via her husband. The first person willing to listen.

~ Rachelle

After meditating earlier this afternoon, I became extremely tired and fell asleep on the floor. The queer and vivid dreams that I had including me switching. When I switched, I became very lucid, and I felt like a very young kid who was out of control.

TRIGGER WARNING
In the dream, I wanted to text my boyfriend who had been texting, so I could get back to him and also tell him that I had switched into some unknown alter. But I lost more and more control as my vision became tunneled, and I had very little awareness. The child alter was overwhelming. It felt so lucid that I think this alter was real. The only other time I have encountered or heard-of an alter younger than 13 was once when I began babbling spontaneously, then lept around giggling until I regained control of myself.

END WARNING
... Later, the child apparently continued dreaming, entering a strange dreamscape which might have been revealing to me something that the child remembered. It was a story that explains the transfer of my parts from the inner world to the outside world, in a magikal childlike context that was overshadowed by a mature understanding--that of my own perspective. At the end I found myself on a mysterious winding staircase, which lead to a vague scene that seems like a hidden memory from my childhood. It included my father and some people who looked like drugees to me.

When I awoke, I felt excited and almost gleeful, two things that I have not felt to any degree for a long, long time. In fact, perhaps since I began switching noticeably. Perhaps I was experiencing another emotional personality part besides the two that I've known, a small child who withholds a piece of trauma. I don't know how to contact this part, if it was indeed real, but I really think I need to.

I explained the full dream in detail to my boyfriend, and then after he got off the phone, I switched to my ANP alter who has begun to come out recently (whom I did not meet in a dream), and I think he was repressing the feelings of that possible EP. He made effort to keep me from pushing him back down, and he masturbated 4 or 5 times while he was out.

He is rather sexually inclined and retains the reproductive responsibility of my apparently normal personality. Even though ejaculating weakens his hold, thusly, he was still energetic enough to stay out for over five hours. On top of that, he arranged to support a different alter to come out and talk to my boyfriend and managed to come back out afterward for awhile. It was so impressive that my boyfriend asked if he was the gatekeeper. He and I both doubt that he is able to have that function.

... I see that I've digressed. On a positive note, he heard the voice of an alter we have been searching for for weeks on end, and allowed us to learn why he has been gone and finally communicate with him some. I can't help but feeling that experiencing this mysterious dream part might have boosted my energy enough to allow these things to happen.