Alter creation

*trigger warning for talk of DID development*

I know a guy with DID who says he can create alters at will. When I first met him he said he had 7 different alters, most of whom he says he purposefully created as an adult. He now says that he has over 50 different alters some of which have been created by stressful situations, and others he says he has closed his eyes and purposefully spoken with his system and created. How does this work?

I know that every time I find a "new" alter they tend to be "new to me" and often are quite old within the system itself. The oldest alters that exist in my own system seem to have appeared while the body was a teenager. Occasionally when we are very stressed, we feel...for lack of a better word "splintery" or "shattery" or maybe "fragmentary" and without an "identity," but I don't think that we could go inside and say, "We want a new alter. It will be a girl. Her purpose will be X. She will do Y." Have any of you had that experience?

All of my parts, even the ones I couldn't figure out at first, have had very specific jobs ultimately. There has never been a superfluous part. Yes, there are a multiples parts doing similar jobs (ie. protector), but there are multiple aspects of different jobs. I'm mostly just curious as to what you have to say about this.

Our system has assigned roles to others to try out to test what they can do before, but I can't say we've ever created someone new. That's new to me ever hearing someone could ever do it, but as long as it works for them I guess.

Interesting.

I tried. I tried to create a new host when I didn't want to do it anymore and no one else had the strength to step up full time. I couldn't do it. Maybe because for whatever reason my heart wasn't really in it. Maybe for my system it just isn't possible to split anymore, through trauma or otherwise. Once you have the "ability" to split into alters, which I presume he gained at a v young age like the rest of us, I guess there's no reason why you couldn't keep that ability going, or something. Maybe. I don't know lol

-B

He told us he didn't have his first split until he was 13 and then didn't split against until he was in his 40s. He very much is not...like the books?
Love,
Ellie

honestly, if this can be considered a split, I didn't meet Destiny till two years ago, she may have been there before but I became aware of her after a lot of stuff that happened in my childhood came to the surface.

I'm sorry, when I said the previous stuff I forgot to make my point.

It might be possible for alters to happen later on in life if the trauma comes to surface later. like rediscovered repressed memories or things you didn't know about that happened that cause you problems when you learn about it. that's at least my take.

*Trigger warning, talk of DID development*

I'm not going to repeat all the sh*t Hawk's stated in other threads, I'll just summarize and list the other threads.

Usually, when people say they remember "splittling", what they're actually remembering is the process where the already-separated, so already split neurons, are developing into alters or fragments. It can seem like, feel like, and be viewed as "splitting", but often what it is, is being aware of that developmental process, of the further separation from being just separated neurons to developing and separating even further as alters or fragmetns. So to some extent, yes, they remember FURTHER separation, but the initial separation begins and would have happened in childhood.


Depending on if this person was already traumatized, dissociative, etc., it could stand to reason that there is a possibility of the development not being obvious until the age of thirteen, but IT HAS TO START IN CHILDHOOD. This is not an opinion. This is for a reason, and that reason is, the neurons can only develop separated and can only separate IN CHILDHOOD. Childhood is the ONLY stage and time when the personality neurons are developing, and only then can separation start and happen. After childhood, everything else similar to DID is possible- PTSD, C-PTSD, ASD. This person could develop however many EP's as his mind thinks is needed, as people can develop Emotional Parts at any time during any age, but it won't be DID/DDNOS-1 and there won't be any ANP's.


-- Is there such a thing as splitting? (Possibly Triggery, discusses DID development): http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic101763.html

-- A question about alter "creation": http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic100271.html

-- Continued splitting as an adult: http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic108261.html


~ L.C.

Alters are by definition not created purposely. Is your friend possibly talking about meeting them (from age 13 and on)? Though I have heard that some people's ability to create alters can continue in adulthood, I imagine the process would still be a subconscious one, and only when necessary. Creating people in your head purposely sounds more like 'imaginary friends' or maybe social roles to me, though I'm just guessing here. The point of alters is not to be aware of their processes. By definition we don't start out with awareness of, and control over our alters and over how they turn out, it would defeat their whole purpose. The only control we have happens once we get to know them and cooperate with them. It does not seem likely to me that conscious autonomous beings that alters are, would just play puppet for its creator. If they are not conscious and autonomous they are not alters, they are ego states or social roles, imaginary friends, and your friend would be conscious and in control about what's going on all the time. There are many disorders that can present with this kind of symptoms, DID is by far not the only one that presents with identity changes. Bipolar disorder, BPD and theatrical PD are examples of disorders with identity changes. But only DID has conscious, autonomous split offs, that have been kept hidden from the rest of the brain.

That's why we're so curious about it - it sounds more like imaginary friends versus actual DID. We understand that adults with DID can and do create new alters as adults, but we weren't sure about the whole idea of actively creating them with intent. It makes sense too - he told us at one point that he was going to "make" another alter and we decided to try too, just to see what would happen. We made a really cool imaginary friend and while we could imagine her at any time, she was definitely not an alter. She didn't have memories or triggers and couldn't control the body. She was just a story character who everyone liked to pretend to be and everyone could control. Like I mentioned in our first post, when we made her, we didn't say, Hmmmm, her job is to protect. She has horns and can smash through walls with them. Nope, she just came out quick and simple. When we were done playing with her, she never came up again until now.

It also makes a lot more sense about our T's reaction when she met us. She said that she wanted to talk to us about the possibility of imaginary friends versus alters. (Since everyone is an animal including the host, initially, she was concerned we were schizophrenic).

Also, apologies to everyone whom this issues triggers. We didn't realize it was a trigger issue otherwise we would have placed a trigger warning on the topic. :-/

*trigger*
This is what I wrote in the splitting thread mentioned above:

I personally have never read somewhere that all the neurons have to have been separated since childhood. I don't know because unless new trauma or need occurs this part is not yet separated by the dissociative barriers. I will try to look this up from the point of view of experts because I've not read that before. Interesting.

By the same definition of what I wrote in my (linked to) comment: yes you can create new alters - I dare say even at will - but there must be a need. Not an "I want it" type of need, but a true need born out of necessity or otherwise that overloads the brain in the same way that alter creation otherwise happens (ego state takes over and cannot be integrated into the already existing ego states). So it would depend. But just sitting there and deciding on it? On the fence, not sure. I would guess it depends. Never say never, and all that.

Also - just wanted to let you know that I added a trigger warning to your initial post