How do I figure out my system?

I have been lurking here and have noticed that many people seem to have a pretty good understanding of their various parts and how they function. I was diagnosed with DID nearly 3 years ago. Went through denial until there was too much evidence to refuse to believe it was possible. When alters took over, I would leave my body and go to the "upper right". The process became familiar, I would dissociate to the same place and make my way back to the front. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of who my alters are and what they're about.

Things have changed in the last three months. When I dissociate now, I don't go to the same place and I don't know where I go. I have often felt that there is a crowd of voices waiting behind the door in my mind beyond which the alters live. More voices than the alters I am aware of. I recognize some as fragments through my work with my Pdoc. But I am stuck. I thought I understood myself and now the landscape has changed completely. Everything is unfamiliar and uncomfortable. I think this has made me slip back into a combination of denial and "I don't want to do this/have this."

I guess my question is how do you figure out what your system is/how it works? I know those parts are in me, but I can't make sense of how things work. Does the understanding come with time? Is there anything I can do to try to make sense of it?

Hello and welcome here.
We've been through a system change too, actually 2 of them, it's not unusual for DID but yes it's really confusing. You think you've figured it out but then you get to start all over again.
So you said you hear voices? Have you, by any chance, tried to talk to them? Maybe one of them knows why things inside have changed. This talking to the voices (whether out loud or in your head), or writing letters to other states of mind, keeping a journal, are all things you could try to do to improve your understanding of your system. My personal favorite is journaling. I just can't remember many things so the journal helps me remember, and we can always go back to read about what we felt or thought or when something happened etc. It can also be a really good way for alters to communicate. You might find that there's sentences that you don't remember writing in your journal etc. When you happen to know that one of yours likes particular toys or other stuff like hobbies etc, it might be a good gesture to buy that for them, cause you don't know them but they might not know you either and being nice to each other may be a good way to earn trust and possibly to make them happier.
We have conversations in our head all the time too but it's sometimes really too vague to remember so again the journal really helps me if we write our conversations down. When an alter is fronting he will just write in my journal like I do too and it's always weird (really scary at first) to be confronted with that truth and hard to wrap my head around but it's still totally worth it for us.
My journal definitely helped me a lot. Some people like to meditate too but I thought it risky cause a lot came crashing down at once, so I'm scared to do it again and personally wouldn't recommend it. And yes it takes time. Lots of it. It's like a journey, not like a thing that you do and then it's over. These people are part of you and your life.

Greetings from TC

Same thing with us. Turns out there were sub systems in our system. There were other people and places we didn't know about. Do you think that could be the case? If you wanna try to figure out how to get to be familiar with it let me know and I'll try and walk you through it because I did it for my system. - Kayte