Alter stuck at front

Recently we can't switch. April can't leave the front, despite him wanting to and others wanting to. Nothing like this has ever happened before and it's causing us a lot of stress, given how April says he wants to 'be self destructive.' It's been this way for about four days and it's getting worse. To our knowledge, there's nothing keeping him fronting. Last night and right now are the only times I could front, but not for long. Has this happened to anyone else before? We can't find a lot of information about this. - October

This has happened to us a few times. But generally for us it's because noone else wants to front.

Sometimes we'll have a few brief switches, like you described, where another will take over for a few hours or whatever, then it's back to the stuck one again.

Sorry I don't have any suggestions or advice, just, it happens to us sometimes too.

For us it generally resolves itself eventually.

Arin

Ulrich has gotten stuck out front for days on end. Just one idea but if this happened with us, we might take the body to a toy store and linger around toys we used to play with as a kid, like stuffed animals. Even if the one in front has no interest -- and Ulrich would have had zero -- the littles given a small window would either have switched in or been so present that Ulrich's stuckness would have loosened.

Holding a stuffed animal for a while at home would have about the same effect, it's just that the waves of littles would be stronger in a toy store for us. The vast majority of systems have littles and their needs, perspectives, and "rules" are vastly different from those of the adults. Even without fronting, they soften the negativity (and self-destructiveness) Ulrich has long held.

We understood over time that what kept Ulrich in front was his (our) unresolved feeling of betrayal. Incidentally, we long thought he was an adult like us but realized he's a teen who's able to sort of latch on to our hosts' "adultness." How old is April?

Johnny-Jack wrote:How old is April?

April is 17. He was our former host for the past 5 years. In the past few months I started coming out as much as he has, so we both consider ourselves to be cohosts. Recently he said he wanted nothing to do with fronting or our life anymore, and that's when our issue of us not being able to switch started. He says he doesn't want to be cohost anymore because he needs a long break. In the past, if he needed a break, I could switch for a few days without any problem or vice versa. Nothing significant has happened in our life recently to be keeping him at the front. - October

Yep, similar problem, but ours is because there's nobody else who can/is able to/willing to, whether consciously or not. I'd perhaps see if anybody internally have concerns/issues about fronting that are subconsciously preventing them? Jen.