Alter bleeding versus switching

What is the difference between alter bleeding (where an alters emotions bleed through to you) versus switching.

Rive wrote:What is the difference between alter bleeding (where an alters emotions bleed through to you) versus switching.

I aint never heard it put that way before. my T just calls it being co conscious. it would scare the bejezz out of us if she said alters bleed. bad enough we really did bleed when we got hurt too young.

For us I would explain it as feeling the feelings or somatic stuff vs someone else becoming front.

For me it is when I feel something all of the sudden that I have no clue where it came from or exactly why. I can be happy and all of a sudden I am scared when nothing is happening. I need to ground myself so I can help wherever the feeling is coming from to ground.

Sitting down and journaling the difference usually becomes clear.

We have heard it called leaking and like it much better than how you described it, but I believe it is the same.

Oh , I'm sorry. I didn't that could be triggering although I should have known better. Sorry. Can you be DID and only experience leakage. I like that word better too.

Leaking and bleeding are the same thing. Here's video explaining all different ways to switch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfCFplQn_vE&t=3s.

When you switch fully, someone else comes to front, and you are pulled or pushed back. When you are co-conscious, you are still fully separate and able to tell who you are and who the other one(s) is/are, and you are able to feel each other's feelings or hear each other's thoughts, able to communicate. You still know who is who, and that there's many of you at the same time.

Bleeding/leaking and blending are situations when it's hard to tell who you are, who else there might be, who is in front most etc. You can be in front, but someone else's thought bleed into you so much you're not sure are you really you anymore, or did you switch, because you know these thoughts are not like yours. Then things are blurry. Someone can ask who you are, but you can't tell for sure. You don't know are you in the middle of switch, if someone is blending with you, which feelings belongs to you and which are someone else's, how many of you there are in front.

Bleeding happens when someone comes near the front and their traits start to leak outside, even if they don't front. Closer they get, more blurry it gets and you can end up being blended. Blending is when there's two or more parts together sharing their traits and there's no clear wall between them, while co-consciousness is when the wall is there and you know to whom all feelings and thoughts belong to or where they come from, although you both can be able to feel them.

Thanks that was very helpful. I think I experience leakage but never actually a switch. Can I still be DID?

When someone else's traits leak into you so strongly you start acting like them, instead of acting like you, that is still switching. You can switch, and still have the same sense of self. That makes things harder to tell apart from each other, but that is still switching. You have told you've done things you'd never do. It means you do switch, because the traits connected to your sense of self can change and be some other part's instead of yours.

Usually your sense of self is attached to certain part of your personality, but not always. Sometimes it's not clear and sometimes it gets connected with another part instead of the part it's normally attached to.

All that is perfectly normal in DID. The point is, that switching is not as simple as you could think, it can be unclear and complicated as well.

Some system main fronts have clear view there are other people living in the same body with them. They know their names and ages and all kind of stuff about them. They feel someone else taking over while they switch.

Some systems don't feel like that, they feel they themselves are several different people, and their own view on things keeps changing all the time. Their switching is when the view changes.

Some system's have both kind of parts and experiences about parts. Some feel like they're you, some have their own names.

You can have DID, parts and switches many ways, and they're all valid. It's not one standard thing.

When I get strong emotions I can't say "who I am" I just have the strong emotion and who am I goes out the window. Like I'm not a protector or feeling anyone present but I can't hand on heart say I'm just myself in that moment, like when I was ranting in a post I made here earlier today, I couldn't sign it because I didn't feel it was my words but I couldn't feel anyone to know it was a different alters words. I wonder if that is bleeding or leaking. I put it down to "I'm angry" right now so can't think straight but maybe its this leaking thing. Lapis Lazuli

Thanks guys.

I'm still trying to find out what is alters when it comes to bad behavior. I truly didnt want to hurt those animals. Part of me DID though. I was in a battle with myself though. I felt bad for it but I guess wanting to do it over powdered me. I'm still struggling with how that's not Some kind of psychopath side to me and not an alter. Any help with that would be appreciated. Or with sexual stuff. Luckily I haven't acted but that's been an internal battle too. Still wondering hows thats not psychopathic issues as well.