Non-Possessive Switches

Hello, the rest of the system and I have begun some switches, but they seem to be exclusively Non-Possessive switches, which is leading to some difficulty telling who is who and whether or not I am the one fronting. I know for a fact that I am pretty much always co-fronting, but I don't know how to tell if I am not the main person fronting. The only way I've been able to tell is based on body feeling and voice. Some of our alters hold anxiety, depression, BPD symptoms etc. and due to the fact that we almost purely experience in a Psycho-Somatic manner, I can tell based off of what emotion the body is reacting to. Because of this, however, it is very difficult to tell when one of our ANPs is fronting bc they tend not to affect the body when they are fronting. I was wondering if anyone knew a way to induce a more possesive switch, or how to 'let go' of front when someone else starts to front so that its just them.

Oli
She/They
The Pentacle System

What you describe is how our system is too, and we only really tell based on body language, voice, and other cues like that. We don't have day-to-day amnesia (that is that we don't have amnesia of what is going on though we might get confused when switching). When someone else is fronting, I try my best to give them space by pulling back as much as possible, but we have always had an innate level of co-consciousness so that we could easily mask our DID. Even at that, by the next day, we'll lose anything but the most important bits of information and have had to start admitting to not remembering.

So, I can't really give you advice other than to say that it isn't abnormal or unheard of to have switches like you do.

Take care,
Violette

Thank you so much Violette, this actually helped me/us realize that forgetting anything but the important stuff wasn't normal. I've lived like this my entire life so I didn't realize that other people experienced amnesia in the same way. You have been a great help to us lately and we greatly appreciate it.

Oli
She/They
Pentacle System

You are most welcome Oli.

We actually found this forum because we were looking up "experience loss" in connection to DID. We had always been stuck when researching DID on a couple of factors including the illusion of a happy childhood, and the fact that, in the here and now, we know what is going on even when we switch (though confusion can happen). Like you, we've dealt with this our whole life, or at least what we remember. I, specifically, don't have access to a lot of childhood memories.

We've started piecing together a lot of what our childhood was like, but at the same time, it hasn't been easy.

Take care,
Violette.

Hello and welcome to the forums!

Switches can be very confusing when we start to become aware, really aware, of our system. Do not hesitate to have a look at the ressources thread, especially the book "Healing the fragmented selves of trauma survivors" which explains how to de-tangle (un-mesh? I read it in french not english so unsure about the english expression) the system so that we get a clearer view and it becomes easier to heal.

Hope it helps!

Untangle is the way it is usually put in English, and I have heard detangle as well

I should also add that knowing the other alters' body language helps not only with knowing who is fronting but who is close to the front and influencing what we are doing.

Violette

Thank you Violette!