Hi everyone. I have another question to ask.

I'm only just sort of coming to terms with having dissociative disorder and I'm at the point where I'm facing up to it and wanting to learn about it.

I'm wondering if the age of a particular alter corresponds to the age where trauma happened.

Thank you in advance.

It can be, but not necessarily. Our trauma holders are kind of scattered when it comes to age, and not all of them are tied to the age of the trauma. One of our Littles is younger than the age of the trauma she is tied to while Lilith is older. We do have a couple who are the same age as when the trauma happened.

I don't know what ties certain alters to specific ages, but at least for us, ages and even maturity can be erratic.

Take care,
Violette

Thank you. I'm just struggling at the moment. In one way everything is starting to make sense now. But I've only just started to understand that the dissociation is actually related to trauma.

I don't know why it's taken me so long.

Hello Western,

I'm at the start of figuring out my situation as well so I've been avoiding answering questions others had, but I can with relative certainty answer this one because my alters both told me they were the same age as the body, so 30. Since I was born 30 years ago, it's impossible for the alters to have the same age as the trauma they were tied too... assuming I didn't get traumatized as a newborn, of course.

According to research, some alters can even "age slide" though, meaning their age can change up and down from one moment to another.

Hope that helps you out.

~ Grey / Knight

Some of my identities have an age corresponding to when their trauma happened / when they split, others are random.

The sub-parts of Ghosty/Justin have the age of their trauma, Pride have the age of when he started to split from Ghosty due to gender dysphoria, though he keeps being little now because it helps him express feelings of vulnerability and desire to be protected and cared for. But others such as Lust, David, Zami, Uriel... are older in identity than the body though they split at a young age too. Zami and Uriel's age (in the thousands of years) reflect how weary they feel from all the traumas we went through. For Lust and David it is more about a desire to be grown up enough to be independant and autonomous. And so on.

It really depends on what is important for each identity.

Thank you for all your help.

We have some age-sliders. ones who fronted at a specific age often tend to stay that age unless they fronted over a longer period (many years) or came out intermittently over the years..staying out long enough to experience life at whatever age.

Two are older than the body but as they are both spirit-changeling type entities its kind of irrelevant for them as they can appear at any age or in any form they want.

Others seem to have remained stuck in one age/form or maybe thats just where they prefer or feel safer?


Jay

I think I have an age slider or maybe it's just that he got older. He was 10 years old for a few years and then 13 years old. He is my main alter and has seen me through so much. I've got a lot to thank him for actually.

I'm only just understanding about him properly even though I lived as him for a lot of my life. He's still with me but kind of in the background but I've just realised that when I go clothes shopping it's him who I buy clothes for.

Just found the answer to my own question.

I just remembered that when I was in a really abusive relationship during my early 20s I developed an alter who would probably be considered a little. Not sure of her age but I'm thinking about 7. She is a protector I think.

So now I understand that the age is maybe more to do with survival rather than the actual age of the trauma.

Also I'm thinking that the ages of my alters might be more in line with the age of the trauma when I was younger but not as I've got older.