Why the different ages for the same alter?

I know it's pretty standard for alters to have different ages to what their birth certificates say. Some age, some don't. Some suddenly "catch up" when they resolve some specific issue that froze them in time. Some others just have their age as a part of who they are.

What's the story with some alters under the age of twenty having ages that jump around? Why can the one alter be nine on Monday, twelve on Tuesday and eight on Thursday?

Does it mean that that alter has some special purpose? Are they less clearly defined? Are they a multiple within a multiple system? Or is it just a part of who they are that doesn't necessarily mean anything at all?

Just wondering.

We haven't really figured that out yet. We have at least two who age-shift. One goes between 9-13, and the other between 8-14. And one who is now fixed at 7 did go between 5 or 6-12. Maybe it just depends on how mature they feel that day? I don't know. They can't explain it either.

I dont exactly know why that happens but i feel most of the time to be 8 or 9, like 8 and a half? And then sometimes i feel like i am 12 or 13 but that changes only once in a while. Like ive been bullied all my life and when im threatened with something that happened to be at a certain age i think that's where i get stuck, and if another trigger hits me from another age i suddenly jump to that age i think? I dont know what im talking about but i feel that what triggers me forces me to change ages that i am when i went through these things. Does that help??

I think its because when they disappear for a number of years, then reappear they may be in one of their regressive forms, from years before, or will start off from how old they are 'meant to be' when they re-arrive.

For people in my system who do that, it is almost always because they lived for our core and took her abuse for those ages. For example, Walker's age changes between 2 and 5 because this is when he was taking the abuse of the body, which was also 2 when it started and 5 when it stopped. He's stuck in that time and within that age range.

However, we have an adult who showed up when this body was a very young child. We needed someone to be an adult who was trustworthy and nurturing. Thus, there she was/is.

We have a couple who for many years age-slid between like 15 and 18, for example. Now they're more like 17-20. they have matured a bit, due to (as someone else suggested) resolved issues.

Some of us are not the age the body was during whatever specific abuse and/or trauma created them. I liken this to how we are biologically female but Walker is a boy. He believed if we were a boy we wouldn't be abused. Maybe those who are older than we were when they were formed felt that if we were older things wouldn't be happening, or if we were older we wouldn't be beside ourselves with not knowing how to handle something.

Nobody here ages alongside the body, and our core is inactive so even she doesn't age. But for what it's worth, the above is how things work for us. Different systems work differently though, so you may find that something else entirely is the reason you all age (or don't) and slide how you do.

-Mikaela

Glad to know others have had this experience!

For me it was a drastic shift - a nine-year-old alter who one day told my therapist she was 54 (my age at the time), but then went back to being nine and has remained there. She later said she was just playing like she was older, being an aspiring actress, and maybe that was so, but I think she was trying to resolve things and looking to see if another age made a difference. Just a guess. And, she is also one of my less-defined alters and rarely makes a public appearance, so she may know I don't have a clear picture of her. For now, I just say. "She's nine, but she's precocious!"

I have not figured this one out, and I'm OK not knowing for the time being. What seems to be important is for me to listen to her and see what her needs are, no matter what age she portrays.

I have also had this experience with a alter she had been age 8 for so long then she jumped age to 17 then 20 then back down to 8 when we met Jacob she confided in him through notes as she did not talk but as she got used to him she started to speak out loud and he helped her to overcome what she had been through and now she is up to the body's age of 20.

In our system we have a little girl named Lilian or Lily for short. At her youngest she is near 6 years old but would change randomly to the teens up to 17 years old. When she is older she prefers to be called Vex because "Lily is a childs name". We asked our therapist about this and she said it wasn't as uncommon as we would have thought it to be. An alt that changes age back and forth is known as a "slider". This was all some time ago so it might have changed by now.