For me, the DID existed without me knowing it was there. I would miss time and end up in places without knowing how I got there. It took 8 yrs of therapy to go from a very hurting young college student to understanding that the trauma had caused my personality to shatter.

After I learned I was a multiple, I started to work very hard on staying alert mentally to what was going on inside my head. I had always thought the conflicting throught were just me being unable to make up my mind. But as I paid attention, I was able to clearly see a couple of people inside who were NOT thinking or even acting the way "I" did.

Well, I decided to start asking them questions and they were as confused as I was! But we were able to start working together to put the puzzle in some type of order. One person know one thing and another one knew something else. This was the base of our start of being co-conscious.

I would HIGHLY recomend if you have DID to start that internal dialog. It will NOT be easy at first. But it can open the doors to change DID from being something that causes problems into something that enables us to live highly functional and healthy lives. NOT by trying to "get rid" of being DID. That can happen for some, but I think many of us can remain DI without it being a DISORDER. It can be DIO - Dissosiative Identity Order !

And that starts with communication internal. My hints are to establish ground rules for the "house"

1) Everyone must respect the rights and opinions of the other members... even if they do not agree with them.

2) No other member is to cause harm to any other member... physically, emotionally, or mentally.

3) Everyone gets a say in what is going on and choices that have to be made.

Finally - as Host, if you are not strong enough to control some of the more unruly members of the house, find the strongest one and appoint them as a moderator. Give them the right to justly correct bad internal behavior. For example, my teen alter loves to blast heavy metal acid rock in the car. I will allow that as a host, but if she tries to take over my driving and behave badly, the radio is shut off. She hates that. So she stays within the rules.

You can do it!