you are talking about sub alters (alters of alters) not everyone needs to split to the point of their alters splitting into alters. I know one person in my DID therapy group who has only 4 alters who were able to manage the abuse she underwent from the ages of 3-19, those alters had more than one job and they aged along with her. when she entered therapy she and her alters were 25. they still had times when they acted out childishly but their ages were 25.

there is a man in our group who only has 2 alters he was abused in a religious cult from the time he was 4 until he was 13. he was trained by the cult and his 2 alters were trained by the cult to handle what he was going through through systematic ritualistic ceremony's where the cult would trigger one or the other alter into being during the ceremonies. his two alters grew along with him and each alter had multiple jobs of which things they took care of.

just because someone goes through extreme abuse does not mean they keep on splitting time after time after time. they only split as many times as their own individual system needs in order to survive.

alters can be anything the person needs to survive. some people only need two alters some people need hundreds, and some people have sub alters and some people don't. some people have alters that age some people don't some people have a variety of different alters that each perform one job some people only have a couple or 3 alters that perform multiple jobs.

not every person with DID has the same type of internal system of alters and there is no set criteria of how a persons internal system of alters must be comprised of. even here on psych central no two persons internal system of alters is identical. some have only a couple alters some here have more, some here even have animalistic alters like wolves, bears, hawks, instead of child like alters because that is what they needed to survive.

no one has to have the same kind of alters that you have. if your system is made up of alters that are young and have never aged with you then thats what you needed in order to survive.

please dont judge other peoples systems of alters by how you are and what you believe. whether or not people have child alters, or animal alters, or what ever kind of alters they needed to survive it is not wrong and is perfectly acceptable the way they are. there are many counties, races and religions here not everyone is going to have the same kind of alters or same make up of internal system of alters as everyone else.