What i am about to type here is a result of an experience after living consciously with D.I.D for about a year now. The diagnosis came later, but i have been associating (instead of dissociating) with my alters for quite a while now. (or should i way that they were also associating with me!)

There are a few conclusions i could draw from this:

1. Alters are closer to the natural intelligence - and the best
description i can give to this type of connection with one
self will be connecting with your intuitive
consciousness.

2. We can be "the head of the family" if we command
alters...not ask them to do us favors.

3. They are a part of our consciousness - even if seem
separated from our own- every feeling we are not aware of
can go to them and make them act on it as they would like
to - so the best we can do to help them at the beginning
is to be aware of all our feelings and release them in
acceptable ways. This can shift the burden.

One of the hardest things can be trauma work!
Alters are used to this "other reality" that we have no idea about its existence! So they developed dealing strategies - (healthy or not). They have been dealing with all of this for years. Although some of them are afraid - they are all pretty much used to it.

So one of the mistakes some of us seem to make (including trained therapists) is rushing into trauma work and picking inside the memories, trying to get what the heck is going on, like you do with exposure techniques for PTSD.

I know it is important to figure out trauma - this is the reason for the disorder...but since NOW we already have this result of a "split" personality - we cannot go straight to the root cause.

First - we need to practice awareness, and authenticity. I know it may sound spiritual and not connected with psychology and a heavy disorder like D.I.D but the more we do that - the more we connect to our intuition, openly and lovingly (instead of judgmentally) we connect to the way THE ALTER feels and thinks. Because in the end THEY ARE US. They are an "extension" of our being.

After we connect to our deeper self (the alters) - not necessarily though talking - (although this is ok, too) we already KNOW intuitively how to deal with certain things. We experience oneness on a new level. Then we are connected not only to the memory our alters contain, but also to THEIR STRENGTH, their knowledge, their energy flow... (one being)

I know that before i got diagnosed it was easier for me on intuitive level, because i didn`t have any labels in my head, and because i did not TALK TO THEM as "separate". Sometimes, of course, you have no other way but talking (for me, especially to the children)

My mistake was picking too much in the memories - asking question that were answered but them - in images and some loud frightened and frightening words - and thus having a total break in my function.

I know that if we listen closely or - some of us have this awareness better than others - we can hear the chatter in our head. "Their" thoughts. I know sometimes there is no way around and i do NOT say in any way that we should skip r ignore trauma work.

What I do say is - we can have the ways of dealing down first, (intuitively) and the FEELINGS about this, and THEN - then memories themselves.

I also know, of course, that there are emergency situation and irresponsible alters and sometimes one needs to take care of things immediately - without following a built in order. This is more about the whole precess of healing and getting yourself together than about emergency situations.