"I also feel getting responses from alters about my difficulties uncomfortable because although the person with the alters sees them as real i (having difficulty trusting people at the best of times ) am unable to distinguish the 'real' person behind the alters so do not trust them or their replies as being sincere."

I am not an alter. I am the core. I have been here since day one and stay out for the most part. I have not officially met or communicated with any of my alters. But still this comment above is rather harsh and even I could take it personally. Whether they be alters or the core, they occupy this body and when they do they have a mind. That mind being like any others where they think, they act, they see, they smell, they solve problems, they laugh and they cry. These alters understand issues far better than myself, the core, could because they have kept the secrets over time. They know more than anyone else the pain that one goes through so to think them insencere and have an issue because someone is responding, with a mind, is rather unfair. Because they are an "alter" does not mean that they do not think the same as you and I, that they have no way to love or show compassion or true empathy or anything of the sort. Their whole existance is to keep as much pain from the core as they can when it gets to be too much, so how could anyone possibly think alters to be insensere? My suggestion would be, if you don't want alters to post to your thread, tell them not to. And while we're at it, when I post, I will ask not to have others who do not have alters to post in my thread. And those who do not also suffer with bipolar. And those who do not eat mushrooms. You are asking for a response from someones mind and heart, and whether they be shared hearts and minds or just one, it's what you get. If you don't like it ask not to get certain responses but then you will be left in the dark because that seems a lot to be stereotyping and that in itself is not healthy and unfair and not right.

" it isI never asked for each specific form of Dissociation to have its own forum, all i asked for is a forum for those without alters because it is extremely difficult to form bonds with those who are constantly changing personalities and alters and even more difficult to fathom out wether you are talking to an alter or whole person."

And while we are at it, I would like a forum to exclude schizophrenia because those who hear voices on the outside, I never know if they think I'm a dilusion so I don't think their responses are very accurate because they hallucinate. Spin it any way you want it is stereotyping. I get you do not think you should "encourage" the alters but this thread is to help ALL with DDs which INCLUDE DID. Alters are a part of that person and each alter has their own experience and life and it's a known fact that in therapy it DOES help when alters can come out comfortable and talk about their troubles to HELP the patient to further their recovery. Forcing them to hide or exclude them would just make them think they were unsafe and thus cause a delay in recovery.

" ok to DIDs alters are whole people but to the rest of the population they are a part of a person because there are more than just them in the body! "

Whether I be one or be fifty whomever is out when my body is mobile controls me, therefor they are me. I am a human being with rights and they should as well. No matter what alter is out, when my body is mobile it feels, it acts, it's human no matter who is out. We are human, it's just a change in the mind when it switched. Some people change their mind in a small way, we change it in a much bigger way.

I am sorry if my reply is intense and upsetting in any way I can assure you it was not my intention. I am also sorry that some things make you uncomfortable but that's the same with everyone. Constantly I am reading about SI's on this website, as someone who IS recovered from it and has been 10 years, I do get uncomfortable hearing about it but I know that they hurt. I know that they need someone or that they are trying to help. I feel uncomfortable, I'm the one feeling this way, no one can make me feel a way I do not want to feel merely by speaking, I chose to let the comfort level drop and get the best of me or I chose not to and I'm the one who chooses not to. People will make you uncomfortable for the rest of your life, it's how we are. No two people think the same which does cause conflict and such over time. It's a matter of getting bast the uncomfortable to understand that the mind that you are speaking to, feels just like you and is human just like you no matter what mind set they are in.