Hi rainbows. Sorry you are going through this I had a neighbor so called friend that was trying to practice amature therapy on me when she found out I have DID.

The result was horrible. I was scared, uncomfortable, nervious, distrusting and so on around that neighber and when I get triggered like this I end up dissociating to the point where I would be mentally floating in my la la land and my body was left on the autopilot of rerunning memory pieces.

I regained control of the situation by basically not talking to that neighbor about DID, Dissociating and any of my memory pieces and my therapy sessions and therapist. Even if all she asked was "Did you see SKR today?" I would say "Im sorry but that is no longer up for discussion you are not a therapist so it is best that I not talk about those things with you,"

After a while she stopped coming around, and on the rare occasions that we ran into each other it was normal hi how are you chit chat.

As for how to get alters to come out - The replaying of memory pieces is trigger related.

Look at what your triggers are and match them with which memory piece replays with which trigger. Then you can use those triggers to access the memory pieces that you want to know more about.

Its best to do this with a therapist until you get to know some of the memory pieces content so you don't accidentally trigger a piece of memory content that may contain a violent situation.

For example my memory piece Margo. While in that memory piece I threw a table at my therapist at that time SKR. So she did not tell me what that trigger was other than I got mad about the caseworker and my child being gone. So I know that being angry is on of the triggers for that memory piece. So I use all kinds of relaxation techniques when I start feeling angry so that the memory pieces known as Margo do not get triggered into replaying.

As for almost seeing alters I can't see mine. I was told by professionals in the field of DID that I would have to be under guided hypnosis and be asked by a hypnotherapist the question "If that memory piece was more than a memory but a person what would that memory look like?" Then I would be able to imagine what that memory would look like and see that memory as a person. Without hypnosis and the hypnotist planting that idea memory pieces can't be seen which is why I can't see mine. So I don't even try to see them.

My therapist who is a DID, Dissociative Disorders therapist also does not work with me on trying to get me to literally see my alters. remembering what those separated and unconscious memorys are is a part of what I am working on but not on trying to "See" them as in a physical flesh and blood person.

When experiencing a memory pieces that I am co conscious with I experience the memory content but not what they looked like for example in one memory piece I feel the physical pain of getting hit. In another I draw, in another I can't catch my breath and see like a flashback a shadow moving towards me and back standing in front of me performinig #r@l s&x . I don't see the alter as a person because that memory is the memory of the experience of me having to have someone in my mouth. That piece of memory was my physical body being performed on not for example the memory of me watching a friend and their abuser so I am not going to be able to see that memory piece as a person without someone planting the suggestion under hypnosis to imagime that memory to be a real person instead of a piece of memory.

But I do understand in the emotional sense what you mean. Cause sometimes I can be experiencing a memory and I can feel my face is scrunched up or my head is titled to the side. When that happens to me I go find a mirror and standing watching in the mirror I on purpose make faces and expressions, wash my face, smell soap, lotions and so on basically reconnecting with the fact that what I was experiencing was a memory and I am safe in the here and now and can stimiulate all my senses and fully reconnect with the here and now instead of experiencing the memory.