Thanks. your answer has me thinking of another question... have you or your host, have a therapist or psychiatrist....

reason I ask is that here in america in general /every day type definition (not medical or mental definition) the term alters means to change course, change direction, sew/repair a piece of clothing, and the term alternate in general definition means to change one athelete for another in a sport activity, change direction, children dont hear the term alter in terms of mental health in their daily life, thats usually something therapist or doctor or psychiatrist would say.

children learn to call their self things from the grown ups in their life. so in order for your system to designate their self as alters rather then as boys or girls ...

example a parent may tell a child you are a boy, you are a girl and that child will naturally designate their self as being a boy or girl. a teacher may tell the student you are so smart and the child will smile and designate their self as being smart. a therapist/ psychiatrist may say you are just an alternate personality so that person begins to designate their self as being just an alternate personality, a therapist/psychiatrist may say you have alters or you are an alter and that person may designate their insiders as alters/alternate personalities...

not too long ago the standard treatment for DID was to make the person who is diagnosed with DID understand that those inside were "just alters" not human beings.

my point is (making a guess here not a diagnosis) maybe somewhere along the way the host/and alters saw a psychiatrist who diagnosed the voices/ others inside as they are just alters (which years ago was the standard way of addressing having MPD which is now called DID) but now the standard in america mental health is to call alters by their names not their designation of what they are. example my insiders mental health designation was that they were alternate personalities but my treatment providers called them by their names.

if you have a therapist or psychiatrist that person can help you to find the support and such that your posts say you dont have or dont know how to reach out to get. many mental health agencies have things like therapy, support groups, therapy groups, and other people with DID who may want to meet with others to talk face to face.....

here on psych central the only support we can give each other is read the posts, let each other know we are listening by reading, giving each other computerized hugs and thanking them and also telling each other if we have the same problems they have posted about...

my point online support is extremely limited, bottom line there isnt really much we can do if the poster needs more than hey read my post, do you have the same problems I do, or I just need to unload about this.... kinds of things. for other types of support you will need to contact a treatment provider /your therapist or psychiatrist who can give you the real world support that online can not give you.