i might be an exception, but i knew back in childhood...at least, i can recall dissociating as far back as five (not sure if it was earlier) and also hearing voices in my head at random times (once during a trauma-most of the rest i don't have many memories of) and at times during just daily life. at 11 or so, i remember an alter coming out and playing with a doll and being mean to it and an older one telling them if they played with it that way, they wouldn't be allowed to because it wasn't okay. of course, i didn't know what that was though.

i had a lot of different things come up in childhood related to behaviors/symptoms and progress in my early to mid teen years. the dissociation when i became aware of it was very severe with really bad depression and other things that went with it. it was terrifying and confusing. i wasn't actually aware until in my mid teens a bit more what was going on and just thought i was making it up. it felt like a revolving door and was really hazy. i had a hard time functioning and focusing and would randomly get up and walk out of class in high school and wander around or go sit somewhere and stare into space because i was so out of it. during those years, my head was also full of noise, not always voices/loud thoughts, and pressure.

it was more through my own research and putting pieces together for myself as well as having met several of the others that i was able to understand what it was. but i was not diagnosed until the last few years just because my therapist waited for me to be ready to tell her more even though she suspected it for years.

for me, the internal voices differ from each other. sometimes they can be verbal voices or loud thoughts. but they are different from each other yet consistent with their specific feelings, thoughts, wants/needs, etc. and have ages and genders connected to them usually. that is how i know who is who, for the most part. some of them have names too. when new ones come up, i try not to always think it is a new part and give it time to see if it is consistent each time they are around. if it is, then i know it is a new part. but i do struggle at times not knowing what is actually mine or theirs feeling or thought wise.

in my case though, it isn't 'technically' DID only because i don't have the same kind of time loss others do when they switch, but i have a hard time recalling things after each shift happens, which to me kind of is similar to time loss, though might be more just a time distortion, etc. but there are definitely distinct parts in my case who have taken over (even if it's a few seconds just to talk).

there are also a lot of different ways dissociation presents in my system. it is not really just one or two things that make it what it is.