mmmm interesting question...

I never got asked this, not even in therapy. my alters didnt just announce their self and I grew up having DID whether I knew I had it or not. from the first altered creation to integration I guess I just looked / appeared, talked, walked, played....the same as I always have. by that I mean to others I was just how ever I normally was.

I was diagnosed as an adult so none of my family and friends would have seen anything abnormal. most that I told just looked at me and sad wait, are you sure? you dont appear different to me. As if I should have sprouted another head or something.

I learned at a very young age to follow the abusers code of "do not tell or else this or that would happen.." This caused my alters and I to never reveal anything that would point to the abuse, that the alters existed, that I was this alter or that one. If I broke the abusers code then bad things would happen. because of this I had an alter that would do self injury and suicidal actions if I or anyone told.

I used to worry about why I was reading how others were discovering who their alters were and their treatment providers were asking things like who am I with. but then one of my treatment providers explained to me that this is one of those situations I had to understand was normal for many with DID and why my treatment providers never asked which alter I was, who they were talking to and accepted it if any disclosed I had dissociated into being an alter during therapy. They didnt want to cause me and my system to become suicidal or self injure so they didnt ask.