Dictionary

I'm brand new to all of this and I'm having a little trouble understanding some of the terminology. What, for example, is a little?

What is the accepted term for the main personality and for the alter egos?

Is there anything else a newbie should know?

littles = small children alters
main personalitiy = host ( ussually)
alter egos = alters
Welcome to PC!!

This may help you http://astraeasweb.net/plural/glossary.html
That whole page (Astraeas web) is dedicated to DID!

Welcome to PC.... there are a lot of diffrent things that are usally thought of for DID..

Littles: Small children "Alters" Who cary usally pain or inocense but sometimes other things to.

Host: The one who is out the most

Core: the origenal

If you have any questions feel free to ask

here where I am a little is an alter that is young or small. I had an alter that was 20 yrs old but functionality was that equal to 3 yr old. I had an alter that was 4 yrs old and functionality of a 4 yr old. both these alters were called "little" and "insiders" by my therapist.

here the host is not considered a personality by the mental health community. they call the person who originally owned the body before any splitting happened the "host" or the "Core"

the mental health community where I am located consider the main personality to be the alter that is functioning and in control of the body a majority of the time over any of the other alters.

there are many different countries and geographic locations and many different states on this website so you will be hearing the same things being called many different things. there is no right or wrong. just use what ever terms your own mental health community and treatment team use in relation to your own healing and problems.

don't worry we may all use different terms for the same things but you will catch on very quickly and it will make sense to you the more you come here to read.

I don't mean to take over the thread but you brought up a question I have....
Is it possible to have never had a core?
What if no one ever "owned" the body or splitting occured at such a young age, no core was formed?

there are a lot of different beliefs about conception, when a fetus becomes a baby. all that Jane Roe VS wade delema. but here the mental health community believes splitting does not happen until after the child has been born and then abused in some way. they believe here that the day you are born you are a whole person who has not yet split into alters. that person born to the body is the core/host.

so my answer based on the mental health belief system here is everyone has a core because they have been born and are here in this world.

some people have been so abused that for a long time it is the alters that take care of things but eventually through therapeutic means eventually the core/host is found. in some cases like me the alters merge with the core/host to become whole again, in other cases the alters dont merge with the core.

my splitting into alters did not happen to the extent of me the host/core never being aware/out/functioning. my alters took over taking care of the things that triggered me and so that I would have no memory of the abuse. this allowed me to go on living as if no abuse happened.

other belief systems may believe differently and may be being taught differently in training for their career in mental health. I am only speaking in terms of what is believed and taught here about this.

Thank you Amandalouise

I wonder that to... But I guess it all has to start somewhere... But with someone. I guess that would be the one that was first there. Although if a child was able to learn the art of dissoceation at an early age then it would really really hard to tell.

I think that there is always a "core" but also it might never be found and that is ok.

~Firefly

All very interesting. Thanks for helping us out with the basics

My core stayed locked in a closet with the windows locked and the door closed. She did not come out until my mother passed away. It was safer then. We work as one and I am aware and she is aware adn we are integrating. The others, I only see flashes from time to time when things are really bad, but we are working on that too. One has already left. We did not need her kind here, not anymore. We can now voice our anger in healthy ways, so she had to go. She was a trouble maker, in-your-face confrontational and kept things out fo control when she was mad. She vanished before my very eyes when I stood up to her, like a puff of smoke in a breeze. Just vapors now.

Wow that's so brave. Although we don't know what it'd be like to have negative alters, we all help each other in some way, so I guess we're lucky.

Tiger Lady was protective, but she did not "allow" weakness. Kind of like a Drill Seargent. She would not allow the little ones to get their needs met. They were afraid of her.
I became their protector ( I never knew they were there....no one showed themselves). We no longer needed her militant attitude. Now the little ones can play, cry, tremble in terror adn I can comfort them when need be....
NOW we are more at peace...

To be honest we've never agreed with or fancied the termonolgy of this; we simply know it/use it to explain our condition to others.

(Webber)Erik

We hate a lot of the terminology. We have our own words for a lot of things that we like better. We try to use the accepted terminology when talking here though, so people understand us. We get to use our own terms at home though, that's really special to us.