More Alters

My Names Mike and i haven't been here before, but i know of the others,yet apparently they haven't mentioned me, and sometimes it appears other people have been around the house/on the laptop doing thigns the rest of us don't normally do. I don't know why but i think we've some how created more alters, I being one of them. How many alters do you all have? I know of Misha, our original, Cass,Paul,Me and Ellis. I only can talk to Paul but the others i dont know about much.
...Yeah. Also, im kinda shy and i'd like some friends, so Hello.

Mike.
:shy:

Hi Mike

I have 2 alters that I know of both are littles. One is 4 the other 7. They've been with me for as long as i can remember. I'm 35. We are going through some tough medical stuff which is why I think they are out again.

Anyway nice to meet you. In time you'll be able to talk to everyone. One thing I have llearned here at PC is to take things both as they come and don't push things. Oh my littles can't type. The one that comes out the most is only 4 and knows how to get to her games and music. As far as I know the 7 year old hasn't switched with me while on the kindle yet... we have not had it very long. And the girls have only been out again for about 3 months. Have a good day!

welcome mike...I know its confusing to you why you know of the others but they may not know of you..you being able to know/share knowledge of the others but they not you is called co consciousness. everyone (the host person you live with in/share a body with, you and the other alters) each have your own amount of co consciousness Co consciousness is having the ability to know the alters are there, having the ability to hear each other, having the ability to communicate with each other.

feeling like there are more alters in the same internal system is ok, sometimes that belief turns out right and other times it turns out wrong. dont worry about it,if there are more alters then the host person knows or mentions, thats ok, it just means that level of co consciousnes between those unknown alters and the host/other alters have not been developed yet.

example when I was a child an alter named wolf was created. Wolf and I did not get to know each other until shortly before I and my alters integrated. I had no idea she existed. She was older than I was (4yrs old) when she came into being (70yrs old in animal yrs, 10 in human years) because one weekend I was lost in the woods with an abuser. I now know I needed wolf in order to survive by using the wolfs cunning/smarts/wild ways in order to survive the abuse and being lost. I never knew she was there, just one day she came out to talk with my therapist about that traumatic event. I never developed co consciousness with Wolf never knew she was there until my therapist was surprised by a visit from her, but healing was still possible, and Wolf integrated/became one with me just like the other known about alters.

Mike, are you saying that you're an alter and you have only just now been created? If so I think it is probably unlikely that you are a true DID alter. What else could be going on?

What? Why would he not be a true DID alter? Not all alters are created during childhood are they? I mean if you had another trauma such as domestic violence, isn't it possible another alter could be created because of that?

For me I have 2 alters that are littles I've had since childhood and I can feel them. I am confused....

monarch butterfly....the rule here at psych central is that we are not supposed to question the validity of a members diagnosis and in the case of this board whether or not someones alters are real or not...if you find posts that do this you can report them by clicking on the report the post icon at the left of the possibly unsupportive/ possibly offending post.

as for your question about alters creations...

there are many different types of alters that are caused by many different things..

the American belief among the mental health field in america is that DID type alters are created with in children before the age of 5 yrs old due to extreme trauma.

other countries mental health systems may believe differently. so sometimes you may find posts that state a persons therapist or psychiatrist has told them their alters were created differently than the belief system that the american psychiatric association / american mental health system believes in.

alters created because of domestic violence sure there are but these type or alters are not the same type of alters with DID. here in NY when an adult suddenly develops an alternate personality as an adult that alter is called an ego state or introject type alter depending upon whether the alter has taken the form of, mannerisms, behaviors, thought processes of the abuser or not

anyone at any point can develop/ have an alternate state of mind that is separate from how they normally are...what kind /type or alter they have depends on their mental disorder or health problem they have...(DID is not the only mental / or physical disorder where a person seems to change moods/personalities....)

some people like you have already discovered (from reading your past postings) people can even create false alters when they are under stress, being abused or what ever...

even medications can cause a person to appear to have alters..

there are many kinds of alternate personalities and many different causes. some that can be created in adults and some can only be created in children. here in america where DID is concerned its only in children under 5 and under extreme abuse.

I don't know when i was created and i don't remember much, So im not to sure i have been here as my own memory is pretty terrible. And to the person below i apologies i can't see your name, i think anyone can create new alters when needed. Im here for some reason. So i must be important some how.

Nice to meet you all.
Im only 29, and i hape we can talk more.

Sometimes alters appear when they feel safe enough to do so, and this is a good thing because gradually the other parts will learn about you. In any case I'm very pleased to meet you and I hope you will continue to write here!

Everyone is important! with time you will figure out what your job is and such.

Oh i see,thank you. And Hello thank you for clearing that up that makes a lot more sense. Thank you. Nice to meet you to.

You think? Thanks for all the replys.

Yep i do. Mike

Ok Amanda I see what you are saying. My abuse began at age 3. So my alters eere created before I was five. But what happens if a child's abuse begins at age 6 or 7 and tbey fissociate and have alters. Are their alters not from DID?

I can nor speak of whats going on with in your own internal system and whether your alters are from DID or not...only your treatment providers can say whether your alters are the type that fit the diagnostics for DID...

to find out contact your own treatment providers and go through diagnostic evaluations. after the evaluations are done your treatment providers will be able to tell you what kind of alters you have and what they are from..

I can only tell you what the mental health community here where I live and work, which is New York which is in the USA and how my own internal system of alters were like..

here in New York the belief among the mental health community is that DID /DID type alters are created in children under the age of 5 due to extreme abuse..

thats not to say someone in New York wont have alters aged above 5 yrs old. Some DID type alters evolve along with the host and others dont.

but here in New York the belief is that children who are abused for the first time over the age of 5 do not develop DID because they know other coping tools for example elementary schools teach children safety tools of what to do if someone is abusing you/ tries to abduct you and other safety tools. so the children do not have to rely on dissociation skills.

Im not saying splitting into alters after the age of 5 doesnt happen because theres always the exception to every rule no matter what the rule. each person is different. just that ....in general ......those with DID type alters, the alters can be traced back to their creation time which is usually before the age of 5. it usually takes many many years for some decades to recover that core memory that resulted in the alters creation because of whats called repressed memories..

the brain works in amazing ways where it can cover up an extremely traumatic memory with memories that are traumatic but not as traumatic as the one being covered up, buried.

thats why I am so amazed with how fast you are progressing.. you have somehow reached the level of healing that many many DID people dont reach until they have been in treatment for 10-15 yrs and using grounding and other therapeutic tools like edmr, cbt, dbt and others, .. you are just jumping on through this process so fast that Im afraid that you are learning more than your system can actually process.

I am trying to limit what I am telling you so that what I say to you doesnt make you think and create false alters based on what I am telling you.. theres more to alter creation then just being abused.

my best advice is talk to your treatment providers. they will give you all the information about how your alters fit in with DID type alters and other more in depth questions/answers then I can give you here.

I wasn't using my system as an example just a generic one. Well i learned CBT before I tpld my T about my alters but haven't tried it with them. I also have had my ow repressed memories that ive sirt of worked through. And just because i understand something cognitively like how DID works and that those 2 alters were fake doesn't mean i understand it emotionally. i am positive there are more things i don't know about my abuse and that the two alters who are real know what it is. I work hard in therapy. Emotions are ehere i have trouble and memory and catadtrophysing. Thanks for the compliment of working through DID. It may bebecause I've worked through some traumatic stuff from adulthod? But the child stuff is what I'm scared of...wotking on. But I'm going to take it one step at a time and my alters are going to help me.