Alters

Hello lovelies, my name is Luna and I am an alter and I am new to this community. I would love some support because the Host is awfully scared and quite worried about her current situation. I am not sure of how to reach out and communicate properly to the other humans so forgive me if I am not as approachable as others.

Hi Luna. What's going on? Do you and your host have a therapist or pdoc? I hope whatever is going on isn't too bad. Sending you hugs.

No we don't have anyone who knows beside a friend of hers.

It might be an idea to maybe find a therapist if that's an option. They could help the host with whatever she's facing that the rest of you are helping to protect her from.

If you don't mind I have a question... you and another within the body in which you live state your designation as an alter. Wondering how is it that you came to think of yourself as an alter?

reason I am curious about this is because each of my alters thought of their self as a person/human being with their own jobs, purposes, reasons for being. they never referred to their self as an alter, alternate personality or any other reference that designates so to speak.

Example

when Rainy was in control of the body she did not think of herself as an alter/alternate of the person she lived with in, she thought of herself as a human girl who was very sad, needing to hide and cry, cuddled blankets and toys.

When Sunny was in control of the body she lived inside she did not think of herself as an alternate of the person she lived with in. she believed herself to me a very beautiful woman who loved nature, and all that was happy and good.

this sense of self rather than sense of "being an alter" was constant through out my whole internal system of alters where each of my alters had their own way of being, their own jobs, purposes, reasons for being. in fact they got highly upset if anyone remotely suggested they were just an alter, or an extension of the host (me). even after years of therapy none of my alters designated their sense of self as an alter. they had a human body and functioned just like any other human being therefore their designated sense of self was like any other human being....they were girls, women. Even my animalistic alters did not designate their self as an alter. they were girls/women who had the traits of the animals they projected.Eagle was a girl with very keen eyesight, fast and flighty like the eagle...

so you can see why I'm curious why you and others in your system call yourselves "Alters" as your designation/sense of self.

can you communicate to the host? inside her head? or by leaving her notes?

Hello, they refer to themselves as alters because they started as voices in my head and eventually told me they wanted to "come out", not knowing what that meant, i suppressed it. I don't know how to explain it myself, I'm sorry.

~ andthealters

I don't think this is real myself, I'm quite confused as to what's going on with me

~ andthealters

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.