[finding_my_way]

how do you know what is your internal thought/voice versus another's? i generally know what is mine. sometimes lately though i will hear a sentence or one word, etc. out of nowhere that i do not know if it is just me or not. i also am not sure if it's just because i am more tired or not, but it's actually very confusing for me.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by finding_my_way

how do you know what is your internal thought/voice versus another's? i generally know what is mine. sometimes lately though i will hear a sentence or one word, etc. out of nowhere that i do not know if it is just me or not. i also am not sure if it's just because i am more tired or not, but it's actually very confusing for me.

point of view by that I mean when it was my own thoughts I thought it like this....

i want to go to the park.

when it was an alters thoughts it was like this...

I can hear Rainy thinking she wants to go to the park.

see the difference in the first one its the first person point of view (mine) and in the second example it is from another's point of view (Rainy's)

its a perception/reality testing remains in tact kind of thing when someone has alters they perceive the thoughts and actions being that of someone else.

the same when an alter is in control and they know that the thoughts are their own vs someone elses.

even when i was co conscious with a few of my alters I knew what was real and what wasnt meaning i knew when the thoughts were my own vs when the thoughts /voices\actions were that of the alters.

my suggestion is if this continues to bother you where you cant tell the difference talk with your treatment providers, they will be able to explain things like perceptions, points of reference, dissociative symptoms and grounding, communication with your alters, listening to your alters voices and distinguishing them from each other... all kinds of stuff that comes with being DID and being in treatment for DID, aong with how all this in you fits together with figuring out which thoughts are your own and which are those of the alters.

[Shaly78]

Are u at point where u can name identities is it very distinct and separate from the host like Amanda said. It comes later after dx. If u dont experience it like myself it might be hard for u to relate. Different example For instance, a female with a southern accent mid 20s but u as the Host grew up in the north all ur life...at that point call her Minerva if she doesnt give u a name when u, the host ask...Do each one like this?

[Shaly78]

it's not always necessarily a command. It is some one else Rainy! She may not be out of denial an know, the system is her people her alters. Name are used in individual therapy when comfortable..

Originally Posted by finding_my_way

how do you know what is your internal thought/voice versus another's? i generally know what is mine. sometimes lately though i will hear a sentence or one word, etc. out of nowhere that i do not know if it is just me or not. i also am not sure if it's just because i am more tired or not, but it's actually very confusing for me.

For me, it's the timbre, dialect, and manner of speech. When I'm up, I have my voice and they have theirs. We've gotten to recognize who has what. It's usually the way they talk when they present. It also feels different when they talk in head.

I asked a Skitzophrenic about the voices that they hear, and they told me they are external shout out command voices telling them to do something. Their voices are like different voices where the ones I have are different versions of the body's voice and are intelligent....we talk.

[finding_my_way]

Originally Posted by newday7121

Are u at point where u can name identities is it very distinct and separate from the host like Amanda said. It comes later after dx. If u dont experience it like myself it might be hard for u to relate. Different example For instance, a female with a southern accent mid 20s but u as the Host grew up in the north all ur life...at that point call her Minerva if she doesnt give u a name when u, the host ask...Do each one like this?

thing is, things have changed over the years for me. i was much more dissociative eight years ago. for several years, i was able to hear them, feel them, talk to them, etc. and knew them by name, age, gender, etc. i could figure that out based on familiar feelings even if they didn't talk.

but when my eating disorder was managed eight years ago (there were big life changes then too and the eating disorder was way after i started hearing and feeling them as i 'knew' from childhood they existed to some degree), they pretty much disappeared except for mild things over the years. but i lost the connection with them at that point...my head went totally quiet. and now, the things i have felt or heard are not the same ones i knew then. so, i am very much confused. maybe i just have fragments and some parts or something..i have no idea.

i have been with my psychiatrist for 10 years year. not formally diagnosed with DID (but i saw something in 2003 where she wrote 'probable DID' and borderline personality disorder). as it stands now, she says i'm moving away from the borderline diagnosis and more into the dissociation and OCD, etc.(whatever that means). so, i have never done in depth therapy with her to really uncover things as i have too much anxiety generally to do things too much....and i assume i'd dissociate more if i went to her more often.

[LostOne369]

I'm not even sure who my internal voice is anymore! It seems there is "me"? "fake adult" "robot" and then a bunch of noise of others.

Originally Posted by finding_my_way

how do you know what is your internal thought/voice versus another's?

I don't really hear voices at all - thats only happened like - twice, and they were 15 years apart! But I do feel what they're feeling, and know what they're thinking (sometimes) - and I do get really confused too. They (the feelings / thoughts) feel like *my* feelings, only I know I feel differently, so I don't know where they (the feelings) are coming from. I kind of accept that there are others, but its all so very surreal and I find it really hard to identify what *I* actually think.

[AngstyLady]

Originally Posted by finding_my_way

how do you know what is your internal thought/voice versus another's? i generally know what is mine. sometimes lately though i will hear a sentence or one word, etc. out of nowhere that i do not know if it is just me or not. i also am not sure if it's just because i am more tired or not, but it's actually very confusing for me.

I've had that happen to me before too! part of the reason I was checking out this forum . . very weird indeed.

Wow...I never knew. Thanks everyone for their input....this thread has been most informative....I'm beginning to see how nutty we really is. My head is noisier then we first thought...I figured that we had a light case of this...the constant interaction, cross talking, distractions, shout outs, commands, demanding, whining,....

Sometimes when the chatter gets intense...we just stare off into space...

It's like there is so many- like scanning the radio stations that we have to know instinctively who said what if it even matters.

[finding_my_way]

years ago, i always heard them or fragments of conversations. my head was always loud in some manner. sometimes it was just a kind of static when i wasn't hearing them voice wise or thought wise.

my head has been quiet for years except a few times here and there with bits and pieces..lately it has confused me. i think i can say now that i figured out when i'm not consciously thinking (like i know i am when typing this), it is not always me or just me. when a random sentence pops into my head, i don't think it's me...how could that be?