we're certainly going to look in to this..
think we have a new alter, olivia.
obviously a lot about her is not yet known, even why she is here.

but we can feel her here for sure.

and she's taken on the last name of wilson. the interesting thing about that is, not many of our alters have last names- I think only 3 now including olivia

wilson isn't even our family name.. we've not used our family name for ages
that's how much apart from our family we are

[amandalouise]

I never had any new alters. good thing too because my therapist would have told me alters dont just come into being one day as an adult. then ask me if I mean I discovered another alter that I hadnt previously known about. then she and I would have discussed how alters with DID are created in my location and culture (through extreme trauma before the age of 5)

Sometimes I wished I did have new alters being created. my therapist thought that was a bit unreasonable until I explained my logic. fixing the problems and reintegrating new alters would be so much easier and faster then the ones created before I was 5 years old. imagine for a moment that today I discover a new alter. all I need to do is think back to yesterday to discover what extreme trauma happened to me yesterday or an hour ago that made this alter suddenly come into being. take care of all the issues surrounding that trauma and the alter is no longer needed to hold those memories, emotions and all that stuff of that new trauma and bam the new alter is no longer needed and reintegrates back into being one whole person again. my therapist was speechless for a moment then said wow what insight and logic and you got that right. but seriously you dont need any more alters. you are an adult capable of handling your own life and problems now.

my suggestion is let your treatment provider know you have a new alter so that you can work on what ever recent trauma caused olivia to recently come into being.

[Fuzzybear]

I don't use my birth name - so far apart from the family too...

[elevatedsoul]

can't one lay dormant for a long time, so when it comes its not really a new one...?

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by elevatedsoul

can't one lay dormant for a long time, so when it comes its not really a new one...?

sort of. some people perceive as in feelings that their system as laying dormant, but dissociative type alters are a very special kind of alters.

example my alter red, her sense of agency was anger. as long as I did not encounter a trigger that caused the emotion of anger red did not take control. to me it may seem like the alter is laying dormant inactive when its actually me not encountering the trigger that caused me to dissociate into that alter. I also did not have co consciousness with all my alters so who's to say that when Rainy was in control nothing made her feel angry which in turn caused a switch into red. see what I mean on my side it may have seemed like an alter was domant when in actuality that alter was still on the job doing what its sense of agency is.

is this different than having a new alter in my location, yes.

I know you like to figure out the ins and outs of everything so a suggestion ...to figure out the differences and such you will need to contact your own treatment providers. they will be able to help you figure out what kind of system you have and whether you have what my location calls new alters vs perceived as dormant alters, and how that fits in with the new diagnostics and definitions of sense of agency that each alter and those they reside with in have. this kind of in depth information isnt on the internet.

[Luce]

Originally Posted by elevatedsoul

can't one lay dormant for a long time, so when it comes its not really a new one...?

Yes.
When in therapy we frequently had new ones come up. meaning... as we processed different aspects of life / memories, we began to work with the alters that were triggered up. They were always there of course. Some of them may even have been active in recent times. By 'new' we meant they were new to our awareness.
We still have a ton of 'new' ones to process. They are the ones we are still amnesiac for... the ones that still hold dissociated experiences and information for us. We don't know who they are, we have never met them before. And when we do... we will most likely say to our t, to our friend, to this board, whatever... "we had a new alter come up today."

[finding_my_way]

i understood what you meant..not new as in newly created, new as in new compared to ones you have already known about. the same happened to me this last year or so where new ones were discovered...though i have a feeling they were known about but not fully to me which is confusing because when i did become more aware of them, it was like i already knew about them.

also, alters are not 'only' created by a trauma; they can be created for any number of reasons once you already have developed DID.

i don't know what age mine started developing, i'd say between 4/5 and 10 or so. the reason i say that is because they SAY that in children, they start becoming more self aware/world/reality aware and tend to lose the imagination aspect around age 10/11 or so...but i didn't appear to (also cuz of the dissociation), so i may have been developed others even after the age of 10 or so when other difficult things came up (not necessarily traumas, though i did have some occur in my teen and early 20s).

it takes a long time for me to get to know the others since my system seems to change..though that's also meaning some are more active or more quiet...so i don't have a lot of access/communication to learn about them more.

[Blogjects]

To Olivia...

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by finding_my_way

also, alters are not 'only' created by a trauma; they can be created for any number of reasons once you already have developed DID.

i don't know what age mine started developing, i'd say between 4/5 and 10 or so. the reason i say that is because they SAY that in children, they start becoming more self aware/world/reality aware and tend to lose the imagination aspect around age 10/11 or so...but i didn't appear to (also cuz of the dissociation), so i may have been developed others even after the age of 10 or so when other difficult things came up (not necessarily traumas, though i did have some occur in my teen and early 20s).

it takes a long time for me to get to know the others since my system seems to change..though that's also meaning some are more active or more quiet...so i don't have a lot of access/communication to learn about them more.

thanks for letting us know what your location (canada) goes by and what your own system is like.

here in the USA children become self aware, aware of their world and reality as babies and toddlers. children are taught as babies this is your toes, this is my hand this is your hand, gonig to get your toes, wheres your fingers wheres my fingers and other self aware games toddlers and parents play. here children learn even before they can walk what mine and yours that over there, no, yes and many other self aware / world aware / whats real and whats pretend, dont lie, tell me the truth and other such things well before the age of 4-10. I know two year olds that can point to each state and name them, who the presidents are, and if you tell them something that isnt real the children will say no your fibbing, no your pretending. or just flat out no and laugh. my point here in the USA what treatment providers go by is different than your location (canada)

the same with what america goes by for alter creation. your location according to your post says alters are not created just through extreme trauma but here in the USA treatment providers go by documented mental health statistics / domographics that treatment providers submit to the health department and the government that state in each of their cases the alters are created in children before the age of 5 through their dissociation due to extreme trauma during their every early childhood before they have the skills to cope with those trauma's.

Im not saying a person cant have older alters. some people with DID have the kind of internal systems where their alters that were created in very early childhood have evolved\grown in order for the survival of that childs system. for example one of my alters that was created before I was 5 yrs old to handle intimacy \ sexual acts as a child had to continue to be able to handle teen age relationships and my adult relationships. in order to fulfill her sense of agency as a toddler, child, teen and adult, she had to continue to grow, age, evolve.

thats what I mean about the differences in newly created and one that has been there just havent had co consciousness with that alter until now situation. my location and culture goes by a different standard than yours does.

[Luce]

Originally Posted by finding_my_way

also, alters are not 'only' created by a trauma; they can be created for any number of reasons once you already have developed DID.

So true. Through the years we have had different alters created to deal with different aspects of life - different relationships, different roles etc.

[yagr]

Originally Posted by Luce

So true. Through the years we have had different alters created to deal with different aspects of life - different relationships, different roles etc.

I do not wish to hijack the thread but would like to talk to you about this. Perhaps off the thread somewhere? PM?

Hi Olivia!!