[Zen888]

Can someone here describe to me what an alter is and is not?

Not sure if this will help.

Those with MPD/DID have a dominant personality that determines the individual’s behavior.

Each personality has a separate and consistent pattern of perceiving their environment, themselves and others.

Each multiple has a specific way they see the inside of their mind, where the alters live when they are not in control of the body.

Examples include stages, tunnels, houses and levels.

These are their internal houses where they go when they are not out or when they are hiding.

The mind of a multiple personality is like a roaming house in which two or more individuals co-exist. When one personality is in charge, the others remain hidden in the inner recesses of the brain.

Each acts independently of the others and is totally different from them.

Each alter within a multiple has their own history, personalities that are unique to them, body movements, facial expressions, the way they express verbal communication, voice tone and pitch.

You might encounter a small child who hides her face and speaks in a childlike voice.

Another child within the same system of personalities might be gregarious and charming.

The description above would hold true for any age alter and are just tow examples of the variance your might find within the same age group of any of the alters.

http://allpsych.com/journal/did.html

Then there are ego states which are common in Borderline Personality Disorder. These states do not take on different identities with names, different handwriting etc.

To assist the therapist in maintaining appropriate engagement with borderline patients, a psychologist at Columbia named Jeffrey Young has developed an interesting way of categorizing the ego states commonly seen in borderlines. In his experience, the borderline patient will normally present four ego states, which he calls MODES:

1. The patient normally presents for therapy in an ego state which Young calls The Vulnerable Child Mode - in this mode, the patient is compliant and seeking assistance. This is a continuation into adulthood of behavior patterns used by most children to secure caring and assistance from powerful adults. The therapist will be idealized by the patient in this mode, often leading to a breakdown in normal therapeutic boundaries if the therapist's grandiosity or guilt can be hooked by the patient. Since the borderline's need for emotional nurturance exceeds the capacity of even the most giving therapist to satisfy, the therapist who lacks good professional boundaries will often begin to experience anxiety and resentment about the patient's escalating demands. This will cause a failure of empathy on the therapist's part, leading to the emergence of

2. The Angry Child Mode - in which the therapist is harshly devalued by the patient. If the therapist reacts defensively, an even more dysfunctional ego state will emerge:

3. The Punitive Parent Mode - since the child was punished for expressing normal needs and emotions, the adult knows that she is wrong to have these needs and emotions, and deserves punishment for expressing her feelings. Because she has internalized her parents' dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors, she will begin to punish herself for having needed the therapist so much, and for having expressed her anger at the therapist for not satisfying those needs. In the punitive parent mode, the patient will derogate herself during internal dialogues, will experience herself as defective, worthless, and contemptible, and will often punish herself through self-mutilating or self-poisoning. Her attempt to regain a position of emotional equilibrium will often lead to the fourth and last of the common ego states seen in borderlines:

4. The Detached Protector Mode - in which feelings are disavowed, and the patient appears passively compliant and placid. This particular ego state is often overvalued by naive therapists whose personal insecurity leads them to prefer the appearance of calm to the turbulence of the patient's other ego states.

http://www.borderlinepersonalitytoda...orderline2.htm

[I_WMD]

cool ,, blossom . t/y.

[4Grace]

Thank you lots Orange blossom

I greatly appreciate all the info. Little by little i'm beginning to understand some differences here. Pieces of the Puzzle are still being put into place.

May God bless you,

I'll always be...
4everHIS(myLord)

4Grace