By McKenzie Rogers
Alters are hard-wired into Dissociative Identity Disorder, that’s how important they are to the disorder itself. In other words, you can not have DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) without at least one Alter. The word Alter is short for alternate state of consciousness or alternate state of identity. Another name for an alternative state of consciousness is a dissociative self-state. Dissociative self-states, in a way they are their own people/entities that have their own separate thoughts, experiences, opinions, etc.
Remember: DID develops when a child repeatedly goes through extremely traumatic experiences by the time they are around 8 years old. From there the brain decides to section off those traumatic memories and develop another person to hold onto those memories. The repeated trauma along with the ability to dissociate at a high level and a disorganized attachment to the child's primary caregivers by the time the child’s personality should have come together as one personality around the ages 7-9. Dissociation is basically a disconnection between your actions, thoughts, words or even sense of who you are. At a low level, that could be zoning out while you’re doing something. A disorganized attachment to one’s primary caregiver happens when a child’s parent or guardian from a very young age acts very unpredictably. The child isn’t able to use one strategy, for example crying to let the caregiver know it’s time for a bottle, to feel safe and provided for by the caregiver.
When the brain creates Alters it’s as though the brain puts up walls of amnesia between memories and the Alters themselves. Time passes and the identity, or Alter, goes on to continue to develop as their own person, separate from the host’s knowledge. The host is the person who’s brain created those Alters, also the group of Alters along with the host is called a system. A YouTube influencer who runs a channel known as DissociaDID [YouTube channel] has DID, their system’s host is Nin. A system’s Alters are able to continue to develop inside the brain by either controlling the host’s body as their own and going on with daily life (known as Fronting) or by not doing so and just staying in the headspace, or the mind. When Sally, an Alter in the DissociaDID system, fronts in the body, she will change the body’s clothes into a particular style of clothing that Nin may not prefer wearing. By the end of their development, “Alters each have their own perception of self as a unique individual or entity and do not view themselves as only an aspect of a complete person” (Alters, DID Research). Evidence in scientific studies shows that to be true: A study as recent as 2009, which is very recent for science and medicine, done by researchers Dell and O’Neil supported the existence of the different alters, headmates, fragments, self-states, non-human personality and etc other preferred names for the various separate entities inside the system, or the group of Alters in the host body’s brain.
Now, Alters, when they are fronting, can make the choice to act as the host so that the people around them do not realize the host has DID. On the other hand, they can also choose to express behavior, skills, and emotional expressiveness that is entirely unique to that Alter. For example, the host may tend to act more bubbly or friendly while one of the Alters may act more subdued or serious. Though just because the host and the various Alters may have differing personality traits, including aggression, that does not mean one or the other is likely to be any more violent than anyone else in the world. Alters tend to see themselves physically and mentally different than each other and the host themselves. Sometimes this means that one Alter identifies themselves to be a different gender, race, physical appearance, age, or sexuality than the body they are in, the host and the other Alters. This happens because Alters are just like everyone else in that they are unique in each of those ways and have grown and developed since the time that they came into existence. In the DissociaDID system, there are at least a couple of male Alters while the system’s body is female. Kyle, a male Alter, knows he physically looks entirely different than Nin or Sally or most anyone else in the system. He knows this because he can see himself in the headspace, or mind, when he isn’t fronting. Alters can also be a different species other than human. Since the brain more-or-less creates Alters starting at a young age, it does so by taking different things the child sees, hears, or touches to create the Alter. In a traumatic moment that forces the brain to believe the child is going to die, the child’s brain thinks “Oh god, if I was only stronger, faster, or just different than I am now, I could survive this”(DissociaDID, Youtube Channel). The brain then takes whatever image or knowledge it has about what is stronger or faster and bases the Alter on that image. The brain believes that the host could not continue on living with the knowledge of the traumatic event and forces up amnesia walls in between the host’s memories and the Alter’s memories. The host is left unaware of the event and the Alter holds onto it. Since the brain doesn’t allow some Alters to know about some things that have happened in the system’s life, everyone in the system grows and develops with entirely different experiences and views of various topics.
Dear Readers,
If there is any information in this article that you believe is factually incorrect or would like to discuss any of this content with me, you can contact me at southgwinnettmyriad@gmail.com. I am still learning and researching this topic.
Thank you,
McKenzie Rogers
How can i make this factual but also not seem like a research paper. Confusseeedddd.
Notes: go through and make sure there is no possession like tone between host and alters
Also go thro and make sure Alters are CAP
Use Dissociadid as comparison and weave her and her system into the article
Note: not only are they referred to as different persons but also some as a different species in general, for example there's a few alters that are non-human. Each alter has a ‘task’ assigned to them (protector, trauma holder, etc.) that also seems to play a role as to how each alter acts. There's one person with DID I listen to on social media who has a sexual protector but she (they go by female pronouns (that specific holder)) is actually very flirtatious and just radiates BBE and has strong opinions and stuff. Really interesting, there's a few people I follow and keep up with who have DID if you want me to send you their social media and stuff. And also, in the beginning when you had mentioned the age of 8 being where this mostly starts taking place, i believe i’ve read that the trauma could’ve happened before then, it's just around that time in their life the brian sections them and lets them develop into each entity. I’ll research that again to see if i’m right about it, but i’m pretty sure the development can start around that age or earlier but the trauma can take place before then. And i don't think it sounds like an overall research paper, it’s definitely a lot more casual, helping in the area to make it more of a news article.
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