Table of Contents
What questions should I ask my alters?
To help you map your system ask yourself, the host, the following questions about each alter:
- What percentage of time does [alter] come out and occupy the host?
- Who is [alter] closest too?
- Who is [alter] most distant from?
- Who is [alter] aware of?
- Who does [alter] spend the most time with?
What is an alter in dissociative identity disorder?
“Alters” are the person’s alternate personalities. Some people with DID have up to 100 alters. Alters tend to be very different from one another. The identities might have different genders, ethnicities, interests and ways of interacting with their environments.
How do you identify alters?
Characteristics of Alters
- different ages, for instance much younger or older;
- a different gender to the physical body;
- different names, or no name;
- different roles or functions, either related to daily life or to trauma;
- different attitudes, and preferences, e.g, in food, or dress.
How can you improve communication between alters?
It is important that each alter learn to trust The Mediator, in order that it can function properly. When they learn to trust it, they may choose to ignore it, but at least they have access to the facts. This will be a helpful way to increase communication between alters within dissociative identity disorder.
How do you communicate with other alters?
But there are dialoguing techniques that can help.
- Write Letters to Alter Personalities. This is perhaps the most oft recommended way of dialoguing within the dissociative identity disorder system.
- Dialogue with Alter Personalities Through Art.
- Dialoguing with Alter Personalities Gets Easier.
What is the difference between dissociative identity disorder and alter identities?
Alter identities may vary in gender, age, roles and attitudes. A person with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), or a similar form of Other Specified Dissociative Disorder (previously called Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, or DDNOS-1) has a fragmented personality.
How common is it for people to not know they have alters?
It is so common that it might even be the norm for people not to know they have alters until they are middle-aged or even in their seventies. This makes perfect sense, since the main reason for Dissociative Identity Disorder is to keep secrets from oneself.
Why is it important to assess each alter?
This will allow you to track how each alter is evolving. Your goal as the host is to encourage the growth of each person. To do so, it is important to properly assess each alter so that you can support each one in the way that best works for them.
What is dissociative identity disorder (MPD)?
Alters in Dissociative Identity Disorder (MPD) and DDNOS. <<. Dissociative identity disorder was previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), sometimes incorrectly called “split personality”, it is characterized by the presence of more than one sense of identity within a single human body.