For people with DID, switching is described as the process of changing from one alter or personality to another. People with DID have varying levels of awareness about their switching. Often people will experience some kind of physical symptom, like headaches, just before or after switching occurs.
Family members can usually tell when a person “switches.” The transitions can be sudden and startling. The person may go from being fearful, dependent and excessively apologetic to being angry and domineering. He or she may report not remembering something they said or did just minutes earlier.
Switching to another part can sometimes be very subtle whilst at other times it is very obvious to an observer: there can be dramatic changes in tone of voice, body posture, use of language and levels of eye contact, to name but a few obvious signs.
Some indicators that a switch may be about to occur include the following: feeling "spacey", depersonalized, or derealized; blurred vision; feeling distanced or slowed down; feeling an alter's presence; or feeling like time is beginning to jump (indicating minor episodes of time loss).
Switching between headmates is usually involuntary, and can cause a great amount of distress with the alter. Every DID system is unique. Some people with DID have more control over their switching than other people with DID. In a typical system, one alter generally takes over if the circumstances need it.
There are two ways in which we can view how we hear voices with DID. One way is through passive alter influence. Hearing voices through passive influence can sound as if we are experiencing our own thoughts and as if they are coming from our own mind, but it really is our alters influencing our thinking.
So, no, you may never know all the members of your system. However, we can still be grateful for our system's existence and protection, especially the alters we may never know.
Some of his alters have different sexualities from each other, and crushes on different people, which added several more layers of complexity to things.
Alters may provide a means of expressing anger or other feelings. Aggression towards the body may be sexually oriented, so one may ask whether aggression could make self-rape possible. If so, such expression of self-injuries may be observed in a person with multiple personality as when one alter may injure another.
The changing between different personalities is often deemed as 'switching'. This can take place within a few seconds or over a number of minutes. It may also be a gradual change over a few days. The switching is often brought about by stress or through psychological conflict such as brief memories of the trauma.
Transition from one personality to another is referred to as “switching.” This usually occurs within seconds to minutes, but can also be gradual, taking hours or days to complete. This is rarer.
When an alter is not fronting, we can still have an awareness of one another in “the inner world” which is basically where alters go when they aren't in control of the body.
This is partly due to memory loss or amnesia that blocks your awareness of other alters. Researchers have shown that children can learn to dissociate from a very young age. According to NAMI Michigan, the average age for alters to first start appearing is 5.9 years old.
You Can Have DID Even if You Don't Remember Any Trauma
A DID diagnosis can be confusing and anxiety-provoking for anyone. For some people, there is confusion about the trauma and DID connection. They may not have experienced any trauma that they know of, or at least remember.
People with DID generally have trust issues that nearly incapacitate them in relationships. It's not unusual for protective alters to attempt to sabotage intimate relationships. That's not about you. Learn as much as you can, but remember all systems are different.
Eventually, new "personalities" emerge and establish their own lifestyles in the same individual. Professional counselling is usually the main treatment for this condition. The goal is to slowly merge the different aspects of the personalities together (integration).
Fragments
These alters are ones who hold a specific emotion or memory. They usually do not hold too great of an effect on the system. Most fragments only hold part of an event. If a system has many fragments than it is likely that if all those fragments were to integrate, they would reveal the entire event.
While the host is aware of the person's body, the alters are not always aware that they share the same body as the host, which can lead to belief that suicide would have no effect on the host.
People with DID have varying levels of awareness about their switching. Often people will experience some kind of physical symptom, like headaches, just before or after switching occurs. Loosing track of time could be another indicator that a person switched.
Alters usually do not have access to memories of happenings when they are not in control of the body.
Someone with DID has multiple, distinct personalities. The various identities control a person's behavior at different times. The condition can cause memory loss, delusions or depression. DID is usually caused by past trauma.
The different identities, referred to as alters, may exhibit differences in speech, mannerisms, attitudes, thoughts and gender orientation. The alters may even present physical differences, such as allergies, right-or-left handedness or the need for eyeglass prescriptions.
But even then, DID is not faked at high rates to begin with. Malingering, or the exaggeration/feigning of conditions, of dissociative disorders are at 2 to 14%, which is comparable to the 7% to 17% of general malingering.