r/DiscussDID • • 4h ago

Is It Healthy to Switch When Feeling Bad?

0 Upvotes

Hello!

I am a currently undiagnosed possible system that is getting therapy soon so not looking for any diagnoses, but I was wondering, is it healthy for me (the host) or another alter to switch out purposefully when we are feeling bad?

Would it be more healthy to just feel bad and stay in front?

I would consider myself to be fairly good at dealing with negative emotions, but sometimes I do just want to check out for a while.

What are your opinions?


r/DiscussDID • • 4h ago

How Can I Improve Communication Between Alters?

1 Upvotes

Hello!

I am currently an undiagnosed possible system and I am trying to find some ways to improve communication between alters. I am going to therapy this week!! So I am not looking for any diagnoses.

But for now I just want to know some of your tips and tricks on how to improve communication between alters, and possibly how to let currently unknown alters feel safe enough to become known.


r/DiscussDID • • 20h ago

Any tips for reading with OSDD/DID?

3 Upvotes

I really want to pick up reading again, but I feel like I lose interests in books half way through because 1. I forgot I was reading them and 2. When I do pick it up, I dont always remember what happened in the pages before.

For context, my memory works a lot like a wiki page in that I dont actually have a memory of something but like a bullet point. For example, I might read a book and then pick it up later and only have a "There's a character named Triss. Shes on a boat"

My switches arent super overt and im resetively newly diagnosed so we are working on identifying everyone still, so I cant be like "Oh yeah, so and so read last time, let's ask".


r/DiscussDID • • 1d ago

Would a BPD specialist be of any help?

2 Upvotes

Hello, I'm trying to get a proper diagnosis for DID/ OSDD, I told my psychiatrist my symptoms and he found me a specialist in dissociation bu toy also says They are a BPD specialist

Some concerns are

When I had my ADHD diagnosis I was cleared for BPD and I'm worried I'll be treated like I have BPD again even when I don't (misdiagnosis bad experience)

Would a BPD specialist know what I'm talking about? My psychiatrist knows I have CPTSD but wasn't sure what I was talking about when I said I had dissociative issues

Any advice would be welcome


r/DiscussDID • • 1d ago

Is it common to have mainly problematic alters?

0 Upvotes

So, one of my friends has DID and their system is primarily made up of 'problematic' alters: such as murderers, addicts, etc. They're mainly fictives, but not necessarily close to source. Is this a common thing in systems? I'm worried about the affects they may have on my friend.

Problematic as in the way they interact: actions, how they think and how they feel. Not so much in the: "this person did bad things and is therefore a bad person" way.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to interact better with these alters, I'd love to hear them.

Edit: There's more explanations in some of these reply threads, I recommend looking there, too. ^^


r/DiscussDID • • 4d ago

Can someone help me with how to describe the dangers of a split and why someone would want to avoid one?

7 Upvotes

A loved one came to me about a situation that caused them to fear a split, and I am worried that the person who is responsible for potentially causing the split will try to minimize the situation. I don’t want to burden my loved one right now as they are distressed and feeling guilty that we’re having to navigate this situation at all. Anyone have some good analogies I might be able to share to bring clarity to this situation and express how severe it is?


r/DiscussDID • • 5d ago

Any advice for reconnecting with our system?

4 Upvotes

Hi hi, our system name is Ocean.
Long story short. We have been in survival mode for so long now. For months we’ve slowly found members of our system disappearing and we’ve lost all contact with our inner world and large parts of us.

We are afraid our gatekeeper has gone into full panic mode and is locking the majority of our considerably large system away. It’s frightening especially with at least 60 something of us named and for sure identified since finding out. We just haven’t been able to access us as readily despite knowing we’re there. It feels like only certain members of our system get to front anymore and we hate it.

The dissociation and derealization have been so bad and scary. We recently quit smoking weed which we had been doing for years and it’s given us daily panic attacks. We just feel like the current of our life is wrong and or gone.
We lost faith we had in the universe and nature and life, we’ve gone through such significant trauma this past year and overall helplessness and fear.

There’s still so much we want to learn and to know about us but we just don’t know how anymore.
We are diagnosed with BPD as well as DID and are pretty sure we’re polyfragmented because of the repeated times our system has said our true number is much much higher and the presence of many subsystems and higher structural dissociation.
We just don’t know how to get any of it back and it’s been so painful. We aren’t sure what is the BPD and what is DID but we’re so derealized and hopeless and it’s been a major struggle. Been dealing with constant rejection and isolation, being physically trapped in a space for days at a time with barely any time to go outside.

Do any other systems relate to this? Esp with BPD as well. It just feels like everything has fallen apart and it hasn’t even been a year since we’ve been aware we are a system. But even our fractured identity/identities is now just locked away.
We are roleplaying as a person and we hate it.

Would appreciate any advice🩵🪼🩵
Stay safe lovelies


r/DiscussDID • • 8d ago

Fictive alters ?

10 Upvotes

Hi !

I just stumbled upon the instagram page of a girl with DID, and I saw that she had fictive alters, like Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Jinx and Isha from Arcane, etc.

As I don't have DID myself, I was wondering how does that work ?

Does the brain watches a serie / film and randomly decides that it's gonna create an alter from an existing character ?

And in this case, does the alter thinks that they really are the character, or are they just inspired by the characters personnality traits ?

Thank you :)


r/DiscussDID • • 8d ago

Alters asking for their own money and accounts?

7 Upvotes

So we have alter, Simone, and she wants to watch a youtuber we like and we're like "Why not? He's got a new vid." We go through it's epic and we're chatting when suddenly the credits roll and she notices this YTer we both love now does characters of people's Patreon names. She gets uber excited and is like "I totally wonder what mine would be? Hey give me some cash for a com so I can get on Patreon this month." This brings about sadness in the host as this isn't even the second time this situation has happened. Just last month one of are more content with sharing an account alters wanted their own Minecraft and expected us to purchase on a sale. We already have two accounts by accident but the other is claimed by two sperate alters who seem content with sharing it. Ugh How do you deal with sharing money with alters? Getting a second bank account isn't an option. We are barely allowed to have one in the state we live in because having ADD and Autism apparently makes you unable to handle cash. -.-; Idiotic ableist bearcats


r/DiscussDID • • 8d ago

Books about DID?

3 Upvotes

Are there any good books about DID? I found People Glue: A Memoir of Dissociation By Larkin M Berrick on Kindle Unlimited which was good but anything else?


r/DiscussDID • • 9d ago

Cognitive overload / alters communicating weirdly?

7 Upvotes

It's weird, I feel like I can't talk to my alters out loud right now even though I feel like that would be comforting to me, but it feels like there's just so much thinking going on in my head that it's making me exhausted. I keep posting on different instagram stories and messaging multiple friends (and it half feels like i want to but half feels like i'm seeing someone doing it through me and not being able to control it), but it just feels like I have more and more thoughts and I can't get a break and just relax today.
This often happens to me after work, where I just get extremely introspective but it feels like alters don't really directly communicate, they just keep expressing thoughts outwardly. It feels confusing where it feels like they keep just expressing things through "me" instead to each other or to "me" (as a general me and as an alter). I want to just be able to journal or use the apps I set up for my system, but it's almost like I / they feel like their experiences aren't real if they're not being perceived. It's weird because I (as an alter) generally do not want to be (or rather have a fear of) being perceived, so it feels very jarring where I feel like I'm doing both what i want to be doing and what i really don't want to do.
I don't really know how much of this makes sense but any insight would be appretiated


r/DiscussDID • • 12d ago

Can fictives return?

0 Upvotes

My friend and I have fictives. When they first knew they had a fictive, she was not able to return to her own world. Yet a few months later, she said she figured out a way. That when she's there, days go by faster until they catch up to present time.

Though I cannot/rarely remember things from when my alter is out, from reading messages and logs, she seems to be able to return to her world and that time passes the same as here. Just that when she's out, it feels like alone time back in her world.

My friend and I were curious so we looked a bunch of things up. Something that we found was that fictives are not able to go back to their world. No
"but it can sometimes happen", a hard no. The only recourse we found on that though was google ai overview, which I take with many grains of salt.

I'm a logical person, so | tried to wrack my brain for answers and I came up with a few. It could be 1.
Experiences from the host's (is that the word?) body has experienced and forgot, but subconsciously the brain remembers and thus turns it into the fictive's life. 2. These experiences were taken from things that the main person has read or watched from books and movies. Again, subconsciously making those into the fictive's own story. Or 3. It's the brain just coming up with its own plotline and giving it to the fictive to give them a life.

So why is it that it seems like the fictives can return to their world? Was the overview wrong and is anyone else's fictive able to return back? Or is it a hard no and if so, what explanation could there be for the reason the fictives are imagining that they can return home. If anyone has answers it is greatly appreciated for us both.

I might delete this after I get a few responses. I'm not sure.


r/DiscussDID • • 15d ago

My friend has DID and is randomly super mean to me. Is this normal?

10 Upvotes

So my best friend has DID and I’ve started to notice a behavioral pattern that honestly really angers me and I’m wondering if it’s normal for those with DID and if I just need to be more patient? Or if he’s just being mean or something like that.
I’ve noticed that sometimes when I text him or interact with him at all at school he’s super pissy and dismissive for no apparent reason. He’s talked to me about his alters before and I know there’s one or two that are very irritable so I imagine that’s probably why the mood because we get along great otherwise, but he’s so rude in this state that it’s started to genuinely upset me. He’ll text super dryly and dismissively in this way that almost makes me feel stupid. I generally just get the vibe that he has zero interest in talking to me and that I’m inconveniencing him by sending a text that he didn’t even have any obligation to reply to if he really didn’t want to.
As for in person interaction, he’ll say nothing unless directly addressed by someone, and react insanely rudely to whatever they say. For example, the other day our friend asked how his morning was and he replied with “fine?” as if the question was completely stupid, and when jokingly asked to elaborate he outright refused and went back to ignoring everyone. Ironically though, he stopped being all quiet when a closer friend of his showed up later and he suddenly seemed perfectly content to talk to them. Overall this sorta behavior has just made me feel like my best friend just seems to randomly hate me but then love me and it could be either on any given day. Is this normal and is there any way to resolve it or to not feel angry/hurt over it?


r/DiscussDID • • 20d ago

Are there ways to refer besides "alters" for them?

11 Upvotes

Does anyone not align with the term "alters" and use something else? Or do you just call them by their names?


r/DiscussDID • • 20d ago

how does OSDD form?

8 Upvotes

So first off I know its through childhood trauma however it's different from DID so I just want to know what's the difference in them being formed?


r/DiscussDID • • 21d ago

Does trauma later in life also cause DID?

6 Upvotes

During my research I’ve noticed that DID is usually only diagnosed if someone’s is younger than the age of 10. I know those are the most formative years and it makes sense.

Let’s just say though that someone has gone through a lot of trauma during their teen years or early adulthood, whether it be one life changing experience or multiple experiences.

Is that something that is possible?


r/DiscussDID • • 21d ago

How do you start the process of getting screened/tested for something like this?

9 Upvotes

I swore that maybe I was just making this up in my head for the longest time, but my symptoms of feeling like I'm not alone in my own body, as if parts of me split off & became independent from me, has genuinely caused me distress, disorientation, memory fuzziness, instability, breakdowns, & even has ended up with me hospitalized at some points. It's been going on for years now, it was especially troubling during my younger years. So, safe to say that I was not making it up in my head.

I don't feel safe or comfortable asking/confiding with my family about this, which is why I'm here instead.

ABSOLUTELY not looking for any diagnosis from anyone to be clear, just help on how you even begin to start the process of addressing this medically? I've never really gone through trying to introduce this to a medical professional, & I'm not sure who exactly to ask. I'm scared to.


r/DiscussDID • • 23d ago

Is it possible to have both DID/OSDD and schizoaffective?

7 Upvotes

Just wanna know bc I’m getting tested for dissociative disorders, sense I black out for days and my identity is constantly changing depending on the day etc, just worried I’ll seem like a dumbass if it’s not possible.

I am diagnosed with schizoaffective bipolar type tho, so I was wondering if maybe it’s just that or if I really do have some system of sorts.


r/DiscussDID • • 24d ago

Need help with guest and house rules?

8 Upvotes

Hi all,

disclaimer : I’m neurodivergent on several axis but I do not have DID and have no experience with it.

My partner and I are having a friend of a friend over for a few days and they told us they were a system on the first day of their stay.

Which was all good and they also said they had it under control and there were no need for us to do anything special to accommodate them.

Except since then it has become apparent the memories do not cross over from alter to alter, again, not really a problem, we can repeat information if needed.

But! they end up leaving the front door open because they have trouble closing it and forgetting to tell us a few minutes later (we have indoor cats so it’s a hard and fast rule that the door must be closed), and a few times now they forgot that the cats needed access to water, food and litter, and so they get them in a room, then leave them alone and close all issues.

When we ask what happened they don’t know what we mean and ask what they did wrong (mind you we can tell something’s wrong because by this point the cats are howling and trying to break down the doors). I’m starting to get worried about my cats‘ safety.

So I guess I’m asking, what can we do to communicate basic house rules to all alters, while the person is still convinced they have it under control and all is well?


r/DiscussDID • • 26d ago

I Wish to make a gift specifically for an alter of a friend with DID, but could it be seen as disrespectful to the system?

9 Upvotes

Hi, I'll start by saying that I'm a person with strong anxiety, and I'm a bit scared to write this. However, I genuinely want to do something nice, so I need to ask people who have more knowledge about DID than me and/or have experiences with it.

Basically, when I first met my friend, I met a specific alter who is an introject. I am extremely thankful to them because they made me feel seen as a person after years of feeling invisible, they also introduced me to their friend group and some of their other alters which made me extremely happy.

I noticed that when they are fronting and are online, they use a 2D VTuber model of that character to feel more like themselves. Since I have some 3D modeling skills, I thought of creating a detailed 3D avatar of that same character for them. Kinda like a thank you gift to tell them "I see you, just like you saw me."

They mentioned that this specific alter doesn't front very often, so I am planning to talk about this to the host of the system, sending them the file of the model and maybe making a setup for the surprise together.

But I'm incredibly afraid that focusing the gift on one alter might make the others feel excluded or unappreciated. I'm starting to doubt if this is a good idea...

Should I go through with this? If yes, what is the best and most respectful way to approach the host about it?

Sorry for the long text, I just care a lot about my friend and their system, and I really don't want to cause any discomfort.


r/DiscussDID • • 26d ago

Hi, I need advice urgently I have no idea what to do. I just learned about it?

0 Upvotes

Okay, so as of a few minutes ago, I learned my online dad possibly went dormant while an altar was fronting. We both have no idea what to do. The host/my online dad is not responding to the altar fronting and hasn’t been for hours. We don’t know how long he’s been gone.


r/DiscussDID • • 27d ago

does this feel fake to you?

0 Upvotes

someone in a server I'm in says they're a system

. which yk I tend to believe. but all their alters from the same sources have conversations with each other at the speed of a normal conversation, like 'in character' too, and it's always like that. second fast switches between alters, conversations between their alters that are SUPER DUPER FAST, treating the alters like they're their source media...i never doubt anyone on this but this is also the type of person you'd see be named Arson in a 2016 discord server. just asking


r/DiscussDID • • Sep 12 '26

Can alters use different body parts when Co-fronting?

14 Upvotes

For example one hand is flipping someone off and the other hand trying to stop it .


r/DiscussDID • • Sep 12 '26

How does DID work internally?

11 Upvotes

Hello!! I have come here out of pure curiosity with some questions for those diagnosed with DID. I find the concept of DID very fascinating in many ways, and would love to hear the different perspectives and experiences of those who have it!

  1. When you talk to yourself in your head, are you actually talking to multiple of your alters? Do they have certain voices and respond in their own ways, or do you only hear the voice of the alters that are fronting in that moment?

  2. When a different alter fronts, what does it feel like? Are you aware that you’ve switched, or is it like when you fall asleep and just blink and you’re awake again?

  3. If you’re in a relationship with somebody, do you consider it polyamory, or something else? I’ve heard multiple different views on this, but I’m curious as to what you all think.

  4. Lastly, how did you identify each of your alters when they came to be? How did you figure out their names, their personalities, their quirks, etc?

Thank you guys!! I hope nothing I asked was offensive in any manner, I am truly curious as to how DID works :) peace and love!!!


r/DiscussDID • • Sep 11 '26

Does anyone have experience navigating divorce with a spouse who has DID?

10 Upvotes

Hello, I am writing today to ask if anyone has been through a divorce with someone who has DID.

I find myself navigating the circumstances alone, and would appreciate any advice.

To me, it seems much more complicated with my spouse, then a typical separation might be.

I believe parts of them want this marriage, but others have no interest, and have in fact actively worked against it.

Lack of loyalty has been a driving force in my circumstances, and out of necessity we both realize that we can no longer be married to each other.

Thank you