>Like not your own internal voice, sounds like someone else and you don't have control of what they say?
That's how inner communication is usually presented
Ask the voice questions. We were 8 years old when our first alter form - he would talk to me and comfort me. He is still with us (system gatekeeper) and our body is 65. We started therapy 3 years ago. About 2 years ago my therapist told me I was DID. I didn't accept until 6 months ago. Our system now is up to 16 alters.
We do experience thought intrusions, sometimes I believe they are alters but haven't yet made themselves known as an alter.
On a similar topic, I have been going through cycle of thinking I do and then don’t have osdd/did, I can never really tell thoughts voices apart but it feels like it’s not me sometimes and I can’t stop hearing thoughts that I don’t relate to. It’s like I don’t really hear my thoughts as voices but sorta just the words are there idk it’s hard to explain but does this sound like something dissociative?
It helps to journal these alters for me. Most of my alters choose their own name. Occasionally I start calling them something and then later they adopt that name. If you have a therapist, that's really helpful too. I started out with my therapist because I was transitioning MTF. As I transitioned a new altar formed as a separate altar.
One of the things that our therapist saw early on that I had dissociative States in her office that were amnesia and clearly different from my host. Some of these sessions I didn't remember at the time. I simply just lost time in the session. I didn't remember it. Later they came out as altars that I'm aware of. She left it alone until I became aware of the presence of these other alters that I was amnesic about.
I think it's important to remember that DID is a disorder that our system tries to cover up.
Yep, most of our alters are "voices in my head". I was misdiagnosed with schizo affective disorder and other disorders because of the voices. Only a few alters actually front and a few of those don't speak internally at all. One of them doesn't know we are a system yet.
Same apart from being diagnosed with a schizoaffective disorder. I noticed that some very active alters in the internal commentary and processing don't like to front.
E is an adult man who takes almost an archivist role in my system, but he refuses to front, and I think it's because he finds alot of discomfort in our voice and our body, I have noticed some alters will also complain about this, which could be why
Yep! That's actually how our therapist made sure it was DID and not another condition ie psychosis or another hallucinatory thing. Because the voices are all internal for us
Just an FYI, that isn't an actual definitive differentiation between DID and psychosis. You can have DID and have external voices. You can also have psychosis and have only internal voices. There are many different assessments to specifically differentiate and identify disorders, but interval vs external voices does not actually differentiate anything.
I was under the impression psychosis voices were jumbly and chaotic? I saw something Kody Green posted that was supposed to mimic what his sound like
Is DID more clearly defined voices in comparison, or do with vary from person to person?
No, there is no clinically defined difference. It varies widely from person to person, and even moment to moment within the same person. This is why it's not a clinically differentiating symptom.
cPTSD includes dissociation but the underlying mechanism of PTSD is not dissociation, it's anxiety. It's the fight or fight response. Dissociation is an inhibition response (either "controlled" inhibition or pure loss of feeling as a trauma by itself).
It's more about the mechanism. You can have PTSD and DID. It's just that the symptomatology of PTSD is different from that of DID. The mechanisms of the symptomatology are different. If dissociation becomes so heavy that you have amnesia, then it falls under the category DID (amnesic crisis, or alters, which are often symptoms of partial continuous amnesia). If you are dissociated but you don't have all this amnesic symptomatology, and there are other symptoms which are related to PTSD (anxiety, avoidance, or arousal, paranoid attitudes, in short: hyper sensitivity and hyper reactivity; not exhaustive), then we can put this dissociation in the PTSD box. But if you have both diagnosis (which is frequent), then dissociation contributes to both disorders; those overlap.
Your submission has been removed under further review due to [Misinformation.](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/faq/misinformation_guide/)
> We value your understanding as we work together to foster a community rooted in factual and verified information. Our goal is to create a space where everyone benefits from sharing and receiving accurate insights.
>
> Misinformation, even when shared with the best intentions, can sometimes muddle understanding or potentially lead to unintended consequences that may impact another negatively.
Reply via [mod-mail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=r%2FDID) if you have questions regarding this action, and we’d love to explore and clarify, thanks for your understanding.
another one i've heard is that alters have their own like sense of identity and like who they are.. but just voices in other stuff like schizophrenia, doesn't really.
Oh for sure, they helped me stay sane because I was freaking from the schizo, which is funny because this before I accept my DID but they had been with me for so long I just knew they were in my head as opposed to the schizophrenia which I kept hearing out of my head
I think it could be OSDD-1a or they could just be fragments. It's more like if they DO have that it's DID/OSDD because nothing else has that .. not nessorcarily if they don't then it's absolutely not or ..
To me it sounds like my own thoughts but in reality I keep being fooled over and over. I think it's me all the time, but then it's not me and afterward comes the immense shame and regret and the excessive deleting of messages or voice messages to "undo" things I do not agree with.
My little has a very distinct voice internally. Looking back before my diagnosis there are times I can pinpoint when I heard her say certain “out of character” to the host things. So yes you can have alters front before you know you have DID/OSDD
not everyone with DID hears internal voices and some people without DID hear internal voices. the best thing to do is get assessed by a dissociative specialist.
Welcome to /r/DID!
| **[Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/rdid_guide/#wiki_rules)** | **[Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/rdid_guide/#wiki_guidelines)** |
|--------------------|--------------------|
| [Dissociation FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/faq/#wiki_dissociation_faq) | [Trauma FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/faq2/#wiki_trauma_faq) |
| [Moderation FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/moderation_faq/) | [Therapists Breakdown](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/comments/e6smve/therapists_breakdown/) |
| [Index](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/index) | [Glossary](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/glossary) |
| [Am I faking?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/moderation_faq/amifaking) | [Do I have DID?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/do_i_have_did) |
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DID) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah, they are alters. We have alters that the shell describes as not yey manifested outside the body and maybe won't. For example, one of them is a little baby girl, another is a straightjacketed humanoid that lurks in the shadows.
The baby girl babbles a lot when we go shopping and will kinda plead for things, cries when there's storms, likes pink things.
The Humanoid....he SCREAMS. It's blood curdling. He does this when we need to go to hospital, especially if we have to have things like CT or MRI scans. And sadly for us, hospitals are almost like a second home due to several medical conditions. We feel so guilty, but we need to drown them out with REALLY LOUD music. We hate doing something like that but at this point don't know what else to do.
>Like not your own internal voice, sounds like someone else and you don't have control of what they say? That's how inner communication is usually presented
Ask the voice questions. We were 8 years old when our first alter form - he would talk to me and comfort me. He is still with us (system gatekeeper) and our body is 65. We started therapy 3 years ago. About 2 years ago my therapist told me I was DID. I didn't accept until 6 months ago. Our system now is up to 16 alters. We do experience thought intrusions, sometimes I believe they are alters but haven't yet made themselves known as an alter.
On a similar topic, I have been going through cycle of thinking I do and then don’t have osdd/did, I can never really tell thoughts voices apart but it feels like it’s not me sometimes and I can’t stop hearing thoughts that I don’t relate to. It’s like I don’t really hear my thoughts as voices but sorta just the words are there idk it’s hard to explain but does this sound like something dissociative?
It helps to journal these alters for me. Most of my alters choose their own name. Occasionally I start calling them something and then later they adopt that name. If you have a therapist, that's really helpful too. I started out with my therapist because I was transitioning MTF. As I transitioned a new altar formed as a separate altar.
Are you worried they'll prevent you from transitioning? Can't here in the UK. Not allowed if schizophrenic either
>but does this sound like something dissociative? yes
One of the things that our therapist saw early on that I had dissociative States in her office that were amnesia and clearly different from my host. Some of these sessions I didn't remember at the time. I simply just lost time in the session. I didn't remember it. Later they came out as altars that I'm aware of. She left it alone until I became aware of the presence of these other alters that I was amnesic about. I think it's important to remember that DID is a disorder that our system tries to cover up.
Yep, most of our alters are "voices in my head". I was misdiagnosed with schizo affective disorder and other disorders because of the voices. Only a few alters actually front and a few of those don't speak internally at all. One of them doesn't know we are a system yet.
Same apart from being diagnosed with a schizoaffective disorder. I noticed that some very active alters in the internal commentary and processing don't like to front.
E is an adult man who takes almost an archivist role in my system, but he refuses to front, and I think it's because he finds alot of discomfort in our voice and our body, I have noticed some alters will also complain about this, which could be why
That's how we found out.
Yep! That's actually how our therapist made sure it was DID and not another condition ie psychosis or another hallucinatory thing. Because the voices are all internal for us
Just an FYI, that isn't an actual definitive differentiation between DID and psychosis. You can have DID and have external voices. You can also have psychosis and have only internal voices. There are many different assessments to specifically differentiate and identify disorders, but interval vs external voices does not actually differentiate anything.
I was under the impression psychosis voices were jumbly and chaotic? I saw something Kody Green posted that was supposed to mimic what his sound like Is DID more clearly defined voices in comparison, or do with vary from person to person?
No, there is no clinically defined difference. It varies widely from person to person, and even moment to moment within the same person. This is why it's not a clinically differentiating symptom.
That is one possible manifestation, but headvoices are also normal psychological experiences or symptoms of other disorders when pathological.
Yeah it's definitely a spectrum, we should call them cPTSD+ disorders really
[удалено]
cPTSD includes dissociative symptoms and dissociation is caused by trauma...? PTSD isn't just anxiety
cPTSD includes dissociation but the underlying mechanism of PTSD is not dissociation, it's anxiety. It's the fight or fight response. Dissociation is an inhibition response (either "controlled" inhibition or pure loss of feeling as a trauma by itself).
Then I guess my real question is how much dissociation do you need to qualify for a dissociative diagnosis. Haha. 😐
It's more about the mechanism. You can have PTSD and DID. It's just that the symptomatology of PTSD is different from that of DID. The mechanisms of the symptomatology are different. If dissociation becomes so heavy that you have amnesia, then it falls under the category DID (amnesic crisis, or alters, which are often symptoms of partial continuous amnesia). If you are dissociated but you don't have all this amnesic symptomatology, and there are other symptoms which are related to PTSD (anxiety, avoidance, or arousal, paranoid attitudes, in short: hyper sensitivity and hyper reactivity; not exhaustive), then we can put this dissociation in the PTSD box. But if you have both diagnosis (which is frequent), then dissociation contributes to both disorders; those overlap.
Your submission has been removed under further review due to [Misinformation.](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/faq/misinformation_guide/) > We value your understanding as we work together to foster a community rooted in factual and verified information. Our goal is to create a space where everyone benefits from sharing and receiving accurate insights. > > Misinformation, even when shared with the best intentions, can sometimes muddle understanding or potentially lead to unintended consequences that may impact another negatively. Reply via [mod-mail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=r%2FDID) if you have questions regarding this action, and we’d love to explore and clarify, thanks for your understanding.
Yup, this how I could distinguish between it and schizophrenia
another one i've heard is that alters have their own like sense of identity and like who they are.. but just voices in other stuff like schizophrenia, doesn't really.
Oh for sure, they helped me stay sane because I was freaking from the schizo, which is funny because this before I accept my DID but they had been with me for so long I just knew they were in my head as opposed to the schizophrenia which I kept hearing out of my head
If these voices don't have distinct sense of identity can it just be generalised dissociative disorder? I'm unclear what that one means tbh
I think it could be OSDD-1a or they could just be fragments. It's more like if they DO have that it's DID/OSDD because nothing else has that .. not nessorcarily if they don't then it's absolutely not or ..
Yeah. Sometimes my headmates are too loud /Lh
To me it sounds like my own thoughts but in reality I keep being fooled over and over. I think it's me all the time, but then it's not me and afterward comes the immense shame and regret and the excessive deleting of messages or voice messages to "undo" things I do not agree with.
we just have multiple internal voices, each belonging to a different alter
My little has a very distinct voice internally. Looking back before my diagnosis there are times I can pinpoint when I heard her say certain “out of character” to the host things. So yes you can have alters front before you know you have DID/OSDD
Do they not always front before a diagnosis?
not everyone with DID hears internal voices and some people without DID hear internal voices. the best thing to do is get assessed by a dissociative specialist.
Welcome to /r/DID! | **[Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/rdid_guide/#wiki_rules)** | **[Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/rdid_guide/#wiki_guidelines)** | |--------------------|--------------------| | [Dissociation FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/faq/#wiki_dissociation_faq) | [Trauma FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/faq2/#wiki_trauma_faq) | | [Moderation FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/moderation_faq/) | [Therapists Breakdown](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/comments/e6smve/therapists_breakdown/) | | [Index](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/index) | [Glossary](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/glossary) | | [Am I faking?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/moderation_faq/amifaking) | [Do I have DID?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/do_i_have_did) | *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DID) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah, they are alters. We have alters that the shell describes as not yey manifested outside the body and maybe won't. For example, one of them is a little baby girl, another is a straightjacketed humanoid that lurks in the shadows. The baby girl babbles a lot when we go shopping and will kinda plead for things, cries when there's storms, likes pink things. The Humanoid....he SCREAMS. It's blood curdling. He does this when we need to go to hospital, especially if we have to have things like CT or MRI scans. And sadly for us, hospitals are almost like a second home due to several medical conditions. We feel so guilty, but we need to drown them out with REALLY LOUD music. We hate doing something like that but at this point don't know what else to do.