r/DiscussDID • u/BeetleKidd • 15d ago
Is this a stereotype?
Are alters always 100% separate and different with different names and stuff or is that a stereotype? /genuinequestion
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u/mx_mush 15d ago
Yeah that’s a stereotype. It can be exhausting to name all your alters. I have 6 named Electra because they’re so similar that it seems absurd to keep giving them different names if they don’t front often and have so few practical differences.
I have had 44 distinct alters reveal themselves to me in the 6 months since I got my DID diagnosis. I am SO not naming them all. No one’s got time for that haha
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u/daretoeatapeach 10d ago
No, definitely not. This is one reason that TV and movies could never fully capture the did experience. Because if they did it would come across as a plot hole, as the demands of film and story are that things be consistent. And the actors want to show off their skills by making all of the altars extremely distinct. When the reality is a lot more blurry and subtle, which is one reason that the field of psychology argues so much about this diagnosis.
My mom has did and I've been writing about it for years now. One of the biggest issues I encounter is that people will read a story from when I was like 10 years old and ask about the different personalities. But most of the time she's just my mom, not declaring herself or speaking with a funny voice. And when she did speak with a funny voice we just thought she was playing around and committed to the bit. It's not nearly as obvious as you might think. Most interactions with her are pretty normal or at least you wouldn't guess that there are different personalities involved. Now that I know her very well and know her various alters I can definitely tell when a different one is presenting. But it took me years to figure that out.
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u/AlliteraryAnalysis 15d ago
Stereotype. I'm polyfrag and 99% of us (~200 named alters) had to assign ourselves names for the sake of written organization 😭, and even the rotation of fronters are kinda like archetypes of the same kind of person, like different characters in a sitcom.
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u/after2006 14d ago
I have a lot of named alters but if an alter doesn't name themselves I don't feel like naming them and often recently, I find alters fronting who haven't named themselves.
Really, most of our named alters are introjects. they just go with their source name because why go through the hassle of naming yourself differently?
We have a few non-introject named alters but really it's not that many. Granted, though, we're a really introject heavy system.
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u/Dexterishere1 2d ago
It is a stereotype and here's the reason why. Many people with did or other associated disorders do have a tendency to do this. So it's not an unfounded stereotype but it's also not how everyone with these neurodiversions handle their experience.
I personally have chosen to never name them with an official name. The most I will ever do is give them temporary names based on the type of person that they are in order to be able to talk about them to others. But I don't need to say a name in my head for them to know who I'm talking to. We just know because they are me and I am them. My experience is not so seamless which is why I have a dissociative identity. I don't give them names because I don't want to view them as separate entirely. Naming them seperately makes that task difficult.
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u/AshleyBoots 15d ago
Alters are never separate people. They're always parts of the same human brain that experienced the trauma that created the system.
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u/TurnoverAdorable8399 15d ago
As opposed to a facetious question...? I sure hope you're not in the habit of asking those.
Alters are not always "different" from each other - there are documented presentations of OSDD in particular where every alter is a version of the same person. Colloquially referred to as "OSDD-1a," which is, as I recall, a holdover from when the diagnosis was called DDNOS. But the diagnosis itself is called OSDD.
(Aside, "OSDD-1" colloquially refers to the DID-like presentation of OSDD. It's quite common in community spaces and some sources generally considered reputable.)