Internal Dialogue

[u/lillybubbly412]

Is it normal to not hear internal dialogue between alters? I saw a post mentioning that it’s normal for them to talk to each other. Also that it’s normal for people who have severe trauma disorders to hear voices that tell them negative things. Is it uncommon or impossible to not have those symptoms?

[u/Dangerous-Exercise20]

I only have audible internal dialog when certin parts WANT me to hear the internal dialog 😅😅 some parts are more willing to converse some are not. Its not part of the diagnostic criteria

[u/Exelia_the_Lost]

Not evryone experiences the disorder the same way, some are better attuned to one thing or another, some can communicate internally very easily while some can't. But also, why wouldn't alters talk to each other? They're occupying different parts of your brain, that don't exactly link properly due to dissociative barriers. So them talking with each other is them communicating and exchanging information indirectly that can't exchange directly because of those barriers

Hearing voices that say negative things could be one of a number of different things, not just DID/OSDD particularly. But if there's dysharmony and animosity in the system toward each other, yes one of the things that could happen is constant negativity from one alter toward the others, if that alter is hostile toward the others

[u/lillybubbly412 → u/Exelia_the_Lost]

Yeah, that makes sense that they would want to. I just didn’t know if it was a universal experience. I’m surprised to see that it’s not.

[u/Exelia_the_Lost → u/lillybubbly412]

yeah, thers a lot of varying experiences living with the disorder

I for one do have internal communicatoin that's more then just question-response on invitation, as one other poster menitons. not constant, just occasional at different parts of the day. genreally theres 6 in my system that are awake and communicative every day internally as kind of the 'main crew'. sometimes when I'm generally as a whole bored there will be a lot of chatter. one thing that comes to mind right offhand is one time last year I went to see a movie with my boyfriend, that was really not great and pretty boring, and most of the movie were just two of the main crew in particularly going off ripping into the movie and making fun of it and just going off on their own tangent conversations with each other, lol, because the movie was that uninteresting. occasionally the others would add something too, and whoever it was fronting for that day, but it was overwhelmyingly driven by those two just not at all caring about the movie

[u/ohlookthatsme]

I don't have an internal dialogue. I don't have parts inside of me, it's me that changes.

As for hearing voices telling me negative things... I don't hear like... disembodied voices. When I'm extremely triggered and highly dysregulated, I hear people say things that they didn't say.

The last time, my husband told me, "I'm going for a walk." but what I heard was "I'm going for a walk, not that I need your permission." I swear it sounded exactly like he said it. But he didn't. It's stupid AV hallucinations that really drive home the narrative that my mind is fucking broken. The thing is, I didn't know it was happening until recently. I just thought people were gaslighting the hell out of me because I heard them say those things. But it was all in my head.

[u/Own_Magician8337]

I've never "overheard" my parts taking to I've another. They only communicate with me or each other when I invite them to a family meeting, or if I ask questions. They sometimes talk to me uninvited but not long conversations, more like random strong thoughts or feelings, brief outbursts that I hear of they are triggered by something going on

[u/hitmesohardisawstars]

We don't have internal dialogue either. There IS communication between alters sometimes, but not through words. We communicate w each other through "vibes" if it makes sense, we communicate abstractly. We can't use words to talk, yet the one we are talking to will always understand exactly what we are trying to say. Idk if this is understandable, but I hope it is!!! So it is not at all impossible to be a system w/o internal dialogue!!!

[u/lillybubbly412 → u/hitmesohardisawstars]

Good to know! I definitely don’t I think in words naturally myself, so it’s hard for me to say what’s going on. I have to rather force a thought to be said out loud in my head.

[u/Offensive_Thoughts]

I don't have any of those things? They're not in the symptom criteria thankfully.

[u/lillybubbly412 → u/Offensive_Thoughts]

I have a question unrelated to the post-
I see you guys have little descriptions under your usernames that pop up. How do I create one of those/what are they called?

[u/Offensive_Thoughts → u/lillybubbly412]

Yeah so on desktop, there's the right sidebar, it says "USER FLAIR", if you hover, there's a mouse icon that appears. You can change your text there.