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DID Is it possible to "kill" an alter?

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Deleted member 28403

So, here is the situation. A person with DID that I know was very recently anally raped. She has a couple personalities, one of them sort of got her into the troubling situation.

But after the event, the alter completely dissapeared, not seen since. I mean, a few days, but it used to be main. So, can alters be killed?

Any opinions?
 
@Lucycat
Maybe a bit of arguments on that? I mean, example, experience and similar?
 
I prefer to use the word 'part' rather than alter - in the CPTSD forum there's some stuff about structural dissociation that reflects the way I like to think about these things.

Parts can't be killed, they are patterns of thoughts and feelings that are part of the person's mental structure - lots of things can happen, but killing isn't one of them. Alters can be killed - they are a social/imagined wrapper around a part that can be used to make the part comprehensible. Parts can go into hiding, and being blamed for a disaster is a classic reason for a part to hide. It'll be back - the trappings might change (the way that it presents, the name it uses, whatever), but it's still there.
 
It depends on the person...I would not have thought so, not permanently...but alters dying in an irrevocable sense can happen.

I think it's far more likely this poor alter's hiding out blaming herself. Being foolish isn't an excuse for what the rapist did.
 
@BlueOrange
The thing is, I don't remember what happens when one of those is in charge... So I just call it alter, because it's not me... I mean, I guess I'm the most boring alter, I get to study and stuff :P Others are sort of more extreme
 
And there's good reasons to use the word 'alter' - for one thing, "apparently normal part" and "emotional part" are very technical and obscure terms. For me, I started to find the whole deal a lot simpler when I read "The Fractured Self" and adopted the terminology they used. And do it's hard for me to use the more common terminology now. I think the more common terms are confusing a lot of the time.
 
I think I agree that Alters can't be killed. For whatever reason, your brain has created a range of versions of yourself that are designed to cope with situations that seem threatening. But the threat doesn't have to be logical (it can simply be from a seemingly benign trigger - I have an aggressive alter that comes out when I walk on particular coloured carpet), and the way that Alter behaves and 'copes' is very often problematic.

I've definitely found that I can reduce the problems that certain Alters create if I can reach out to that part of myself & work with it (easier said than done) to essentially re-teach that part of my mind about safety and acceptable behaviour. As much as I loathe some of my Alters, they are all parts of who I am, and even though they can be destructive and difficult to understand, they have been created (by you) to protect you. They'll keep doing their job the only way they know how until you can teach them how to work as part of the team. The question for me isn't "can I kill it?", but rather, "why did my brain think that creating that Alter was necessary, and how do I get it to grow up and play ball with the rest of us"?

I don't think I've met anyone with DID who likes all of their Alters. But they're part of you, they each bring their own strengths to protect you, and in their own messy way, protecting you is actually the only reason they exist.

If it were me, now I knew that Alter existed, I'd hunt it down, try and get to know it, and work on helping in cooperate with the rest of the team. I don't think you get to drop players from your team in DID, so we're stuck with trying to communicate, appreciate each other's efforts, and with some work, show them a better way to function.
 
I don't think I've met anyone with DID who likes all of their Alters. But they're part of you, they each bring their own strengths to protect you, and in their own messy way, protecting you is actually the only reason they exist.

This. I mean, that whole reply in general, but this especially. It wouldn't be DID if everybody was getting along. But learning to get along is the best thing that we can do.
 
Not sure it helps you, but I know some alters, or whatever people want to call them, show up at certain times. I've been in life threatening situations. Alter - co-conscious takes over I'm calm. When I die I want that one in control so I will dye peacefully.

Told this is positive side of DID, that in catastrophe I am the calm collected one compared to most.
 
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