As someone with a system, I can tell you you're incorrect on a few points here. First, the host of the system is not the "real" or "original", with most of the current accepted literature implying that there likely was never an "original" to break in the first place as that may not be how personality forms. What the host title is defines who is the most frequently fronting alter, there can be multiple hosts covering the duties of conducting daily life. We have had 3 for most of our life. This also means that those who are considered hosts can change.
All people in a system are alters including the host, there is no alters in a system that is technically unable to integrate with another alter. I, the host of my system, actually integrated with one of my co-host's not long ago, so now we have two hosts instead of 3.
The most common goal of therapy for those with DID nowadays is called functional multiplicity. That is having a stable life being lived as a system. Often this involves processing trauma memories, improving communication between alters and reducing dissociative amnesia/blackouts but has no pressure to integrate.
This manga is looking pretty good so far though I'm always anxious reading the updates waiting for the usual awful and harmful stereotypes of systems. I hope it doesn't go there.
Oh also for anyone reading this, that doctor triggering out the other alter without permission thing, never do that, it's disgusting and a massive violation of consent. If you don't know why, think of it like someone knocking you out and doing whatever they want with you and when you come to you have no idea what's happened. With systems like these characters they have a lot of blackout memory so it's basically like that but you could wake up anywhere with no idea how you got there or whether you're in danger. ^.^
Hi! I'm really interested about DID and I don't often meet people who have alters/DID but their are things that I would really, really like to know. If it's okay, can i ask you a few question about your experiences? I hope this won't offend you, but if it did, I would like to apologize in advance.
Absolutely! Go for it! We have OSDD-1b (DID but missing one thing, for us we don't get blackouts) but anything I can't answer I will relay to my flatmate who are a DID system.
If we're not comfortable answering a question then we'll just say that. Ask away!
I'd rather more information be out there than less! Especially where a lot can be misconstrued like from a manga or movies for example :D
Thank you so much! Then I think it would be best to list my question XD
1. Since you don't experience blackouts, does that mean the other alters experience what the current host feels, hear and such despite them not being the one active at that moment?
2. Can you or the other alters read what's in their/your mind? And can you talk with them internally?
3. How often does a switch happen? Can you actually call them out or do you need to have a trigger?
Things might get too personal after this but please just skip them if you don't wish to answer hehe
4. Was there a situation where you or the other alters liked someone? And how did the other alters react to it? Do they also feel something similar towards that person or none? (I decided to ask this because of the manga hahaha)
5. What do you see DID as? I understood DID as a result of an extreme traumatic experience and somehow a coping mechanism of the original persona/personality, however it could be different for others.
6. How are you and and the other alters? Please send my regards to them! (●'◡'●)ﾉ
I feel like I'm having an informal interview with someone hahaha but really thank you so much for your courtesy!
1. Mostly no. However that can depend on how close to front they are. Alters of most system types have a certain amount they can withdraw into the brain's subconscious. The Rings System has a great post on their insta about levels of awareness variation. https://www.instagram.com/p/CDb8OB-JMp7/?igshid=nivj6llsme5c
It works basically the same for my system as described in the post!
2. We can't! We can communicate internally through something called an inner world. Essentially our brain has created a visualisable space that is permanently running that the system can be in when they're not 'in the body' so to speak. The only one who can't go into the inner world is me, but that's because I'm stuck front, more on that in a bit. Talking to each other is like talking to someone in real life, however sometimes depending on how strong my connection is with a particular alter we can sometimes send emotion and images along with words to communicate more detail.
3. So, switches for my system are sorta odd, however I have heard that our experience is quite common with OSDD-1B systems. I, the host, am fully stuck front, I can't separate myself from front even if I'm exhausted and would like to. It is likely that is why we don't get blackouts, I think I must hold sort of, a common memory, like most of the daily things info for others to be able to access when they come front. I experience fronting as if I am there, but none of my thoughts are my own, I often feel like I behave out of character and have little to no influence on what I want to do, I am an observer in my own body. What's actually happening however is that someone comes to front and we co-front, totally blended. Normally this is from some type of trigger, not necessarily only negatives, my Co-host and social protector, Amelie, loves going out drinking with friends and is very nearly an extrovert, I am very introverted and easily overstimulated by sound, so when it comes to going out with people for dinner or drinks, I feel suddenly my energy surge, my thoughts become this powerful confident women who can command a room with her presence, and we behave as such for the night, because its not me doing anything, it's her fronting.
I never knew that this was happening before (likely also intended to stay covert for self preservation), I just thought it was like when people talking about how they have their 'home self' and their 'work self' until I realised that...one's 'home self' or 'party self' shouldn't come with different gender identities, different sexualities, different tastes in food, cravings for food I dislike at all other times etc. Now that we know about it there are some times that I can sorta turn and yell back internally to ask for help and if they can help me they will. Passive influence is also a thing, they don't need to be fully front to influence me to do things or they just tell me when they want something, it's like someone walking into your room to look over your shoulder at something you're doing and making a comment or critique then wandering away again. I've had some hilarious times where 'I' (someone, Amelie especially) will just throw in a hardcore flirt mid conversation and then just sit there going "what? Who the fu...?" XD
4. That's a tough one! I met my partner in high school, they're only my second partner ever (though we hope for more, polyamory yo) and we've been together for 7 years now. We only found out about the system last year or so and it's taken some effort to figure out my personal preferences to the others. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that I actually didn't fall in love with our partner first! Amelie did! She is very much the romantic drive for us and because of how we share front we (at least the two of us) have to agree on the people we date. With those who have DID like my friend its a bit different, and at that point it would very much system dependent. It sorta becomes about communication (isn't everything?) and finding the right relationships with each alter in the system. If a child alter comes out you're not going to treat them like you would the alter who you are in a romantic relationship with, because they're not an adult playing at being childlike, they are literally like a child. So that relationship might be cool uncle, might be best friend. Some alters might not even like you. It's also up to the system, most systems like alters to be respected as individuals, that sort of lack of communication would mean if you were in a relationship with one and slept with another, that could actually be cheating! In the case of the manga, our single minded boy really needs to sit down and hash out what sorts of relationships he wants and what the others want to. That could take time too because you should never force out another alter without permission just to talk to who you want to.
5. To us it is a coping mechanism for survival from whatever our brain decided was traumatic, whether extreme to other people or not. A lot of what we seem to have in terms of trauma is actually what many others would find upsetting but just shrug off.
The common accepted theory right now, is that with a number of prerequisite aspects, including say, unstable attachments to caregivers and as such being unable to soothe as a child, the brain is more likely to register upsetting things as trauma, which it then may lock behind amnesia so the child can go on with day to day life without the burden of those memories. A lack of blackouts doesn't mean we don't have amnesia, especially of trauma memories. Also a part of the theory is that it is posited that children may not actually have singular intergrated personalities yet. They are sets of needs and experiences that grow more complex and interrelated and around the ages of 6-9ish, that that may be around the time the personality is intergrated into one whole. However, if you consider that many of those skills to survive are boxed in by trauma memories, for example, study, awful things that happened at school may get wrapped in with all the experiences of school along with your 'school self' you developed along the way. When the brain tries to integrate into one, it realises it can't without the the trauma interfering with daily life, so to prevent that it doesn't integrate that part of self. And as you grow up you may find you go to school then get home and find you didn't remember the whole school day, but your homework is done so it's okay! Your friends tell you you're totally different at home to school and you brush it off with a 'everyone has their home self and school self' -shrugs- And there they are, growing up still, forming new memories you have no access to and developing as a totally separate person in the same body!
That doesn't mean alters can only form in childhood however! Alters can form any time, normally to fulfil a need that is currently unmet or sadly sometimes to just hold trauma memories.
We once via therapy found a very young alter and made them a comfort space in the inner world they could enjoy whenever they needed, this is called a resource room. This young alter insisted on what it should look like, the upstairs lounge of the very first house we lived in, I tried to mix it with my own idea of comfort, but they pushed and defined it very specifically. Sun streaming through a large window out to a deck, the sun is clearly at a winter angle. I had no idea why that specifically. I told my mother and she told me that within the first 6 months of our life, our first winter was spent with her in that upstairs lounge in a nice warm basket. There was no way I'd have ever remembered that, but apparently those memories existed and they're with another alter! That's some of the nicer things that alters can hold separately to myself.
6. We are well! Thanks for asking! :D I hope you are well too?
Sorry for the truly massive reply haha
Thanks for the info! A lot of what I learned from DID was also from other systems, as I don't have a system myself. It's nice to constantly be up and educated on it! I've heard different systems refer to the host or "original" or core in different ways, so that was my understanding according to them, though I know not every system defines it the same ways ^^
Thanks for adding onto the thread! I hope lots of people are becoming informed through this story.
Wow. I really learned a lot from this. This is exactly the kind of way that I wish to learn (an interview or something), especially if it's about DID. I was able to clear out the confusion I had after reading you answer. I'm really thankful that you gave me the chance to know about you guys! And it seems like you have a harmonious relationship with the other alters and that's really awesome. And the story about your younger alter was beautiful, they were able to access a wonderful memory that was probably stored at the deepest part of our mind. This helped me a lot, thank you, so, so much! (And I'm doing really well too! Please stay safe especially with Covid still going around.)
From what modern research there is (keep in mind, there is still very little understood about DID in science and psychology), the host (or the core as many people in the DID community refer to what you may call the ‘real’ person which by the way, please try not to call them that) cannot integrate into an alter. So whether Kazuha is an alter who is trying to integrate Rei (the real host) as some of you are theorizing, this isn’t possible as far as science as we know it goes.
On that note, the personality who fronts the most also isn’t necessarily the host of the system; it varies from system to system and how they want to work together (or perhaps, not work together like Rei and Kazuha).
Lastly I see that quite a few people are frustrated that perhaps the author didn’t seem to do a lot of research on DID before writing this, but I think it seems very intentional in not revealing everything about it all at once, letting us learn bit by bit through Kou alongside Yuuma. I think it’s a cool manga where we get to learn some things and it has a lot of potential, just my opinion at least.