These alters either adapt into the fictional character or become the character to help serve a purpose in the system.
In our system, we have both Poison Ivy and JD (from “Heathers”). These are alters based on fictional characters.These are any alters that are based off of works of fiction that somebody in the system really enjoys.
That is not always the case and sometimes they can be helped with therapy. These alters usually try to keep the victim loyal to their abusers, blaming instead the victim. These types of alters are usually the form of the child who was tricked into believing they are evil. They come about by the host blaming the abuse on a supernatural being or the abuser using it as a reason to hurt the child. That is a very important distinction because improper treatment can be very lethal to a person with this condition. The person with these kind of alters are not possessed. A child who has a near-death experience may develop a “dead alter” to contain the experience.ĭemonic alters are not actual supernatural beings, they just are in the mind. She died during a very traumatic abuse episode in the host’s life. We have Nikki who is a dead, she presents as a ghost alter. They usually feel like one of the memories are where they died. This usually refers to alters who hide away from the rest of the system. The reason for us to have her is to remember times from childhood when there was not abuse. She is Native American and the host when they were with their grandmother. They can be a version of the host as a child, the child that was wanted, or just a trauma-free version of the host. They commonly speak and act like children. Unlike biological children, they can usually understand very complex concepts. There can be many littles or children within a single system. These alters are very common in many DID systems. Their memories consist mostly of emotions and bodily sensations. They can stay the same age and even grow up at times. They should be treated like any other alter and can eventually adapt to having the human body. This can also happen because the host was compared to an animal during the traumatic events they experienced. As well as explaining, I will also give examples that relate to the host’s alters.Ĭhildren often develop animal alters due to either being treated as an animal would be or they consider animals to be friends. An alter’s role can be very important because it can be a huge part of why they are there. I (Louane) decided to do this because when I state what my role is people are oftentimes confused. In this article, we will be going over the basic roles of every type of alter in dissociative identity disorder (DID).