Various Types of Alters
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I will not attempt to categorize every possible type, but awareness of certain types of alters can significantly speed healing. Not everyone with D.I.D. has every type mentioned below, but being aware of the possibility could enable you to discover and help such an alter much quicker.
Protector Alters Protector alters shield other alters by putting on a tough front and trying to force to back down anyone they see as a threat. Tragically, they suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which causes them to often see danger where there is none. The easiest understood instance of PTSD is a soldier who upon returning from the front line to the safety of home is still on hyper-alert, unable to sleep property, diving for cover whenever a car backfires, and so on.
So protector alters are hyper-vigilant and much more suspicious than current circumstances require. The alters the protector seek to shield usually accept the protector’s assessment of danger, and even if they do not, the protector still usually tries to get them into hiding at the first perception of danger.
Unfortunately, protectors often hinder healing by assessing counsellors as threats. They can also perceive their host as a threat and so keep alters and/or information hidden from their host. A host can be perceived as a threat if he/she might blab things the protector believe should be kept secret or if the host is not cautious enough, and so on.
Even though these dear alters might initially hinder – or even sabotage – the healing process, they are not enemies. Even if their help is sometimes misguided, they are highly traumatized, self-sacrificing alters courageously trying their utmost to keep the person safe.
Do all you can to work with, rather than against, a protector. Continually strive to get the protector on-side and to allay all the protector’s concerns. Even empower the protector, giving him/her right of veto. As the protector gradually learns to trust you, much progress can be made in discovering other alters. Once on board, protectors are very valuable allies in the healing process.
Sleeper Alters You have probably heard of sleeper spies or terrorist cells that remain inactive for years until they are needed. Some people have certain alters like this. They remain inactive – sometimes for many years – until a crisis alerts them that they are needed and then they come to the fore.
They can use various means to alert them of a crisis. It might, for example, be whenever a person engages in more self-harm than usual. Another way is to be particularly close to a certain alter and be activated when that alter is particularly distressed.
Some of these alters are helper alters that support alters when things become unbearable for one of them. (By coming to the rescue they might sometimes prevent the formation of a new alter.) Other sleeper alters are protectors who are quite strong and can take the person over almost completely during a supposed crisis.
Being sleeper alters means that they are likely to have been somewhat out of the loop while the rest of the person has been healing and so they might be less in possession of all the relevant facts than some other alters. Even more confusing is that in order to exercise the authority they feel the emergency demands, they might pretend to be another well-liked or powerful alter. The result can be very confusing for the rest of the person.
So if a person suddenly starts acting out of character, a sleeper alter might be the reason.
The difficulties in helping sleeper alters are obvious when you consider that since the very nature of a sleeper alter is to remain hidden until an emergency, they appear only rarely. Moreover they see their key function as supporting/protecting the person by remaining hidden and unconnected most of the time, so even if discovered, they feel the need to return to hiding.
Obviously, it is very important to try to convince a sleeper alter that it is now safe to remain out of hiding indefinitely. Such alters usually find not returning to hiding very scary, however, and can feel that by remaining out they are being unfaithful to their role and letting the whole person down. The easiest way I have found to break this is for the alter to fall in love with his/her marriage partner.
They crave love and understanding so much that when they find it, they will be very reluctant to lose it again by going back to “sleep.” Another possibility is for other alters to give the new alter lots of love, understanding and comfort. Of course, the ultimate counsellor remains Jesus. Encourage alters to let Jesus share his heart with them. He will reassure them.
Abusive Alters Often when one takes the time to get to know an alter who is being harsh to fellow alters or hurting them or even sexually abusing them, it turns out that they actually believe they are helping. They might think, for example, that they are toughening up the alters, thus making them less vulnerable to abuse.
Or, in the hope of saving the person from even worse abuse, they might enforce an abuser’s oppressive rules about never crying, or punishing them for doing anything the abuser might object to. Often the abusive alter is unaware that the abuser no longer has access to them and so the alter continues the oppression when there is no longer the slightest need.
As always, it is important to try to understand what motivates an alter and to gently help the alter see through any misconceptions the alter has.
Introjects An introject is a rather amazing type of abuser alter. Until the misconception is exposed, an introject not only acts like an external person the survivor knew, but every alter within the survivor – including the introject alter – actually believes that this alter is not an alter but is the real external person. At first, this seems astounding but it is consistent with the wide range of different things that alters can think themselves, including animals, aliens and so on.
Often that external person is someone who abused the person who has this alter. Even though not all external abusers realize it, this type of introject alter enforces the external abuser’s wishes upon the alters when the abuser is absent. In fact, it can continue even after the abuser had died. Some introjects actually report back to the abuser as informers.
Not surprisingly, introjects have themselves suffered immensely.
It is important to bring introject alters to the point where they finally realize they are part of the abuse survivor and not part of the external abuser. Helping them discover the current date and that they are in the body of someone other than the abuser can help. Once introjects become loyal to the survivor, the person’s safety is significantly enhanced. I suggest you do not get sidetracked now but elsewhere on this website I have a detailed record of counselling an introject.
Next Part Unique Challenges in Helping Alters