Basic Terms

DID

Known fully as Dissociative Identity Disorder. Previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). Defined as a disorder associated with overwhelming childhood trauma experiences. Diagnosis requires the existence of two or more distinct personality states, amnesia in regards to everyday life, personal information, or traumatic events, and distress or issues caused by these symptoms in any area of life.

OSDD1a

Known fully as Otherwise Specified Dissociative Disorder type 1a. Previously known as Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (DDNOS). Like DID, except lacking one of the main diagnostic symptoms. These systems do not experience extremely distinct personality states, instead having parts that all identify as the same base individual at different times or adapted for different environments. They still have amnesia between parts and distress or issues caused by their symptoms.

OSDD1b

Known fully as Otherwise Specified Dissociative Disorder type 1b. Previously known as Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (DDNOS). Like DID, except lacking one of the main diagnostic symptoms. These systems do not experience clinically significant amounts of amnesia, more commonly having emotional amnesia. They can have black-outs, but it does not severely impact their lives. They still have distinct personality states and distress or issues caused by their symptoms.

System

Commonly used as another term for somebody with DID or OSDD1a/b. Refers to all of the alters within one body.

Subsystem

Systems within systems. May present as alters sharing one internal body. May present as separate internal groups that may or may not have difficulty communicating with the rest of the system.

Splitting

The act of a new alter coming into being. This happens when a child or a pre-existing alter is too distressed by new information or experiences, so a new part is formed to deal with these ideas or memories. Splitting is always caused by extreme stress, but what is determined to be extreme is on an individual level, as some systems split more easily than others.

Fronting

An alter being completely present and in control of the body. The front can also be split up between multiple alters if necessary, which is referred to as co-fronting.

Switching

An alter taking control of the body. Can be forced, consensual, or triggered by an outside source. Often causes dissociation and external symptoms, such as headache or muscle spasms.

Blending

Also commonly referred to as blurring. When two or more parts seem to merge together or overlap due to dissociation or switching.

Co-conscious

When an alter is aware of outside events at the time of them happening, but is not actively fronting. May or may not be giving passive influence to the fronters.

Passive influence

When an alter who is not fronting's traits or abilities are temporarily influencing the alter that is fronting. May take the form of gaining or losing abilities.

Black-out

Complete unawareness of the events that have occured while another alter was fronting. Often accompanied by extreme time loss.

Gray-out

Partial amnesia of the events that have occured while another alter was fronting. Usually results in knowing the basic timeline of events, but not the details or emotional aspects of what has happened.

Inner world

Also commonly referred to as internal worlds or headspaces . A place that alters retreat to when not fronting, and when there they are often able to see themselves and other alters as separate individuals. Inner worlds vary wildly between systems, and are formed based on the needs of each individual system. As such, not all systems have innerworlds as not all systems need them.

Pseudo memories

Also commonly referred to as false memories or exo-memories. Somewhat of a misnomer, as most pseudomemories are still based off of actual traumatic events, and are present as a way for the mind to process the traumatic feelings without actually acknowledging the true event or accessing the memories. These may also exist to fill in gaps in memory, such as when time is lost between fronters. Often alters have pseudomemories of another life (either based on an actual person, a fitional character, or completely generated by the brain [quite often hiding actual memories within them]) which to the alter feels as real as any other memory and can be mistaken for delusions depending on the awareness of the alter to the system and the source of their memories.

Dissociation

A break in how the mind processes and handles information. Can cause a disconnect from one's surroundings, thoughts, or feelings. Often will impact your sense of identity and time.

Deperson alization

A type of dissociation. Commonly shown as feeling unreal or detached from one's own body or self.

Derealization

A type of dissociation. Commonly shown as feeling unreal or detached from one's surroundings.

Alter Terms

Alter

Also commonly referred to as parts, especially in clinical spaces. Dissociated states of consciousness found in DID and OSDD1. More often than not can take full control of the body and view themselves as separate individuals rather than different aspects of one person. May or may not have different identifications than the body, e.g. gender, age, or species.

Fragment

Undifferentiated or undeveloped alters that are flat or one-dimensional in thought processes, actions, or purpose. May exist to carry out a specific function or hold a single memory or part of a memory. These parts can develop over time into more elaborate alters over time and with experience.

Introject

Also commonly referred to as fictives (fictional introjects), and factives (factual introjects). Alters who are based off of outside sources, both fictional and factual. May or may not impact the way they act or think. More of a modifier label than a functional label.

Non-human alters

Alters that see themselves as animals, fantasy creatures, dead or undead creatures, or nonliving objects. May or may not be able to still communicate effectively. More of a modifier label than a functional label.

Child part

Also commonly referred to as littles. Parts that are mentally and functionally frozen in a childlike mental state. These parts often hold trauma or are clinging to the idea of living out an ideal childhood. May or may not be more mentally capable or mature than real children. May age with the body or at specific dates, or may age sporadically when integration or trauma processing occurs. More of a modifier label than a functional label.

Teen part

Also commonly referred to as middles. Might have served as an internal authority figure of sorts when the body was younger, in lieu of an external one. Also may have acted as more mature than most children to avoid danger. May be mentally and functionally frozen in a stereotypical teenage mental state. If so, these parts often hold trauma or are clinging to the idea of living out an ideal teenage life. More of a modifier label than a functional label.

Adult part

Also commonly referred to as bigs. Might have served as an internal parental figure of sorts when the body was younger, in lieu of an external one. Also may have acted as more mature than most children to avoid danger. May be mentally and functionally frozen in a stereotypical adult-like mental state. If so, these parts often hold trauma or are dissociated from typical immature ways of acting in order to avoid danger. More of a modifier label than a functional label.

Age-sliding part

Refers to alters that present with multiple ages, switch between several set ages, or slide within an age range. May or may not be a subsystem presenting as a single alter. More of a modifier label than a functional label.

Ageless parts

An alter who either does not identify with a set age or feels as if they are too ancient for the human perception of time to apply to them. May or may not be a non-human alter. May or may not still identify with a broad age category. More of a modifier label than a functional label.

Host

Alter who is most frequently fronting. Handles daily life and the stressors that come with it.

Co-host

Alter who is frequently fronting, either as much or almost as much as the host. Could also refer to any alters that "take over" by default when the host goes dormant or becomes inactive for any reason.

Gatekeeper

An alter that controls fronting, memory access, or innerworld access.

Internal Self Helper

Also commonly referred to as an ISH, manager, or observer. More aware about the system, alters, and/or memories than other alters. May or may not be a gatekeeper, or work closely alongside gatekeepers.

Protector

Alters who protect the system from harm. Can be specifically split to deal with physical, verbal, emotional, or sexual abuse, or can be a generalized protector.

Avenger

Also commonly referred to as aggressive protectors. A subset of protector specifically split to be more assertive towards abusers. Often mistakenly called persecutors.

Caretaker

A subset of protector focused primarily on taking care of other alters or the body.

Persecutor

Alters who purposefully harm the body or system, through either their own actions or enabling the actions of abusers. They typically do this either because of a misguided idea of what protection should be like, or because of internalized feelings through abuse. May or may not be an introject of an abuser.

Memory holder

Also commonly referred to as trauma holders. Holds either traumatic or positive memories away from the rest of the system, either to keep them safe or to preserve the purity of specific memories.

Integration

A process in the healing of trauma for dissociative disorders. Refers to all work made on overcoming dissociative mental processes through therapy. Acceptance of events having happened to oneself instead of other parts, and becoming aware that all alters are parts of a whole.

Fusion

Two or more alters coming together as one, with complete mental cohesion in every sense of self-identity and memory.

Dormant

When an alter goes dormant it's comparable to a coma. The alter won't be able to interact with the front or the innerworld. Dormancy can be caused by a bunch of reasons and lasts a different time for each circumstance. Most commonly dormancy lasts up to years but also can be as short as a few days (although at that point it is hard to distinguish between dormancy and just inactivity.) Most of the time other alters won't be able to see or find the dormant alter and it can look like they disapeared.

About System in a Box

System Dynamics

Our system works pretty different from most systems. After a lot of therapy and work we have more awareness of our system and the workings of it. Our system has undergone quite a few fusions. Currently our host, Kai, is a fusion between our old host Soriel and Kai. They use any pronouns, enjoy fronting, and generally don't leave the front. They are still working on seeing headspace, and have their own bubble in headspace with, Nova, Doriel, Fen (who moves between the bubble and main headspace often), and a handful of alters that prefer to stay annonymous.The bubble is named The System Oustide the Box, as they act as their own subsystem that is separate from the others. Lucien is a fusion of System Log (our old gatekeeper) and Stone (our old host). Lucien is basically our day to day manager, dealing with keeping us on schedule mostly. Lucien has a deep connection to how the system works and insight into alters that are presently forming or hidden from others. Within the system though we have a few other "essential" alters that keep us organized. Interface, Emergency Backup, and SATA. These three parts are very unique as they have bits of system log in themselves, and, before System Log fused, were almost extensions of it. However, now they are much more independent and perform their duty individually. Interface is the go to for information handling between alters, and gives background information on things that others need immediately. Emergency Backup is pushed to the front whenever the brain is in a situation of extreme stress that no other alter is equipped to deal with. They are like a blank slate that gets changed for each situation. SATA is our memory holder, they have almost all our memories and keeps them separate from the rest of the system.

Other Notable Alters

Our primary protector is Axel, he handles most situations that might be scary or dangerous for others. Our primary caretaker and soother is Baby. He tends to work with our littles the most and anyone else who might need comforting. Sophie is our sexual protector, she handles sexual situations and has a lot more confidence in those situations than the rest of the system.
Victor is a little that holds our depression and the urges that relate to that. Danny is an invisible ghost and can really only be seen by the stuffed bunny he brings with him. Although Victor can see him as he is. Danny can see almost all alters in the system and can go pretty much anywhere. Ryley is a little that is also our primary trauma holder, she deals with memories so that none of the others have to although at this point she has become more of the reflection of our brain's idealized childhood.

Matt is our mental health and little advocate, he makes sure that everyone in the system is treated fairly and gets their voice heard. In the past he held a lot of anger around the traumas that happened to us. Kalvin is our money manager, it's his job to make sure we use our money wisely, unfortunately most of us don't listen to him, so there's a bit of stress caused by that. He is also usually fronting for work and makes sure we get there on time. Echo and School Kid are our school alters, they manage school stuff and homework as well as the relationships around them.

Lydia is best described as our spiritual advisor, she knows a lot about spirituality and the practices that come with it. Sleepy Guy only fronts if we have had difficulty sleeping, he generally fronts just to make the body go to sleep. He really only ever has to front if we don't have our medications.

Addison is our self care helper, she makes sure that we shower, brush our teeth, eat, clean our room, etc. She also is in a relationship with Gael

We have quite a few other trauma holders that hold specific events. Recently we became aware of Ashton, who holds a lot of trauma memories long forgotten by the rest of the system. The barriers between them and the rest of the system are so strong that sometimes just trying to read information about them or things that the others should not know yet, is completely edited out of their vision. They could be staring right at a note or something and not read what is on it. These amnesic barriers are hard to fight without working from both sides of them. If the altert that is hidden does not want to be found, the others will not be able to do much about it.

Headspace

Our system's headspace usually has some amount of constant change. Currently the layout is a three story house with rooms for every alter as well as some empty ones. We have one room at the front of the house that is designated as the fronting room. Most of the time when someone is fronting they're in that room, however recently this is not always the case as alters can front from anywhere. We have a large common room with a dining table, a large tv and couch, a fireplace, and an evergreen tree that gets decorated based on the seasons. There's also a section specifically for the essentials however most of them have their own rooms. Interface, and SATA are the only ones that don't have a separate room from the essential room. The essentials room is like a safe space within headspace that if one needs to talk to the essentials they can meet there. There is a section there that is called the Flux that is basically where new alters usually start in. SATA also has a memory vault below the essentials room that only they can access. Everyone's rooms are unique to themselves and they can change it however they want even if it's larger than the outside room would seem to be, basically it can be bigger on the inside. We also have a kitchen that has infinite supplies to make whatever is wanted. That main house and its property is referred to as the core. Then there is the collection of islands known as the Durgo islands, these are basically different worlds of different genres almost, like a middle earth one, a futuristic city, modern day, etc. Currently we are working on a video game experience that will show headspace and how it all works. Dante is the ambassador to Durgo and communicates with Axel and keeps everyone up to date. Then next is the Flux Room, an area that is very hard to describe in words but only Lucien, Axel, SATA, and Danny have access. The different islands are as follows, Archaic Grove (a middle earth esque forest), Sarph (a modern day city), Vinja (a utopian futuristic city), Nightmare (a hellish landscape), and Fen's Forest (a mystical forest that has many weird creatures). The actual count of alters is very hard to keep track of and is estimated anywhere between 200-300, but could very easily be more. Below is an image of headspace.

Hellborne Subsystem

The Hellborne Susbsystem shares a body in the main headspace that, to everyone else, looks like another alter. They have their own separate headspace that none of the alters outside can see into or access. Their headspace is a bit like a temple, with distinct rooms for each alter, with no fronting room as they just front from wherever.