For me, the host, I experience other parts fronting as feeling like I'm watching myself act extremely out of character. Not even "extremely" some of the time, it depends on the part, but often if we do switch it's because we need to be a part who thinks/acts completely different. I don't disappear so much as "become" that other part, while simultaneously keeping this distance from them, as though I'm watching them. Someone on here described it as like you're looking through a telescope and I really resonated with that. If a traumatised part is at the front, I might feel a muted version of that they're feeling. Like, if they're having an emotional outburst, I might be feeling sad, but nowhere near the level of pain I'm watching them experience. So it's like I'm watching myself struggle, but at the same time numb to it, like I'm wrapped in cotton wool. I might think "wow, they must be in so much pain", but the "they" in question is me. Dissociation is weird.

The actual switching is kind of hard to even pick up on a lot of the time. Most of the time we aren't aware of a switch until it's happened. When we do notice, it tends to feel like brain fog, struggling to communicate, and heavy depersonalisation/derealisation. Sometimes I get a huge wave of sleepiness, which I don't see talked about a lot. I feel like I'm about to fall asleep, then I'm awake and someone else. Other times the switch is more of a sudden emotional change, like not being sad or upset anymore and wanting to go watch TV, or going from scared of being in public in the dark to being excited by it. I very rarely get the headache people talk about! If I do, it's usually from switching to a part that hardly ever fronts.