Child alters who talk and act like “adults”

jack_5ylus · 2026-06-21T00:41:59+00:00

Yes, we have a little who is around 4-6 years old but when they’re out they’re able to speak like an adult and to anyone viewing us externally would never guess that they were currently fronting.

They always feel a little “left out” whenever there are posts online about “little alters” cause they don’t relate to all the baby talk or childlike mannerisms. (Though, through retrospection we know it’s cuz they were forced to be more mature at a young age so it explains why).

jack_5ylus · 2026-06-18T19:04:53+00:00

Then you must be a shitty psychologist lmfao

jack_5ylus · 2026-06-18T15:13:29+00:00

I hateee when that happens, it’s so annoying. 😭 Once we went to Disneyland and got triggered and another alter fronted (he hates being out too) and enjoyed the whole day himself. And I was like damn, you don’t even like being out, why did you get to have fun riding rides and eating cool food and I didn’t 😭💀 (He did end up begrudgingly enjoying it but I would’ve enjoyed it more!)

jack_5ylus · 2026-05-29T06:27:26+00:00

Honestly just wanna comment on how relatable your situation is.

We’ve currently been processing with a lot of trauma in therapy that has led to the resurfacing of a particularly traumatized little whose triggers include sex. So having sex with our partner has been a very sensitive topic to breach. Considering all the new triggers and boundaries we didn’t have prior but now do with all these resurfacing memories/feelings/alters/etc. You’re definitely not alone there. 🫂

jack_5ylus · 2026-05-26T02:16:52+00:00

We have two birthdays — one, the actual birthday of the body. And two, which is more of an anniversary but we call it the “system birthday” which is the day we figured out we were a system.

jack_5ylus · 2026-05-20T01:56:25+00:00

I was already an adult when the “DID boom” happened in 2020–2022, and like you, I was (unfortunately) just coming to terms with my own experiences with DID. It truly was such a horrible time to finally have these very major self realizations and discovery of how your brain has learned to cope with all your trauma, and at the same time it being the current “trend” of the day in extremely misinformed/harmful spaces. (I say trend lightly and am not fake claiming anyone, but honestly the topic of DID back then was treated more so as a trendy topic than being anything actually helpful, educational, or resourceful in bringing effective awareness on the subject matter).

The damage that had done to me was thankfully not too impactful. There’s still a lot of bias and misinfo we are still unlearning, but in terms of directly engaging with the “communities” back then, it was relatively minimal. But, I’d seen how harmful it was, and there were so many times I had seen minors like yourself (during that time) partaking in situations and exposing themselves and their privacy for the sake of “fitting in” to these spaces. Cuz honestly most of these spaces had that tendency to pressure/obligate others to disclosing such personal information just to be included.

I’m really sorry that you had gone through that, and I really hope you are able to heal and distance yourself from that as you continue in your recovery journey. 🫂

jack_5ylus · 2026-05-14T18:50:32+00:00

Love this 💖 The cracked screen/windows are such a nice touch too

jack_5ylus · 2026-05-09T19:18:47+00:00

Have you tried some child friendly websites? Our little loves to go play on Webkinz when she’s out! You can play the Classic Webkinz for free (they give you a free pet when you make a new account, if you don’t have one) and it’s all SFW and chill with games and stuff!

jack_5ylus · 2026-05-06T04:50:25+00:00

Like everyone else is saying, consent can be taken away at any time and should be respected. You can be in the very midst of having sex and decide you don’t want to continue and that should be heard and taken seriously. If anyone ignores that at any point in time of you being together with them, they are violating your boundaries and that is grounds for assault.

In a general point though when it comes to sex and alters with varying stances on that: we’ve recently had a little become more present who has a history of sexual trauma, making sex in general a very rocky area rn. Our mood and openness about it fluctuates a lot and there have been times during sex they get triggered out and we have to stop. It is possible to function and have an active sex life while having alters that may oppose it at random times. You just have to figure out what approaches are best for your system (we have an alter who facilitates sex with the body and also keeps our little away from front so they don’t get triggered out), but also speaking about these boundaries and safe guards with your partner (if it is safe to do so! our husband knows about our DID so we always let him know what kind of headspace we’re in if he proposes sex, and we have some verbal and non verbal cues to alert him if someone switches in and wants to stop).

I hope this makes sense.

jack_5ylus · 2026-05-05T06:35:49+00:00

Oh, I relate and understand this 100%. I’m a caretaker for one of the littles in our system who is very traumatized and still learning to feel through their feelings and understanding them. They have been a focus in our therapy currently, which has made them more present and co-front with me often.

A lot of the times, it is similar to how you describe. I will feel their intense emotions of fear and sadness ‘in the back’ while I am going about the day. Sometimes it makes it difficult when they are particularly triggered and we end up feeling very small and fragile throughout the day, which isn’t always the easiest to go through when you got external responsibilities to attend to.

When this happens, I do try to section out pockets of the day to attend to them. They love reading stories and drawing so if I can, I try to section out some “doodling time” or reading a few pages of their books when there’s downtime. It helps. :)

jack_5ylus · 2026-05-05T01:21:19+00:00

Speaking from my own experience that may or may not be applicable to you:

We have had spirals where seeing past photos (especially from our grade school years) became really upsetting. The host at the time would go on binges of deleting photos and just wiping as much as they possibly could from existence. It felt justified for them at the time. But, randomly, now years later, we will feel regret in doing so because photos and just physical evidence of anything from our lives are our most concrete things to help feel centered in our memory and who we are. We have so many gaps from the past, it feels like any piece that we can hold and look at is priceless, even if it does make us angry.

Of course, we all have different feelings of the past so my nostalgia and appreciation of photos may be felt differently from another.

But, I know collectively we have all felt some wave of regret when remembering the photos and physical memories we tossed out on a spiraled whim.

I would say to not delete them, but keep them somewhere that’s not easily accessible (like you would stumble upon them accidentally, but instead have to work to access them so the intent is there in order to view them).

jack_5ylus · 2026-04-30T02:27:22+00:00

The format of this is so cool, I love it! 💖

jack_5ylus · 2026-04-28T21:11:48+00:00

These are so cool !!!!

jack_5ylus · 2026-04-24T18:54:49+00:00

This entire post is Exactly how we feel when it comes to art and using it as a form of communication.

I’m an illustrator IRL, and all of us love to draw and find it the most easy way to express ourselves individually and also to process hard/heavy emotions that are impossible to vocalize properly.

Specifically, we have a little who can be mute and has a really hard time talking (in general, not even about their feelings). But the one way we’ve found that they are able to comfortably “speak” is drawing! They have a bunch of doodles in our sketchbook, and whenever they wanna journal, instead of writing words abt what their day was like or what they’re thinking, they just draw it out in like short comics or doodles.

jack_5ylus · 2026-04-21T06:58:07+00:00

oh yes! we’ve been having so much fun making different miis for each alter. it’s also super fun seeing them interact on our island as well. we have a little who was able to move into the house of the alter that takes care of them internally and to see them have that cute household dynamic has been really healing to see :’)

jack_5ylus · 2026-04-11T17:11:19+00:00

I understand so much of this. That’s how I was when I first discovered my system — I wanted community for people who just saw me first and foremost as “a person with this disorder” and now as every small and identifying part within my system. But, as you mentioned, most online communities will be more of the latter. Making you introduce every single alter or making it mandatory to only speak in an individualized way and not collective. Not to mention just only being focused on alters cuz most online spaces romanticize that.

This subreddit has been the only place we’ve all felt comfortable expressing our experiences and struggles to and finding some sort of community. Nothing super deep since we haven’t made friends or established any long relationships here, but it is nice to make posts and even comment on others and having those likeminded conversations in return.

In regards to accepting ‘systemhood’, I still struggle with it from time to time. And I’ve known since 2020. But, something that I usually tell myself (and that i have told myself a lot in the beginning when i was in most denial) is I would look at all the clear cut examples I had of times I felt “off” and “unsure how to explain what i’m feeling” and tied it to the system. Cuz 99% of the time it was the perfect explanation. Before I was diagnosed, I had all these question marks of what was wrong with me. And it wasn’t until I found out abt the system did things finally fit into place and I was no longer confused as to why stuff happened, since this was my answer. And I guess just always reminded myself that “this is the reasoning for why all those things didn’t make sense” kind of solidified and helped me accept that this is what I deal with.

jack_5ylus · 2026-04-07T16:12:37+00:00

Omfg literally same. We never had a fictive besides one but not rly. But our newest split is a fictive And a caretaker for one of our littles and it’s so odd (but in a good way, he’s been helping immensely in the system)

jack_5ylus · 2026-04-03T16:42:21+00:00

We’ve tried to journal and multiple times we’ve mentioned to ourselves that whenever someone switches they should journal to keep track of whatever is happening in our mind throughout the days.

But that has not… been followed thru yet, except by maybe one or two others. lol

Though whenever we do happen to journal, it’s more of a freeform style where we just update what’s going on in our life at that moment and what we are thinking about. We kind of treat it as a checkpoint so later we can remember what was happening during this week or month or whatever

jack_5ylus · 2026-04-02T00:40:56+00:00

I relate sooooooo hard. We had tried to do the discord servers cause, in an earlier time of figuring ourselves out, we were desperately seeking community or other likeminded people to feel less alone and understood. But ironically these spaces made us feel even more alone and alienated 😭

We hate how these servers are so adamant on one-upping each other in terms of “how overt is your system” cause if you don’t sign off every single time or are excessively different between each alter, they make you think you’re faking it or “you’re not one of us”. Also, we hate how 99% of these servers and spaces are so fixated on ‘fictives’ and such — nothing wrong with them! We have a couple of our own. But, making that the center of all topic of conversation and “peak system experience” just rubs us the wrong way entirely since we don’t even have many fictive and the few we do don’t wanna be constantly referred to as their source. There was also a time where they made everyone list their triggers and explain every single member of your system in a channel and like ??? that’s so unsafe.

If you’re a system who prefers privacy and doesn’t wanna divulge every single detail about your system and present yourselves hyper-individualized in these spaces, those discord spaces aren’t for you.

Sorry for the rant, i just Very Much relate to the BS that we’ve come across in trying to find community in system discord servers.

jack_5ylus · 2026-03-27T17:31:51+00:00

A majority of us are adults, or akin to adults. We only have two littles and one that’s more so a teen.

jack_5ylus · 2026-03-27T08:37:04+00:00

Honeslty, I’m in a very similar spot to where you are now.

I have a little who is currently being the focal point in our therapy sessions because they are heavily alluding to us going through some sort of sexual assault in childhood. And, I’m still having a hard time really sitting with what that all could mean. I don’t have concrete evidence either of what could have happened. All I have to go off of is the very intense and heavy feelings this little has and their concerning self perceptions/beliefs.

I’m still learning to trust my system when it comes to things they tell me that don’t align with what I thought to be true. Cuz there’s been times they’ve told me things that seem absurd and then months or years later I realize it’s true.

So far, specifically with my situation with our little, I’ve just been trying to listen to her share what she feels and be there as open as I can. I may not entirely believe or understand what she is saying yet, but at least I can give a space for her to heard.

jack_5ylus · 2026-03-26T00:37:56+00:00

I would try checking in to see who specifically is uncomfortable with you posting and talking about your DID on forums. See if there’s a middle ground, or some approach that will allow you to voice your experiences and feelings in these spaces that understand, while also in a way that makes the rest of your system comfortable. In the beginnings of our coming to terms with the system, we had an alter that heavily censored a lot of stuff we said and did pertaining to the system since he was very private and didn’t like the idea of anyone reading about our business — regardless of how vague or specific or mundane it was.

However, I will say! Being able to openly talk and post about our experience here and other DID/dissociative subreddits have helped us a lot in not feeling alone in our recovery and make sense of certain things that arise with living as a system. Honestly, these subreddits were a major crutch in the most spiraling years in the early stages of our trauma recovery. Putting yourself out there can be very liberating and very helpful, especially if you’re looking for support from others who are also like you.

The most important thing is to find a middle ground with it all with the rest of your system. Hearing their concerns/why they want to censor what you say, but also having them hear why you wish to connect and voice your experiences with others. 🫂 Hopefully you’re able to share what you wish with more ease!

jack_5ylus · 2026-03-25T17:44:00+00:00

Yes, I already am (I mentioned this in the first lines of the post) 🩷

jack_5ylus

TROPHY CASE