DID or dissociative identity disorder is a mental illness that results from childhood trauma and causes a person to develop multiple personalities or alters in order to survive the trauma. These alters can be completely different from one another and this can be seen through behaviours, accents, memories, experiences, preferences, and even handwriting.
Due to the amnesic walls that separate alters in a DID system, communication can be difficult. A form of communication that is popular with people who have DID is note taking. Finding written notes that you have no memory of writing and that are in a different handwriting is definitely not uncommon for DID patients as this could be how alters feel most comfortable communicating.
Just as you and I have different handwriting, so do alters. Not only can the font be different, but also, the colour or type of pens used, what hand they use to write, size of the writing, vocabulary used, and even how neat and tidy the writing is. One alter may use high level vocabulary and have soft cursive writing, while another has difficulty spelling even the most basic of words and writes rater large. Even the pressure applied to the page can be different!
In my system we are all right handed except for one alter, Henry (Male/6), who uses his left hand. Our writing is all drastically different and easy to distinguish between. I will now insert photos of some writing samples of each of my alters so that you can see the differences.
Jen (Female/18)
Cassy (female/19-29 age slider)
Lucas (Male/14)
Henry (Male/6)
Mia (Female/19)
Zoe (Female/6)
Izzy (Female/18)
Josh (Male/22)
Vicki (Female/11)
These samples have been gathered over the years as trying to get everyone to write something specific for a post would take way too long. Some of these messages where taken from a therapy activity where each alter had to describe themselves in a cloud, others where take from out system journal, and the remainder are just random notes. As you can see, each one is different. some are similar (eg. Mia and Josh), but others are completely different (eg. Izzy and Cassy). The largest writing belongs to Henry and Zoe, while the smallest belongs to Izzy.
Each system will be different and some alters may not have different writing. Everyones experience with DID is unique and valid. I hope that this helps you to better understand and appreciate the different alters within DID systems and lets you see them as individuals.
Remember that I am not a professional and if you need some mental health help or support, reach out to a councillor or therapist who can help you.
Hope you are having a great day.
Jen xx
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