Persecutor alters are parts of a DID system and are often mistaken as the 'bad alter'. This post will be discussing why persecutor alters exist, their role, and why they act the way that the do. This is based on my personal experiences with DID and what I have discovered through therapy and my own research. Please remember that each DID system will be unique and operate differently, not all systems have persecutors, and not all persecutors will act the same.
Persecutor alters are known for being the 'evil', 'bad', or 'misbehaving' alters in a system. These labels are not only untruthful, but also damaging to the system. It is important to remember that alters where created to protect and defend the child from abuse. This, as you can imagine, would be very difficult to deal with. Persecutor alters may believe that be mistreating the body, other alters, or other people, that they are doing their job in protecting the child at risk. They are helping in the only way that they know how.
These alters will often harm the body, destroy external relationships, sabotage the systems goals, interfere with healing, assist abusers, and (very rarely) upset or hurt others. It is important that you remember that people with DID are more likely to hurt themselves than anyone else. Even persecutor alters are not dangerous to others outside the system, and nothing to be scared of.
Many persecutor alters are also introjects. An introject is an alter based on an external person who already exists. These are quite often abusers from childhood. I have another post about introjects that I will link here: https://diaryofapsychoblog.wixsite.com/home/blog-home/all-about-introjects
The role or job of a persecutor is very intense and quite upsetting. Their role is to prevent further trauma from happening to the host or the body. This often (but not always), means that they experience abuse first hand so that no one else has to. As a result of experiencing the trauma, persecutors feel the need to hurt the body, reenact trauma, prevent recovery, and even continue the abuse on the rest of the system. This is the only way that they get treated and the only way they know how to treat others.
Persecutor alters are a part of 50-84% of all DID systems. This means that majority of those with DID will have a persecutor alter. For someone living with a persecutor alter, it can be described as having an angry internal voice that verbally abuses you from inside your own head, and may take that abuse further by harming the body and interfering with your relationships and life in general.
In my DID system there are 2 persecutor alters. Vicki, age 11, and Mia, age 19. They both have different traumas attached to them and act in different ways. Vicki is quite manipulative and controlling, while Mia is a people pleaser and more sneaky. Neither of them would ever hurt another person physically, but Vicki is likely to upset those closest to me as a defence mechanism.
I have just started to develop better communication with Mia, and am trying to understand why she does the things that she does. It is still hard to cope with some of the things that she says to me but with the help of my therapist I am getting to understand her a little better.
To conclude this post I would like to just remind you that people with DID are traumatised and have been for nearly their whole lives. This disorder is a coping mechanism that they have no control over and just because one of their alters is a little meaner or more rude, doesn't mean that they are anymore likely to harm you or anyone else. This is just how their minds have developed and they cant just turn icon and off. There is no such thing as an 'evil' alter. All alters and systems are valid.
I hope that this article has been helpful in shedding some light on persecutor alters. If you would like to know more about a specific type of alter then let me know and I will try to make a post about them in the future. For now I will leave you some links to external sources of information that helped me make this post:
Keep smiling and I will be back with another post soon.
Jen xx
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