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I specifically wrote Fern, who I'll be using as a reference, after my own experiences — and besides that, there is no definitive way to correctly write a person who has Dissasociative identity disorder. However, there are things you should avoid.
1. Evil alter, murderer alter, nonhuman alter.
Nonhuman alters do exist; but by this specifically I mean an actual fucking monster like a fucking demon being your characters so-called headmate. Systems are not demons disguising themselves and surprisingly? I've seen people say they are. "Demons say we too!" They are traumatized individuals. They have a fragmented identity. Please shut the fuck up.
Evil alter & murderer alter is self-explanatory. This is a horribly ableist and frankly disgusting way to write a character with DID. There are no evil alters; every alter does what they think is good for the body. Each alter protects the mind and body in their own way and that does NOT make them evil. This is a frankly disgusting and dangerous thing to spread around when making a character with DID. You are actively reinforcing a stigmatising, horrible stereotype. I cannot emphasise this more; DO NOT WRITE YOUR CHARACTER TO HAVE AN EVIL ALTER.
Take my Fern for example. He has a persecutor alter! If you oh-so desperately want a more 'volatile' Alter, go ahead. Write it properly, at the very least; Persecutors are also just doing their role trying to protect the body and mind — See, how I wrote Fern I made his persecutor alter, Fay, a scared persecutor. Because really? That's what alot of persecutors are.
Fay is not an evil alter — Fay is a scared alter. Fay acts out of fear and a sense of protection. Fay's idea of protecting the body is prohibiting vulnerable information from leaking out and avoiding close relationships and lashing out passive-aggressively. He practically holds the very root of Fern's fear of vulnerability and confrontation.
Do your research of Persecutors if you want to involve something like this. Persecutors are usually misguided protectors, often holding the most painful memories of trauma and such on. Do proper research; interview a few systems if you aren't as horribly socially anxious as I am.
2. Typical overt Hollywood portrayals of systems.
Yes! Overt systems exist. But not in the Hollywood way. Switches are not dramatic, huge exaggerated transformations. Switches are usually subtle; but again, switches can be different for every system, but the word 'usually' still stands.
In the context of psychology and mental health, covert systems are statistically more common than overt systems. I will not judge if you write an overt system, especially if you yourself are a overt system or a system in general, but I honestly recommend writing an covert system. But that is up to you! Considering Fern is based off my own experiences, he is more of a covert system, so I'll dive into that preferably.
Fern's headmates, the only two whom I've named being Fernie and Fay, almost seamlessly fit together and are rather hard to notice— to other characters, atleast! They all have a baseline of varying introversion.
Fern is the host. Due to the situation he is put in, he is more jittery, nervous and anxious.
Here is how I described him specifically;
"The host identity seems to be a
more jittery/nervous one who is largely
reserved, timid & anxious. All identities seem
to share the base of a introverted, reserved &
quieter young boy.
Fern is naturally peace-seeking and non-threatening. He mixes the qualities of wanting comfort, a quiet life, no conflict with wanting whimsy, imagination and pure freedom. Fern is a rather sympathetic and empathetic young man even if he does not see himself as such, he is easily approachable and nonjudgemental and is frequently described to be rather dog-like and sweet.
He lives in his head and therefore grows remarkably good at problem-solving, strategic planning, adaptability and Resourcefulness alongside a huge amount of curiosity. What adds onto such qualities is the fact that Fern tends to approach the world through a more logical lense. He has a chronic anxiety mixed with a tendency to spiral into overthinking, making him notably prepared for even the most impossible situations.
Despite how overly anxious and paranoid he is, he has an extreme wanderlust but it becomes very quickly clear for him that he'd prefer imagining it rather than living it, which comes to another trait of his; Fern is tenfold more creative and imaginative as the average hobbit would be."
(Yes, he is an LOTR OC. Lmao.) Fern is more unaware of the system and due to severe isolation, processes these alters as merely imaginary friends— but due to how real they feel, Fern treats them like real people. He also hears internal voices and has fully-fledged conversations with himself (which is to say, his alters. 👀) in private.
Fernie is much more aware of the system and the multiple identities than the others and especially Fern is. He does not write them off as imaginary friends, but he does heavily mask and is usually the one to expertly hide the system from outsiders to protect the body and mind.
Fernie started fronting toward the end of the war of the ring, which is likely why not msny would have noticed; This could be easy to mistake as Fern healing (see what i did there? COVERT i scream.), when its more than that. Fernie is more aware of his condition, He just keeps to himself and is rather good at the act of masking (the act of hiding symptoms, whether consciously or unconsciously)
Fernie is quick-witted and *alot* less visibly anxious than Fern is. Fernie has been here since a far longer time and is the first identity Fern ever formed out of severe isolation and yearning for friends, alongside the trauma from his family; Which makes sense if you look at Fernie's stereotypical "best friend" archetype traits such as easygoing & reserved, calm.
Fernie still has reserved, introverted traits even if he somewhat lacks the more asocial traits Fern and Fay are portrayed to have (No idea if I mentioned their asocial parts. It is midnight, I am rewatching LOTR as I write this and waiting for my ice cream to freeze...felt like mentioning that.) Fernie is basically, Fern if you take away his trademark anxiety, jittery nervous mannerisms and...you know. The trademark that makes him Fern. I suppose you could call Fernie a mood booster alter. I'd suggest you look into the huge amounts of roles systems have, but...don't stereotype the roles, please. Thank you.
Fay holds more stoic traits and is likely both the most asocial and most emotional of the alters. This is because he is the persecutor and holds terrible memories. He is safety-driven, Fay is hyperobservant, hyperindependent and generally seems to be holding more emotion than the others. I pretty much already exposed most of Fay's traits in the first part, but yeah. Fay Is basically a misguided protector, because truly the one thing he wants is to be safe.
You can make personalities different. Depending on how covert or how overt you make the system, you'll have to write them accordingly. Writing a covert system means your writing has to be both subtle and accurate.
Many covert alters share basic traits with the host to avoid standing out. Write subtle differences in opinions, preferences, phobias maybe, so much on.
3. Memory loss (amnesia)
Fern specifically retains Semantic Memory after switches. It stores facts and general knowledge without the time or place you learned them. He only loses Episodic & Emotional Memory. This is called focal retrograde amnesia.
From my research, it is more common for systems to lose Episodic and emotional memory whilst still keeping Semantic Memory intact. Again. All systems are different! I SOOOO MUCH encourage you to do your research beyond simply reading this, hell even interview a few other systems after reading this. It's much recommend to get some nuance and advice from actual systems.
It's not uncommon for alters to maybe fully forget something. This is called a blackout. This memory gap happens when one alter is active, and another alter has no memory of what happened— They completely lose track of time. They might suddenly find themselves somewhere, but have absolutely no idea how they got here or maybe even why.
Another term is a greyout. It's not a recognized medical term like blackout, but it is still very real. This is partial memory loss. They may know something happened, but the details are distant, blurry or don't feel like their own memory— or is hard to recall. It's in the middle of a full memory and a complete blackout.
But let's get back to a defining trait. Dissasociative amnesia. Dissociative amnesia is a mental health condition where a person experiences severe, autobiographical memory loss that goes far beyond normal forgetfulness.
It's primary cause is trauma, or overwhelming stress— which, could also be considered trauma depending on the person and how their brain processed it. Dissociative amnesia is a mental health condition where your mind blocks out important personal memories, usually to protect you from overwhelming stress, abuse, or trauma.
My OC Fern specifically cannot truly recall how his family was, how they treated him, how his childhood truly was and so on. This is common for systems. Again, deep-dive. Research. Do more than just read this.
Digging memories back up, and I can say this from experience, causes intense distress and retraumatization and is not recommended without a therapist to guide you. Memories are hidden to protect your mind from extreme trauma, if you force them you could gain severe flashbacks, emotional flooding which is basically feeling the exact same pain as when you'd first experienced it and panic attacks.
Buried memories can also come up in dreams, fragmented memories and just..sudden flashbacks.
4. Imposter Syndrome
Imposter Syndrome frequently accompanies DID. People with DID often feel like frauds, feel like their trauma isn't enough, doubting their own experiences or even diagnosis. Severe denial is an unfortunate, persistent companion for almost every system.
DID is practically built to hide. It develops to protect the mind, a protective mechanism as a response to severe childhood trauma. The primary goal of this disorder is to hide from the person. It develops in a way that it hides itself. It's function compartmentalize trauma so the affected, traumatized person can function normally in daily life.
Because the brain actively tries to hide the existences of these identity states from the conscious mind, discovering you are a system and discovering your alters triggers a massive, crushing wave of denial. The mind convinces itself that the symptoms simply cannot be real.
Again.. do research, okay?
5. Identity confusion
"Fern doesn't actually know alot of basic details about himself. Favorite food, color, what he wants to do in the future, sometimes the most basic details. Fern doesn't know who he really is and can't grasp his identity properly."
This is a very big part of Fern. He doesn't know who he truly is, or who he wants to be. identity confusion is the subjective feeling of a fractured self. A person with DID may feel like a stranger to their own mind, experiencing confusing shifts of differing opinions, tastes, internal voices, even skills; because they're unaware, they may feel like they're losing their mind.
Thwy might feel disconnected from their usual sense of self or question thoughts and behaviors that don't align with their typical, 'usual' personality. This confusion occurs as different alters with distinct identities, values, and self-concepts, etc take control.
Again, I'd encourage doing proper research and doing more than just reading my ao3 guide.
7. Trauma doesn't have to be grandiose or big.
It heavily depends on how the person processed the traumatic memory. The trademark for DID is that it forms In early childhood due to severe, repeated trauma. Not once is it stated you have to have over-the-top trauma.
You can get DID from abuse, sexual assault, neglect from parents, war, natural disasters, major medical trauma. It heavily depends on how you processed your trauma— how your BRAIN processed the memory.
And mind the fact that it is *repeated*. Don't just make up one bad thing that suddenly fractures a child into ten alters; repeated childhood trauma Is its trademark.
Dissociative Identity Disorder develops in early childhood, typically between the ages of 5 and 10. It's triggered by severe, repeated trauma, to which it disrupts the natural formation of a single, integrated identity and leading to the creation of alters.
8. Dear lord, don't make DID the characters only trait.
Fern's defining trait isn't his disorder. It's what makes him, him. For example? He's a Schrödinger’s badass. He's a comedic relief; not because it's "haha different alter funny", because he's heavily inspired by the type of comic relief Zenitsu Agatsuma is. The butt of his jokes are usually his anxiety and extreme fear and need for security rather than "look. Funny disorder haha. Let's ignore the trauma. Haha."
Fern's big defining thing Is that he's still courageous. He's still a hobbit; He loves comfort, he loves food, he wants safety but stills dreams of adventures. Obviously a part of his defining traits are that he is comedic relief.
You can write a character without making everything about their disorder. Please avoid this!