I was filling a job application for the first time as my system’s work manager, and I got confronted with the fact that I dislike being called our English legal name with a passion due to trauma reasons. I thought of using my own alter name on my resume instead as a professional name, and I was suddenly much more empowered in developing my career path, like I can finally show my capability and potential rather than succumbing to the shame I felt in my past.

Since my system as a whole decided to be open and honest about having DID in July 2023 from starting our DID podcast, there has been a strong internal movement from prominent 3D alters to be referred to as their alter name during workshops and activities that we go by ourselves instead of the names we’ve been called by, which most of us don’t identify with. One of us started this when she went to a massage therapy workshop (she is the only one who likes that kind of activity), and the fulfilment she felt from it has resulted to some more of us wanting to be addressed directly by our alter names in places that we have full control in our image. Eventually, our performing arts alter is using her alter name as a stage name, our story writing alter is using her alter name as a pen name, and our mental health supporter alter is using the legal name as hers (she’s the only one who identifies with it). Now, I’d like to do the same for my alter name.

It makes a significant difference for my psyche to be called by something that I want. Those alters in us who participated in activities as themselves have built more positive relationships in half a year than they had in 10 years, and it is absolutely powerful to belong somewhere and speak our truth to others from the inside out. However, it’s a vulnerable thing not to masquerade all the time as someone whom others want you to be. It also means that I end up telling more people about my diagnosed DID as a result of explaining those different names in a genuine manner. My concern is that malicious people will use it against me. The system’s boyfriend has warned me against using a different name for my social circle because this may make me appear unreliable to others, especially if our alters’ networking groups come together for some reason, and how we may be too open about ourselves online for our safety.

For those of you who strongly prefer to be called by individual alter names like prominent alters in my system, how do you tackle these conflicts? My system has collectively decided to mask as the alter who majorly fronts in the specific type of activity unless those people know about the alters and are open to meeting them, but it doesn’t stop me from second-guessing this life-changing decision we have taken.