Explaining the Experience of Being or Meeting Multiples
Ok, Explaining Multiplicity vs Plurality as used on this site section dealt with the general theories for how we got the way we are.
Nevermind how we got here; what are we like now that we're here?
It's one thing to theorize and label symptoms. It's quite another thing to experience being multiple from the inside, and to understand the day-to-day encounters people have with multiples.
Every system is different. There's only 5 criteria for DID of which 2 are elimination criteria: that means that there are essentially 3 things that label a person as DID: more than one identity, strong dissociative experiences, and that it's impairing their life in any way including simply personal discomfort or angst about it. That leaves a vast range of ground in talking about the experience of being multiple from the inside or dealing with multiples from the outside completely unexplored. Hence this manual.
This section handles some of the more basic common experiences multiples and those who love or know them need to deal with. Not every multiple will experience these things. As said above, the only guaranteed commonality are Criteria A-C — everything else is up for grabs.