So I started thinking about this more often recently. A while back, I talked to someone who had DID. They talked about systems, alters, how their different personalities are, etc. I thought it was very interesting and thought I would be equally as open about my schizophrenia, and they mentioned it sounded similar to DID. Now, I know the two are similar and are often confused due to that, but ever since that comment, I've noticed how much similar my symptoms are to DID and not schizophrenia. 1) I have only auditory hallucinations of one voice which is common in DID based on what I've read. I used to have tactile hallucinations of someone like tapping on my shoulder or brushing their hand on my arm, but I haven't had them in a while. I just thought when I hear about schizophrenic hallucinations, it's visual and auditory and tactile, not just auditory of one voice much less. 2) I'm fairly young for being diagnosed with schizophrenia. I started showing symptoms (according to my family) around the age of 6 and was diagnosed when I wad 11-12. This is very young for schizophrenia, and I never really questioned it since I trusted doctors, but I realised truly how young it is. I don't know if this is an actual connection, but I know DID is caused by trauma at a young age (which would make sense for me I think because of my living situations and my sister being abusive mentally and physically ever since we were young; she still does it to this day. My mom is fairly mentally abusive as well and hasn't done much to deal with my sister). I'm not sure if DID would actually show up this early, but it I thought it would explain why I had symptoms much younger than what's common with schizophrenics if symptoms do appear at this young of age when you develop DID. 3) I rarely have delusions. I think one thing that's overall most common in schizophrenics is delusions, and I barely have them. I've had episodes where I do, but it's so rare that I couldn't even name you the last time I had one. 4) I space out and have lengths of time where I completely forget what happens. I read some things online for DID, and commonly, people with it would space out a lot and also forget certain things they should remember. For one example, with me I remember being in bed about to sleep. I was dozing off and kind of spaced out I guess you could say, and the next thing I know, I'm out of bed after having taken a shower. Another, I will change clothes without even remembering it. Or I'll eat a meal, forget I had done it until my mom asked why I was eating again (I have really strong muscle reflex issues, so I'll get sick if I eat slightly too much, so my mom will kind of take note of what I eat so I don't make myself sick). It's just things happen throughout the day and I'll have no memory of them. 4) I have super intense and sudden mood changes. I'm not sure if this is a part of DID, but I've noticed how quickly my mood can change. I've always shrugged these off as part of episodes, but I'm not sure. I can go from being on the verge of suicide and cutting myself to being completely fine less than 12 hours later. It's so bizarre to me, and I just took it as normal for me. 5) I have very distinct, what I guess you could call, personalities. It's not like I dress different or change my physical appearance, rather very clear *personality* changes. I've noticed I have two I guess you could say: First being very nice, caring, helpful, shy, insecure, and able to keep myself in line and going. This is how I am with everyone except for my sister and mother. Any time I am with them, I am rude, uncaring, confident, snarky, constantly annoyed, and overall completely disgusted by their existence it seems. I thought this could be a personality developed to make sure I'm not longer harmed by them (verbally and physically). If my sister is physical with me now and I don't like to admit it, but I easily hurt her before she can do it to me and I feel no remorse for it, but physical fighting rarely happens. If she says anything verbally to fuck with me or something (I don't even understand why she would be verbally abusive), I have seen myself say some of the worst things to her to the point where you could say I'm being abusive now. I know I am and I don't even care. If my mom tries to talk to me about it, I'm the same way with my words toward her. The confidence I have when I'm around them lets me actually talk back to her; if I was how I normally am, I would never be able to. Even once I'm back to my regular self, I am unable to even feel the slightest bit of remorse for what I've done. I don't know if I'm just a terrible person coping in a terrible way, but I've noticed this and ever since the comment that person made, I've come to this realisation. I'm sorry if I seem like a horrible person, I just can't help it. I don't even realise what I'm doing till I've altered I guess you could say. Am I just a fucked person or actually suffering with something?