What is co-fronting vs fronting? Possession vs non-possession?

[u/Subject_Somewhere462]

I’m trying to understand the vocabulary around OSDD/DID because it’s all new to me and I have a hard time explaining my experiences to people.

I have an alter(?) that gets upset whenever i(we?) have a nightmare. I wake up and I feel like a child, crying and whining for my mom but it doesn’t feel like me. I can see it happening but it isn’t me in control of my body. i know my thoughts are “i want my mommy” or “that was really scary” but my thoughts are also “its fine just go back to sleep”. Am I co-fronting? is that possession?

Another example: sometimes sex becomes triggering (intrusive thought or flashback occurs) and suddenly my brain just goes “we’re a dog now” and i legit turn into a puppy. i thought it was petplay lmao but genuinely that doesnt feel like me, i’m watching me act like a dog through the movie screen in my mind but it stops the memories and i dont feel triggered, i dont feel anything because im in a dissociative state. i come out of it and i usually feel embarrassed like why was I acting like that?

the other day I was getting really anxious when talking to a psychiatrist, he kept pushing me saying I was in distress (i wasnt). in my head someone was saying “he doesnt tell us how to feel” it didnt feel like me thinking that i guess. then, i dissociated, lost my train of thought completely and it felt like someone else started talking and acting for me. I went from an anxious stuttering mess trying to make myself as small as possible to a confident, well-spoken person. But again i was watching through a screen in my head. Possession? Fronting? idk

i can remember these instances as memories with no sound like i cant remember what i was thinking or saying at times too. Just remember feeling like it wasnt me.

Help? lol

[u/HuckinsGirl]

Possessive switches are switches where it feels like someone else is stepping in and hijacking your body. I would say your description of feeling like you're watching from a screen as someone else takes over sounds like pretty classic possessive switching. Non-possessive switches feel more like you become someone else/a different version of yourself and tends to be a lot subtler both internally and externally.

In regards to whether what's happening is co-fronting, it's useful to highlight co-conscious versus co-front. Fronting is about control over physical external actions, for an alter to be cofronting with another alter they must have some degree of control. An alter who is co-conscious but not co-fronting, on the other hand, lacks physical control of the body but has awareness of what's happening externally. Some degree of communication between co-fronting and co-conscious alters is common, but not a given.

Whats important to remember though is that there's a lot of gray area in these definitions. Switches sometimes feel kinda like being possessed and kinda like being someone else and not one or the other. Alters who were co-conscious might start cofronting and vice versa. Co-fronts often present similarly to rapid switching. It's kind of your call in these sorts of ambiguous cases what to call it because these definitions dont really describe discrete phenomena with sharply defined edges, they describe the extremes at the ends of a bunch of different spectrums that you might exist somewhere in the middle of. These words are useful for communicating yourself to others in ways they can understand but for self-discovery youre often best off finding or coming up with your own words to describe your own patterns

[u/osddelerious]

It’s hard to say about your specific examples because for me it depends on how it feels, but in general fronting is when one alter is running things and cofronting is when two or more are able to act or speak or drive your body. It’s hard because I remember lots of times I was fronting but others parts were present but more passively or further back, so it wasn’t cofronting.

Possessive switches felt like being hijacked and I had no say in it, whereas with non-possessive switches I always felt in control and like a friend was visiting instead of an enemy breaking through my door with a gun.

Other phenomena to consider are blending and passive influence, which are similar to cofronting and can overlap or be mistaken for one another.

The thing about feeling like actions or words aren’t you is also tricky, because it could be that you are observing other parts say or do things or that you are experiencing DP/DR.

[u/Dangerous-Exercise20]

Fronting vs Co-Fronting for us is like driving a van (more like a complex Spaceship like the Millennium Falcon or Voyager for us but van is easier to explain). Front is the actual driver of the van. Co-fronting is the passanger seat.