There's a dangerous connotation in some parts of the DID community that alters can die.
When we had a DID TikTok between 2021-2022, we noticed this happening with younger members of the population who had either been officially diagnosed with DID or suspected they had DID ― and had depression.
Alters can't die; they can only go dormant.
An alter wanting to die is as dangerous as a singlet wanting to die.
Alters can't "unalive" themselves without doing the same to the system.
Fusing and integrating may involve grieving similar to "real-life, third-party" deaths (for lack of having a better phrase 😅), but that doesn't mean the alter dies. Rather, they cease to exist.
We used to tell singlets that so-and-so alter "died", because they tend to understand this better than saying "[legal name] ceased to exist. She's gone, and she's never coming back."
I, Jane, think that would be a good post to write someday ― tips for singlets to grieve over "lost" alters ― when we're in the right headspace to do so.
We've never been great at helping people grieve emotionally; our penguin pebbling love language kicks in like, "I found this and thought you'd like it; also, here's a gift basket of your favorite snacks the last time we talked about them."
