According to her own account, Chase was born on a homestead near Honeoye Falls, New York, and grew up in an apartment in the same town.
[1] In her autobiography and in numerous interviews, Chase said that she was repeatedly and violently sexually and physically abused by her stepfather and beaten and neglected by her mother during her childhood and teenage years.
[2] By her report, she had always remembered that molestation and abuse occurred from the age of two onwards but that she could not focus on details before going into therapy.
[3][4] At age 16, she ran away from her abusive household and changed her name to Truddi Chase to avoid being tracked down by her parents.
In an interview with The Chicago Tribune, Truddi Chase described how her other personalities remained "dormant" until stressors in her midlife caused extreme anxiety, eventually unravelling all of her parts.