have you ever created an imaginary friend?

ManofThunder

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No, I never had an imaginary friend. I had (and have) a soft animal I would cuddle and consider a friend. I wouldn't talk to him or share food with him, but I loved him and was very protective. I always knew he wasn't real, but I felt safe with him in my arms. Whatever happened to make me cry, a cuddle with him would make it go away - he understood without needing a conversation. In many ways, I suppose he was an extension of myself - an embodiment of the courage I couldn't access directly. For years, he was my only friend. Without him, I'd have gone mad - I think. It's funny that 'he' was always male. He could have been female, but that didn't feel right, somehow. He's still around and I'm still very attached, to be honest. Even though I was helping myself, I couldn't have done it without him as a conduit - I'm very grateful for that. The fact that I call an inanimate object 'he' says it all, really. :tongue: I'm not crazy, I swear. :eek:
 

blazblue

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it's pretty normal for people to do this as children.

invent a person who will talk to you and take your side, even when nobody else wants to.

in adults it might be seen as a mental illness.

so have you ever had one? why did you need one? when did you grow out of it? did you grow out of it?

Never thought about creating one or ever needing one because....

i never had one. i never felt i needed one.
i've always felt myself to be self sufficient.
no need to invent a crowd of my own if i felt i didn't belong.
happy to stand alone if there is nobody i want to stand beside.
 

petite

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No, I never had an imaginary friend. I had (and have) a soft animal I would cuddle and consider a friend. I wouldn't talk to him or share food with him, but I loved him and was very protective. I always knew he wasn't real, but I felt safe with him in my arms. Whatever happened to make me cry, a cuddle with him would make it go away - he understood without needing a conversation. In many ways, I suppose he was an extension of myself - an embodiment of the courage I couldn't access directly. For years, he was my only friend. Without him, I'd have gone mad - I think. It's funny that 'he' was always male. He could have been female, but that didn't feel right, somehow. He's still around and I'm still very attached, to be honest. Even though I was helping myself, I couldn't have done it without him as a conduit - I'm very grateful for that. The fact that I call an inanimate object 'he' says it all, really. :tongue: I'm not crazy, I swear. :eek:

Awww! I love that! I especially liked this part:

"In many ways, I suppose he was an extension of myself - an embodiment of the courage I couldn't access directly."
 

ManofThunder

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Awww! I love that! I especially liked this part:

"In many ways, I suppose he was an extension of myself - an embodiment of the courage I couldn't access directly."
'Tis true. That's why I was so pleased to see someone making the world safe for blankies - they're more than something to cuddle. :smile:
 

petite

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Tried it once, got caught and I was thrashed.

I just stuck to dogs and horses after that.

I don't even understand why. That's awful.

I hit a brick wall with that one. I found myself going into too much detail and then trying to mentally go back and edit things. Or stopping to look up a year so I know whether or not Princess Di had died yet in the timeframe I'm placing it into. Gotta be accurate. :wink:

That's hilarious!

There is the sexual aspect to creating elaborate fantasies in your head, but it's not too far away from there to just keep them around and imagine all kinds of other everyday situations that don't involve sex. At least, in my brain it's not too far away. But I don't know if that qualifies as an imaginary friend or not either.

I've never taken it that far. In fact, just now trying to imagine doing that feels, well, sort of crazy. What I do feels more like writing a short story or a screenplay, even if it's still in my head, playing with the plot to try to make it more emotionally satisfying, changing the characters a bit to make them more interesting. My relationship to the characters is more like a creator than a companion.

It's probably not healthy as an adult. People that have imaginary friends as adults usually kill real people... Death of John Lennon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Usually"? I'd like to see some statistics that prove that. Isn't that like concluding that vegetarianism causes mass murder because Hitler didn't eat meat?

I do not recall ever having an imaginary friend, however I did talk to my stuffed animals, later real animals. I still tend to carry on conversations with animals, sometimes I talk to my flowers and plants as well. If I really need rain or it's getting on my nerves I might even tilt my head back and complain to the clouds.

I did that with my stuffed animals, too. I actually still have one of them in my closet right now. I don't know if I would grab it if this house was on fire, probably not, but I would feel a pang in my heart if it was lost.

I talked to my belly when TheBaby was growing inside it. We talked about food a lot. At the end of my pregnancy, I complained about how often he kicked me and rolled and squirmed. I know that there really was a person in there, but I imagined a personality that I attached to him that didn't really come from him. It came from what I imagined from seeing him on the ultrasound.
 
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nudeyorker

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When I was single I had an imaginary husband if I found someone repellent at a party or bar. (Does that count?) He was really dreamy if I was pressed for details about him; but much to busy to attend parties and go out to bars to meet with friends during happy hour.
 

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I had an imaginary friend as a child, but I'm sure this isn't quite the same thing. It used to freak my mother out when I told her I was going to play with a kid down the street who had the same name as my imaginary friend. She thought I was crazy.

I do have a few "characters" in my dreams who appear frequently. No resemblance to anyone I know in my life, just kind people who play different roles in my life depending on the dream. Some lovers, some enemies, sometimes things are different. Just whatever my subconsciousness throws at me that night.
 

TheRob

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Any of you guys foster kids who developed imagineary parents?
I bet that's common
I heard it was in the movie Twins and commedies seem trust worthy
 

funnyguy

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Does having an imaginary fried when I was a pre-schooler count? My "friend" had the bizarre name of "Otwewoods" lol
 

EllieP

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Gosh, I hate to tell you this, but all of you here are my imaginary friends.

That's how the series will end, you know. I'll log on one day and just be chatting away when suddenly the veil drops and reality shows that I don't even own a computer!
 

IntoxicatingToxin

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I'm not sure if this would really be the same thing, but I had a stuffed animal that I used to treat as a real person. His name is Mr. Bearly. (Yes, is... I still have him... and he still chills out on my bed!) He was given to me by my father at the funeral of my brother when I was five. My brother had committed suicide. Being the age that I was, I didn't realize what had happened until the funeral, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I could NOT stop crying the entire time. That little bear soaked up so many of my little tears. He was my best friend for years. I hugged him tightly every night. I still use him to hug and cry into when I'm sad. :smile:
 

twoton

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But Real Dolls are real! People giving them imaginary personalities doesn't change that.

"Lars and the Real Girl," is a very enjoyable movie exactly along these lines. It's worth watching. :smile:

I never did. I made up stories all the time. I used to imagine that (the original) Charlie's Angles were my older sisters who all shared a really cool bedroom in the attic of my house. It was in my prepubescent years, when I was attracted to the idea of having a close relationship with beautiful women but before I had an inkling about the sexual angle.

When I'm working in the yard I still daydream that a Hollywood celeb, like Jennifer Aniston, drives up to my house to ask directions. It's my fantasy, which means her GPS isn't working.
 

twoton

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I'm not sure if this would really be the same thing, but I had a stuffed animal that I used to treat as a real person. His name is Mr. Bearly. (Yes, is... I still have him... and he still chills out on my bed!) He was given to me by my father at the funeral of my brother when I was five. My brother had committed suicide. Being the age that I was, I didn't realize what had happened until the funeral, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I could NOT stop crying the entire time. That little bear soaked up so many of my little tears. He was my best friend for years. I hugged him tightly every night. I still use him to hug and cry into when I'm sad. :smile:

Wow. That's one bear worth holding on to.
 

Infernal

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I'm not sure if this would really be the same thing, but I had a stuffed animal that I used to treat as a real person. His name is Mr. Bearly. (Yes, is... I still have him... and he still chills out on my bed!) He was given to me by my father at the funeral of my brother when I was five. My brother had committed suicide. Being the age that I was, I didn't realize what had happened until the funeral, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I could NOT stop crying the entire time. That little bear soaked up so many of my little tears. He was my best friend for years. I hugged him tightly every night. I still use him to hug and cry into when I'm sad. :smile:

I have something like that but it is a little gorilla. I gave it to my mother for Christmas one year when times were really tough. She took it on vacation with her wherever she went. She's been gone for 10 years now and I take the gorilla on vacation with me now. She (the gorilla) has been places my mother always wanted to go, but never got the chance.