Talking to imaginary people and avpd

[dottie]

i do this, too. it is not the same as people who talk to plants or mumble to themselves when they are trying to remember where they put the keys.

for me it happens when i am alone, after a stressful situation, experiencing repetitive thoughts. it keeps repeating in my mind until i am living/playing through it again. i visualize the situation repeatedly until it becomes like an interactive movie and reality is blocked out. usually i am not conscious that i am doing it... it's automatic... it's like i am so far deep in thought that i don't notice i am actually mock-speaking or mock-laughing out loud. i guess when it happens i am trying to gain control of a situation i felt totally out of control of at the time. maybe i am trying to delude myself that what happened wasn't so bad.

i am crazy.

 

[iason]

I think I exactly understand what you mean, and I also do that. I don't think you have to worry about... until you have conscience of what you are doing i mean.. I also figure myself as a famous person doing an interview sometimes and lol, I know that feeling stupid of when you lose the inspiration and you say "what the hell am i doing"... but its ok, until you take it easy and don't mull over it

 

[SilentRain]

I do it to. I don't see imaginary people from Mars or anything to make it seem like I have some other mental disorder. I just talk out scenes as if I was talking to another person and I visualize a real person that I know. I do gestures and everything. It helps me plan out how to talk to a specific person before I do. Sometimes I do it because I'm lonely and just want someone to talk to but my lack of friends make it difficult. I also talk to my pets. It helps calm my nerves. I do it only when I'm by myself though. I can be anywhere and do it just as long as I know no one else is spying on me.

Sometimes I worry if it means I have other problems but oh well. It hasn't caused me damage so I see it as fine.

 

[overcome.]

Wow, I thought I was alone in doing this. When I'm alone and bored I play out fantasies in my head and then I have to start talking really quietly and playing the parts. It's become quite a habit :/

This pretty much sums me up. Probably being like the tenth person in this thread to say, but really, I thought I was alone in this.

I agree that it comes down to a form of escapism. It's almost like for a few minutes, you're somebody else, or at least your mind in the body of another.

 

[Luke1993]

I do it constantly, I feel much better "talking" to these imaginary people, I think I do it so often because it helps me escape from the harsh reality.

Although I tend to do these conversations in my head and not aloud (In case someone hears me) but sometimes I'll physically "act" something out.

 

[Silentknight]

For those of you who do this even if you already answered how many of you have been caught doing this? I had the unfortunate luck of being caught a couple of times and I hate it it's always such a huge blow to my self esteem which is already in the dumps and leaves me feeling worthless.

 

[dottie]

For those of you who do this even if you already answered how many of you have been caught doing this? I had the unfortunate luck of being caught a couple of times and I hate it it's always such a huge blow to my self esteem which is already in the dumps and leaves me feeling worthless.

that would be pretty humiliating... i haven't been caught yet, fortunately. it is mostly limited to inside my car immediately after a social situation. sometimes i think how embarrassing it would be if there was a hidden camera planted in there.

 

[Reebootnow]

I do this alot also. Get into arguments alot with people in my head. Well I guess it would be my perspective of who they are. I alway have had a really good imagination. I do know exactly what your talking about tho.

 

[Falkor]

Lol, I talk to imaginary people too. Like discuss some subjects.
or talk to my favourite celebrities. Or even fictional people. ::
People might think I'm crazy, but I'm talking alot to myself.. LOL ::
Sometimes I'm just talking to myself, like.. Oh yeah really xD
I also talk to my pets, but I guess that's very common

 

[goldenholds]

First of all, imagining talking to people and talking to imaginary people are two different things. I prefer to say I imagine talking to people. I go through scenarios in my head, where I talk out different ways things could or will go. It more like preparing for a chess move, playing out all the possible moves in your head, or reviewing a bad move. It’s a little exhausting at times, but I do it to form a backup plan, so that if I get anxious and can't think straight, I will have a plan that I can follow without having to think. I prefer and try to play things by ear, so to speak, but it’s nice to know that if things go bad, I have something to fall back on. It's helps sometimes. All the same, I once started a new business spontaneously by living on the edge and playing it by ear. And it worked. Wonders never cease.

Of course if you talk out loud, it’s no different than thinking it, but then someone could hear you. I would suggest wearing a wireless earpiece, and pretend to be talking into it, and then no one would be the wiser.

 

[Emmaa]

I do it too but only in my head.

If you're doing it out loud maybe it's a bit more of a problem.. Are you doing it out loud?

 

[IamThisOne]

I do this too. Sometimes it is an imaginary argument with someone who makes me mad. Sometimes it is like I am talking to my therapist and like a plan, but I can talk so comfortably when it is just myself. A lot of the time it is just me talking about absolutely nothing.

I don't think it is schizophrenia, if it is.... so what?

 

[Pacific_Loner]

I might be wrong but I would think people without AvPD/SA do this too
I find it a normal thing to do anyway........
It's just that if you do it out loud, it's less socially acceptable

 

[x-t0mat0s-x]

I talk to imaginary people. They are not imaginary people that I actually see or hear. They are just imaginary people that I visualize intuitively. Sometimes it is people that I actually know in real life other times it's celebrities that I'm attracted too. If you saw me talking to myself you would think I was having a conversation with some voice in my head. I don't hear voices though. I tend to see myself as "doing the other voices" for these imagined people. I don't know why this is or if it has anything to do with my AVPD. It's not like I plan it out Maybe some people will talk in front of a mirror to practice for an interview but this is nothing like that. The way it happens is in the normal course of my thoughts like say I'm sitting down alone and some person pops into my head and I began to wish that I had the courage to talk to this person but I know I can't so I make up this conversation and I really immerse myself in it I'll start moving my hands and start walking and talking. I can partialy visualize the setting that we are talking in and even see this person. A big problem I have with this though is after when I start to lose the immersivness I feel stupid for doing this like I'll never be able to have these types of conversations in life also I'm worried as to what, what I do means does it mean I have some form of schizophrenia or something else as severe or is this something not worry about?

I have been doing that the last 5 years almost everyday so I know how you feel. I am a psychology student so I can tell you that for sure this is no schizophrenia. I am a social phobic myself and I think that this is what we call «visualization». I use to do that days before a oral presentation or stuff like that. «Visualization» can also apply to social situation, but the thing is that «visualization» is suppose to HELP and prepare you, well, it help me when I have to perform (sports, acting, oral, etc), but in social sociation ur not suppose to be in a «performance mode», so it doesnt help at all. Social phobic think that they have to perform all the time in every discussion, so some of them «visualize», mostly the «perfectionnist social phobic» type, which is my type. Anyways, sorry for my english im from Montreal and I speak french.

Btw, the line is fine between social phobia and AVPD.

 

[3lefts]

Yeah this is just a natural part of my thinking... If I have something I really want to tell someone I end up thinking out the conversation as if I'm actually telling someone, a conversation literally develops as it would between others. Huh, never put that much thought into it, the only thing that does bug me is when I start to narrate myself in thought... or when I say thoughts out loud, usually when I'm alone and I can't remember if I had thought them or said them. Becomes muddled.
However talking to myself has always been an issue. And I've been made fun of for it plenty in my childhood, so I try to not so much in public.
Anyway, thoughts be crazy. This is how I realized why people are necessary, I can converse with myself of course, make my self happy, but I can never come up with anything beyond myself.
Other people have the ability to show me what I would never see on my own. Have conversation and take it somewhere it wouldn't go if it were mine. It would be team-work for something more than what was. You know? I like that.

 

[punklove]

Woah I seriously did think that I was the only person doing this.
I've been talking out loud to "imaginary friends" since I was around seven or eight years old... I figured I'd grow out of it but here I am 16 years old and I still do it.
Usually I'll pretend I'm having a conversation with an attractive celebrity of the opposite sex and I'll pretend to be someone I'm not (a more attractive, outgoing person) I even do stuff with the person which is just way too embarrassing to get into but yeah..

Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone in this
And to answer your question no I've never been caught (Cept sometimes I'll be talking to the imaginary person and my mom will be walking down the hallway and she'll ask who I'm talking to so I just pretend that I'm on the phone.)

 

[Minty]

I recall reading somewhere that Nikolai Tesla the inventor of DC (or was it AC?) current didn't have just a few imaginary people... He had a whole world (!!!!) inside his head and a persistent one at that. It's like playing an MMORPG with perfect graphics and lucid dreaming all in one. I would almost, very, very nearly kill to have that ability and I'm not in the least bit joking.

I have that ability.

It's horrible because at some point you want your inner world to be real. It doesn't fulfill all of your basic needs as a human being.

I use it for creative purposes, to write and find inspiration for my art.

But it stays inside because I'm an introvert. I don't talk out loud to imaginary people; I have them communicate inside my head. And I rarely put myself in this world because there is a danger that you can break from reality that way. I just have characters that play out a plot line. And I have multiple worlds.

 

[lithiumflower]

Usually I'll pretend I'm having a conversation with an attractive celebrity of the opposite sex and I'll pretend to be someone I'm not (a more attractive, outgoing person) I even do stuff with the person which is just way too embarrassing to get into but yeah..

I do the exact same thing. Though, sometimes it is celebrity or sometimes it would be a person that I just completely make up. You totally aren't alone on that.

 

[Silentknight]

I don't think it is schizophrenia, if it is.... so what?

If not schizophrenia........maybe.......Schizotypal?

 

[Aussie_Lad]

So with these Imaginary Friends, are you actually going through a process of thinking of the reply from the other person's perspective, or is the reply just popping into you head without much thought?