does anyone else have a VERY active imagination?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm a 23 yo female and haven't been diagnosed yet as AS, but will be evaluated soon. It's a pretty sure thing. Something I've been wondering about possibly being related to AS is the stories/characters/alter-egos I make up.

A year or two ago I drew a picture of a goofy dog and gave it to my boyfriend. He asked me to name him, and I quickly created a whole life story for him, gave him human characteristics, a family, a hometown (which I even looked up on googlemaps so I could be accurate about it!), and more. Since then I've probably created a dozen more of these characters/alter egos, ranging from a drug-addled NBA basketball player to an orphaned cat that likes to bake. I know this sounds totally f*****g insane, but it's a great way for my boyfriend and I to pass the time, and I always make him laugh. I'm able to keep track of the minutiae of all of these "people" and always have their stories straight. Ask me what I had for dinner the other night and I couldn't tell you -- but ask me exactly what age my make believe NBA player was when he started working at Sport Authority in Joliet, Indiana and I'd know the answer no problem!

Something that made me think that this may be AS related is that I've never had gender/pronoun confusion before, however I gender all of the characters that are based on myself as male and sometimes refer to myself as male when he and I are in this very silly mode (FYI -- I'm not trans or questioning my gender identity by the way!). I wonder if it's because I'm allowing myself to relax and be extremely childish that some more of these AS traits come out.

Anyone else have any weird little things like this or am I totally nutty!?

I have the exact same thing, so you're not alone in this regard. I make up characters (for other people's worlds, I do admit), and all of my characters also have a very, very detailed life of their own.

I also have a video-imagination (I'm not sure what the proper term for it is, but I can create entire movies/episodes in my head with absolutely everything from sound effects to dialogue), so I already have full-length episodes/movies about my characters moving around in my head.

I'm not sure if what you're describing is AS-related or not, honestly. It could be, but I'm not sure.

My imagination's pretty active as well. I sort of "adopt" my favorite film characters as imaginary friends and give them totally new and different lives as residents of my imaginary world. I like to imagine them in romantic relationships with each other and I make up children for each couple. Pretty much all of the couples are same-sex because I just like it better that way for some reason, but I still make up biological children for them. It doesn't make sense from a logical standpoint, but I do it because the only way I can imagine my own original characters is to mix and match genetics from existing characters. Plus I think it's fun to imagine what the parenting styles of different characters would be.

I also frequently talk to my imaginary friends and voice their answers back to myself. Sometimes I get so involved with it that I forget that I'm only talking to myself and there aren't other people with me! But it's actually a helpful coping mechanism for when I feel sad, anxious or lonely.

I can picture my imagination in one of three ways: live-action (default, since all of my current imaginary friends are from live-action films), anime-style and video game-style. My ability to picture my imagination as a video game is largely the reason why I no longer play actual computer/console games. I like thinking in anime style sometimes because it's cute and it helps me draw the characters. It's also a throwback to my childhood/adolescence, when anime was a huge obsession of mine. I still watch live-action films because that's how I "meet" more imaginary friends and get to know their personalities better from repeated viewings.

Sorry for the super-long post! Hopefully someone read and enjoyed it!

I am similar, but not the same. I take others' worlds, characters, et cetera and twist them the way I want them, add in new bits, combine some with others, all in this great crazy imaginary world of mine like something out of a fantasy novel or video game. I spend about half my time thinking through it, and it has been going on since I was little.

However, I am incapable of spontaneously creating my own fantasies. Just a tiny bit - a seed - is all that is needed and I can create a huge amount of things from that. If I try to come up with something of my own I forget it in a few minutes, and it is never worth remembering anyway.

Heh. That's why I took up writing.
I came up with about 14 stories, 2 of which I'm writing. And I came up with over 80 characters.
Of course, I sometimes lose track or control and go crazy with creating random people and places. xP
However, each of the main characters reflect a part of myself and my personality. Like 5 of them are autistic themselves. So my creativity never strays far from my range of behavior. But the actual stories that revolve around them do.

I use my Imagination to entertain certain... fantasies of a more... sexual nature...

but I also write books, LARP, and play Paper and Pencil RPGs

I also love making up characters and entire worlds in my head which are extremely detailed. I call them the movies in my head, which I spend far more time than I should watching. quite often they have very complex story lines. I'd love to write them down but whenever I do all the thoughts get jumbled and just stream away from me. It's very annoying.

I have a very, very active imagination-- full of people, things, places, & experiences that I've never been able to have in my own life. I basically live out an alternate reality in my head. There are versions of me, & also lots of other characters which are people I'd like to meet or versions of people I already know, etc.

Ha! I could have just quoted you instead of writing my own reply. This is pretty much exactly how it is for me. Luckily, though, I am sometimes able to get things down on paper.

You're lucky to be able to jot them down! Do you find you write them out so there's a linking narrative between each piece or is it instead individual stories?

Hmm.. My 9 year old has been doing the same thing for years now, it started with the kids show Charlie and Lola and an imaginary friend on it. Now she has what she calls her imaginaries, bunches of them. The more popular one is Matilda from the movie of the same name. I'm currently trying to help her work out how and when to play with imaginaries with her friends.

It's hard to see her go off on her own when she has a friend over. Her friends give her a lot of slack when it comes to her behavior, she loves her friends so much but it's hard to teach her how social play works.

It is more than imagination, it's complete inner worlds

I would do that with my wrestling games. Every created wrestler would have his or her background story down to the most specific details. There were the basketball sisters, the "army sergeant", the evil scientist from Germany (I wanted him to be from Norway, but there wasn't an option for that) the armored knight, etc. They all had names and biographies. Then they would wrestle for the title

I'm a lot like that too. I have a few worlds in my head but try and write them down and they fall apart. It think it's because the 'movies' in my head go faster than my writing (and typing) which ends up with the story way ahead of what I'd trying to write. I don't know about yours but for a long time mine didn't have a 'rewind' button and the one they have now is limited in its function.

I've made a world or two mostly from just my head but I find it easier to use characters I like be they from books, TV or movies. I got into role playing close to two years ago now (text based via computer) so now I have an outlet for my worlds I make. My parents don't approve though.

I'm exactly as you are describing. I make characters up in my head, and I give them a whole backstory and world. I have some sort of video imagination, though it's practically without dialogue, but instead, there is a vivid image that I can make stories and novels with. There is always music in my things, though.

If I try to write down my ideas, though, I always forget what I originally planned to write...

I've always been complimented on my big imagination. I always had ideas for shows to put on but other kids were so jelous of my ideas they would tell me how stupid it was and didn't want anything to do with it. Teachers were also jelous and also told me it sounded like a stupid idea. I bet I could have done a better job on the Lion King Broadway show than Julie Taymore did. I would have used more color and made it look less like a description of an LSD trip.