High Imagination?

Post Reply New Topic

I know I already posted this but I am not sure how you guys will deal with me reviving dead threads that is why sometimes I make two of the same post but I would like to know if this problem is just me. I am male and 17 with ASD and whoever said that people with AS or ASD have no imagination is a lie. I don't know what it is with me but I have some serious issues regarding my brain and how it functions I have some sort of Imagination issue where every minute of the day I am daydreaming about something or I am thinking in my head about a thought or a scene of a movie or a videogame. I don't know what causes this but this is my problem a while. People think that I am slow or stupid because I keep having this problem. I would often think about something that I like and make my own little twist to it. Like I am reading Eragon and I would like to think what would happen if I was taking the character and putting him in ancient China or something with the cast and me as their guide and my mind will try to make a movie about that or other things like Stargate or Star Trek. I would also like to think about ATLA a lot or some other franchise. I can't keep a conversation with someone without this happening or like 3 seconds later I would be thinking about something else. I am bored 24/7 most of the time and this happens to me a lot. I would also like to take fictional characters and put them in new situations or something. I don't know why but this is just me that keeps having this problem. I feel like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbe's that I would live in my own universe and create my own characters or crossovers and such. I may add more to this but I would like to know is this just a problem with me? Sorry for bad spelling mistakes I don't have a spell checker.

I have a very wild imagination. I'm always making up things in my head. With the things that pop into my head, I should get back into my art.

The statement that spectrumites don't have an imagination stems from the observation that we can't invent social scenarios like other kids. This is also why many spectrumites are terrible liars. Sure we can imagine fantasies, but we have a hard time imagining real life social situations. This is why I was so unsuccessful at "playing house" when I was a kid.

Also, take a look at this other thread I posted. You need to have a social imagination to succeed at this: Theory of mind experiment

You are not alone in experiencing this, and I don't view it as a problem at all, but rather a gift. I also have a very vivid imagination. I love imagining my favorite fictional characters in alternate universes and crossover worlds. I like imagining different characters in different relationships with each other and making up what their children would be like.

My boss told me to stop dreaming and then he slammed me with a bad performance evaluation.

I am like that too, my imagination is my greatest strength and my worst downfall. I love my little world of my imagination unless my imagination goes off the clift somewhere and takes my sanity with it.

I have been to art school, won 2 art contests, had my own gallery show, and written poetry for 20 years and could probably publish pretty easily except for my executive functioning difficulties make it difficult to meet deadlines which was the hardest part of art school. The skill was there, the imagination was there, but time managment was not.
I want to finish school to be an art therapist for those with autism because I know how much that art gave me a voice when nothing else would.
I have at least 5 art projects going at the same time, almost all the time, so when I lose interest in one, I just pick up and finish the other one.

However, my imagination has lead to some phenominal mental breakdowns in the past, expecially before going on medicine for OCD.
I have had clean breaks with reality because of my imagination, so it is my salvation, and my destruction all wrapped in one.

As I grew older, I learned how to allow the good creativity to flourish and to control the bad aspects of it with a combination of medication and behavioral therapy.

Unlike the experts say, I can can imagine social situations, but my accuracy of what I imagined it to be, and how it actually turns out are way off. I hated playing house as a kid...I was much happier pretending to be an animal of sorts...sometimes even mythical ones that I totally made up.

My boss graduated from art school and he thinks Autistics are just a bunch of parrots that copy other peoples work.

I was never diagnosed with AS so I don't know if I do or don't have it. I also have frequent day dreams especially when I am bored.When I read books I also like to think what if something else happened?I like to think about being in a alternative universe were society is really different and there's odd creatures everywhere. When I listen to music I ussualy imagine a good music video for it. When people are talking to me I try to listen but I ussualy zone out.

When I saw the imagination symptom I was floored. For about the past 15 years I have thought that I had "lost" my imagination. When I was a child I had a great imagination and could make up facinating mystical stories up in my head. I was always talking to my "make believe friend" about impossible feats. The few friends I had I spent playing with Voltron, He-Man and She-Ra, and other 80's cartoon action figures. When I did play pretend, there was only one scenario and that was about my mother and I. I loved being the mom and demanding. Maybe always being on the other side as the bad child, I wanted to be the one in control.

My imagination now....It's easy to play with my 5 month old because I can just talk and smile to her. With my other kids, age 5-14, I can't recall more than once or twice I have sat down and actually played hands on with them where I had to pretend. I see most things in a scientific way. I look for facts. Now don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with pretend play and encourage my children to do it. I let them play how they want and be who they are. I just can't bring myself to do it.

My mind never stops. I am constantly thinking of new and different ways of doing things. New ideas pop into my head 24/7. Sigh...I'm always tired.

PS - I was horrible playing with barbies...never knew what to say...but that is very different than thinking of new ideas...none of which entail "so, how are you today...blah, blah, blah"

I don't know about my imagination. People that know me say i have no imagination because i like to describle what i imagine very accurately, and i'm a perfectionist even with imagination (it's not rare that when i have an idea i make researches for find if my ideas have been already done, and half of time my ideas are pretty original). I also seems to being able to control what i imagine (people say imagination can't be controlled, and is inspiration, but i can contol it). If is for visual imagination, i tend to imagine very colorful and detailed things, using elements i like (northern lights, solar eclipses, trees, smurf village or things i've created by myself like my fictional characters).
Yes, i have difficult to imagine real social situations. I must pratice on that. I, for example imagine peoples plaiyng on the beach, escaping from danger, watching the sky, writing, fighting, but when i imagine people talking each other i can imagine only special interests they should have and i don't know how to make them interact.

The creator of Pokemon has AS and Pokemon doesn't have the best plot, but yeah, one needs a lot of imagination to create looks of 560+ creatures.

So, yup, Aspies can be creative.

My mind buzzes non-stop, unless I am focusing on something (usually games), and then I think in terms of what I am trying to achieve (hard to describe, I don't think in words, just the thought abstraction of problems and what I can do to solve them). Otherwise it is just non-stop, endless thoughts. A never ending parade of hypothetical situations, thinking of things, imagining things, planning stuff that never happens. Could easily think all day, from getting up to going to sleep. Only problem is that I think in bed, which makes getting to sleep troublesome.

I also have slow reaction times because of this I would have a hard time getting out of my head because I am so into my own little world. Many people have thought that I was "Slow in the head" because of this or thought that I was ret*d because I was dwelling in my own little universe and that I could not react in time because of this. I have been described as a moron or an idiot because of my severe "imagination problem"

Yep, it's a matter of "socially appropriate" imagination rather than "no imagination". That is, the imaginary byproducts entertain and/or interest other NTs in social situations.