Telling reality from fiction during childhood

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So, someone linked this study recently:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20933368

Yes. I thought Kevin was real because I was told he was real but his real name was Macauley Culkin so in the movie I thought Kevin was his nickname. I even thought Jurassic Park was real because I couldn't understand the concept of "filming" if something was filmed, it really did happen right? Same as if you mention the actors I would think the characters were real.

I remember I would watch other movies and couldn't understand why Kevin had alto egos like different parents, different houses, different names and different siblings or none. I wondered the same thing about his mother and his brother Buzz. Why was his name Mickey in Dennis the Mennis and what is he doing in his neighborhood?

It took me until I was ten to figure out they were all acting and they all have roles and pretend. It's like doing a play except you do it to the camera and they film it and show it to people and release it to video. Except they don't have to act it all out again.

Then after that, even though I knew they weren't real, my parents and my brothers still acted like I thought Anita was real or Cruella or their Dalmatians because even my dad's cousin would tell me about Glen Close "She doesn't have dogs" referring to the movie when she told me how she has a summer house in Bozeman, Montana. People on I2 had acted like I thought Benny and Joon were real because I mentioned along these lines when I go to Spokane, it doesn't feel the same like it does in the movie. My school counselor even thought I thought Dottie and Kit were real as young people. I did think they were real at one point because my mom told me it actually happened. I took it literal and thought all the characters were real and the events. Then I was 14 when my dad told me it was just a story and I said "I thought it happened?' and mom said it's all fictional but I pointed out to her she said it all happened. Then she had to tell me all the details like the events were fictional and the characters, yes the war really went on, yes women really did play baseball during the war, that did happen but the story was fictional and the characters.

Now today when someone says something in the movie actually happen and that it's a true story, I do not understand what they mean by it. Did the characters actually exist? Are any parts fictional? I just don't know what they mean by it's a true story or that it actually happened. But if they say it's based on a true story, I can be more abstract with it because I know the names may be made up, the location, the events because they may have exaggerated them for the movie to make it more drama. After all it did say "based on a true story." So that tells me more about what might not be real and to take it as a grain of salt.


I remember telling my ex aspie mate the stuff Kevin does in the movies to the bad guys would kill them in real life. I even told him lot of stuff James Bond does is impossible in real life and can kill you in real life. I remember mom asking me "Did he believe you?" and I was like "yeah." Now I understand why she asked me that strange question. But honestly I don't know if kids young as nine know that stuff too. I sure didn't. Now I have the sense to know what would kill you or hurt you and what might be impossible. Cars driving through buildings without leaving any damage to their car, not possible. Plus I also know they use special effects or sugar glass to make it look that way. Movie companies do tricks that make it look real.

Yes many people find it odd for me to believe that the movie 2001 a Space Odyssey was based on a true story. Also I believe that the Death Star in Star Wars was based on a true story.

I didn't watch tv until I was around 19 or 20, except for maybe the odd time if I happened to be at a relatives house. But I read ALL the time as a kid, it was all I did. I had a really hard time distinguishing things that happened in stories from things that could really happen. SHOULD really happen, is a better way of saying it. I was obsessed with Nancy Drew, and I put myself in some extremely dangerous situations because I didn't know that it wasn't real.

When I was younger, books that pretended that the events depicted in them actually happened (like a Series of Unfortunate Events) always kind of confused me. I also remembering insisting Pokemon were real when I was five, and fully believing that I could catch a fairy in the garden when I was 11. I don't think I ever believed that something happened just because I saw a movie of it. So, I guess sometimes? (It doesn't happen anymore, though)

I truly believed in Santa until I was 11. The children that I 'played' with laughed at me for this, most of whom were a little younger than me, but that had no effect. I found out when 'Santa' said to me, 'Surely a big girl like you doesn't still believe in me?'

I don't think I struggled with this too much. I have always been one to question whether things like Santa, elves, and fairies were real. When I found out Santa wasn't real, my reaction was "ha, I knew it!" I did however believe that objects were living after I had watched a toaster on TV.

I used to read a lot when I was a child and when I was not reading I was mostly lost in my own thoughts........and a lot of times what was going on in the stories was more real to me then what was going on in life. But then my childhood was not very enjoyable and escaping was the only way I really knew how to deal with it. And though I knew movies and shows where not real I did explore the ideas expressed in shows and movies to the point of imagining I was one of the characters I still knew I was just pretending but it did come off as abnormal to a lot of people.

When I was 'connected' with reality I was mostly worrying about everyone else without giving my self a second thought, wondering what i was doing so wrong to make most people dislike me, and why I felt alone even though I had the illusion that my family was great even if there where ups and downs. But there is nothing wonderful about having an alcoholic father, a sometimes narcissistic mother and a divorce waiting to happen for 16 years until it finally did take place.

My daughter did believe in fictional characters when little but not any more than other kids her age. We did and do alot of discussing tv and actors and stories versus reality as she is growing up. Especially with the scary stuff. But she does still believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth fairy. And, the kids in her class - bless their hearts - don't challenge that belief. most of htem have younger siblings and understand the value of not ruining for those that still believe. She'll catch on sooner or later. I did around 9-10.

I easily got lost in fictional worlds but I don't recall ever believing they were real. Wishing really hard that they did - but knowing they were just fiction.

I thought Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny were all real all because mom told me.

When I was seven, my teacher made up these creatures called Pat and Mike and I thought they were real. At first I was confused because I couldn't see them and then I figured out they were invisible and only my teacher could see them. He left very good surprises in our classroom and then she got rid of them because "they were causing too many problems." Now as an adult I sometimes wonder if there were kids getting upset and confused because of the change and surprises and there were autistic kids in my class after all. I remember feeling confused too the first time I saw it until my teacher said Pat and Mike did it. But then after the second time I didn't feel that way anymore because I knew it was them. Now I realize it was one of the teachers that did it.


I remember when I was six, I thought the Star Trek spaceship was in the Columbia River Gorge on a cliff because mom said it was the spaceship from that show. I believed it and so did my brothers. Then at age seven I figured out it wasn't real because I saw it during the day and it was just Crown Point. Years later mom said she was just teasing and then didn't want to tell us she was teasing because she didn't want to disappoint us.

I remember I used to think all the Disney characters on ice were real when we go see them. Then I thought The Memorial Collisium was Disneyland. I thought that is where they lived and mom used to tell me the Disney people were sleeping so that so what they do when they aren't on ice.

But I think this stuff is all normal in young kids.

Even though I have always had a very active imagination, I've always been able to tell the difference between fiction and reality. Before I got put on medication, sometimes my parents and my psychiatrist would ask me questions like "do you hear voices?" because I still had (and still do have) imaginary friends way past the age which is considered normal for that type of thing. They were worried that my imaginary friends might be a manifestation of schizophrenia. They aren't though, because I know that they aren't real. I know that when they "talk" to me, it is essentially just me roleplaying with myself.

Interesting, before TV, most fiction was found in reading or by listening to the radio, before that verbal tales.

The question becomes, would some be less succeptible to problems, if these influences weren't available.

While at some point we become consciously aware of what is real and not real; Our mirror neurons interpret visual stimuli as real. Just because it is on TV, doesn't change the way our brain and central nervous system respond to stimuli.

Studies show schizophrenia shows up double the rate in higher populated areas as opposed to rural areas. I wonder if it is the same with Autism?

Is it good or bad to be exposed to thousands of people places and circumstances on TV, and at an ever increasing pace. Until the last Century, no human had the ability to vicariously live experiences they can experience in a month on TV as opposed to a lifetime before TV was invented.

I loved TV, until I couldn't take it anymore. Even though I knew it was not real it certainly felt close to as real as most anything else. It's not necessary to physically interact with the people on TV; must be at least an interesting adaptation for a brain that has been required to do that for the history of mankind.

For many people now, much of life experience is the fantasy they have watched on TV for an entire life. For people that never had that opportunity, life must have been very different.

I do not watch T.V because I hate commercials and there is nothing intresting on usually. 100 channels but nothing to choose from.

I have felt the same way about Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Lori Petty, Geena Davis, and Tom Hanks. While I know they aren't the people in the movies, they are just playing a role. I know Johnny Depp isn't really that eccentric but I learned he is actually quirky in real life and seems eccentric but not like Sam. Mary Stuart Masterson isn't sick and she doesn't wear her hair that way like she did in the movie. Bah I feel that way about all the actors from the movie. Same as in a League of Their Own, it felt depressing that I knew Geena Davis and Lori Petty are not ball players in real life in the league that doesn't even exist anymore. Though I was thrilled when I learned Lori Petty did actually play ball when she was a kid and she actually hit that ball in the movie at the end. But was disappointing when I knew the hair she had was probably a wig since she always wore her hair short and I was right, it was a wig she had on.

I even felt disappointed that I knew Joely Richardson and Jeff Daniels didn't really own those Dalmatians in the movie nor the puppies. I thought it was a shame they couldn't have them but I knew it was because they didn't belong to them. I remember in Shining Through I couldn't believe Joely Richardson would play a bad woman., a German spy and then it felt weird picturing her as Anita who was a bad woman in another movie. She's just an actress.

I never ever assume the actors in the movie are the same as their characters but yet it is surprising to hear what kind of people they are actually are with their personalities. Like I was shocked when I heard what a b***h Lindsay Lohan was and how hard it was to work with on the set of Herbie. Mom told me none of the actors got along with her and it was hard dealing with her. But there I watched that movie and they all seemed to get along fine, they were playing a role, duh. Same as when I found out how miserable Madonna was when they filmed A League of Their own. She hated where she was at. Hated the towns and everything.