Personifying Objects.

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This is a trait I have, and it's stupid, and I really, really hate it.

When I look at an object, it's like I don't see the whole thing, I see points & angles, which my brain then reads as 'eyes' or 'feet' etc.

When I was a kid I used to give names to items like footballs (soccor balls in America), and I kept them as 'pets' rather than toys.

I think this trait of mine has lead to the bad OCD I have about my computer. The OCD (which I have talked about on here before), revolves/d around me changing settings & messing with things on the computer that could break it, it was like I had to do it as if it were the same reverse psychology as putting a kid in a room with a huge red button that says DO NOT PRESS.

This lead to me deleting a file on my computer that caused it not to boot up, the cost was £55 for the repair. It was like I woke up one morning and by the time I realised what I was doing, the computer was stuck in a continuous cycle of trying to boot up.

It feels like I am at war, some sort of personal conflict with the computer, my mind perceives it as a living being, that is able to plot against me and cause me the great amount of stress it does. I have several panic attacks a day, several urges to mess it up that I have to resist because my partner uses it, and my mum has refused to pay for any more repairs.

Back on topic though, does anyone else have this issue with giving objects a sort of 'life', even if you don't mean to and can logicaly work out the difference between objects and living beings?

There's one thing you could do which could help you a lot - some versions of Linux can be run off a CD, without needing to be installed on your hard disk. If you downloaded Ubuntu (that's my favourite, it's nice and easy to use) and burned it to a CD, then if you managed to break your machine, you would at least know that you could just put the CD in and run Ubuntu off the CD - which would let you get on the internet, and so on, and there'd be no way you could break it (short of physically destroying the CD)

If you want to try it out, send me a PM and I'll give you step-by-step instructions if you like. As a bonus, once you're confident doing this sort of thing yourself, it helps you know why the machine is doing whatever it is doing - once you can install the operating system from scratch by yourself, you don't have to be so worried about breaking the machine any more (although in practice it may still be extremely annoying to have to fix it.)

(edit) Also if you like, they'll send you a free CD of Ubuntu if you want one without having to download and burn it yourself, but it might take a while to get there. Here's the link for it.

I sorta feel this way towards my car, giving it "life" and perceiving it as having feelings. I don't think I could dare trade it in as I'd imagine it feeling abandoned when I leave it at the car yard. Also, on the day it has dents or accidents (none yet so far thank goodness) I'd imagine it feeling physical pain.

I personify almost everything, but I didn't know anybody else did. Objects seem to have consciousness, and sometimes a personality. Even though I know they probably don't, and I can treat an object as if it's lifeless, I still feel the same way.

I personify many things, if not everything. I always treat objects with a lot of care, as if they have feelings.

I've been known to anthropomorphize the Roomba every now and then.

yeah i still personify random objects... i remember one time personifying somebodyelse's things and getting into trouble as i got rather attached and wouldn't give it back. that was a long time ago. i don't get so attached now lol... i remember personifying alot of stones when i was a kid actually now i think about it, probably coz they had lil marks that i'd see as eyes etc. i remember keeping a stone in my pocket that i'd become attached to.

I personified chocolate and sweets in the shape of animals or people when I was younger and I wouldn't eat them. I imagined them being terrified at the prospect of being eaten. Even though I knew they were inanimate objects, I couldn't bring myself to eat them and I still can't.

I personify my stuffed animals and sometimes the cars

Thank you^, that's the word I was looking for.

Yes, I anthropomorphize many objects in my surroundings-
I don't assign them a gender, they're neutral, but I consider them to have personalities
based on their behaviors (my interactions with the items).
Such as a noisily shrilly beeping microwave, a glitchy computer program, a creaky spot on floor, etc.
Stuffed (toy) animals evoke similar response in me as I have towards real live animals: protectiveness & attachment.

If a cup tips over and spills, I smash it on the floor for its offense. When an accident happens due to my own clumsiness, I feel such intense rage at the object involved that I am compelled to punish it for its insolence, its gall. An anger management course has helped me to reduce my destructiveness somewhat. My therapist actually sees this as progress because I used to direct my rage into self-induced bruising. Fortunately my rage issue is a private one. I maintain my composure around other people.

When I was young I used to talk to a little splash of paint that was on the bathroom wall. For some reason it just seemed to be like it was a person. I do make faces out of objects, I always make animals out of my toast in the mornings when I'm eating it. It's something I've always done and I think I will always do it. I do it without really thinking about it.

Aww! That's kinda sweet.

Oh my gosh, literally EVERYTHING was "alive" to me when I was a kid....my stuffed animals, sculptures in a museum, cars, everything. I think what I personified most were my stuffed animals...each one had his or her own name and personality, and I always took at least one with me everywhere I went. As I grew older, one of my favorite "objects" to personify were cars....I loved anything that had living cars in it....The Chevron Cars, Putt-Putt, Benny the Cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Susie the Little Blue Coupe, Speed Buggy...and of course, the Cars movies!

If I had to make a list of the "main influences" of my childhood/adolescence that laid the framework of my love for all things personified, I think it would go like this:

The Velveteen Rabbit

Toy Story

Susie the Little Blue Coupe (the classic Disney cartoon they used to show on the Disney Channel)

The Little Engine that Could (the cartoon)

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (Mary-Anne! )

The Chevron Cars

The Brave Little Toaster

Transformers

Cars/Cars 2

Now I don't do this, but as a child I used to do this a lot.

I remember that when I was 5 my father had an old car that didn't work anymore and he had to change it.
I got very angry and I remember that when he brought the new car into the garage I got in there to see it, I started crying and I kicked it.

However, I got over this very quickly, and the day after I didn't care about the car anymore.

Aww, that sounds like something I would have done, if my dad had changed his old light blue car for a brand-new one...I was always attached to our powder-blue car as a little kid, because it reminded me of Susie from susie the Little Blue Coupe. He did eventually trade the blue car in, because he inherited his mother's (my grandmother) Buick Le Sabre when she could no longer drive it...the Buick came from my grandma, who I loved, so I liked it just fine and didn't have a problem with it. We were simply giving a new home to a car that didn't have one, and I was sure that our old blue car would find a nice new home as well.