reality vs. in my head?

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I get these ideas or things happening in my head that I obsess over and replay over and over. Anything from a family member dying from an illness to going to get groceries. And I just replay it over and over until I have trouble figuring out if it actually happened or if it was in my head. I know I have a few false things right now that I think I am but I know I'm not.. it's confusing. I rarely get confused enough to tell someone something false, but if I do it's usually nothing major like something very exaggerated or an alternate ending to something that did happen (that I obsessed over). It's almost always something negative happening to me or someone I know and I sometimes cry when thinking about it over and over but I can't stop replaying it even though it never happened. =/ is this AS?

I don't know, but have the same thing happen to me all the time. Don't know if its AS related, but am interested in finding others opinions.

Do you ever get the "reality isn't real" thing? Like when I go on vacation somewhere, as soon as I get home it's like the vacation didn't really happen, or doesn't feel like it was real.... something like that.
The things that might feel real aren't always, and the things that are real don't always feel like it, is what I guess I'm trying to say.

Yes, I think. I go through times when it's hard to imagine if anything is real.. like nobody else seems real, except me. If that's the same thing.

Sometimes I can't tell the difference from a dream and reality, like I'll have a dream that makes me see someone as the opposite to who they are or a dream about someone dead that's alive, then I'll wake up and I would still think those things were true.

Just curious... but do you also have really vivid dreams along with a very detailed " minds eye "? I get the same thing too sometimes when I am thinking really, really deeply for too long. The vividness of my imagination/dreams is really no different from my reality, when becomes an issue mainly when I spend too much time zoned out and by myself. Which has been a lot lately... long story.

I have an active inner social life... I can usually tell the difference, but sometimes feel that people can see what I've thought...

Vivid dreams... yes. Not sure about the "minds eye". I don't think I "see in pictures" very much if that's what it means. When I'm obsessing over something I really don't know what's going through my head... I just get kinda "lost" is what I call it.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. The way I described it was more like everything was a dream. Or to be more specific, every thing seems to FADE like a dream. In your example, I would get back from vacation, and barely remember it, and all the lessons I learned and experiences I had when I was there would just fade away, the way a dream does when you wake up from it.

It's a terrible feeling because it makes me feel like I can't make any permanent improvements on myself, everything just fades out of my reality. Have you ever had that feeling? Have you dealt with it? How?

to the Original poster, I'd say that I have had experiences similar to what you're describing, so you are not alone. I also obsessively replay imaginary events in my mind. Usually they are arguments or confrontations wiht my parents. emotionally it is real to me, and the lines sometimes blur, especially when I picture things in the more distant past. It feels like I am still mad at them and resentful, even though they didn't actually do the things I have imagined, so I kinda know how you feel about it getting confused with reality.

Don't let it bring you too far down, don't give up buddy. Maybe you can even use this to your advantage. if you can replay positive experiences instead of negative ones in your mind, then maybe you could gain confidence and happiness that you could use to improve your life in the real world.

Just a thought, I am following a tangent here, but I thought it might be an interesting idea to bring up.

Allll the time! Reality is almost never real for me :/

Your problem may be that you don't have any other opinions on what you are essentially debating with yourself. You can only thing about something so much before you no longer have the information to further your understanding of it. I've found that the best answers are to either A: Communicate it to build a more solid understanding... and/or B: I know from vivid and horrible experience that this is difficult in practice... but stop thinking about it. The more distractions you have, the better. It is definitely possible to over think something.

The biggest problem I had was that my fears were almost always irrational, and I was young. My dad was supportive/comforting... but when I was with my mom I received a " don't be ridiculous " attitude. Which was great because after awhile I just felt stupid, terrified AND helpless. That sort of evolved into my phobia of going insane. Anyone want to trade childhoods?