Invisible friends

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Okay, I used to have an imaginary friend. I lost him (he got "stuck" in a little storm drain at a nearby park, we used to go visit him every once in a while) and he faded.

Then my little cousin started talking to pictures of guys she had a crush on and encouraged me into it, so I started doing it with her. Then I started doing it on my own time, paranoid whenever I was doing something embarrasing that the pictures would see, then I started imagining I could trun their senses "off" for a while and they would get stored into a special area where they coud chat together until I was done.

That slowly faded, not completely, I still do it with my stuffed animals, but now they're not even in pictures, they're just normal invisible friends. Pretty much all of them are based on real people, but some are made up. I often talk to them out loud normally, and rarely, if at all, quietly, in public. Sometimes Like when I used to be at school taking a test, they would "communicate" with me through a special headset and microphone, and I would get so cought up talking to them (usually if it was really quiet, I would just think it or mouth the words slightly like a ventriliquist), I wuld forget I still had a test infront of me, especially in math, which I absolutely hated.

I very highly doubt this is part of my Asperger's or ADHD. Or is it?

this is worrisome, please seek professional help, ASAP.

It's not that bad, I can interact with normal people normally, they fade. I like having people around, but not... huh.... how do I explain this... I'm a loner. I love being alone. But I also like being around people. Since I control them, they're much less draining to interact with than normal people. My real friends know about them. But I pretty much never have to have them around when I'm with normal friends.

I really doubt they're like, dangerous. Just a distraction. I like them, they cheer me up when I'm sad, laugh at my bad jokes, You know, simple friend things, but since they're a part of me, they do it the way I'd want them too, therefore being more affective.

I'm not being clear, but I don't know how to explain it any better. But the main thing is, they don't disrupt day to day activities except for concentration. And only on things I don't like.

I'm not sure I'd say it's inherently "worrisome", it just has potential to become worrisome, if only because if I had to guess, and I do since I'm not a doctor, I'd say it has something to do with the schizophrenia spectrum. Either way, I know a schizoaffective guy who's perfectly functional and saner than most.

In the end I'd just say, it's only a problem if it causes a problem.

Speaking as someone who does this too, it's really no big deal as long as 1. You don't let them take over your life 2. You can make them go away if you want to and 3. They aren't trying to get you to do anything off. It sounds like you have it under control, and I think you'll be fine.

I have recently posted a similar thread in the Adult Discussion area titled Imaginary Friends. The majority of the responses were positive over there. Maybe you can dig it up and read what other people have posted on the subject in support of it.

For the record, I too, have this issue. I disagree with the responses here that it is a reason to be concerned or linked to schizophrenia. You mentioned that you like being alone, so do I, and I believe this is more like a maladaptive coping mechanism for loneliness. My friends are also people I've known, I conjure them up at will, they seem to react how I'd ideally prefer someone listening or watching me to react, and they've never given me any commands to do harm to myself or others. By definition (if schizophrenia was the culprit), a hallucination is not something that's in your control, and visual hallucinations are comparatively very rare in schizophrenia.

Hope this helps.

Well I would not consider this the same as imaginary friends......but sometimes when I am alone I feel a presence, sometimes its neutral, sometimes negative and sometimes positive. like more than once I have been alone at my friends house(I'm at his house a lot and some weekends he has places to go so If I am visiting that weekend I will stay there while he's gone. But anyways one time in particular I was minding my own buisness on the computer and could sense someone sitting in a chair across the room.....I could not see anyone but I could certainly feel a presence.

and today a lot of my thoughts seemed overly clear......it was like I was having a long conversation/debate in my mind, I mean a lot of times I am aware of conflicting thoughts and such in my mind but this felt more like me and two others discussing matters that have been bothering me lately. I mean I knew it was going on in my mind but yeah usually I don't feel I and two others are in a part of my mind having a conversation. Not sure how I should feel about that to be honest......I mean I was not bothered by this incident but at the same time it was quite weird.

Again not sure if it's the same thing, but generally whenever I debate in my head I unconsciously go back and forth between two different "sets" of ideas or stances, parts of my mind. It kind of feels like what you're describing.

As for whether the OPs thing has to do with schizophrenia spectrum, well it's not like it has to be overwhelming. Look at the diagnostics for schizoid or schizoaffective. It just sounds like mild delusions (tho I'm wary to use such a stigmatized word). Not overwhelming, but enough to feel its existence, and get caught up in it if he's bored. It doesn't seem purely "imaginary", I mean.

Well in order for something to be diagnosed it has to cause difficulty in someones life.......imagining invisible people in your mind to talk to in itself does not have to cause difficulty. Though I have to say with what I experianced today usually it feels more like me just debating me......today it felt like there where litterally two others. I mean I obviously rationalized that these 'others' where still me but just more vivid then usual......I don't really know what to think I have been in a weird mindset the past few days....so for all I know I could have just been over analizing it.

Even so unless it becomes a problem I probably should not worry about it.

No, this is not a common ASD trait. I also would link it more to the schizophrenia spectrum.

I disagree - do not seek "professional" "help". The only "help" you'd be likely to get would be a schizophrenia diagnosis, along with possible hospitalization, even, where they'd force you to take mind-ruining neuroleptics ("antipsychotics") that likely would lead to brain damage (if taken for a longer time, anyway).

It doesn't even sound like a problem, to me, anyway. It just sounds like you have a great imagination. Some people even find a wild imagination as a very positive trait. It doesn't sound like you need to seek "help", to me, at all - you sound to be very much able to discern the difference between what is real and what isn't.

I'd like to say that I have a close friend who also has similar experiences to those of yours... they are not a problem to him, either, and he is most certainly not in need of any "professional" "help". In fact, his ability to lead a normal life far outweighs the abilities of many others. Even if you *do* have problems leading a normal life, though (whatever now "normal" is), so do many *without* the characteristics that you have.

I agree.

Besides, what some people might not have noticed is that I didn't ask whether I should get "help". I asked is it normal.

Now that I know it's not, I can just add it to my ever increasing list of oddly amusing things about me.

I hope it is ok for me to post here. I am not an Aspie, but my daughter is. I have done quite a bit of reading about ASD, and am a psychotherapist. There is a subtype of Asperger's that my daughter falls into, that does "withdraw" into fantasy as a means to cope with the world feeling overstimulating or overwhelming. My daughter's psychiatrist feels that the spirits my daughter sees are attributable to her autism rather than a psychosis. She feels there is a substantial difference between a schizophrenic experience of voices that are commanding you do something bad, and her strong experience in imagination. If these characters or voices are helpful, useful, then it is not a problem. Some cultures believe in these kinds of energies. I think I would consider it an aspect of oneself that does not feel integrated into the personality that is experienced outside of the self. To me, it sounds like the OP could make good use of this. Perhaps, getting overinvolved (?) at times. But that makes sense. Don't forget, NT's day dream and are not always all there.

welcome to the club, mimw^^^
on the subject of not being "all there" i have been criticized for just that, most of my life. but the reason i am not "all there" is because "there" is a hostile place, in my experience. so i just expose my hardened parts to "there" and keep my vulnerable parts elsewhere, in a much more congenial alternate reality. at the risk of sounding like a hypocrite to the OP, instead of having spectral people on the outside world ["there"] to chat with, i retreat into my inner world where i have friends. i have been seen by at least 5 different professionals over my decades, and they have basically served as sounding boards, somebody for me to talk to who at least pretends to listen to me. the reason i suggested professional help was because [for me] there is sometimes a thin line between fantasy and psychosis, and i have gone over the line on multiple occasions. the pros pulled me back on this side of the line and pointed me in the direction of a few tools to keep myself on this side of the line. i hope this made sense.

I've had imaginary friends my whole life, hence my custom rank. They are always based on whatever special interest I have at a given time, which is almost always a work of fiction. So basically I "adopt" my favorite fictional characters as my imaginary friends. I'm jealous of people who can create their own imaginary friends, because I have never been able to do that.

I don't view having imaginary friends as being a negative thing at all, especially since my imaginary friends are completely within my control and never tell me to do bad things. I would say that talking to them is just another form of talking to myself, only 50% of the time I am pretending to be someone else.

I view having imaginary friends as beneficial to me, because I get lonely, yet find actual social interaction tiring and actual friendships to be too much work. They help quell feelings of loneliness, yet don't require a lot of effort on my part - only my thoughts and my feelings of love for them are required for hours of entertainment.

I have told a couple of mental health professionals about it, but they never had a problem with it. One of them even called it a "creative solution to loneliness". My parents and younger brother know about it too. They have always known about it and don't have a problem with it. They view it as a part of who I am, and my mom says I'll probably have imaginary friends for the rest of my life.

Mines name is Razor. I don't see or hear him and this is how I know hes imaginary. It's just that when i have a problem I close my eyes and ask razor what to do about it then I say to myself under my breath whatever Razor would have to say in that situation. More or less I picture him looking kind of like my REAL best friend because he is Latino like my REAL best friend but he is also like me because he is tall and thin. Razor is just my dark side manifested in the form of someone i can ask for advice. I call it my dark side because Razor typically suggests a "tuff guy" type solution for things. For example when I'm doing some kind of difficult physical activity I hear Razor telling me "work harder don't be a wuss" BUT i don't actually hear anything except my own voice saying so under my breathe. I think I just created him as a motivational tool. Regardless of what anyone has to say I know I'm not crazy because I understand that razor is only in my mind. That's just how I process thoughts, in the form of imaginary conversations. If i need to recall a fact I have an imaginary conversation with the person who taught me that particular fact.