"Alternate realities" in your mind...

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I have been writing since I was nine and I always follow my characters daily lives in my mind, even when I'm not writing. Sometimes, when I'm alone, I enact dialogue scenes that I may or may not use in my writing. My characters are like real people to me even though I know they are fictional. They have specific birthdays and do many things that never make it on paper. Often, when things get to stressful, I escape to the world of my characters in my mind.

I read in Tony Attwood's Asperger book that many individuals with AS have fantasy worlds etc. Does anyone else here do this?

Yep, I used to have an imaginary world in my mind called Amera, when I was very little. It had its own language and everything, it was awesome.

Have been writing for as long as I can remember, and have always, ALWAYS done this! If I'm feeling agitated or out of sorts, it helps me relax to tell myself stories....often the same ones, and always with the same basic cast of characters. Most of my usual characters, too, haven't changed in years....hell, DECADES.

Also, I nearly ALWAYS tell myself stories to help put myself to sleep. Usually, they work.

I've been writing since forever, and I always do this, playing it out in my mind, and all 70-100 characters' backgrounds and daily lives.
Same story for the last 8 years, and I'm still not done writing it because I'm too busy fantasizing adding subplots, taking out subplots, adding characters, trying new ones, testing different sequences of events, reactions, consequences, etc.

It's how I survived school. Sadly, it's also been a big reason why my ex left me (he thought I was cheating, when I was daydreaming about my story), and why I care so little about this world. So I'm trying to find a balance, but it's hard.

"Ideas" are my only great obsession/addiction, so nothing ever gets done really...

I've been doing this since I was about 5. It was hard to make friends at school so my imaginary friends became my own imaginary world. As I got older the stories in my mind changed, sometimes the characters stayed the same but were older and in different situations. I still do it to this day and hope I can actually get something out of it - write a book or make a film about it.
I remember once I had to stop making these fantasies because it was interfering with my school work.

By the way this is called fixed fantasies.