Imaginary friends are good for a child’s development. Here
Interesting read. The linked article didn’t touch on this but I also remember reading that having imaginary friends helps a kid with problem solving skills as well.
It’s completley normal in kids and is a sign of an active imagination. In adults…not so much.
Got it in one.
Is it just me, or is this getting way stranger, with every passing day?
I never had an imaginary friend, although I have been the imaginary friend to a number of young people.
I did when I was little. His name was Jesus.
Jesus wasn’t imaginary. He was the gardener.
And a very naughty boy.
I had an imaginary friend when I was a little kid. Two actually. They were brother and sister, named Whistleclick (the boy) and Click (the girl). I remember that they were invisible, and I’m pretty sure I knew they were imaginary, but still had fun talking to them. My mom says I used to blame EVERYTHING bad that I did on one of them. I can’t remember when I stopped the whole imaginary friend thing, but I think by 5 or 6, they were gone, maybe earlier.
One of my friends told me that she had a family of imaginary friends when she was little. They were originally from Joliet, IL and lived under the refrigerator. I am not making that up.
I couldn’t vote because SDMBKL left off this option:
I think you are imaginary and irrational.
For those considering the issue of imaginary friends seriously. I never had any that I believed were real (and needed a place at the table and would get hurt if someone sat on them etc) but I did make up serial stories about the same group of characters from early childhood until well into my teens. Actually I probably last visited the milieu in my thirties – I was a bit stressed at the time.
OK, perhaps the OP meant to use a different tense for the verb ‘have’.
Most, if not all, of the posters on this board are at least nominally adult (there are some notable questionable instances, but they are outliers) and therefore are beyond the age where imaginary friends normally disappear.
However, assuming that our extraterrestrial friend meant 'Did you have imaginary friend(s) when you were a child?" then the answer for this poster is, “Yes, I did. Their names were ‘Fishy’, ‘Baby’ and ‘Arfy’. I created them subconsciously when I was about 3 and they were around until I was about 5 or so. Later, when I developed a fear of scorpions (about the age of 6) I deliberately created an imaginary scorpion friend that lived in the outside wall of my parent’s habitat. His name was ‘Scorpy’ and he protected me from scorpions. Once my fear was allayed, he told me that he was going to go back to Scorpion Island, but that I could always call him if I needed him.”
As an interesting aside, the irrational fear of scorpions is a form of arachnophobia, a phobia that is usually associated in most people’s minds with spiders. I have never been afraid of spiders. There does not appear to be a specific term for ‘irrational fear of scorpions’ which is rather odd since we have made up terms for fears like Arachibutyrophobia - the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth, Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia - the fear of long words, and Pteronophobia - the fear of being tickled by feathers.
Obviously, there has to be some out-of-work psychiatrist who can coin a word for this.
I suggest Buthidaephobia since most of the scorpions with venom dangerous to humans are among the family Buthidae.
I wonder if there is an official registry for these terms wherein I might enter suggestions.
I don’t get this imaginary friend thing at all, not in children, adults - only perhaps in a few disturbed individuals, but even they seem to tie personalities into real objects such as toys and dolls.
This is so far outside my frame of reference that if someone tried to explain their imaginary friend to me, I could never ever understand it at all. I have never taken any other view, and have only ever seen this as a bit if one of those strange Americanisms along with trick or treat…
No doubt someone will point out that its actually all over the world, maybe, but drugs are also widespread too, so maybe there is an overlap there.
I do. He’s got a sonic screwdriver and great hair, and I’m just waiting for him to visit. Wait! is that him now…?
I now realize the mistake in my last post. Somehow, I voted correctly and then forgot the dang question’s actual wording. Oh well.
CLosing thread.