This seems odd to me, so I thought I’d get a second (or tenth or fifteenth) opinion. My cousin told me, in confidence, that she has imaginary friends. Well, that’s not exactly how she described it. She said she invented a cast of characters, like the characters in a novel, and that when she’s walking around alone she imagines their conversations. Oh, and she’s in her mid-20s. I told her that I didn’t think it was strange, but really, I do. What do you guys think?
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vix, could you do me a favor?
Could you tell me who I’m supposed to be picking up at the train station in Chapter 9? Thanks. The suspense is killing me.
[/aside]
No, I think that’s perfectly normal, vix…
ha ha. :rolleyes:
She doesn’t sound crazy to me. It sounds like she just has a very active imagination. With the way you said she describes these characters, it does not seem like she believes they are actually real.
I think an active imagination is a good thing. She is probably a very creative and/or easily bored person who comes up with these characters to make things more interesting.
I don’t think this is weird, because I do something similar. Like when I am alone doing something boring, I imagine there is an apprentice there to listen to me describe what I am doing, so they can do it and I will never have to do this boring task again. It makes the time pass quicker. I also have several characters I hold debates with when I am driving alone.
:: goes back into his padded room
I’m with Xizor. I’m always imagining conversations in my head…and even saying them outloud.
Remember…there’s a VERY fine line between creative and insane.
Define crazy.
She’s probably a little different. So am I. Is it damaging her sense of reality? Is she going to hurt anyone or herself? I doubt either, or you would have told us.
So she writes stories without publishing them, so what? I collect feathers and leaves and braid them into my hair and imagine fairies. We won’t go into the discussions I have with my doll. I’m probably a little beyond the pale, but its not dangerous and I function in society.
Don’t worry about it until she actually looses touch with reality or slaughters small animals because they didn’t like one of her charactors.
So I’m not the only one? I have a cast of characters ready to amuse me during down-times – like, on a long car/T ride by myself, or if I can’t fall asleep at night but don’t feel like getting up and doing anything. It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure book without the hassle of papercuts. I’d be worried if I started talking to the characters myself, or bringing them up in daily conversation (“You’ll never guess what Michael did the other day… Who’s Michael? Oh, he’s one of the guys living inside my head.”), but so far, I’m safe from that.
Maybe I’m making up for never having an imaginary friend as a child… I was always envious of my friend Kara’s imaginary friend Meano. 
Oh gads, how scary. I thought I was the only one who made up imaginary conversations in my head. I have a cast of characters, the boring ones get rotated out and the more interesting ones get to stick around. Some of them are completely made up, and some of them are based on characters from books or mythology.
Tell you cousin that instead of telling other people she has imaginary friends, she should simply say “I have a rich internal life.”
Whoo hoo! It’s not just me!!
I do it too.
But hey… I am in therapy 
It is okay, unless it gets hard to find the diffrence between reality and phantasy. For me I started having the problem that I really heared their voices, although I knew they were not real - all in all it is just a great imagination and she should start writing books - if you have mental tendencies (like me) it will probably concern people and make them put you on anti psychotics that make you sleepy cause you dont need them.
Now, who did I scare?
dodgy
Not bad so long as they distinguish between RL people and the imaginary ones. Isn’t it like when primitive people made their myths? They gave personalities, etc to their gods. Heck, don’t we make up imaginary people when we dream?
Thank you all for responding; I feel better now. (In fact, now I’m sort of jealous that I don’t have these characters!) 
I think my cousin feels the way some of you do. She doesn’t think her behavior is that unusual, but she doesn’t want to announce it to the general public. Again, thanks.