# SPs: Imaginary friends as a kid



## LeafStew

Hey, I was wondering: Did you have imaginary friends as a kid?

My mother told me I had one though. I was wondering if it was a common thing among SPs...


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## ZaRocks

I had very, very many. And each of them had their own story, interpersonal relationships and so on and so forth. I've even revisited their lives recently to create some epilogues.


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## firedell

No, never.


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## Darner

a ton of them. i was an only child but the kids around my house weren't that fun so i rather made my own. i later discovered that i got new imaginary friends every time i changed school or transferred, so i guess they served me as something like an initiation process. 
the ones i have today i don't see them as imaginary friends anymore but as parts of my personality that don't have enough voice so they try to "scream out" through other niches. (for example, i try to deny as much as possible my "feeling" part, but one of my friends is then the one that always tries to bring me to my senses by explaining me the positive side of the feeling for that occasion etc. it makes me feel more true to myself if i feel that somebody else than myself "persuaded" me into something :laughing


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## Raindrops

I don't think so, but I have a twin sister so that's probably why I never felt the need for one.


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## FrozenFire

Never had a single one, I was always too lazy to.


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## Fat Bozo

Yeah, I had this dude named "Diduh" (dunno how to spell it) later on he looked like God in my mind. Or maybe God looked like him. 

Maybe he was God all [email protected]


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## spg565

Nope don't think I've ever had one. Could be that I had an older sister to keep me company most of the time when I was young , so there was really no need for one I guess


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## letsmosey

I never had an imaginary friend (I don't think) but I used to play with my stuffed animals all the time. I gave them personalities and created stories for them when I played. As a kid I moved around a lot so I got used to playing by myself. Does this count as imaginary friends? I'm not really sure it's the same thing.


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## alionsroar

I had a few:happy:


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## mrshankly

yes i did. my favorite movie was a kid was Dumbo, you know, the one with the elephants haha. Anyways id run around the house pretending I was running with my elephant friends....


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## dysnomic

I've had dozens of imaginary friends throughout my life. Also, I've created imaginary worlds in my mind and alter egos for me to use while I was alone. I think I made these fantasies because I've always felt that there was no place for me in any kind of social group. I became a loner, because I felt so alone already.


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## Fizz

I tried out one imaginary friend as a child because of all the hullabaloo I'd been hearing about them. I got bored and chose to not play with them anymore :tongue:


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## themartyparade

Not really. If I was alone, I'd pretend someone was there listening to what I had to say but I never really "played" with my imaginary friends if I remember correctly.

However me and a friend had a shared imaginary friend when we were kids. We called him "Secret Friend" and this friend must've been a real dumb one 'cause he'd always get himself into trouble, get lost in the forest or end up in places he couldn't get down from and me and my friend always had to save his lazy ass. It was fun 'cause we were kinda like superheroes on a mission to save our buddy.

I remember getting tired of "Secret Friend" after a while though and I decided that it was better to let him die rather than saving him. Fortunately my friend agreed with me.


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## Erbse

Not at all.


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## Functianalyst

Mestarious said:


> Hey, I was wondering: Did you have imaginary friends as a kid?
> 
> My mother told me I had one though. I was wondering if it was a common thing among SPs...


The whole notion of having imaginary anything would seem to defy the gifts of Se in appreciating tangible reality, don't you think? I would think that we could go deep into our imaginations, but it would take a jump start from something tangible.


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## Solluna

_I don't believe so? But I think that may be because I had a younger brother and we would roleplay together. Virtually he was my "imaginary friend"._


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## MrSmashem

I'm gonna have to go with Functianalyst on this one. Everything imaginary in my childhood, stemmed from something I saw on T.V. or something of the sort.

Example: I'd watch a Power Rangers episode and then run out to my front yard and pretend I was a Power Ranger, fighting the villains of the most recent episode, alongside the other Power Rangers.

Or I'd watch a Spiderman commercial, go climb my hallway walls and pretend I was shooting webs out of my hands.

I never, "created" anything imaginary out of nothing. And I didn't have any imaginary, "friends" either. I had imaginary fight buddies, enemies, scenarios etc. but no, "friends." The closest I got to an imaginary friend was imagining a girl I liked, sitting next to me or something for a few minutes.

And I always knew my imaginary scenarios were fake-just something I was doing to pass the time. I always thought the kids who insisted they had an imaginary friend that was with them all the time had issues or were in denial or something. Felt the same way about kids who believed in Santa/Easter Bunny etc. and made up stories about how they heard reindeer footsteps on their roof on Christmas morning at 1 A.M.


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## freyaliesel

I have to ditto what @xReBoRN7 said. I used to act out imaginary scenarios, but I never actually created anything imaginary. And like @Fizz, I would pretend I had an imaginary friend, but I knew it was just make-believe, and I didn' actually think that there was an actual person, I was just trying it out because I had read about it in books.


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## themartyparade

xReBoRN7 said:


> And I always knew my imaginary scenarios were fake-just something I was doing to pass the time. I always thought the kids who insisted they had an imaginary friend that was with them all the time had issues or were in denial or something.


Now this is weird but I've never actually considered the possibility that some kids might think their imaginary friends are real. I mean, I've seen it on tv and such but I've always figured everyone knew they didn't really exist but still chose to play with them because it was fun. I always knew it was just pretend and I figured everyone else did too.

If I ever "played" with an imaginary "friend", I did so when I was alone. I'd never run up to my parents and go "mom, dad, look this is my friend." -points to imaginary person-. I thought those kind of things only happened in movies or books.


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## MrSmashem

themartyparade said:


> Now this is weird but I've never actually considered the possibility that some kids might think their imaginary friends are real. I mean, I've seen it on tv and such but I've always figured everyone knew they didn't really exist but still chose to play with them because it was fun. I always knew it was just pretend and I figured everyone else did too.
> 
> If I ever "played" with an imaginary "friend", I did so when I was alone. I'd never run up to my parents and go "mom, dad, look this is my friend." -points to imaginary person-. *I thought those kind of things only happened in movies or books.*


Nope, saw it happen a few times in elementary school. Some kids were just convinced they actually had a friend that only they could see...and he/she/it was real. Maybe pretending their friend was real was just part of their game and I was pooping on their parade by saying no one was there, so to keep it going they had to keep playing along...idk. I just sort of ignored them after they tried to convince me their friend was actually there. 

I even saw some parents support their kids playing with their , "real" imaginary friend...weird stuff.

On a side note, it was pretty rare, only a few kids were like that and most of them grew out of it....just like Santa/Easter Bunny etc.


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## sparkles

Nope. I wanted my physical friends around constantly though. At least before I had to deal with traumatic loss that altered my personality for a while.

I didn't really like playing with toys. I liked playing games with friends. My folks bought me this fancy barbie dream house and it only got used if a friend came over who wanted to use it. I liked to play active games outside, or pretend games with friends.


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## Lieutenant_Chocobo

I had a BUNCH of imaginary friends when I was a kid... I would bring them if we had show and tell day at school too. :3


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## LotusBlossom

When I was 10-12 I have this friend called Jonathan. He disappeared very quickly, though, because I told my mum about him and my mum thought that he's my boyfriend, and at that age I wouldn't be caught dead fancying a boy!

I still have a few, now....and I'm already pushing my mid-20's . I wouldn't consider them 'imaginary', though, because they came to visit me in my dreams. So, just because they don't exist in the tangible world doesn't mean they're imaginary! One of them is Six Fingered Albino Cyclops. She's basically a little girl with multiple birth defects (albinism, polydactyly, cyclopia). I met her when I was 18. She was hiding in a subway, running away from horrible people who were trying to lynch her. Then something in my mind told me that she's actually me, a personification of this part of me that I keep hidden beneath layers of normalcy until I forgot existed.

There are also a pair of brother and sister rabbits called C and Mix. Also they came to me in my dreams. They were both terribly young to be without parents - C, the older sister, was barely equivalent to a 6-7 years old child and Mix was a baby still wearing diapers. At first C was very hostile to me while hiding Mix behind her because she thought I was one of those 'bad' humans who would harm them, but eventually I managed to convince and reassure her that I want to be their friend. Only then did I get a close enough look at Mix to see that he has multiple deep laceration scars on the right side of his face. C bears this burden of guilt on her little shoulders because she feels like she's failed to protect her brother. According to C, he's already started to speak but had regressed when the attack happened, and he's actually very bright beyond his years.


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## cottoncandy468

I was told that I had one named no name when I was really little, none other than that but my friends and I would create role playing games. I feel like a kid again when my preteen niece thinks of that kind of stuff, she usually wants to be Indians finding cool stuff by listening to the earth or we'll pretend we're fashion show girls that got stranded on an island and we're hiding from the pirates or something random like that.


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## Leon_Kennedy88

no, but I talk to myself on a daily basis.


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## Zugzwang

I had two.. But one of them wasn't really as a kid :l

I remember when I was about 7 years old or so, I sat at a school friends birthday and stared out of the window, wondering how cool it would be if there was a huge Triceratops standing out there in their back yard.. (I was a huge fan of dinosaurs back then.. So was my friend, and I kinda still like them for the nostalgia)
I met the dinosaur once or twice again later when I remembered I had him in my imagination. But he didn't really do or say anything. He just stood there, where I parked my bike before taking the bus.

Then I made up a fox, I named Itack or something (Annoyingly bad name, since it in danish sounds an awful lot like an ironic thanks, like "Gee, thanks..."). I was bored, but I was also about 20 years old :l
But I did make a lot of characters to draw when I was a kid, but this character has always stayed "invisible". Not sure why I thought I needed him, but he is a very wise intellectual fox, with dark red fur. He's a nice companion, and always has the right things to say.
I've only met him 2-3 times...


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## STU KATZ

Not as a kid, but when I was a teenager I had alot of imaginary _girlfriends_.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr

I had hordes of imaginary friends. I had one that lived in a mirror. In fact, it was my mirror image. Then there was a whole bunch that lived in a tree.
The tree was chopped down when I was ten.
A year later, we moved away.
I never had any more imaginary friends.
I still miss them.


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## Le9acyMuse

Hm, nuh-uh. No imaginary friends. I also felt like it was just a 'game' to kids who believed it, but idk.

I had stuffed animals from kindergarten to maybe age 15. I had them 'act' in these anthropomorphic animal movies I created. I'm embarrassed to say, but I drew from Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z and even Ed, Edd and Eddy. I threw 'em away in an attempt to grow up. I miss them. *sighs*

Within the past year, I developed inspirational embodiments. Muses. 4 of them. They more kept me from emotional breakdowns than inspiring me though. Probably the closest I came to imaginary friends. Creepy?


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## Vtile

xReBoRN7 said:


> Nope, saw it happen a few times in elementary school. Some kids were just convinced they actually had a friend that only they could see...and he/she/it was real. Maybe pretending their friend was real was just part of their game and I was pooping on their parade by saying no one was there, so to keep it going they had to keep playing along...idk. I just sort of ignored them after they tried to convince me their friend was actually there.
> 
> I even saw some parents support their kids playing with their , "real" imaginary friend...weird stuff.
> 
> On a side note, it was pretty rare, only a few kids were like that and most of them grew out of it....just like Santa/Easter Bunny etc.


What are you saying ..that santa doesn't exist? :-O


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## Mange

I used to have a different dog breed for every other week it seemed like.. I used to read these encyclopedias about dog breeds when I was about 10 ish.. I also imagined having things like tigers and elephants. They would walk me to school and just hang around with me.


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## whist

I really wanted to have an imaginary friend but couldn't figure out how people did it. :C


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## Onlilife

whist said:


> I really wanted to have an imaginary friend but couldn't figure out how people did it. :C


lol... i guess you have just forgotten it.. have you ever play alone when you are a kid?
you tend to make a "friend" up and play with them.. thats how mine happen anyway..


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## Zulu

I grew up with two older brothers and several of my friends lived close by so I never really wanted more company.


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## Thinkist

Never had an imaginary friend 'cause I never wanted one. It seems to be more of an N thing.


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## Mouse222

If I was feeling really energetic, (Which was most of the time, and still is) I'd go play a mock-battle. Swinging sticks/swords and "killing" all different "soldiers". However, it was wayyyyyyyyyyyy more fun playing games with friends!


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## Leeoflittlefaith

Never. I think I'd remember if I'd had one...my friends were often books and lego men.


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## L

I had a few different imaginary friends growing up, in fact I once read that it is actually better for your creativity as an adult if as a kid you had imaginary friends, however I grew out of it. I know that my imagination will never be taken from me though :happy: 

While this is a component of imaginary friends, I feel that having a conversation with somebody else (in my head of course) helps me to intellectualize a problem and figure out solutions when I myself am not thinking clearly.

This website thinks it helps only with dealing with fear and anxiety.

Here are some more links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9359000/9359360.stm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-12-19-real-play-usat_x.htm


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## Nessie

Thinkist said:


> Never had an imaginary friend 'cause I never wanted one. It seems to be more of an N thing.


I think its matter of fantasy and not S or N. I had imaginary dog as small kid.

Not sure, how "imaginary" realy was, because it wasnt described like some sort of unreal hero human imaginary friends tend to be. Description was that real, that my teacher was in shock when found out that I was just playing and my imaginary dog doesnt exist in RL.

P.S.: Thinkist: not optimist nor pessimist....it does mean hyperrealistic person? I scored like most realistic one out of couple hundred people tested, but they called it "brutal realist". I guess Thinkist sounds much better


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