Acting out fake scenarios in real life

I've been noticing this quite frequently lately. I'll be going about my day and then I'll start talking to myself as if there is a specific person in the room with me who I'm talking to. I'll play out a whole scenario and act it out before I realize what I'm doing. I catch myself in the middle of it and have to remind myself that it isn't real and I'm not really doing that (scenario). Is there a reason or name for this? Help please it's interfering with my everyday life.

I really would like to know that, too.

When I'm on my own and doing some boring chore, my mind wanders off to another land and I imagine myself in varied scenarios and situations. I jump from one scene to another, talking to different people and mostly going on unresolved issues left throughout my life, as if trying to go back in time and fix them. Sometimes it's about being someone else, successful in life, rich and famous, and all that...

Then I suddenly manage to snap out of that, and come back to reality, and sometimes it feels like jumping off a plane without a parachute.

I'm guessing that in my case I'm jst unhappy with who I am and where I'm at in life.

Hope you find your answer. Take care.

I've done this for as long as i remember but I've never told anyone irl....

the name for this is fantasy, role playing, day dreaming, brain storming...my point there are many different names for this in my location. it is not a mental disorder, even non mental disordered people do this. short version as human beings we have the ability to work out, plan our lives, do logical and imaginary thinking process.

children are taught very young how to do this by childhood games of dress up, lets pretend, high school students are taught to do this through critical and logical thinking of school musicals, school plays, problem solving with their class materials. as adults we continue to use the logical critical thinking processes to role play, fantasize, problem solve,...

some people have used this natural human brain process to enhance their intimacy, or plan what they are going to say to someone who they have a problem with or what they are going to say at meetings\parties.... the list is endless on how human beings use their abilities to imagine, fantasize, role play, day dream.

if you feel you are doing this excessively contact your or a treatment provider who can help you learn how to stay more grounded with your daily life and not use this fantasy role playing so much that it becomes a problem for you.

Me too! Me too!

I don't know if we all have this in common, but I tend to think by hearing myself talking in my head (as opposed to people who think more visually, for example).

I live alone (and work from home!) so it's not uncommon for me to start working things out verbally, or trying to figure out what I should be saying to someone, or imagining telling someone about something that happened...by talking aloud. And, since I have a pretty high idea flow, apparently, I tend to lose myself in these imaginary conversations too.

Plus, I make up stuff sometimes for fun when I'm bored. I start talking as a random (made-up) character... sometimes with an accent, and trying to figure out their story. I might do multiple voices in the story.

Or, I make up silly songs and just keep adding to them.

It's really a shame that I live alone. I think I might be really entertaining for the right person

Thanks Amandalouise! It's nice to hear that this isn't a symptom!

There was another thread on here recently about this same thing and loads of people, including me, said they do it, too. I love doing this, amuse myself, sometimes get so engrossed in it I forget what I'm supposed to be doing.

The OP of that other thread felt scared of it and like she was losing her mind.

I have conversations with myself constantly both inside and out loud. I am generally unaware of it until either someone comments on it or something snaps me out of the fog and I realize I am rambling to the wall (uncontrollablely can't even stop when called out fully aware and sickof it and emarrasesd), going rouND in circles in my head, out loud ,or just moving lips ( generally either on repeat going over previous conversations or asking multiple opinions from my mind mates re: best future Congo strageys), another common one is arguing with myselves almost always outloud ( define back and forth different affect in speech ranging from angrily clashing to idiotic sibling type your stupid no your stupid using interjected by 3rd peace keeper, and the weirdest is coming to realizing I'm jumping dancing run a room conversing in rhyme or singing little disagreementa that evolve into sillyness. Mind you when they start I'm am generally unaware and or I can't stop them until I either just get angry and yell SHUT UP still only sometimes works or the conversation concludes on its own! This is not fantasy or role play! Not for me! It is annoying, disturbing, embarrassing, and socially ostracizing! I REALLY CAN'T STAND MYSELF!!

Do you spend a lot of time alone? I do, and talking to myself happens automatically, and sometimes it gets out of control, when I create an upsetting scenario. We are wired to talk to others and utter our voices. That is why I sometimes chant out loud, because I feel I am suffocating with the unspoken words inside me. I don't think it is something not normal. It is the way our brains cope with something unfulfilled, I guess.

Nothing wrong with talking outloud or in your head, it's a way of working things through but from what you say... it sounds like there is a lot of anxiety attached to this. Going over and over a scenario to make it feel safer?

I actually spoke with my physiologist about this and its actually quite normal but then again depends of what your acting out. Maybe a normal situation or conflict yeah that's cool but if your acting out murdering someone and such that may be a cause of concern.

I am constantly 'rehersing' scenarios out in my own mind or having conversations. My psychiatrist tells me this is a form of OCD

I thought I was the ONLY one who did this. I've been talking to myself, acting out scenarios, and even doing this out loud since I was a kid. It's to the point where I had to restrain myself so I won't do it in public. My biggest fear is getting into a relationship and having my SO finding this out. I read somewhere that it could be a type of dissociation to cope with trauma. I was severely abused as a child and went through trauma as an adult.

There has a to be a label for this because I want it to stop.

Just about everyone who has posted about this has really made a lot of sense to me. I think that 'Lost in the woods' hit the closest on what I do and have done some of since childhood. I have done this form of fantasizing at least since I was a preteen which is also when a lot of harsh bullying in school was being endured as well as other stuff that gets dealt with at that age. I would fantasize getting revenge on bullies and get so, caught up in it that it was as though I was there instead of here and would sometimes even act out physically like throwing punches at nothing and either not realize it until someone said something or I suddenly realized that I had acted out. In later years when I became a young adult I would indulge similar fantasies of "what if" confrontations to the point of getting lost in them and until I'd get upset and have to tell, myself inwardly "Hey! Calm down! That isn't real! You're right here. You're safe. Chill out." It doesn't happen as often any more but, if someone acts aggressive toward me or stares at me and I look away first, I feel like a coward for not being aggressive back and if it's particularly stressful, I later fantasize about what I "could have" or "should have" done.
I also talk to others in my mind. Here's one that 'Lost in the woods' made me think about. This is partly related to my MPD but, some of it is related to fantasy as well. I sometimes inwardly and even outwardly when I'm alone talk to my other personalities and get their input on stuff. Now here is the unusual part. Even though most of my personalities come from childhood traumas I have had to consciously create additional personalities and sub personalities or "modes" to handle different tasks or situations. I even have one who is authoritative and maintains order over the others so as to make sure that everyone is content and don't argue. Now it get's a bit weirder. As an amature cartoonist and now a writer of fiction I have various fictional characters stored in my mind. Some of them I loved and identified with so much that I incorporated them into my collective consciousness or gave them life in a sense by making them a part of me. They are now in there with my other personalities. We converse, we fantasize sometimes when alone and though I know that fiction is fiction and reality is reality I am able to indulge these kind of fantasies because of my schizophrenia and the kind of imagination that I have. I'll stop here because I don't want to derail the thread but, spending time alone in deep thought seems to be a large part of why we can lose ourselves in vivid fantasies. That and just being a constant thinker and creative and having emotions that run really deep seems to me why we can do this and like someone said earlier. It may be a way to cope with unfulfillment of some type. I do hope that more people post in this thread and share similar experiences. This has really been an interesting subject.