Talking to imaginary people...

Sometimes I will be imagining a conversation with someone, not a made-up person or "imaginary friend" or anything, but a person I know that i am just imagining, like a daydream, and then I realize that I am actually talking to the person. Like I will imagine them saying something, then I laugh and actually talk back to them out loud. I am glad no one has walked into my room before while I was doing this, they might be kind of concerned. Is this normal? Is there anybody else who finds themselves doing this?

i dont talk back out loud. but i do have tons of imaginary conversations. i hope its normal.

I took a college psychodrama class that taught how to do this. many of my therapists also had me do this. its called "role playing". you take on the role of being you or someone you know and have a "discussion" my therapist and I had a great time with my "role playing" because I would be like you talking to my imaginary other person in the room and end up having some quite detailed conversations and debates with that "invisable other person in the room" that I was talking with. Doing this has helped me work out many of my problems. Today I had a problem. I could only find change enough for my morning coffee or my morning pastry. I was on duty at the hospital. I had a conversation with "the other person in the room"

so what do you think is it coffee or is it that apple pastry?
Coffee would be good it will help keep you awake.
yea but pastry will keep my stomach from making noises.
too bad they dont have half and half.
right wouldnt that be cool half coffee and have pastry please.

I gave a giggle and got surprised by a nurse coming around the corner saying
"sorry did you say something?"

I told her nope just having a healthy debate over which to get coffee or the pastry. She smiled and said yea "healthy" until "the other person in the room" takes on a life of its own and becomes reality instead of imaginary. LOL

anyway been there done that its perfectly normal.

Yes I sm always talking things through with an imaginary person - generally it is my T, but not always - I never thought of this as role play - but I can see how it actually serves a purpose for us.

Haha, wow, I never thought of it as "role play" or a way to make decisions or anything so much as just entertainment or and escape when I am sad. That's really cool though, I might start doing that. Thanks everyone

I do it! I do it to rehearse answers to something specific that I know that someone may ask me (becuase I have trouble expressing myself when I am trying to assert myself, so I need to rehearse) or to work things through.

I call it "thinking out loud" instead of talking to myself. I do it sometimes in public. I dont care lol.

It can be quite healthy, "practice" so we won't feel as anxious when we do talk to that person or so we can think of things to say in advance, etc., anticipate some of the possible questions or topics of conversation.

Or, it can be an escape; we talk to the person in our head and then "don't have to" in person I use to do a lot of my therapy work in my head between sessions that way and sometimes it could get really ugly when I would have trouble in session remembering what I'd actually told my T or what she had actually said versus my imaginary head version.

I've done this quite a lot, mostly in my head, but I have spoke back out loud. I don't really know why I do it, but I don't think it's a problem... at least I hope it's not ha.

I used to do that for most of my life. It was how I lived out conflicts that I was too afraid to have in real life. And it hurt me badly because I relived the stress of the anger 1000's of times instead of one time.

It triggered Irritable Bowel Syndrome to the point where it was getting nearly impossible to leave the house. I was able to break this role playing by saying to myself "I don't think this way anymore" anytime I was role playing.

In the matter of a few days, my IBS disappeared and has been gone for 8 years now!

I will chime in to say i do this a lot, but then again i talk to myself a lot too which is a different subject... i find it some time a release but then again i get told several times its ''playing things out in my head'' which with me can be bad (like i begin to believe some of my imaginary conversations which isnt good of course) but think its good practice as some say.

I myself have had many a conversation with an "angelic presence" in the past. Of course I was psychotic at the time... I still believe in angels though !

Sometimes, I have "one-sided" conversations...regarding incidences where I should have said this when I may have should say that type of stuff. Hindsight and regret seem to motivate this kind of thought process in me. I need to feel comfortable with what I have said and just let it go...what was said is over... unless an apology is possibly in order... and then my mind goes into "overdrive" until that is taken care of. Maybe I "live" too much inside of my head but am trying to be more vocal in my responses and not be too quick in answering which may reveal my vulnerabilities.

Shalom