[LiteraryLark]

I may have asked this before but I feel so alone because I am 19 and still have imaginary friends. My best friend is the only one I have told and I think she may have forgotten about it by now because I only discussed it once.

I'm 19 and my old imaginary friends that I've had for the past 7 years have been replaced by something different, something worse and I feel so ashamed by it...

The past month of waiting for my appointment with my T has been so horrible....four more days until I get to see him. It's been the slowest month of my life...

Sure, these imaginary friends keep me company because I never get to see my friends, but even as far as imaginary friends go, these aren't normal at all and I feel ashamed that I enjoy their company so much.

=[

[Puffyprue]

i dont have imaginary friends but i have a big doll i called it doodgy, he is like my everything i treated him like he alive and have feeling, everyone who know me think that iam crazy but he is the only thing that i trust on earth and i feel safe with him .. i know thats not normal...but normal is boring anyway
stay strong

[Erti]

Yep! His name is Bob!

[di meliora]

My imaginary friends are as treacherous, traitorous and manipulative as purportedly real ones. Albeit, there is a void. My mind tries to fill it.

[advena]

I have imaginary friends and an elaborate fantasy life. I am pretty socially isolated and they do keep me company. I have never told anyone IRL because I am embarrassed so I admire that you were able to talk about it to your best friend. Not even my T knows. The content of my fantasies aren't disturbing, I only daydream about positive events.
I hope you feel better once you talk to your therapist.

[twinarmageddons]

I do! My imaginary friends are usually based off of the "obsessions" I get with certain shows, webcomics, etc.

Mine is taken to the level of some hallucinating though, primarily tactile. I feel my imaginary friends when they obviously aren't there, but I can feel them touching me, tapping me, etc, sometimes with malicious intent. I am going to a psychiatrist about that soon.

If you start getting anything like that, or hearing them or seeing them, make sure to tell your therapist! You don't want it to get worse!

But I think that the imaginary friends you have is relatively normal, I wouldn't worry yourself too much. :33

[Astridetal]

I don't have imaginary friends really, but I don't see why it is a problem that you do have them. I mean, maybe you could owkr on the underlying isolation, but there is no need to stop having imaginary friends for the sake of it.

[Morghana]

I kind of have imaginary friends, but I write fiction in my spare time, so I call them characters and write about them. When I'm alone, I often imagine conversations with them or between them, and sometimes they help me work out my own problems. They are real people to me, and when I discuss them with others (only other writers--other people just think I'm crazy) I talk about them like they're real. When I was a kid, I made up these same "characters" but I usually drew them or made them out of clay instead of wrote about them. I also played with dolls into my teen years. I was a pretty lonely kid, and I've turned into a semi-lonely 20-year-old, though I don't think I'm seriously ill.

Maybe you should see if you can use your imaginary friends in an artistic way, like writing or drawing them out. Even if you're no good at these things--and trust me, I'm no good at these things--it helps to get them out of your brain and into some kind of physical existence. It's quite therapeutic to be able to express yourself.

Having imaginary friends is nothing to be ashamed of in my opinion – I am 21 years old and I have them. Unlike others that have had the fortune of having friends and being able to socialize with others, I have been alone for most of my life, and having imaginary friends have often been the only friends that I have had to talk to. For me now, I am either sending someone an email, on PsychCentral, or I am talking to imaginary friends, because there are the only outlets I have to socialize and interact with others.

[casperpeace]

I am 25 years old and I been lonely and alone all my life. I was bullied and I am dealing with trichotillomania and social anxiety. Bullying started when I was 11 and I had no friends. I used a character of my favorite movie Casper the Friendly Ghost to create my imaginary friend. His name is Casper and he is still with me to this day. I never had much of a social life so having a fantasy and an imaginary friend was the only outlets I have to socialize.