Fantasy World

Forgive me if this thread is in the wrong forum. I truely dont know how to catagorize this particular health issue. I have very little experience in the field of mental health and am looking for direction. I am a 23 year old male studying sociology and anthropology and in my head there is a very extensive and detailed fantasy world.
It is an alternate reality in which I have actively constructed geography, culture, and societies down to their individual institutions and languages. It has become the most encompassing aspect of my life and I am constantly thinking and mentaly revisiting this world.
I cannot stress the level of mental energy I put into this fantasy every day of my life. This is not a hobby. I only pay attention to the real world when it is necessary for my ability to function in the real world. Every other moment of my life is spent obsessing over this mentally constructed reality.
Needless to say, this has negatively affected my mental and social health. I am considered by most to be a forgetful and clumsy person. At no point have I lost track of what is real and what is fantasy, but the issues remain. I have kept this secret from even the closest of family and friends. Its been four years, but the feelings of lonliness and misunderstanding are becoming too much to bare. This is my first time coming forward, so any words of advice are welcome. Any further questions are also welcome

I, for great periods of my life, constructed elaborate alternate imaginary lives too. I've done this from childhood right through to adulthood. I have always assumed it was normal.

Did it affect my reality? I suppose it served to concentrate my discontent. I suppose it affected my social health as I withdrew into the happier existence. As such, it may have prolonged feelings of depression or opression. Regardless. I honestly believe doing so saved my sanity.

I haven't done this for years. I wonder if that is owing to medication?

I spend a lot of time in my own mental world too, although I haven't gone as far as to create an actual completely new world with new cultures and such.

I seem to do this more when I feel unhappy or bored with the real world. What helped is to try find things I like doing, in the real world. It hasn't been easy to find something actually interesting for more than a few hours a week, but then I try to switch to a different interest. Maybe something like that could help you, making the real world more interesting again? Or maybe, you could try doing whatever you do in your head, in the real world.
I don't really know what else to suggest..I get how comfortable it can be in your own world. Sometimes I'd like to disappear into it forever.
Maybe giving yourself a limit, specific times where you can go there would help. Making yourself have "real world time" inbetween the "fantasy world time". But that isn't always easy either maybe, at least for me, frequently I just disappear into it without really noticing..

My mind has also constructed its own extremely detailed universe. Strangely, I only visit that universe in my dreams, which play out, night after night, becoming more complex. Unlike you, I am not actively seeking to build on this universe and it's not something I think too much about in my waking life, except to note how strange my dreams are. It's pretty amazing the stuff a person's brain can imagine!

It almost sounds as if this is an aspect of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, where you feel the strong and irresistible compulsion to do something or behave in some fashion repeatedly. Or perhaps you've been born with Aspergers, which simply means your brain is simply "wired" a bit differently than an neurotypical (average) brain, therefor, you think and do things on a different wavelength, so to speak, than neurotypical people. As a result, the world around you is strange and alien, like you're on another planet, and the world you've created is the seemingly normal one that you feel you belong to. Aspies, those with Apsergers, often tend to find one particular aspect of their life, an object, sport, or activity that they really like, and become hyper-obsessed with it. Maybe this construction of an alternate world is your obsession. Something you've done so often, you do it constantly, only emerging from it to connect with people in reality when necessary.

Then again, I'm no clinically trained psychologist, so I can't make any semblance of a former diagnosis. Maybe talking about and exploring this alternate reality you've all but consumed yourself in creating will help you figure out why you created it in the first place. Like I said before, maybe it's the world that you feel you belong to, rather than the strange and alien-like reality that is all around you.

If all else fails, you can write down everything you've created into some sort of novel, or series of novels, and make some money off of it. I believe Tolkien was similar in this aspect because he created a highly detailed alternate universe of completely unique characters, religions, languages, locations and cultures that all come together on the geographical plane known as Middle Earth. It worked out for him in the end, so it might work out for you.

Thank you all for sharing. It feels good to hear there are others who have felt the same way. I am a well functioning person so in the eyes of my friends it appears I am mentally healthy. The issue is the crushing loneliness and feelings of alienation as you describe. I carry a world's worth of information that is important to me but would sound ridiculous to anyone else.

My fantasy acts more as an obsession rather than a product of escapism. I do not play an active role in the fantasy I have created. I am merely the observer and creator. It is the only mental exercise I find stimulating.

I am finding the skills to creatively express my ideas, but in the meantime the loneliness is chewing me up inside. My question is this:
Are there places I can talk to people with this similar issue, or is it more realistic to seek professional help?

Interesting, I HAVE been diagnosed with an obsessive disorder