Made up life? all in my head?

I honestly thought that I was the only person doing this. Ive had a made up world in my head for the last three years. My acuality is not one that I want. So ive created a dream world and a better version of me in that world. It feels so real to me and sometimes I even forget that its made up. My world is realistic but at the same time dream like. How I wanna look, how I wanna be, and how I wanna live is reflected in my world. And its funny because I have actual conversations and realtionships with people. My dream land me knows what to say and when to say it, but my actual me would never know what to say if I was faced with the same situation that I face in my dream world.
I really wish that I could bring this character to surface but I cant seem to be that person unless im daydreaming. It also really consumes me. I find myself randomly jumping back and forth between worlds. I do it when im laying in my bed, when Im going on my way somewhere, walking, warming up my food, just anytime because it feels so real.

Wow i do that as well, all the time. Surprising to see so many other people do it as well. I have whole made up story lines that I continue with and reinvent and stuff. I guess its not a problem until you start believing the things you think about are real.

It may even be a form of meditation.

OMG!!!! I seriously am going through the same thing constantly, sometimes it shows that I'm obviously living in another world, when I was little it was really bad, but now that i've grown older it's just gotten a little more interesting. I even go by a different name in my world. Seriouly you are NOT weird i'm going through the same thing, if you're weird so am i. I saw this post and I had to read the story, I really thought i was the only person in the world like this!!!

same here. i rpg a lot so thats the cause for me. i always do romance and stuff like that. i thought i was the only one.ha.

hi there, i am 51 and I have been doing this since i was about 7 years old. It is a way of escape from what i have read. I have an entire world made up and my name and looks are completely different too. I have always been "Laura" no matter how many years go by my age in my made up world stays the same, about 16, and my name never changes either. I have read a lot about this, and no, it is not a form of meditation, but it is relaxing. most therapists call it a personality disorder of some kind. Avoidence personality, or something like that. Whether it is normal or not depends on whether or not it interferes in your life in a harmful way. Funny thing is, when i met my now ex husband, i was so happy, i was so in love, and we married and stayed together for 12 years. During the 12 years we were together i hardly ever delved into my fantasy world. But when i divorced, i went back to it. I think it has something to do with not being happy in your real life, so you create a better life in your head.

I do this too! for years, I have several different versions of myself where I guess you could say I'm different characters or an improved version of myself. Sometimes I even write info about each world down, so I can remember it better, I too do it when I'm alone or in bed. Sometimes it makes me feel sad that I invest time in a made up life instead of my real life. I wonder if this a form of autism or some over explanation.

Um I have this. And its a NIGHTMARE its seems like a mental disorder to myself I cant escape it. So basically in my headworld everything I do in reality affects my in mind world i usually take on the life of movie characters or be myself in a movie world. Usually 2001: A space Oddsey. I wanna know how you guys leave it! Yes i will probably go back to escape reailtly once and I will but i dont want it every second of my life.

I'm 24 and I have had a fantasy world for about 10 years. I am me, but a completely different version of me in this world. I love all things supernatural and that is what my dream world is. I have visions that save people, its probably just a reflection of never feeling needed but screw the psychology for a minute. Bad things happen to me too in this world, but I don't know it doesn't matter. My character was kidnapped for having the visions, things like this. They can often be very dark and sort of mysterious. Things that would never happen in real life and that's why I'm so drawn to it. Real life is boring to me, working studying grow old have kids, that all sounds miserable to me. I live in it every chance I get. I have never told a living soul, then I see here that this is common and now I'm wondering why every emotion has become taboo. We don't discuss things because we fear we're abnormal but it turns out everyone hates their lives yet we keep living how we're supposed to. Go to college get a job, why can't we just do the stupid stuff we think of.

Yep I do the same, except usually while pacing around listening to music

I have done this pretty much my entire life xD I generally do this when I'm in bed though, or alone in my room. I often feel like life is boring and a load of crap, so that's why I make up some weird fantastic world in my head.

i do this all the time i was wondering if it was weird to thats how i found this site from googleing this question!! im glad i did find it so i can see how many ppl also do it and it did inspire me about 2 years ago to start writing it down now im thinking of editing it and trying to get it published

Hey! I do that too! I think I do that for over 4 years now, It's just my fantasy life, even if it are bad things, I just love thinking about it. I write alot of stories, and that gives me insperation. I'm glad that I've found a topic like this one.

Same here. Without my mind to escape to, I'd go insane.
I just realised how literal that phrase is.

Totally normal. I totally have these characters in my head with their own pasts and personality quirks and everything. As long as you're not really convinced it's real, because then you'd be sort of detached from reality, which is kind of bad. *Understatement*

Ooh, me too! I'm turning my world into a book trilogy. ^_^

I do this too. I've had the same made up sort of life for about 4 years now. The same characters generally appear but the scenarios change drastically. I think it's really just like reading books though. Authors imagine up whole other worlds and people and make money from it.

its totaly normal
i also hav my own world in my head

its great cuz its releaves stress for me

I think it's normal, provided you don't let it detract from your real life.

I have the same thing going on. I have a made up world in which I am a politician in the Senate (US). It's in a futuristic cyberpunk-esque world and I have entire characters with full backstories. I have Aspergers and Depression, so my mind often wanders a lot, and I find my current life boring and depressing, so, often when I'm alone, in the shower, or even in class, I just imagine myself in that world, sometimes barely anchored in reality.

I also have my own world in my head. My name is different there and even my species is different. I tend to leave my family and real life friends out of it though.

Yes! I am 29 years old now and have been doing this for as long as I can remember. Probably since I was 10 years old. I have a whole elaborate world filled with superheroes and villains and they are constantly fighting each other. Each character has a name and elaborate backstory. Sometimes character will be killed off and it actually makes me sad. I have never told anyone about it because I thought I was weird. I dedided to google it last night and found out a lot of people do the same thing. I sometimes surprise my self at the storylines that I come up with. It's been one continuing story since I was ten. The older I've gotten the more complex the stories gotten though. It's bassically a whole other world that I go to when I want to escape reality. I can spend hours in it. I sometimes think that if I ever met the character they would hate me for some of the stuff I've put them through.

OMG!!!! Thank u so much. This just made my day. I have been doing the same thing every since my 3rd grade year. I'm 18 now and a senior in high school. I have tried to stop so many times cause I thought something was wrong with me. Lol I have a character who understands me like no other his name is Jay.

i thought i was the only one, i had to resort to Google to see if i had a illness or disease. i guess it all stared when i was a child when my parents split up and then when my dad stopped seeing me at 11 that's when it properly developed. it would give me comfort because in my head i was a happy child with a loving family but it developed and developed, i would get ideas from tv shows such as cosby and married with children, roseanne about families and the love they share because i never really experienced that.

i have made scenarios for my character, she is me but older, i was born in 1970(i have a obsession with the 80s so this was i can be a teenager throughout the 80s) she is based of Kelly Bundy, is chose her because she is one of my idols fashion wise.

in my world im a singer/actress and whenever i watch a film i always imagine myself as the lead role or within the film and im a fan of heavy metal so when i listen to music i always imagine myself playing along with my guitar and singing and being someone who is liked by people and people look up to me.

i also have a family and a sense of living i mean i think its weird but i cant stop because it gives me a purpose and pleasure, when im down and upset i think of my world in my head and i forget about the bad.

Does anyone know how to stop it?? Ive been doing this for as long as i can remember and im only 18. It has really took over my life! Im in the life in my head more then i am in my real life! And sometimes i really wish i could just stop but cant! Does anyone know what it even is and is there treatment to stop or even help??

I found this video... he talks that it is a coping tool for survivors of abuse and neglect from childhood AND people who have never experienced neglect or abuse.

it's called Maladaptive Daydreaming

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyzueBjNG6I&amp;feature=iv&amp;src_vid=JuRPdHFgAnY&amp;annotation_id=annotation_3167476329" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyzueBjNG6I&amp;fea...</a>

I seriously thought I was crazy. I've had an entire other universe in my head for three years. It used to be withme in it, but I've been out of the picture for ar least two years now. At first, the boy I would always think about being real was my dream guy. I used to want him to be real so bad, I would write actual notes to him, telling him that if he was real, to please just show me a sign. Everywhere I went I would pretend he was with me. Then things started to change and I stopped being in this world altogether. There's probably around a dozen characters now that are always there, and they are came from a story ive been trying to write but don't know how to. The main boy, the guy I used to pretend was with me constantly, has a lot of facial piercings and pink hair and the other main guy is a guy with black hair who wears all black. I literally spend half my time, probably even more than that, thinking about their relationship (because they are in love) and what they would be doing if they were where I was at any given moment. The one guy I pretend he has a youtube and I will create entire monologues for what he would say in these videos. Its crazy to me.

I can't seem to remember a time where I fully accepted my own reality... I've always pretended my life was something it wasn't for as long as I could remember. So to me, this is completely normal. I sometimes feel guilty of doing this, because I feel like I don't appreciate the life God has given me. I don't exactly know why I do this, but I'll try to stop, then something makes me do it again and I can't seem to find a way out.

I thought I was really weird for doing this so I'm so glad to see people doing the same thing. In my head, I'm my ideal version of myself. In real life, I'm ugly, short, and can't sing, dance or act but in my mind I'm tall and have long silky pink hair and a button nose and perfect teeth and plump lips (all the opposite of the things I hate about my real self) and I can dance and sing and act but I work as a makeup artist and live with my (made-up) friends in a huge apartment. I have seven really good friends, each who have detailed backstories and specific styles and personalities and I take turns swapping "being" each of these friends in my head. I don't let it take over my real life, but sometimes I'll see an artwork in real life and be like "yeah, [made-up friend] would draw that. I'm going to pretend he drew it." or other things like that. It helps me keep my characters "alive".
I've had these characters for a few years and they've developed and grown as I have and they're like real people to me now.
I also used to have two separate stories, one character who had his own story that didn't relate to my inner "me" or her friends, but over the years I've fallen more and more in love with all of my characters and want them all to relate so occasionally I change their stories and all of last year my separate character has become good friends with "me" and my "friends", even though he lives a separate life from them. He was born in France and is now 23 and lives in London with his boyfriend and is a popular actor. I know exactly what his house looks like in my mind, his three dogs and cat, and I even imagine posts he makes on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. I make up some shows and movies he's in, but a lot of the time I choose a character that looks similar to him in real movies and shows and pretend in my mind that he plays that character.
i always thought I was weird but I realise now that my inner "me" is just the person I aspire to be, and looks physically like the opposite of all my flaws, and my actor character is me trying to distance myself as far as I can from the reality of my life, even though his life is far from perfect.
I can definitely decide when I "become" these characters, but I'd much rather be living their lives. Writing this has made me realise that I should live my own life more often, and say how I feel out loud instead of forcing my characters to feel like that.

I started to do it when I was nine years old, imagining my family back to normal. Even to this day my life before nine is part of my world I sometimes live in really. I do believe that there is something we all fear, is why we do it. Or even because our life's suck that bad, we may feel something more in our other worlds no matter what kind of world one another lives its normal, I think everyone does it. Authors sure as hell do it! Film producers do it! And soaps too. No- one can say they can't, it's part of the way our brains function. People have over 1000 thoughts per day, who can honestly stay they would rather worry about bills, what to cook for dinner everyday of the week? Or even about tidying up in silence? Or how your partner left you, your past left, kids that drive you up the wall? I sure he'll dont, my kids may drive me insane and love them, but bills and what's is for dinner can stuff it till its time. I like my peace and quiet, I love my reality because of my children, but my world is where I don't have to worry about anything. Same as others?

I really thought I was alone , until I decided to look up what's wrong with me, I go were ever I want to go in my head ,but it has taken over my life, sometimes I replay something's over and over and I feel like it is true or that it has happened, I just want to make this place in my head go away, I can't stay focused, and if something bad happens I'll replay it so many times until I'm mad all over again! How to put an end this word I run to!

i love to have storys in my head becuse i now i am saff there in my world and everbody nows me there.

I'm so surprised to see that I'm not the only one! I've had this fantasy in my head for probably 10 years now. I make new characters and they all have descriptive backrounds. I draw and design their hair, eye, colors, clothing style. I have conversations with them and they respond according to their personality. I've had this since as long as I can remember. I thought I was weird. Am I? I think about it ALL the time and look for new ideas. When I lay in bed and close my eyes and put the covers over my head I think of it. And it sometimes distracts me from class and other tasks. I even make lists of the characters and design their physical and emotional appearance on my notepad. And I write about the stories I make up. So it's basically a big book with a million volumes. I guess that developed with my desire to write stories. I made a lot of comics and stories as a kid and I still do now. The fantasy in my head is my "favorite story". I let my brothers and sisters read all my stories exept for the main one because I'm so embarrassed of it. Even so, I dream of getting it published someday because I think of it as a tv show or book. Wow. My life story. No this isn't even the half of it. I think I need a trustworthy, Christain therapist.

You know, I've been doing this for about one year..And I was soo stressed, if I was the only one doing this, but you saved me!

Why not right your stories down and become a writer?

I thought i was the only doing it. Its been my secret since 1st grade and i still do it now! I'm 17 btw. anyway i have my imaginary world but it used to be based off of videogames like mario or megaman when i was little. now i put myself in situations at school or i do the coolest fight scenes EVER! making up an imaginary world all in your head is completely normal :)

I thought i was alll alone in doing this! This makes me feel better!!!

I think that is one hell of a normal thing.I am daydreaming most of the time.Especially when I was at school.I do it better when I have some music to hear which I can't handle but daydream.I do have super physical powers.I imagine myself having some powers that charaacters have in video-games or animes.For example I imagine myself having Kratos powers (God Of War) and some people attacking while I am at school or something.Or zombie apocalypse stuff.Things that would make me look cooler in front of others.
To be honest there were two moments in my whole life that I actually happened to be in a fight and bit the guys up cause I was calm and imagining what I'd do in my dreamland.
I know the feeling of awsemoness that it gives and how that if the scenario is good enough you keep repeating and altering it a little bit in your head.And I think that I mostly did this during school and do this before go to sleep or when I am really bored or when I am doing nothing.
Sometimes the place I am (outside for example) makes me to want daydream endlessly.

Sometimes I am a secret agent, hiding out as a penguin on the south pole. My name is "Rex Penguin" and I am a certified bad ass. The reason for my outpost is to bring the harp seal poachers to justice by chopping them up and feeding them to the penguins I live with. I am a bit of a vigilante.

Wow. I can't believe so many people are the same as me. I do the very same thing. I write out a life in my head, and each day I add a little more, like writing a sequel to the past stories, or actually, like you said, just living another life. I always go to sleep in my special made-up world. Thanks God for imaginations! :)

I hate my marriage and my life. So I make a marriage and a life in my head. It makes it bearable to get through the days. Unfortunatly I can't seem to hold on to the story in my head for very long. I guess my lack of imagination follows through to the made up world.

I am the same way! I have friends and have had boyfriends.

Oh no this is normal I do it too prolly a lil too much. I don't actually imagine it's me it's like I will play as a celbrity say umm Lauren London I will play like I'm her in a perfect highschool where Im a cheerleader with all the boys liking me hehehe. I've been doing this for years just because I can

Having a world in your mind is great fun, no?
Though, I do not imagin myself.
I have my own characters, they are animals, but not normal ones.

Like an undead sheep, a horned lion tailed owl, and even living plush animals with titched grins.

Perfectly normal. I do that sometimes, but as other people have said, don't let it take over your life and let you believe it's real. Just let it be a way of escaping, and releaving stress. :)

wow, i do that too. except sum ppl r real (jrockers) & others r not.

its not wierd at all! It means you have a good imagination.When you next think of things like that,write them down and put them all together and make a story out of them,you could become a writer.

i do the exact same thing too and i was wondering what i should do about it so i decided to write it all down and actually i've already done about four unpublished books and it feels so good to have everything that i've thought of saved on my computer

Wow, I googled this topic and was braught here. I thought I was the only one too. I can remember the exact moment I started making up characters and places in my head, I was around 7 or 8, And I guess I was bored with no one to play with, and was walking around my yard. I go back to reality but it always came back to me whenever I was alone. And now I'm 20,and thinking whether to start writing things down about this. Same people and situations, I really wonder why I started doing this..

i do the exact same thing, you know, im starting to like this site, there are so many freaks like me in here.

anyway i have a great imangonary life, i love it, i have people that are my favorite people ever in it, but its no one i know, and its not that dude from twilight, i hate him.

I don't do this exact thing, I have recently started to explain things out loud to myself and pretend I am talking to people I know. And what I wish I could say to them. It makes me feel good to be able to speak my mind for once. I am alone all the time and have no friends whatsoever. I sometimes wish it was different, but so many people have stolen from me and hurt me I cannot trust anyone but myself anymore.

I don't make up a world in my head... but I do lucid dream a fair bit and I have sort of trained myself to go back to my favourite dreams again and again.

I do roleplay out conversations or situations like, out loud though. Like, I'll re-run some incident in my head and roleplay out what would have happened if I'd really acted on how I felt. Lately I roleplayed out suicide, although I'm sure that's normal.

Yeah i wouldn't worry about it, all good. Reality sucks, use your imagination. It's one of the things that makes us human.

yes its totally normal it happens to me all the time

OMG I do that too! I think about a guy raping me (NOT masturbating! I'm just thinking about it) and how it would effect me (like I'll imagine myself crying, if people touch me I would jump and when I see the rapist I would crumble and become vulnerable). I think of having conversations with my ideal boyfriend (he's not real) but I make him up. I pretend I'm in a surreal world and all that. Totally normal! But I also love video games because it takes me away from reality and reading...and dreaming! I hate reality...but what if reality, anyways?