Anyone else have imaginary friend, bf/gf?

[BrettS119]

I know this is a little embarrassing but I have an imaginary girlfriend. She's been with me off and on for the past 4 years. I imagine her comforting me and going on fun dates together, or even just letting some feelings out to her. It's able to make me feel warm inside and express feelings of love for someone else, but the fact that she's only imaginary is unsatisfying to me. My parents think it's a leading factor in my depression, but I think it's one of the things that's keeping me going right now. I'm about to turn 20 next week but I still feel like a 13 year old emotionally. I'm probably not ready for a real girlfriend even though I so badly want one. I haven't had many sad feelings about it until recently. I try to make myself feel like I'm with her, but I know I'm really not with anyone. I'm just really lonely. I haven't had the desire to go make friends and build relationships with other people my age and such. The people I dealt with in high school kinda skewed my vision of guys my age. However, I still want a girl to spend the rest of my life with. I've recently thought about getting involved in a coed church group and now I'm more interested in joining one than ever. I might meet someone idk. I don't want to let go of the girl in my head though. It's as if I think of her as my conscience and where all my happy thoughts come from, though they rarely do. I sometimes picture her as an angel who just wants to help me with life. I just really needed to share that with people and I want to know what you all think. I'm not going crazy or anything, at least I don't believe so.

[chiara789]

I wouldn’t say I have an imaginary friend, but I do get caught up in daydreaming sometimes. I recently learned that it’s called “maladaptive daydreaming”. It’s not very well known probably because most people are too embarrassed to discuss it. I found a few YouTube videos of people sharing their experiences, so definitely look at YouTube.

I find that I end up daydreaming when I’m feeling lonely and I don’t have a significant other. I basically imagine what it’s like to have someone in my life, both the comfort of a relationship as well as the drama. I usually think about a guy that I’m crushing on. Thankfully, I don’t have a crush right now and my longing for a relationship is not strong. So, I haven’t been daydreaming much. I would not say that I have an imaginary person in my life because I daydream about who over I’m thinking about at the moment.

Let me know if this helps at all!

[chiara789 in reply to chiara789]

Also, I want to point out that I believe this sort of thing develops as a coping mechanism in childhood. Basically, it helps a person cope by imagining desirable things instead of focusing on their less than desirable surroundings/circumstances. It would probably be helpful to work with a therapist to talk about how this coping mechanism developed in your case.