Imaginary friends

Any thoughts

Not myself except I liked to believe my toys were real!

Have you ever watched Rain Man? It's on BBC iplayer at present, I was quite intrigued that the Tom Cruise character thought he had imagined he had a friend at approx age 3 but that turned out to be real, it was his older brother Raymond ("rain man").

Do you have imaginary friends? I can't see anything wrong with having a slight fantasy life, as long as it's not too intense and you know it's a construct of your mind. If it makes someone feel safer and happier.

I had imaginary friends as a child . I'm an only child so that might have something to do with it.

It seems like the adult equivalent of imaginary friends is passing off some random on social media as someone you spend time with , as if you are close friends.

I don't know if it counts, but if I like someone I will daydream that I'm in a relationship with them and imagine doing day to day stuff with them and chatting with them. Sometimes when I was younger these scenarios would last a good few years (the love was unrequited, sadly). I guess it's symptom of loneliess? I don't think I ever had one as a child because my family was quite big and I was never on my own much.

Fascinated by this subject.

My husband had an imaginary friend as a child but I get the impression it stemmed very much from loneliness. His siblings are 10-15 years older than him so had left home by the time he was 5 and he grew up on an isolated farm.

I had a work friend who always spoke of her good friend "X". Sadly, this work friend passed and "X" didn't attend her funeral. None of her other friends had met "X" either. This work friend was a lovely lady but slightly lonely and would come to work telling us about amazing weekends away with "X" and others; and make out that she had a fabulous social life. A few of us reached the conclusion that this probably wasn't true.

I had one called Jamie and had a Magic torch. Then realised years later I was from a cartoon I saw when I was about 4 years old!

It's an interesting question actually.

I did make one of my best friends from social media, but that is an exception. I luvs her.

Someone said upthread about not distinguishing between media and friendship, I agree with that.

However if I'm trying to repeat something to an IRL friend I just say "someone" or "my friend" said this; it's not that I have delusions it's just that I would be embarrassed to admit my Internet usage and say I use xyz forums

I have been in a difficult situation and relied on the Internet too much. However I do know what a true friend is.