Fantasy, reality, and autism

Post Reply New Topic

I've read a couple of cases of autism where the said autistics had a hard time telling the difference between fantasy and reality.

Just curious, do you know anyone like this, or have you gone through this phase yourself?

I think it applies to some little children. I've never met an adult aspie who mixed up fantasy and reality.
When I was young I had a whole fantasy world in my head; when I was bored by reality, I dived into my own world. But when anything happened in the real world, I "woke up" immediately. The worlds never mixed up.

You don't need to be an aspie in order to mix it up -- just look at all those LOA freaks who believe their imagination would manifest anything and create reality lol.

I still have an active imagination and sense of fantasy, as I did when I was a child. I don't however have any problem mixing it up with "reality" though. In fact that's the problem, I'm painfully aware of the differences between the harshness of everyday mundane reality and the idealistic inner fantasies I can create in my mind. I can't deny that I often wish things were a lot more like I can imagine them to be but I don't hold any realistic hope that they ever will be. But at least we do have an inner world to escape to when things get too heavy in the real world, and that world can be just as real if you let it be.

In my daughter's diagnosis report, it says that she comes across as being confused between fantasy and reality. However, I don't think she is confused at all. She talks about Doctor Who as if he is one of her friends, at times. However, she's also very clear about him being a character in a TV show and knows various actors play him. She knows the names of the actors, so she is sure there's a difference. At her assessment, she spoke about Slimer being in the corner of the room. However, if you speak to her about it, she knows it's in her head and she can very easily take the image away (she's doesn't hallucinate and she's not frightened by what she sees). She is very visual and can project images into the real world; this is a gift, not something to be concerned about. She loves fantasy and has a very active imagination. She believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, but most 6yr olds do. But, for such a young child, I think she's strangely very aware of the real world too.

I was a first grader during NASA's Mercury Project and the era of the very first astronauts.

Naturally, I had fantasies about being an astronaut and became quite convinced that I was an astronaut for a period of at least a couple of years.

I get so absorbed in an interest I forget where I am, or how to function in that place I happen to find myself in.

Once I had to remind myself time travel didn't exist...yet.

Oh yeah I constantly asked people if they could hear the TARDIS.

I like to mix reality and fantasy (sci-fi - is better). I can tell the difference.


As a child, yes, I had difficulties.

i usually have a lot of fantasy leak trough into the real world indeed; but if anything happens that needs full attention, i can snap out of it no problem.
even though most of the leeking fantasy is build in such a way that it fits right over the real world (think augmented reality), i do 'feel' that there are two different input channels; my physical eyes and ears, and my memory eyes/ears, so i can seperate the two at will when needed

Well Tony Atwood talked about how sometimes children with AS have trouble distinguishing fantasy form reality or appear to and the example he used was a little girl pretending to be a horse and waiting to really sleep in a stable and eat hay.Reading this was awesome because I related so much. When I was a kid and was pretending to be an octopus I would sometimes spend most of the day on my "wavy" blue blanket pretending to be in an ocean.... because I did this all day everyday while that fantasy lasted it looked really weird like I couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality...but I could. I was just really obsessed with pretending to be an octopus but I knew it was pretend. At one time I pretended to be a baby and made my mom buy me rice cereal (a baby food to eat). I was just really immersed in my imaginary world..I spend more time in it then not...it was my special interest.

If you really can't distinguish between fantasy and reality....don't know which is which...have delusions and maybe see things that aren't there (hallucinations) that's indicative of psychosis.

I sometimes have those difficulties even now, but not on regular basis.

I personally went though this phase. In first grade, I drew fanart of Mario and Luigi, and my teacher, who obviously knew nothing about Nintendo, asked me if Mario was a friend I had. The confusion that followed...I think back on it, and ask myself, "what the #@$#@ was I thinking?"

I also read this story.

I was like this when I was young... After i started to read that is.
It took me a couple of years to really get into reading, but once i did I went nuts. I would borrow ten book and return them the next week finished. once I ran out of books I made up my own stories.
Now I my self am working on my first book which is going to be a verse novel.

When I was young I had to escape to a fantasy and usually it was Indiana Jones, James bond or Charmed. It actually helped me make friends, when I was alone and pretending once in the playground a girl, who eventually became my bestie, approached and asked what I was doing, i answered "I'm pretending to be Piper" all shy like and she asked to join in, eventually I had many friends who would come along and pretend along with me.

Of course we grew out of it but it is nice to have our fantasy every now and then to escape the world that hurts us sometimes. And sometimes it can be our inspiration.

I really love to fantasize especially during my daily walks, but i do know very well the difference between reality and my fantasy, but lately my therapist has gotten worried that stopping with Haldol might trigger a psychotic episode because i'm already quite suspicious of people in general :o But right now i'm fine though, its just that when i get too suspicious i'm not very rational anymore because the fears are very real to me :/

I have a very good imagination, but I can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. The problem lies when other people can't tell the difference between me talking about a fantasy as if it is real and me actually believing that it is real.