Is this a common ASD trait?

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Starting when I was young (probably around 5 or 6) I would create my own realities in my head and spend most of my time "living" in them. I would create characters (sometimes they were characters from movies/books that I watched/read, and often they would be based on movie/book characters but have a few differences). I'd usually come up with some pretty elaborate details, and as I got a bit older, sometimes I would even make little drawings or write down facts about the worlds so that I could keep track of it (I'd usually write with some kind of code so that only I would be able to understand it). And I would always of course be a character in the worlds I created. Usually I was myself but just living in a different reality, but in some of the worlds I created, I was a totally different person. I still do this to this day and I am 25. Anytime that I don't have to really focus on something in the real world, I just start daydreaming and pretending like I'm in my own world that I created. I make up so many stories and scenarios. One of my favorite things to do is just go on a walk, put in my earbuds and listen to music, and just escape into my alternate reality. I have always completely understood that it's all just my imagination and have been able to keep it separate from real life. So it has never interfered with my ability function in school, at work, etc., and no one, not even my parents, has ever known that I do this. When I was little, I guess I didn't even realize that this might be unusual and may have assumed that other people did the same thing. As I got older, and I was still living in these imaginary worlds even when I was in middle and high school, I started to realize that it might be seen as weird, and while I had heard of autism, I really didn't know a lot about it and had only seen examples of pretty severe cases, so at that time i just thought I was a weirdo, and I never thought that I was possibly autistic until a few years ago when I started learning specifically about Asperger's and high functioning autism. Anyway, I haven't been assessed or diagnosed, but I've started to wonder if I do have ASD (if I do, it's most likely Asperger's since I didn't have a significant speech delay as a child). I seem to have a lot of traits, but this is the one that has stood out to me the most, and I just wonder how many ASD people do this.

It's something that's quite common in girls and women with Asperger's, according to what I've read. I used to do it a lot, and still do it now at age 40 when I feel stressed. My worlds were much more elaborate when I was younger, now I mostly borrow TV or book characters I like. It makes a wonderful escapism. I also have a tendancy to replay the same scenes in my head, in slightly different ways.

I always kept it seperate from reality, but I think it did affect my schoolwork because instead of doing that, which was boring, I would think or write my stories. I remember sitting in English class writing stories and I didn't even read the books I was supposed to be studying for my exams all the way through. I still managed to bluff my way to a B, but I think if I had worked harder I could have got an A.

That's my childhood exactly. Was into "drawing stories". Making up elaborate imaginary worlds, and characters. And taking pencil, and crayon, and drawing comic strip type narratives of their adventures.

Yes. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember... still doing it now.

My version of this was probably developing worlds that I thought I'd use to create a sci-fi or fantasy story. It would have been good if I'd carried this further as it feels like I've produced reams of maps and invented histories, yet I was never able to get far writing an actual story. The world building bit became interesting in itself and an escape.

It's understandable you'd do that with an active imagination when the world of "real" people wasn't working very well.

I've always done this, except I am not a character in the world I've created. Over time, I've created an entire community. I've tried writing stories about the characters I've lived with for many years, but I ended up abandoning every one of them. It's as if their story is too complex to translate onto page. But I don't think it's necessarily an ASD trait.

If this starts interfering with your ability to function, it's called maladaptive daydreaming.

I dont know if this is a ASD thing but i relate SO MUCH!

meet my friends! The characters i roleplay as in my head!



Theres Thunder, Emily. Mephiles. Suzie, Despair and Mystery (but she was booted from the group because she was boring and didnt do anything) i fantasize about them daily and like to escape into thought about them when im out in public and start to get overstimulated, Ive been thinking about them daily since 2009 and since then they have grown and developed greatly. most of the time they do the same things i do but other times they do things differently.

Emily and Thunder (btw emily and i share a name but thats where the similarities end.) are together and have 26 children together. Thats right, 26!



My characters dont age or at least age extremely slowly, they have their own biology, children age quickly but once they reach 25 their aging process slows down significantly

im trying not to get too detailed.

i really love using these characters to roleplay with others IRL as well. i have one friend now that i roleplay with on the regular, it brings me a lot of joy and is really the only socializing i really enjoy.