I've been living in a fantasy world

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Minus the music, I've often done much the same thing; in particular, the pacing. I'd walk - sometimes for hours - usually outside, imagining I was a barbarian warrior fighting the Romans, or an Old West desperado, robbing banks and trains, and having gunfights, and the like. Sometimes I'd just imagine getting even with people who had slighted or crossed me.
When I read James Elroy's autobiography/biography of his murdered mother, I couldn't help but take a pause upon reading of how he would walk for hours at night through the golf course he had worked at, fantasizing. Gotta kind of wonder if James Elroy is an Aspie.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

No more fantasies for me. I'm living in the real world, and facing my realities, from now on.

I know some of you said you thought you were the only ones. I always thought everyone did this. Isn't that what daydreaming is? I just figured I did more of it than most.

For as long as I can remember I have been like this too.

Usually they are either related to a book I've read/game I've played recently (I like games with good storylines), or else they are set in a post-quasi-apocalyptic world. I'm not entirely sure where that came from, but I suspect it is from when me and my sister had several John Wyndham books (the day of the triffids, the chrysalids, the kraken wakes, the seeds of time etc.) read to us when we were little - and as I have already implied, I like to put myself in scenarios expressed in books. I discovered that I like this setting as it is the only one that is theoretically possible yet removes the social pressures which I usually find so constraining and awkward.

But I have never seen these events as a reality. A hope, yes, at least on occasion. Even sometimes something to look forward to, which inevitably leads to me imagining myself at the time when the situation starts etc. It can (and frequently does) keep me occupied for hours.

I enjoy it though, and I do know that they are not real (yet ) so it isn't as though I'm completely closing off the rest of the world. And the causes of the situation I come up with are always natural, rather than induced by man (unlike the John Wyndham books). So no harm is coming from it. So why shouldn't I?

(P.S. sorry if I bored everyone out of their minds)

I do it too. It really helps me get through the day. From as far back as I can remember, I always had some sort of story line going through my head. Mostly it was based on TV shows, but I'd pluck characters from their shows and make up my own story line and plot with them. I'm always involved in some fashion. I always figured it was just daydreaming, but since getting dx'd with AS recently, I can see that I do it as a coping mechanism. I turn on music and just zone. I love it...I feel so safe there. It really helps me relax. If I restrict myself from doing it, I feel anxious. So I figure I'll keep doing it because it obviously helps me.

I'm so glad I found this thread; I really thought I was the only one who did this.

A lot of people here do, apparently. I do, and I'm not really comfortable with it, but it's hard to break out of it. I usually fantasize that I know a celebrity, one who has qualities I wish I had, and get to work with them and know them. It's actually a little scary, how often I think about this crap. But as long as I keep reminding myself it's not real whatsoever, I think I'll be okay. That's what I tell myself at least.

I too live in an imagination world. Hence my screen name. Though I function normal in the real world and try to socialize with others, I am at other times locked up in a make-believe world.

When I'm at work, and my co-workers are not paying attention to me, I speak to my imaginary friends. And I could be doing one thing (and do it very well), and at the same time, pretend to be doing something else.

While organizing stuff, I am sometimes pretending to be a store owner or a clown doing a magic trick. I also have an imaginary wife and imaginary kids.

Living in my own world never interferes with my work life. In fact, it helps me not to be a buttinski or butt into other people's conversations (which I've been known for doing at times). It also helps me fight loneliness when people are ignoring, ostracizing, or abusing me in any way. So, I benefit from living two lives: a real-world life and a fantasy-world life.

My fantasy-world life is like a sitcom with a little bit of drama. No off-color jokes. If I could, I would put it on television under a TV-PG rating, for some mild or off-screen violence (because I am an action hero at times).

I live in half of a fantasy world. I also don't believe that the fantasies are real or visually see them, but I do spend a lot of my time daydreaming. For me, it's a world of spirits, magic, spells etc.

Wow! Mines is a long-running sitcom/drama series, and I'm the main character. My characters are also regular people, but some with weird names. I use it to fight loneliness, depression, and boredom, and all the angry feelings I have towards the injustices of this society.

I too think it's perfectly okay, since it doesn't interfere with my real life. As a matter of fact, it only enhances it a bit.

I once told my sister about it, but she criticized me saying that I was "too old for that." Yo! I ain't listening to her. I'm doing what makes me happy. I won't tell my parents, because I don't wanna know how they'll react.

I mean, I'm not causing any trouble. So, I'm refreshed to meet others who are just like me!

I have a fantasy world, to some extent. It's more logical and less unpredictable than the real world so I don't see anything wrong with it. I can split my fantasy world from the real world, although I very easily lapse into daydream mode if I'm bored, even when other people are there. I'm one of those people who has their head in the clouds much of the time, which can get annoying, especially when I'm really trying to focus on what people around me are saying. I just zone out so easily...

The WHO version of Schizoid Personality Disorder?

Why have I not replied here yet? I don't know.

Yeah this is my life pretty much. I've always had a story (like someone else said often based off TV shows or a book I'd read) going through my head and I'd make up new stories with the characters or invent my own.

In the last year I discovered role playing (online where you type words and make a story with other people each playing a character of their choosing based off a book/movie/whatever or from your own imagination.

I role play a lot now. It's one of the main things I do on the computer in fact I have one going right now as I'm typing this.

My fantasy life is usually good (I have my own large world very loosely based around Tinker Bell in my head a long with other fantasy worlds).

I've never really put myself into my fantasy play save in one world where all the characters know about me and my controlling them and so on (I used to call them my imaginary friends til I realized they weren't anything like what normal imaginary friends are like).

I could maybe make money with this talent if the stories could get transferred into written form which has so far not been successful.

I used to imagine, that I was Sid, from Flushed Away, because a high society friend dumped me, here and an I've lost control, of my bowels. If I would have known, about the song, 'Mick Avory's Underpants', and did my research, in the January and February of crappy 2007, than I would have never identified, with a rat.

I've lost two and a half years of my life, because of the way, I let that person get to me. Ignorance is bliss.

I used to be told that all the time as a child and some psychologists even thought I was "psychotic" and couldn't separate fantasy from reality. I was four and I hear that supposed normal kids can't do that until they are six or so. Being AS, I was always delayed mentally and emotionally; even though I might have had the body of a four year old, mentally I was two. I would pretend to be animated characters and when asked who I was I would reply the name of that character so psychologists thought I actually believed I was Buster Bunny or so-and-so. I knew I was really me but I was just super hardcore at pretending. I also would change who I was pretending to be at the drop of a hat and expected everyone else to know I was pretending to be Babs Bunny (I was a 90's child) and had epic meltdowns when people still called me Buster Bunny. I think this was an issue with theory of mind. I would also have a meltdown and attack the TV if I saw something I thought shouldn't be such as Bugs Bunny in drag. Homophobia can apparently be witnessed in the toddler years. I was definitely the fantasy "boy" type of AS (although I appeared more Kanner's autistic until I was four or five) and had an active imagination so don't go telling me autistic people don't have imaginations.

I was always living in my imagination as a kid, probably because real life was too cruel and hard. My parents were always telling me I was in "la la land" which I always interpreted as an insult. It took me YEARS to feel loved and accepted BTW and part of the reason I had such an elaborate fantasy live was so I could feel accepted. As an adult I learned how to make my fantasy a reality but I will always feel more of a meerkat than a person.

Most people don't pace back and forth for hours, bobbing their head, while listening to an iPod and concocting new storylines for "Star Trek" and "The X-Files." Kids in school thought I was mentally ret*d at recess until I learned not to do it in public.

Also, most people don't have to keep "tuning out" every 15 minutes or so in a social situation because their brain starts to shut down due to overload.

And most people don't start feeling like a pressure valve about to explode if they can't pace back and forth, hand flap, and head bob for a few hours every day.

--XFG

I can relate to a lot of it.

I daydream a lot. This sometimes causes me to lose awareness of my surroundings. It can be a problem while driving - but don't worry, I now only drive when I absolutely have to, which is about once every two years. When I was younger, I used to imagine many fantasy worlds. At one point, I made up an imaginary island and drew a map of it. I have also often imagined myself becoming famous and admired. For most of my life, I have not been very skilled socially. I have however, followed mainstream schooling and got a university degree. I didn't use to understand that different people have different perspectives on things, so I obviously couldn't empathise. I only started to grasp that different people view things/feel/think differently after I realized I was autistic. I have spent a lot of my life in pain too, and have had episodes of depression.

Most of my family do not understand social realities very well either, due to their autism, and they live in their half-fantasy version of the social world.

I'm still angry at people who treat me poorly. I wish that I could forgive them as easily as you do.