Obsession over Fictional Characters...my alter-ego?

Post Reply New Topic

When I have an obsession over a fictional character, I tend to think of them as my alter-ego. It seems like they are inside my head somewhere, and I tend to act like them. Sometimes it is helpful if the person is more confident or braver than me, and I use it to my advantage. I think: What Would *insert character here* Do?

Unfortunately, I have a soft spot for the underdogs, and sometimes they are, more often than not, bad guys. (e.g. Vegeta, Raistlin Majere) In that case, I try not to act like them too much, but sometimes it gets the better of me, and I end up acting colder or more distant than I really am. Lucky enough for me, I am usually a nice person, and I like myself enough to act normal most of the time.

Does anyone else do this? (Oh please...or I will feel insane!)

yeah. whenever i read a book, i start to find my thoughts along the line of the protagonist, or the general themes of the book.

There was a time that I was that way, with Austin Powers. Now I can't even watch the movies, because of the obvious humour, that's in them.

Call me crazy, but it sounds nice actually.

I almost did that... well really just once. Unfortunately it was with Crime and Punishment so I hadn't got the best fictional "mentor". But I really LIVED that book and character (minus the crime I must accentuate.)

When I obsess over a TV show character, their voice/accent generally becomes the voice of my inner-dialog. Which then makes me wonder what they would do in my situation. So I suppose in some ways I do the same thing.

I do this all the time. I pretend that the fictional character has, by some unknown means, replaced my consciousness with their own - like they're having a coma dream where they're me, if that makes sense. (Which it doesn't.) Or sometimes, it's more like they share my consciousness, give advice, make commentary.

Oh yes! Though my obsessions have extended to celebrities and real life people as well as fictional characters. Things tend to feel awkward for me when the obsession happens to be male in gender; I get this funny feeling of weirdness or feeling of not being myself when I go clothes shopping or do other girly stuff.

Always, from the very start. I made up my earliest characters, except that they were based on feline personalities mixed with what I knew of humans, then later they were personalities I liked or admired for their mental agility, fearlessness or strength, be they from a book, a movie or a rock band. I continued to create my own characters, and the main one that still lives on in my mind has gone through many "morphs", but has retained the same name. He's Yang to my Yin. However, he doesn't actually talk to me in my head as much as an old rock idol I liked years and years ago. For some reason, he stayed to listen and give advice. My main character has a storyline that I continue most nights as I fall asleep, but for years, I tried to give him a story and had some great ideas (related to physics), but my weaknesses surround plot. I see his "life" as one big documentary now, that just keeps getting rewritten.

This ability - plus music and trees - have gotten me through some rough times. Taking on one of these fictional personas did help with confidence in social situations at times, for sure.

Whenever I feel passionate about a character, I think about which personality traits I admire most about them and try to apply them to my own life. I don't really pretend that they are my alter-ego, but rather that they are my imaginary friends who support me and encourage me. Though it should be noted that oftentimes the characters who become my imaginary friends possess characteristics that are present in my own personality, so I guess you could say they bring out the best in me.

I think having internalized multiple personalities is common in AS... at from what Ii have been reading here! When Ii was growing up, I had eight alter-egos that I called on when I needed to be more assertive or to call on certain emotions. Some of them were based on fictional characters and some I built form scratch. Maybe we need them in order to try to fit more comfortably with the strange people around us.

In any case, I used alter-egos occasionally in my adulthod as well, although they rarely had the detailed personalities that had when I was a teenager. I killed off my last one just last year in November.

I think it's really nice to be able to do that, you certainly can get a feel for stories like no one else. I used to do it.

Timon from The Lion King was my special intrest for years. The basis for my special intrest in meerkats. I think it was really because I could eaily relate to a hyperactive loud mouth espicaly as a little kid. On supposed Lion King fan sites, a lot of people hate Timon and it deeply upsets me and another girl who I highly suspect is AS as well. She gets cyber bullied a lot becuase of her Timon special intrest http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Atimon I want to talk to her and be her friend becuase I think we have a lot in common but she has had to block her e-mail becuase people like to be mean to her. Extactaly what is it about Timon that people hate so much. My mum says it's because he's loud and hyper. But there are a lot of NT's like that and they are very popular. NT's are a strange breed. But back on topic, Timon became a special intrest because I could relate to him.

I find that I immerse very deeply into the characters that I write, and I've had people say that they get that effect from reading. A lot of the things I've obsessed over have been works of fiction, and I know some of the characters--both ones I've seen on shows/in books and the ones I write so well that it's as though they're alive.

Whether or not there's any real reason for it in my case, that's one thing I DO know very much by experience.

_________________
Official diagnosis: ADHD, synesthesia. Aspie quiz result (unofficial test): Like Frodo--I'm a halfling? 110/200 NT, 109/200 Aspie.

Fictional people are the best people, the ones in books anyhow.

I did all the time as a kid. I never connected it with AS and thought I was the only one. Now, I write my own stories. A lot of times, at least one character has enough of me in him or her to be my alter ego. The more like me they are, the more private, guarded, and secretive they get, and the harder dragging the story out of them becomes.