Can anyone relate to having an “over-active” and extremely vivid imagination to the point that it crosses into reality?

Wow!

This seems like such an obvious response, but have you been in therapy for this? You should not have to be suffering so much.

@janbb I have been several times now, after I tell them what I have told you all they basically trip over their words and go off on a tangent, avoiding the issue completely. I had one doctor who told me that I was the most facinating person he had ever talked to and that he honestly had no idea how to help me. – LB

@NewZen thanks for making me giggle <3 – LB

You probably want to find someone who is a specialist in dissociative disorders. I would contact the most expert psych hospital/clinic in your area and ask for a referral. There is definitely treatment for such disorders.

I understand what it is like to have an overactive imagination to the point where the line between reality and imagination is extremely blurred. This has caused serious anxiety and paranoia for myself. However, my experiences of this are very different to yours. There are no characters as such for me. My paranoia comes from situtions (that are fairly realistic) that scare me rather than characters but where you start to see and even smell your characters I experience certain sitiuations even when they aren’t happening in reality. Like your “issues” mine also started with nightmares. I have been on medication to try and prevent this happening but it didn’t really help. I know I should get therapy but I am too afraid to do so at the moment.

I used to wake up from my sleep and I would be underneath my bed. I also believed that there was a robot living in my room. I was perfectly sane and normal, but I would see him when I was awake just like I did when I was asleep. And he wasn’t very pleasant. I was sixteen and I also have always experienced very vivid dreams and nightmares. My parents brought me to a therapist who said that I had a problem distinguishing between fantasy and reality.

On my own, I learned how to manipulate my dreams and it put me in control of the situation. I haven’t had any problems since.

Maybe conventional therapy is not the answer. Maybe you should see some kind of dream specialist, if there is such a thing.

@janbb Thank you for your great advice I will definitly have to try this route <3 – LB

@jamielynn2328 I never thought about that: “a problem distinguishing between fantasy and reality”. That’s fantastic that you have achieved the ability to manipulate your dreams. Sadly, my dreams are no longer the issue. I would much rather the nightmares over the realness of these creatures.. – LB

@ElleBee Please do get help – the sooner the better. This just sounds like too horrible a way to live.

The mind is a beautiful beast

@janbb it is and it’s getting increasingly worse :| I will continue trying to find treatment; I’m terrified how bad it could possibly get! – LB

@warpling You are so very right! Even though my imagination can scare the life out of me, it can also bring me beautiful bliss. I love reading very detailed happy books. I actually get to a point where I am no longer reading but “watching” the story unfold in my head. It’s can be wonderful when it wants to be <3 – LB

I used to see black shapes in the dark that would slowly move toward me . . . but fortunately they’ve gone away recently. I’m not sure what caused them or what made them go away, but I’m glad they’re gone.

Sometimes less is more.

I use the ‘beings’ that inhabit my mind as characters in fiction stories. This can get weird, an they start to tell me what they will or will not do in each particular story. Sounds like your over-active and vivid imagination has mine beat hands down.

@Psychedelic_Zebra wrote:_I use the ‘beings’ that inhabit my mind as characters in fiction stories. This can get weird, an they start to tell me what they will or will not do in each particular story: Are you published? Can you link to a book online? Or are they private ideas and only book ideas…(like mine, sigh)?

_Sounds like your over-active and vivid imagination has mine beat hands down.__ Zebra man, no-one has you beat hands down. However, I’d tie you up and beat you down (or vice versa), if you’d like. PM me for more details.. lurve ~.

ZEN

Have they tried meds, yet? Like Geodan, risperdal or seroquel? Something else?

@daloon I refuse to take medication. It only masks what the real problem is. I have tried before and became completely numb. Not only that but nothing was resolved, it was all only “swept under the rug”.. – LB

When I’m writing there is a point when I start to ‘think the thoughts’ and even dream based on the ‘thoughts’ of the characters I’ve created and developed. There’s a point when the characters start ‘telling’ you what is next or how they would react given a particular situation or set of circumstances. I have actor friends who have the same experience when they are immersed in a character for a movie.

I will PM you with something I learned from my culture. It may not be helpful but perhaps it is. I’d post it here except it is something I wouldn’t want attacked by flutherites.

@ElleBee Do you actually know what the real problem is? I had the impression you didn’t.

Yes, meds can make you feel numb, and if they do, then that’s not the right med for you. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a med that will work for you. From what you describe, it sounds to me like things that happen to friends of mine. The real problem for them was that there was something quite different about their brain chemistry. These things went away when they found the right medication.

If you want to try to deal with these characters on your own, I have no right to tell you any different. What I’m afraid of is that they might start telling you to kill yourself, or kill someone else. They do not sound like very friendly characters to me. There are things you simply can’t get to go away without meds.

I’m sure your doctors must have ruled out schizophrenia, because if they had mentioned that, I’m sure you would have given us that information. I’m not a medical professional. I’m just mentally ill, and I hang out with a bunch of other mentally ill people, and your story reminds me of the stories my schizophrenic friends tell. All I’m saying is that I urge you to reconsider your mistrust of a medical approach.

Now I don’t know much about what it would feel like to have several malevolent characters living in my head. My instinct is that I would try to talk to them and see what they want, but I’d also be afraid that would give them more power than they already have. I trust you understand that these voices are ones that only you can hear?

I suspect that you will not be able to stop them, either by ordering them or pleading with them. I have had no ability to control my delusions, either. Mine were trickier, because they seemed like reasonable thoughts. My delusions felt like I was interpreting the data in the proper way.

Let me give you an example. I was sure that my wife hated me. She wanted to divorce me and she didn’t love me. I was certain that she found me ugly and undesirable. It all wasn’t true, and when we finally started talking about what was really going on, I found out that these things that I knew were actually delusions. I didn’t have any voices telling me this, but I was absolutely sure I was seeing the world with clear vision. It turned out that it was my brain telling me this story, and my brain was wrong. Once I had the proper meds, I realized this idea was a delusion.

I, too, am very grateful to my wife. It turns out she really does love me. It took a lot for me to realize that was true. She was the one who took me to the shrink, and helped me get treated.

I’ve also got a very vivid imagination, but mine is a lot more fun than your’s is. I can get lost in fantasies, and sometimes it feels more intense than a real world experience. But it’s under my control, unlike yours.

I think you have a lot of strong energy, and my intuitive sense is that it is bursting out. It makes me suspect that you’ve been trying to keep a lid on something that won’t be locked in. Your mind is finding other ways of letting some nightmare in your life out. The only thing I can think of is that you might try to channel that energy in another way. A way that allows you to investigate it on your terms, not theirs.

The other thing I think is that some people just can’t fight their thoughts. I am such a person. So I have learned how to let my thoughts go, but to become more aware that I am merely thinking them. They are only thoughts. I don’t have to pay so much attention to them. I don’t have to let them have such power.

There are exercises that can train these skills. If there’s a mindfulness program in your area, it might help. Yoga can also help. As can meditation. All of these techniques help you focus on the path in front of you, but getting attached to the scenery.

So, in other words, imagine you are driving a car down the highway. You have to focus on the road. So the scenery becomes a blur. It’s there, but you aren’t giving it a lot of attention. It’s not like you can do anything about it.

Your characters and nightmares are the scenery. Unpleasant scenery to be sure, but not scenery you have to look at directly. Instead, you need to focus on driving (living your life). The more you can do this, the less power your fantasies will have over you.

This is just my idea. I don’t have any training in this, and I’m not any kind of doctor. I’m just a guy who is trying to cope with his own abnormal brain chemistry. This is what I do—meds and coping techniques. A psychiatrist and a therapist (who knows a lot of different techniques).

I am very sympathetic, and I wish you peace with this problem.

@daloon – your answer is absolutly amazing! I have so much to think about now with all the fantastic ideas you have given me :) I really appreciate you taking the time to respond and give me some sort of direction on this path. Much Lurve to you! – LB

Sigh, I saw “The Fifth”, clear as day and my boyfriend was only feet away. (He was soooo mad!!) It’s has gotten so much worse since then, it’s been a week tonight. I’m seeing them during the day now, my heart hurts when I see them, I get all anxious..

The Fifth, to me feels like the final one.. I have no idea what that means though. He is the worst one of them all..

- 3–4 feet tall
– hunched over
– 1000’s of tine needle like teeth in a menicing grin
– blood tinted saliva, that drips (like a damn St. Bernard) from it’s teeth and mouth
– body looks like charred skin streached over bone
– eyes are large black orbs that protrude slightly from the sockets
– nose is just a hole, as if it’s been burnt off
– hair is just a few scraggily strands, black
– no ears again just holes where they should be

I’ve grown very worried.. seeing them in the day has never happened, seeing them around people has never happened..

I had a dream a few night after I saw The Fifth.. It was of my boyfriend, but my gut knew it wasn’t really him. He chased me, hunted me down, trying to kill me. Finally he trapped me, pointed a gun to my head and said “Gotcha.”, right as I heard the BANG!, in that split-second, his image pulled off and The Fifth was there.. then I woke up screaming and crying..

I need to write a book, write about this.. Reach out in hopes anyone will know what’s happening..

I have been searching for theapy but keep getting turned down and avoided..

I’m getting very scared..

I can only second what @janbb said., There appear to be some dissociative features to what you are describing, and these conditions are treatable. I would like to make the gentle suggestion that the people who tell you are fascinating and then don’t help you are insuffuciently competent.

If you would like some advice on how to find an effective therapist, PM me. I would tell you here, but people have seen my advice many times on this issue and are no doubt tiring of it.

It sounds to me as if you are in distress; the good news is that there is unquestionably a way to make the frightening part stop.

Another thing I’ve seen people do with this stuff is to draw or paint it. I wonder if they would be pleased if you were drawing their portraits? Probably not. They probably couldn’t sit still long enough.

Is it schizophrenia? This really sounds like schizophrenia to me…

No that was ruled out, but I was right there with you on that idea for awhile!

I’m currently being treated for Nyctophobia

That’s really interesting. I’ve never heard of anything like this. It may be an entirely new disorder that has never been labeled before. I wonder if other people experience this and I wonder if this could explain more accounts of supposed paranormal activity.

@ElleBee I’m very happy that you got a diagnosis and are being treated! Hope it helps.

@janbb Thank you so much!! Much lurve to you! (hugs)

@ElleBee And hugs back to you!