My younger boy just introduced me to his, two bulldog puppies named Tuff and Tape. It got me remembering my own imaginary friend, Mr. Smiley, a friendly crocodile who was my constant campanion from about age 3-5. How many other ADDults had invisible pals?

OMG I had SOOOOO many invisible friends! Most of them were celebrities I'd see on TV or whatnot. I had them until I was like, in 6th grade! LMAO

Honey, I'm still talking to myself! I had loads of imaginary friends (sometimes it felt like they were my only friends). I played pretend until way late in life because I felt so lonely, bored, distracted, frustrated, confused, whatever. I remember in 4th grade a friend and I were writing about our imaginary friends, even describing the planet they were from. If I can just focus long enough I have tons of story lines that I'd love to get down on paper!

"Mr. Tummy-up"

LOL!
I wish I remembered more from my childhood. A lot of things like that I really only remember being told about it by mom.

Never had one......

Can you remember any you just invented Jaime? Celebrities....lol....I can remember the Hardy Boys, the Partridges, Wonder Woman and the Bionic Woman being at some of my birthday parties... he he he.

What sort of creature was Mr. Tummy Up, Paul?

How did the friends end up disappearing?

Mr. Smiley was not a a real crocodile (duh) more drawing-like as opposed to photo-like, sort of cartoonish. I can remember him being with me everytime I had to do something scary like walk to the bathroom in the dark or go to the dr. for shots. I made it up so that he'd camoflage himself as a vending (with me playing along) machine if any unwelcome people wanted to discuss his existence.

Many experts, according to the reading I've been doing on this subject, seem to agree that imaginary friends are made up by first borns and highly intelligent and creative children beginning in toddlerhood and lasting through the elementary school years. It's one way the brain entertains itself. That's why I was thinking it was possibly an ADDish trait.

My older son, when he was 3, had a an IF named Raim, who was a teenage boy. My oldest daughter had White Dog, who was a wolf and they would make up songs toghether.

hmmm I honestly can't remember making any up...Like I would just use celebrities or folks I saw on people because they already had a personality etc...heh

I really don't remember well but my impression is that Mr. Tummy-up was a chubby unclothed pink skinned full bellied buddy about as tall as a GI Joe or Barbie. As I lay in the crib or whatever looking at my tummy, he'd be there standing on my stomach as somebody pleasant to talk to. He was a nice guy, good company. Maybe a little like the Pilsbury Doughboy. LOL! I haven't thought about him in a long time! I always had a bit of a round tummy LOL!

did?
still do, they are my friends i still talk to them.
though the worst was when a real freind and i decided to play at multiple personalities, we started out playing, but one day we sat around listening to them talk, and realised we were not have to work at it, they were going on their own, and so we got scared and stopped.

mine were characters i saw or read about
or different or multiple versions of myself
as well as real people, but not ones i knew

some i would play with or talk to

some i would tease and torture
like the pope, or other religious, or totalitarian figures
or republicans (who are kind of both). apologies to anyone offended

or stupid people
i liked to play eugenics and imagine improving mankind, or building a house in the country to live in so i would invent people to help with the work.

Hehehe I became first a roleplayer, then a writer to have something to do with my imaginary friends...

No fair, rob you got to play with the pope!

WHO were your friends, clam? Do you remember any of them in particular?

Since this subject has been stewing in my brain today, I realized that Mr. Smiley looked very much like LYle Lyle Crocodile. Dang I miss him.

My hot wheels cars for the most part were the ones that went the furthest into developing their own "personalities". Two friends and I used to play with them endlessly, and each of us had one favourite car which we assigned human traits to... at one point mine was "The Black Turbo", which was sort of like KITT from Knight Rider, except without a driver (I hated David Hasselhoff even at that age. :D )

When I started acting and roleplaying, I found I went so far into character that I almost had a second personality. It was kind of thrilling and scary to have a distinct person inside of me.. almost like I was channelling something REAL. The strongest of these was a D&D character I had named Iris, who was a sort of goth witch type. She was essentially a "good guy" but was extremely bitter towards the world and kept getting herself and everybody else in trouble because of it... the character was so vivid that I am still planning to use a variation of it in the book I am writing.

No fair, rob you got to play with the pope!



like a cat plays with a mouse!!

Are U kiddin???? I still do:p NOT!

MY Imaginary freinds(plural) were my teddy Bears and stuffed animals(I blame Teddy Ruxpin) and favorite tv show Actors.....I had not friends in the real world but at least in my own world I was popular:D

...at least in my own world I was popular:D
That's why imaginary friends are so great...kids get to control what is going on with them. Good thing, when you are a kid, you sure don't have control over much. No coincidence IF's start to appear around the same developmental age when kids are starting to really explore autonomy (read: test limits :D ).

Actually the one thing I kept from my childhood is my own world...the one place where I am in control...My Imaginery world....and My Favorite Metal Stars are their...Somehow it is always ppl I admire and Adore rather than made up people.

I have imaginary friends even still. I have an imaginery brother named Christopher. I named my son Christopher after him. My dad has always wished I was a boy and he was the boy I wish I could have as a twin. I told him everything and never felt alone.
I don't talk to him as much now that I'm older. I do time to time but as a way to talk myself out of anxiety or fear. He was 6 feet tall, auburn hair and eyes green like mine.
He alway smiles and love sports as much as I do.

I use to also pretend to talk to actors or music artists. That was through my teens and 20s :D I actually would preform dances to them :D

I didn't have an imaginary friend but I was always pretending my friends were with me even when they weren't. So I don't know if that counts. My mom thought I had one but my friends were just always with me. I liked it better when I just pertened they were there. They wanted to do everything I did when I did LOL!

Man, I am so happy to hear you guys say this. I always thought I had like mild Schizophrenia or something. yea when I was younger I had a friend named Wok (pron. Wook like rhymes with Look) he had really big hair and was shorter than I was (I was the youngest of my cousins). we got in a fight one time while my family was in Maine, I told him to take ten minutes to walk on the beach and think about what he did (I forget what the fight was over) even though I knew my family was leaving in 5 minutes, so I abandoned him in Maine and apparently thats normal. now I'm in my 20's and I still talk to my friends when they are around and sometimes rockstars.

Honey, I'm still talking to myself!
That would be my answer, too. :D

I had an imaginary friend until we took a vacation to South Dakota. I was 6. On the way home he fell off the car and was never needed again for some reason.

Now my 6 yr old son (not ADD that we know of) had an imaginary dog Rocky. He was 4 at the time when my sister who watched him gave hime some crayons and said "Can you draw me a picture of Rocky?" he looked at the crayons and then her and said "He is imaginary, I will pretend I drew you a picture" then walked out of the room.

No imaginary friends although my brother had "Bud", "Ralph" and "Frank". But those guys died when he was around age 6-7.

My "imaginary" friends are re-occuring characters in role-playing/fan-fiction writing I've done.

Eric

I was just going to bed and I saw this post.
For my entire life I had someone that guided me in times that were at the most 'threatening' to me, per se, psyche wise... I've been through a pretty rough childhood and I had to create someone who was there to talk me through not to killing myself at times <I:0). She was platinum blonde, with perfect blue eyes, and her name is, still, Alex..if you must get inside my mind further..
Kinda takes a little 'outta' the chickie behind the enigmatic mask..doesn't it...huh..?
Nova