Posted by Noa on January 6, 2003, at 11:36:21
In reply to What is a busy mind?, posted by Phyl on January 6, 2003, at 10:28:04
I used to do this a lot too, during my childhood and adolescence. I can't remember when it faded away. I think it just started to fade at a certain age, and maybe when my depression started to get serious in my early twenties, and maybe just with age. I am pretty sure it started fading well before I ever took psychiatric meds, but I also have a suspicion that even if I wanted to do it now, I couldn't really. My meds do kind of squash the ability to fantasize, I think.
I think that when I was younger, I needed those "dreams" because I didn't want to be just me the way I was. I remember making up stories in my head with variations on the following themes: I was an identical twin; I was the child of some heroic or exotic person; I had escaped courageously with a sibling (sometimes the twin) from some awful foreign country of origin (which made me usually an orphan, btw),and having an exotic and heroic mystique about me because of it, and being fluent in lots of exotic languages; being adopted (I am not really) and going on an adventurous quest (possibly sneaking into that horrible foreign country!)to find my family of origin, only to discover that they were not just ordinary people, but something really really special for whatever reason, or serendipitously discovering that someone I know in my life is my long-lost sibling, etc.; being some kind of secret agent, fluent in many languages and secretly going on important missions that would save people or prevent catastrophe; then there were the more romantic themes of being stuck in an elevator with a famous movie star who falls in love with me; or romantic themes involving real crushes, etc. Often, I looked different in these stories, from being thinner and being beautiful, to having an exotic look--different skin color, hair, etc.
There were times in my adoloescence when my ability to carry on stories in my head was so good, that I did so during boring college classes. But mostly, like you said, they were before going to sleep.
BTW--I think I remember reading in "The Drama of the Gifted Child" about people fantasizing about being the child of some powerful or important person.
poster:Noa
thread:34690
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030104/msgs/34698.html