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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Amandafran on September 24, 2006, at 16:01:08
alrighty. Now, I know this is probably going to sound really weird but Im not really sure if I am the only one who is or has experienced this and im not really sure what it is or means...so I need some help. I have gotten to where I can visualize/fantasize about a situation or event in my mind...and I can play it out in my mind...and yet it is totally not real or true..Like earlier today I had this scenario going that my best friend had died...and no one knew what to do..and I was at work..and they had to call my therapist to come and calm me down but he couldnt even because I was hyperventilating..so I ended up going with the paramedics to the hospital...needless to say this was all thought of in my head...but when I got into my car to go to church this morning and was driving down the road...I felt as if I was still in my "other situation " of my friend being dead...I guess what im trying to say is that I felt like I had two lives. Is anyone following this? I know it sounds really weird.
Has anyone had an experience like this where they feel like they are "here" but not really Here? what does this mean? What causes this? Is there something wrong with me? Who spends most of their life feeling like their life is a movie...that is how I feel. i feel like if I dont like what is goin going on or if I am bored or whatever that I can create a scenario in my mind and then get totally lost in this "other World". But then...I have a hard time coming back to reality ...WHAT IS GOING ON?
Any help would be great.
Amandafran
Posted by sunnydays on September 24, 2006, at 18:10:16
In reply to I need some help, posted by Amandafran on September 24, 2006, at 16:01:08
I don't know if it's the same, but I have felt like that. For me it's kind of a dissociative thing when I'm stressed or scared - I make up another world and kind of live there for a while. And when daydreams or thoughts are really intense, it can be hard to come back to reality afterwards. If it really bothers you, maybe it would help you to see a therapist and they can work with you to figure out why you do this. Sometimes understanding it is all that's necessary for it to go away or be put to more productive uses.
sunnydays
Posted by madeline on September 24, 2006, at 19:04:13
In reply to I need some help, posted by Amandafran on September 24, 2006, at 16:01:08
I don't know you or your story, but I suspect that you have been doing this for a while. Perhaps you were abused as a child and escaped to a fantasy world where things were okay. Perhaps the ability to enact scenarios before they played out helped you to feel in control of any situation that might scare you.
Either way, this sounds like a mechanism of protection to me, either to get out of a current situation or to predict, control and cope with a possible future one.
I would look at what is going on around you and in your life during time you are most likely to fantasize. You might learn a lot about yourself.
Maddie
Posted by Lindenblüte on September 25, 2006, at 7:25:53
In reply to Re: I need some help, posted by madeline on September 24, 2006, at 19:04:13
Yes, Amandafran,
I've been experiencing this from time to time. Sometimes it's really nice, but othertimes the daydream is actually a nightmare. Don't worry that you're losing your mind. You are just using one strategy to "escape" the current world for another. We all do this from time to time, using different strategies (vacation?). Your strategy is simply more extreme than many others'. Definitely talk to a therapist about what this strategy is doing for you, and whether it is adaptive to your current situation, a habit that you picked up along the way, and how you can go about changing the habit so that it is not so distressing to you.
sorry you're hurting. Sometimes our own minds are scarier than any horror movie, huh?
-Li
Posted by Amandafran on September 25, 2006, at 17:14:33
In reply to Re: I need some help, posted by Lindenblüte on September 25, 2006, at 7:25:53
Thank you all for your input...I think that part of my problem is that I am wanting someone to care for me and love me. I just found out today that I might have skin cancer so Im really REALLY freaking out...I wont know for about a week but I think that my obsessing over things is all because I need support and love and that is something that I didn't get a lot of growing up...I was loved but it was the smothering type of love and it made it where I wasnt able to be independent and I had to depend on my parents and to this day..I have depended on them...Now, I am trying to be independent and take charge of my life...including my health and I am finding out that there are things wrong with me that have been bypassed...and it is coming back to bite me. So I think what I really want is for someone to be there with me not to solve my problems but to guide and support me...and so I put myself in situations in my mind where people are helping me and loving me and it makes me happier...(did any of that make any sense?) I hope so...I tend to ramble..but if you followed it! Great :)
Thanks for helping me...I need all the help I can get! :) Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
Amandafran
This is the end of the thread.
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