I have had imaginary friends all my life.
Don’t get the wrong idea. These are not voices in my head. These are imaginary friends I purposely make up. Someone I know thought I was schizophrenic. I am not. I know the difference.
I’m lonely. The only way to have an interesting life and to have help with life decisions is to have imaginary family and friends. I have a group of friends. There are six of us and we are known by others as the “six pack”. In this group is my spouse, and two other couples. We are close. They are the ones with whom I share my life. I have one of them around all the time. It changes based on the time of day. They help me to figure out what to do. I discuss my life with them and options. It is sort of like talking out loud to yourself, but more interesting.
I also have imaginary an imaginary family. I am the oldest of four kids. I have a real family, but they are not part of my life. So I make up other people. They all have very distinct personalities. This goes for my family and friends.
If this is not weird enough, my imaginary me has an imaginary life. In this imaginary life I am the captain of a ship and they all work with me. It is all quite entertaining. I do this to feel important and not so weird about my life. It is my way of having success in life and being great at something. I don’t have any real skills in life. I am fair at a lot of things but not great.
I do think I could be great at counseling people. Which may seem weird due to my weird life. But really. I am a trained counselor. I get people. I have a lot of empathy.
So, I can’t be the only person who lives like this. You may or may not know someone who is as lonely as I am. Even if you have someone in your life who is like me you will probably not know because who would admit it? Just be aware that there are a lot of lonely people. I know because I have talked to thousands of people over the years who are very lonely. They came to me for help but were not willing to pay for counseling services. Why? They had given up all hope.