Child's imaginary friends

[Imzadi]

Your co-worker probably watched the same episode of Oprah as I did.

I think that will be one of the major fallouts of this era. Too much Oprah is NOT always a good thing. Like Tiger Woods has a sex addiction. More likely, he got the idea from watching Oprah.

 

[mlynn]

Some people just get off on making others feel bad.

I had one when Iwas a kid.His name was "The Boy" and My dd5 has one now "baby strong man." It is so common in children.I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Jenvenza]

I think that will be one of the major fallouts of this era. Too much Oprah is NOT always a good thing. Like Tiger Woods has a sex addiction. More likely, he got the idea from watching Oprah.

 

[Disneycrazy!!]

Perfectly normal!! Don't worry! My DS who is 4 has one too and he has conversations with him. As a matter of fact , last week he told me to "Be quiet please, my friend was talking first and your being rude!" Me:" OH my bad, I didn't know he was talking first!"

 

[NMAmy]

I agree with all the previous posters that your friend is wrong. I had an imaginary friend named Sally. DD had several--the one I remember the most was a tiny little girl named Bubble. Bubble fit into dd's pocket so she went everywhere with us for awhile.

 

[laughinplace199]

OP, please don't worry. Lots of kids have imaginary friends. My DS8 had a whole bunch of them (he called them his "invisible guys") starting when he was about 3. They were all either animals or weird combinations of animals (like an elephant/bird). Some had weird names like "Big Bubba" and others had more normal names. His favorite was a clam named Clammy. One day, Clammy died. I was really freaked out by DS killing off one of his invisible guys. Much to my relief, he informed me that Clammy dies and comes back to life all the time.

Now that DS is 8, he no longer has his invisible guys, but Clammy has lingered mostly as a joke. DH & I once went away for the weekend and there was an empty seat beside me on the plane. I buckled the seatbelt and took a picture of Clammy sitting in the seat. DS got a big kick out of that. Also, if something is lost or breaks, we blame Clammy.

.

 

[rparmfamily]

Oh yes, DD9 had a few imaginary friends, she's had them for years!! Mr Racecar is one and I forget the other. She doesn't really talk about them anymore but it just blew my mind she had an imaginary friend (same one) for like 4-5 years!

 

[Ephany]

DD doesn't just have an imaginary friend, there's a whole family. First the older brother joined us, (he's 9) and then as DD got older his little sister came to visit and stayed. Sister is amazingly the exact same age as DD. Lately as DD's been pushing the 'I want a little brother or sister', so her imaginary friend suddenly has a twin sister. She's perfectly aware that they're imaginary; occasionally they will draw me a picture but we don't save a seat at the dinner table or anything. I had imaginary friends too, and turned out normal (well mostly) so I really wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[Thumper_Man's Wife]

I want to go and watch "Drop Dead Fred" now after reading this thread!

OMG! That was my favorite movie as a child. I don't know why but I loved it!

OP - I wouldn't think twice about it. I would see it as your child having an amazing and healthy imagination. I, like PP's here have heard that it is a sign of intelligence.

 

[brittsmum1998]

My dd had a friend "Jake" from ages 3 to 5 or so. Any time she did something or wrong or even something as simple as tripping on her feet she would blame Jake.

He came to Disney with us all the time and then for some reason decided to stay . Jake was never heard from again.

She is a fine well adjusted tween of 11 (about to be 12).

 

[nikkistevej]

Also think your coworker watched that Oprah show. I agree with other posters that just because kids have imaginary friends0- DO NOT mean they have schizophrenia.

 

[bumbershoot]

My friend's son had an imaginary friend who rented boats and did construction work on the side! We thought that was pretty interesting - certainly different from the run of the mill imaginary friends.

DS has a whole passel of 'brothers' who have lived the MOST amazing lives. Most of their parents or grandparents have died (which I figure is his way of processing his grandpa's death, as well as knowing that my mom was dead before I even met DH). Some of the brothers started dating when they were 3. Others were in 1st grade when they were 25. A varied lot.

But the first imaginary friend he had was Hamber Codger. Hamber wears "old Japanese clothing" and sings karaoke. We didn't even know he know about karaoke when he came up with that; he was something like 3!

So not only did I have Schizophrenia, I also had the makings of a serial killer!

I had a BF who dragged me to Native American celebrations & medicine wheel gatherings and such. He told me about a story of this young woman who was institutionalized many times, for many years at a time by her DH. One time, she was out of the institution for a while. She attended a Medicine Wheel gathering, saw the Native American shaman/medicine man, go into a trance/reverie state, see other people, talk, meditate, communicate, dance, go into a dance "frenzy," spout out passages of wisdome, etc.

The woman recognised and realized that is exactly the same stuff she does. Only, she was diagnosed by the Caucasian culture as being Schizophrenic, while the Native Americans revered their people in these states.

She studied shamanism and joined in with the Native American culture. She ended up divorcing her husband, who still thought she was crazy. Her name is Joan Halifax. She has become one of the revered, honored wise women, shamans and Zen teachers of our time. her work has been respected by the Dalai Lama & mythologist/author/historian Joseph Campbell. She is considered no slouch in her community.

Love that story!!!!

 

[handinpocket]

I talk to my long deceased cat sometimes. I guess some would say I have schizophrenia with delusions of talking cats. Whatever, works for me.

 

[JessicaR]

At 2-3 years of age I had a pink elephant. My parents encouraged the relationship and I thrived. He went away when my sister was born. Car doors held open for him and dinner places set at the table.

 

[bluesaturn]

Imaginary friends are very normal for young children. Pretend play in general is a great activity for kids and an important part of social development. It doesn't mean your child is schizophrenic. Early onset schizophrenia is very rare, and children diagnosed with it will present as extremely ill.

I think with schizophrenia you are looking for disordered thinking and flattened affect. The hallucinations and delusions are often negative or frightening, and the person is often upset or agitated by them.

I'm not an expert though

 

[Imzadi]

At 2-3 years of age I had a pink elephant. My parents encouraged the relationship and I thrived. He went away when my sister was born. Car doors held open for him and dinner places set at the table.

So this is where we get the pink elephant in the room no one else talk about from?

 

[tazdev3225]

Imaginary friends are normal, show an active and creative imagination and can be a sign of intelligence. I had 2 friends. They started when I was about 18 months old, I talked in sentences before I was 1. They had to have a place at the table and were an important part of my life. They slept in the wall beside my bed. They are still there. My brother bought that house from our parents. My 2 youngest brothers also had imaginary friends. They both have measured IQ's over 160 so very intelligent. I wouldn't worry they can be a great comfort to a child.

 

[turkeymama]

Imaginary friends are very normal for young children. Pretend play in general is a great activity for kids and an important part of social development. It doesn't mean your child is schizophrenic. Early onset schizophrenia is very rare, and children diagnosed with it will present as extremely ill.

I think with schizophrenia you are looking for disordered thinking and flattened affect. The hallucinations and delusions are often negative or frightening, and the person is often upset or agitated by them.

I'm not an expert though

Ding ding ding! This is exactly what we learned in Abnormal Psychology last semester. Schizophrenic hallucinations and delusions are not usually happy events and paranoia is usually part of the package. Imaginary friends don't usually cause kids distress.

My kids didn't have imaginary friends, they had imaginary monsters. I frequently had to kick them (the monsters) out of the house at night because they wouldn't behave and they kept "seeping" under the walls, going from room to room causing trouble. Wild imaginations!

 

[AKL_Megs]

Well, call me schizophrenic, because I had HUNDREDS of imaginary friends growing up!

At one point I even had an imaginary son named Tyler!

 

[JoMarie]

I don't think imaginary friends are a bad thing at all! When I was younger, I used to think that Michael Jackson (this was back during Thriller-era MJ) was my imaginary friend and he lived in a troll doll with pink hair.

Wow, that doesn't make me sound sane, does it? But hey, I was a happy kid, I just had Michael Jackson as a best friend. I'm fairly certain that I turned out alright.