Do you ever get tempted to just make something up?

[LuckyMum1989]

Sat in the dentist waiting for a tooth extraction (joy!) and am bored.

Start thinking about a vaguely interesting situation I am dealing with at the moment, and the thought crosses my mind "I bet that would be a good MN thread - I wonder what the general consensus would be?" I would have to change a few details, tweak a couple of facts to make it typical fodder etc.

Then suddenly, I think "where did THAT come from? Am I seriously considering writing a fictional problem just because I'm bored?" ... so I wrote this one instead 🤣

But two questions really - does anyone else just construct MN threads in their heads?
And, do you think that that's why trolls do it? Just sheer boredom / wanting to think about anything other than the dentist?!

No, I’ve never had that urge, reading other people’s issues is interesting enough, I would feel ridiculous making shit up for attention.

no idea why trolls do it, it’s totally cringe.

It was the weirdest thing- I felt really surprised at myself! It started with working out what details could tweak so as not to be too outing and then my imagination ran riot and I wasn't in the realm of facts at all! 😳

I never have but I can kind of see how people could. Sometimes my imagination runs away with itself and then later I have to remind myself that something didn't actually happen. I don't tell lies to people on the Internet or in real life but sometimes I wonder if one day I'll lose my grip on reality!

I've never made up a scenario but I often after something happens think 'I wonder what AIBU think?'

No, never. There are plenty of scenarios on MN already. I do wonder sometimes what if but it’s usually a fairly realistic “if”.
I wouldn’t change a lot in my thread as answers depend on the situation. there was a thread recently asking the advice related to teen girl and I thought : oh, it doesn’t sound as girl’s behaviour. Then turned out that OP had a boy but wanted to change details bug it made her question completely different and once she put that it’s a boy the answers changed ( it became more useful)

We had a situation just last night. Neighbour issue, note through the door from their carer (we were in all evening). Many of the "facts" totally incorrect.

It would make a bonkers MN thread (and probably involve sobbing/shaking/insomnia) but instead I just went and knocked their door this morning, explained the actual situation to the carer and all is now well.

Hope your appointment goes well OP.

How was the extraction, OP?

Ah it was fine thanks. Not pleasant but I've never had one before and I think I'd built it up to be utterly horrendous in my mind so when it was only "pretty horrible", I was quite pleased 🤣🤣 wouldn't want another one though!!!

@pizzaHeart - Yeah I can absolutely see what you mean. The whole point of asking for genuine advice outside yourself is that you may not have thought of something (like the gender of your child) being significant in a given situation. By changing details you're reducing people's ability have any insight and to help!

@Girlsjustwannahavefungi - I hear you! I can't tell you how many threads I've read where I've thought "surely just a conversation would sort this out and job done! Who wants all this drama?!" so I am glad your situation resolved itself easily, and also glad my temporary insanity passed off and I snapped out of my imagination running away with me!!

I think it’s actually a pretty useful exercise - if you find yourself thinking you’d need to tweak details to get people to agree with you, you are probably being fairly unreasonable!