Do you sometimes pretend for fun?

[Mrsphilmiller]

For instance, if you work in retail, do you pretend you actually work in a hospital and get your tasks done pretending they’re something hospital related?
Another example could be what I was just doing. Cleaning my living/kitchen area, but I was pretending I’m working in a restaurant and getting ready for a busy dinner service.

does anybody else pretend or am I a weirdo? 😵‍💫

Me too, exactly.

I realise that I also do a neighbour hood post apocalyptic check. Where would I set up the zombie barriers - can the gardens support chickens and grow veg? Is the school fence strong enough? Then I do a sweep 'all clear on western side' 'some late night supplies delivered to number 46 ' ( ha - it's Dominos guy). Entertains me while walking the dogs at night.

I used to do this as a kid (and occasionally as a young adult!) Pretended I was rolling into town on a horse. Galloping in as everyone looked in awe.

Dunno why, and it's a bit odd, as I have NEVER ridden a horse. Never had anything to do with them, or known anyone close to me who has had one.

I do like horses a lot though. I walk around the country lanes and look at and admire them and how beautiful they are. So gentle too for such huge animals! I even occasionally pat them on the nose. They're so friendly...

I used to do the horse thing as a child on trains and in the car ..I was admiring a view at a country park last week and I had the same thought which I haven't in years.
Also not quite the same but when I can't sleep I imagine that I am being pushing down the road in my bed, or in a carriage in a snowy place and the (imagined) sensation of bumping along and being snuggled up usually helps me drift off!

I love these 😂

When I am clearing up DC's mountain of Lego I pretend I'm in the dome bit at the end of the Crystal Maze and have to scoop up as much as possible in my hands in one go It helps!

That is genius, I am going to use that!

I do hum the Feris Bueller's Day Off music from when he is racing to beat his parents home whenever I am late for something!

I do this all the time! I'm relieved to read this 😅

I don't have the imagination 😂👍🏼

Yes! In lots of different ways.

I have some running timelines, the most prominent is that I am a witch in the HP universe. It's started when I was writing fan fiction as a teen. It sounds strange, but I dip in and out when I need tor relax- usually when I am trying to get to sleep.

I also pretend I am a hotel cleaners when cleaning the house and things along those lines when doing boring chores.

I also imagine what I would do if I won money, won an Oscar, etc etc.

I pretend I'm a spy. Usually tailing people or undercover in the office à la Line of Duty.

Yes!! Thought I was the only one 😂 Does anyone else look on RightMove at million pound mansions and pretend you a euromillions winner? 😁

I pretend I’ve won the lottery to help me get to sleep.I don’t play the lottery.
I imagine the journey to London to show them my precious ticket. I imagine how I’m going to plan it without telling anyone where I’m going. I usually fall asleep before I collect my winnings.

Does anybody speak out loud whilst doing it? I do!

I'm also awaiting diagnoses after initial assessment for Asperger's and ADHD.

I know everyone says on here ASD but my doctor and the specialist also say Asperger's. I thought it was an old term.

Anyway painting daughter's bedroom - need to go and channel my inner LLB... Oh darling, the white - the white, it's just so fabulous! (Which will probably lead me on to Craig Revel Horwood (?). Then I'll end up getting my Priscilla cd out, next thing you know, I'll be skipping to the shops in a thong and some heels) 🤣 okay, I do have a stop button...

Aaargh stop right now, thank you very much...

🤬😡🤬 It's hard work thinking 🤣

I pretend either Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsey is in my kitchen when I cook. We have proper conversations like we're on a TV show 😂

Sometimes it's Ainsley and a ready steady cook day out of cupboard ingredients where I pretend I've bought a fivers worth of random ingredients 😂

Yeah all the time. I quite often commentate on everything I'm doing in my head and pretend that I'm making a Louis Theroux style documentary.

When I'm cleaning I pretend that a friend or relative has just phoned to tell me they're coming to see me in an hour's time and that I have to make the house presentable.

@chouxpetitfilous I totally pretend to clean hotels too 😁
@Mamamia7962 and this too.

i also pretend when I’m trying to sleep that I’m
on a deserted island and I’m lay in the tent I made in the cosy bed I made out of leaves. It helps 🤷‍♀️

To motivate me to clean I pretend that one of my friends or a very very clean freak auntie is coming round for coffee.

It’s like a rocket up my arse!

I have done this!!! Had a gander through RightMove looking for a nice big house (that I could never afford unless I won the lottery,) in North Staffordshire, or Shropshire, or Herefordshire, or Cheshire.

Preferably with around 10 acres of land, and only a short distance from a train station, and a motorway for easy transport links. DD will move too and stay in a cottage on the land with her boyfriend and their kids (when they have them.)

Usually about £900,000 to £1.5 mil for what I want!

I would like to live in West Wales/North Wales, but sadly, as much as I love it, the transport links are a bit poor, and there's not much there, regarding leisure facilities, and employment opportunities etc...

Is all this this called maladaptive daydreaming or something?

I know this can be quite severe, and affect peoples everyday lives, but it can be mild too, and harmless.

I used to imagine a horse galloping along side the car and jumping over the hedges when I was younger.
When I saw the Lloyd's advert with the girl doing the same thing it reminded me.

Now I work in a busy eating pub and we are always short staffed and we get very busy sometimes I feel like I'm drowning. So I imagine myself in one of those games like Diner Dash where you have to keep everything under control to keep the people happy and get extra points for doing chains like delivering food and cleaning a table on the way back 😄

It's fascinating reading this thread, thinking about walking around and all the weird stuff people I pass might have going on in their heads.

This sounds tragic, but when I had really extreme depression I would cry a lot, so I'd start pretending I was like a really warm/friendly mum or Mary Poppins to myself and I'd been hired in to work some mary poppins/mum magic.

I'd imagine that the actual me was still lying in bed wallowing, and then I'd get up and clean the house, cooking, life admin etc. And then do nice mumsy stuff like tumble dry pyjamas and put them on my pillow.

It really got me through a mental health crisis during lockdown (I lived alone and don't have any family). And therapists are always saying stuff like "you need to show yourself compassion", but that can be SO difficult if you struggle with self-loathing. But since the traditional concept of a mum is someone who loves you unconditionally...I think it's easier to imagine your mum or carer is there saying that stuff.

Awwww.

This kind of thing (as I said maladaptive daydreaming I think it is,) is sometimes used as a coping mechanism. Sometimes it is just for fun, just a bit of daydreaming and fantasising, and sometimes it is more deep and serious, and is enabled/used to help someone cope with a trauma, or depression, or similar...

Yes I do this a lot. Mostly when I go to bed, I make up whole other lives.

I also sometimes pretend I am a spy when I get back to the house after being out somewhere.
I pretend I am getting back to a 'safe house'.

No idea why. Have always done it I think.

I used to pretend I was on a parenting show when my kids were little- especially when they weren’t behaving well. I’d do a running commentary in my head about what they could be feeling, and how to meet their need.

It really helped when they were doing my head in!

I do it at work too- like I’m producing a training video for new recruits, or accepting an award for being top of my (quite mundane) field 😁.

I have ADHD, and it has never occurred to me that this is a coping mechanism, but now I see it!