Daughter's imaginary bully

[LadyDeidreWaggon]

My 6 year old daughter has recently confided that she has an imaginary 'friend' called "germy". Apparently he is with her all the time and constantly criticises and belittles her and tells her not to do or enjoy things.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar ?

She is generally happy, extremely bright and any misbehaviour is just being incredibly rebellious and stubborn. She NEVER backs down!

She has been bullied at school but this has been dealt with, tbh I hesitate to call it bullying as it was 2 boys in her year chasing her and a friend every lunchtime and playing too roughly.

She has an older sibling with OCD, diagnosed at age 9, and I am wondering about asking the psychiatrist for help.

Please do tell me if this is a recognisable phase and I should get over myself and stop worrying !!

Is 'germy' her self doubt? I think we all doubt ourselves sometimes, most of us are highly critical (I know I am), wanting to do things better and putting ourselves down because we want perfection.
It sounds like she could do with some activities that will boost her self esteem, have you tried sending her to a drama club?

Sorry I haven't been back for a while, V busy.
Thank you for your comments, I think this is definitely a self esteem issue. It now turns out that the problem with the boys at school is more serious than we thought and, interestingly, 'germy' is much more active at school.
I had been thinking about drama lessons for her, I feel more positive about it for hearing it suggested by someone else.

DD1 had an imaginary friend who was always horrible to her. She was about 4 at the time. Now she's 5 and much more outgoing and never mentions the imaginary friend again.