Question Did you have an imaginary friend as a child?

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I recently became aware of the fact that imaginary friends are extremely common among children. An article in Psychology Today reports that 77% of the kids interviewed had an imaginary friend. A British study found that 65% of 7-year-old children have had an imaginary companion at some point in their lives.

I read a bit on the subject and academic research mentions that imaginary friends may help children develop their social skills such as cooperation and improve their theory of mind. Many of the kids with imaginary friends had them to fight boredom and loneliness, and apparently such friends were more common among single or first-born children. Boys and girls are equally likely to have an imaginary companion.

All this came a bit as a shock to me as I have never had an imaginary friend and I don't remember any of my childhood friends having had any (maybe they kept it a secret). The concept seems so outlandish to me that I can't believe that about 2/3 or 3/4 of kids have/had one. I was a first born and did suffer a lot from loneliness as a child as I felt too different from other kids, but it never crossed my mind to invent a friend when I could just play with my toys and pretend that little soldiers, Star Wars figurines or Lego were real (which is not at all the same thing as imagining I am playing with those toys with an imaginary human of my age).

What was your experiences as kids? If you had an imaginary friend, what did it bring to you emotionally?
 
I never had a imaginary friend


My younger son had an Imaginary friend , but he sleep walked, it only appeared when he sleepwalked........and lost his "friend" when he stopped sleep walking .................I never sleepwalked ( as stated by parents )
 
I remember talking to someone while playing when I was a kid, but I was aware that there's no one with me. I don't think that was an "imaginary friend" though as they tend to change depending on what I was playing.
 
I had an imaginary friend, his name was Snit. I pictured him as the color of Pepto-Bismol.
 
I had an imaginary friend, and I called him Jimmy. I don't remember TOO much about him... he was a few inches tall and went everywhere with me. He particularly liked swimming in puddles as I walked up my driveway from the bus in kindergarten.


I also opened the van door on the highway because Jimmy 'had to go to the bathroom'
 
yes I did. but can't remember his name...if he had a name at all.
 
My son use to have an imaginary brother he called Denis. He was would talk about him all of the time and I did not discourage it, as his sisters are much older than him and so he is somewhat of an only child.
When P entered middle childhood and eventually stopped talking about Denis, I found myself missing my invisible son.
If I bring it up now, he says that he doesn’t remember him.
 
I didn't have an imaginary friend. Instead, I carried a teddy bear toy with me until I was 12.
 
No, but a girl in my primary school had an imaginary friend, and she wasn't the only one in her family. She told me that she sometimes heard her father talking, even when he was alone in a room. One night she heard him say "God, please cure my daughter from her delusion of having an imaginary friend".
 
I don’t think that it is beyond the realm of possibility that it could be a supernatural phenomenon.
 

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