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Pretend As A Method Of Coping

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Ava Jarvis

MyPTSD Pro
I just realized something.

One of the ways I cope with PTSD is that I play pretend.

You know. Like when you're a kid. Pretend you're a knight, pretend you're a princess, pretend you're a princess-knight. That sort of thing?

For years I played designer/advanced/independent solitaire board games. The more thematic the better. I had fun playing a group of adventurers delving into a dungeon. I had fun being warrior monks defending a village from an endless sea of supernatural monsters. I had fun being Nemo, controlling my submarine in a war against surface Imperialism while exploring the depths of the sea and having adventures. And then there's that superhero card game I like above all the others—Sentinels of the Multiverse, where every superhero has their own specialized deck and feels like their own character. Even playing Star Wars offshoot characters in a Star Wars adventure game.

Heck, I've even had fun developing a winery. (All y'all: Viticulture is an awesome game, even if you're new to board games, even if you've had tons of experience with board games.)

I didn't really think about all this as pretend? I just did it.

Lately I've been feeling too poorly for board games though.

Then today out of sheer desperation of not wanting to feel quite so horrible after being triggered by Mother's Day, I started to lightly pretend that I was in The Martian, only it was slightly different than the movie, of course. I wrote down a diary entry as if I was on Mars, and the sandstorm was my PTSD flashback, and stuff... It's a bit weird but that seems to be the theme I want to stick to for the next several days as the PTSD gradually calms the hell back down.

I realize I have done this before, too, even outside of board games. Back when I was learning how the area around Bainbridge Island was laid out, I pretended the area followed the geography of lands of the utmost West.

It's weird. It helps. It doesn't fix everything, of course; nothing does that. But it weirdly, weirdly, weirdly is helping. Granted, it's nudging my mood recordings from "worst" to "horrible" but that's an improvement.

Dunno if this is something people want to try, or if people have done this, too. I figure every method has its place.
 
hello. i played pretend for 19 years, and it made me alot worse :'(

:hug:

Well, a long time ago I did play "pretend I don't suffer from PTSD" and that sure didn't work out. And a while back, "pretend I don't have a horrible abusive family"; also didn't work out.

I think the kind of play I'm referring to is more about escapism than denial, but hey, not every solution works for every person.
 
Not judgey of creativity.
Pretending can be creativity, and as such helping surviving. If it does that, the better. :D

Measure to everything & not getting lost in the pretend matter, but pretending itself isn't 'bad'. As usual, depends how it's used.
(Which brings me to a long rant I don't have the spoons or words for right now about 'Isn't ALL socialization and construction of identities a pretend thing, only some taken more seriously than the other and some left to the land of 'fantasy'?

Also a long rant on 'Cultures: so strange things.' What was completely real and feared, growing up, became a superstition just when a few states changed. Became real but a different thing on another continent. Became non-existent and totally irrational and a delusion yet somewhere else. Became mattering and valuable within different communities. Became 'Omfg you do that as well? I thought I'm the only one :D'. It's all about where you are & how you are with whatever you're doing.)
 
It's not totally "conventional", but to me, this sounds like a really healthy (and helpful by the sound of it) distraction activity. Distraction activities are good - they play a really important role in getting through the day, interrupting repetitious, obsessive or ruminating thoughts, help shift our mood, give us something other than "trauma and therapy" in our lives which gives us meaning...

As a coping mechanism, this doesn't hurt you or anyone else, it doesn't require meds, it puts the brakes on continual thouhts about the past and depressive thoughts about the present and future...I love it.

I potter around with my plants, cause that's my thing. Gardening is more conventional (like art, music, volunteering, etc), so it easily gets the seal off approval. Sounds like this is just the same strategy, but in area that interests you. So hey, you need to switch off the brain for a while, go for it:)
 
I have a long running fantasy world, in which I'm a knight on a quest. The thing that fascinates me is that I don't know what s going to happen next. It is only when the dragon starts explaining the rules that govern all dragons that I realise I have been protected by them. Who knew they never eat anything wearing leather, because it gets caught in their teeth and doesn't burn away? Who knew all dragons are waiting for the hatching of the Beautiful dragon, who will lead them away to a better world, so the can't destroy anything believed by someone to be beautiful? And who knew my horse thought I was beautiful? So he protected me, and his harness protected him.
The other thing that intrigues me is that I often can't steer the plot. A 1950's house kept appearing in the background of my vaguely Medieval world, and try as I might I couldn't wipe it out. Turned out it was the site of a time slip, run as a B&B. I thought I was looking for a stream, the tootling beck, but in fact I needed to meet another guest, from Tooting Bec.

So no, I don't think this is in any way odd. We need any coping tools that work. My Quest has saved me from immense distress quite often
 
I wish I would have seen this post earlier. This is a topic that has very little well-known research done about it, but research does exist.

Maladaptive daydreaming is the clinical term. However a former therapist, and I agree, say the mal part should be taken off. It can be a wonderful survival and coping mechanism. It becomes MALadaptive when people let it take over their lives, forgoing healthy social interaction to spend more time in their fantasy word.

There is a website where people can sharing their malADAPTIVE dreaming adventures. Most authors do this is how they develop their characters and create rich scenery.

I'll try to write more in this later.
 
I just realized something.

One of the ways I cope with PTSD is that I play pretend.

You know. Li...

I played Asherons Call for several years. Thalcor was a strong warrior. He won battles. When he lost, he had no PTSD. He just got up again.

Sometimes, I imagine itmnever happened and I had another life. That gets depressing.
Or when I run, I think about who I was years ago- like back in college. The pretend thing isn't working too well
 
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