An Imaginary Friend Might Be Healthy For You

We've all been isolated to some degree or another during the past year.  Some more than others of course.  But even those that never got that forced vacation that the shutdown gave many last year...we've all at least been alone enough to talk to ourselves or our pets.

When your spouse catches you in the act, she calls you crazy.  Turns out YOU'RE the healthy one!

A professor in Canada who's an expert on loneliness (I'll bet he's fun at parties) just wrote an article on why people who are isolated talk to themselves or create imaginary friends. Turns out...it might actually be a HEALTHY thing to do.

Without getting too geeky, the term "tulpa" refers to a voice in your own head that talks and seems to have thoughts of its own.

A running monolog is something people do INTENTIONALLY.  It's not the voice trying to convince you to overturn the government.  No, it's just a stream of consciousness that walks them through a problem or organizes a grocery list or bitches about your wife who wants to paint the trim in your house but it's a 100 year old house and it hasn't been painted ever and NOW you're going to paint the trim?  YOU'RE going to be the one to break the unspoken rule of no-paint-on-the-trim?

See?  "Normal"

Anyway...7 out of 10 people who talk to themselves say it's to help with loneliness. And 78% claim it's had a positive impact on their mental health.

SO there!

(Nautilus)