by Chell53 » Tue May 16, 2023 9:20 am
yes, have always done this, used to make up characters of my own and insert them into stories (from books or TV or movies or whatever) and then walk around with these elaborate fantasies that I was part of that world, sometimes at the same time as doing other stuff in the actual world and sometimes just privately and totally immersively. Music is one of things I would use privately, different songs would sort of become the backing track for different scenarios. I learned to certain accents so that I could "be" characters etc. I still do this sometimes but it's less pervasive now I'm older. Music has kind of become a functional tool because of it though, I find it really hard to just listen to a song and enjoy it because it all gets associated with fantasy, certain beats tap me into certain things, or certain needs for drama or aggression or very intense emotion and then different scenarios come into my head and I start fantasising again.
The thing about absorbing characters happens too, if I read a book or see a film or something and it has even a little bit of resonance with my own life then I can go away from it and kind of start using the frame or the POV that the story gave me and just start looking at everything in my own life with that slant, as if I'm the character in the book or the film, so I might remember things from my own life and suddenly get really angry and start talking about that memory or those events the way the character talked about their life and with the viewpoint that the thing I was reading or watching gave me, and then I'll come out of it after a few hours or a day and I'll think "wait where did that come from? because that's not really how I feel" and I'll realise what I've done. It can happen without me realising. I guess that's labile sense of self maybe? I temporarily take on definition from other people or whatever is around? It's definitely happened with real people too, I can be a total chameleon in social situations and only realise later that that's happened.