[kayodelycaon]

For myself, my imagination and view of reality merged. My senses were fine but all of the processing and my imagination started writing to the same memory spaces.

I was aware that my senses didn’t match what I was processing. It didn’t matter.

[shaky-carrousel]

That's what happens to kids. Up to eight years old, if I recall correctly, they're unable to tell apart imagination from reality. If they think of something, say a monster hiding at home, it exists in reality. Which is a big problem while watching movies that can have scary parts as they now think they're real.

[kayodelycaon]

This is way, way different.

A six year old can perceive normally. They really don’t see people who aren’t there. They consciously know the difference between seeing a monster and thinking it exists. They can mis-attribute information by categorizing something they see as a monster. They play and they get really invested in it. Children are not psychotic. They are using their imagination to explore reality.

I see the monsters in the room. I spent four months as a bipedal wolf feeling wind in my fur and the motions of my tail. I truly believed I wasn’t human and the humans would kill me as soon as they found that out. My childhood memories were replaced by imagined ones.

I still remember being a wolf. It was real to me.

[shaky-carrousel]

Well, the part of believing they are something they aren't, I agree, it doesn't happen to them. But I have kids and they positively believe there are monsters in the house, and they positively believe toys are alive, because they saw toy story. Nothing I can say will move them from that belief.