Unidealizing fictional friendships

[Lily Morrison]

A few days ago, I talked about how I tended to daydream about fictional friends and envy them. Like, first I will be really into them, usually because I really want a friend like one of the characters. Usually, it's because they are a good listener or because they're always around, etc.

And I've found that it's easier to stop daydreaming about specific pairs of fictional friends if I unidealize them, and I managed to do that, for the most part, by thinking more about the relationships and asking myself some questions about them. Though it didn't entirely stop the daydreaming, just the envy.

• what are the things that would bother me about character A that wouldn't bother character B?
• in what ways is character A not a perfect friend?
• in what ways are they selfish or inflexible?
• in what ways do they make character B feel upset or irritated?

[S K]

Forgot to add, Best of Luck making characters conform to reality/real life expectations. 

[S K]

I think that's a great way to go about it. I tried that and it reduced my day-dreaming but later on I found alternative dreams,be careful of your mind going in that direction.