When I was a child, my only real friends were fictitious personalities made in my head that I associated with my stuffed animals. These were always friendly, sympathetic, playful and comforting.

My childhood was a bit traumatic because my mom always spoke harsh and beat me for even the most minor of offenses, typical of an old school Asian upbringing. Never praised or encouraged but always, always got the stick. I had an absentee father, which didn't help. I also didn't have many friends because I was always being transferred to a different school every year.

I recognize that the imagination of friends must have been some kind of coping mechanism to deal with a rough childhood, and served me well as an emotional support system at the time.. but now as an adult I notice that the same behavior now is now limiting me as an adult. I engage in a lot of escapism like spending a lot of time imagining myself with an ideal sexual partner to escape from the reality that I'm terribly lonely. Sometimes I can't even be bothered to go out and try and approach women as the pleasure of escaping into a false ideal reality where people love me is often times more preferable to the pain of getting romantically rejected in the real world. This also leads to a having a comparative lack of social skills.. yet I am aware of all of this and attempting to change this.

What I'm trying to point out here is that having imaginary friends as a child may not be such a great boon, particularly if the behavior is some kind of chronic escapism. It may end up being like my case where it becomes a default behavior for dealing with stressful situations in adulthood.