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Emotional connection to stuffed toy

Megs

When I was really young a I had a stuffed toy called scruffy, I don’t remember anything about him but have a vague memory of what he looked like. When I was three or four we lost him and I’ve never gotten over it. 
I still cry over him, and have just had a small breakdown over him because I miss him so much, and wish I could have him back.

I feel it’s my fault I lost him and I’m so worried that he’s in landfill. We lost him when he fell out of our car and no one noticed till it was too late. 

I genuinely have never felt the way I feel about this stuffed toy, for a human. I give so much life to both that toy and the one I have now, life that I never give the people around me.

I'm not sure how to deal with the loss of this stuffed toy, as I said it still hurts me now. 

Does anyone else have similar story’s? Or big attachments to inanimate objects? 

  • in reply to Ethan

    It's funny that you mention imaginary friends, because, while I don't have them in the sense that a child has them, I still do have them in a sense. I've had characters that I've created for writing that become so real in my head that I can actually carry on conversations with them. If I'm stuck and I know the character well enough, that sort of conversation helps me figure out where to go in the story, because it makes it easier to determine their thoughts and actions. Outside of that, I'd agree that they held on with me in the traditional sense for longer than typical, and they were far greater in number for me than typical.

    I do agree that it's not so unusual for people to form some sort of attachment to fictional characters. When I write fiction, one thing that I use to help determine the quality is whether the characters create any emotions for me. If so, they'll likely do that for the reader, and that's necessary to connect with the readers. Speaking from personal experience, I think what makes my feelings different from an NT is that my feelings tend to be more intense, and they're more focused. Doctor Who is a rare show that can pull me in like that. Only certain book series do it, and even well-written books usually don't do it. It has to be something that really captures my interest. I guess I'd describe it as narrower, but deeper. I suspect that I'm not alone and that it's probably related to the ideas of the OP.

  • in reply to professorwhat

    Earthshock - I remember that one. The scene with the cybermen all waking up with that music terrified me I was a kid!!! How kind for someone to upload it to YouTube so I can relive all my childhood nightmares.

    I'm sort of realising attachment to fictional characters probably isn't such a weird thing (it's why soaps are successful) although I'm wondering about the differences between NT's and ASC's in that process. Somebody somewhere much have researched that (*goes off to find out*)

    Generally I've found as I'm working on become more self-aware I'm starting to move from the constructs of a story (i.e. plot, twists, exciting scenes, things that make you think) to relationships between characters. Stories with arcs -as opposed to tie-up-this-situation in an hour - I prefer because I can see characters change and grow and see how I respond to that (I had a love-hate relationship with a lot of the characters in six feet under). 

    In response to OP, attachment to inanimate objects - not really, although I think it took me longer to let go of certain things (imaginary friends and the like) than most. 

  • I don't know that I've ever felt that sort of attachment to an inanimate object, but I've felt attachments like that to fictional characters, whether they're on TV shows I like, book series that I like, or my own creations in my writing. As a big fan of hockey and hockey history, I've cried when hockey players I've never had personal connections to died, whereas there have been plenty of people that I personally knew but wasn't extremely close to that died, and I never shed a tear.

    Where it is common to you is that it doesn't seem to fade. The scene in the Doctor Who story "Earthshock," where Adric (a character I don't even like) dies always hits me. The scene in "Journey's End," where the Doctor has to wipe Donna's memory, while she begs him not to always hits me. Gordie Howe died years ago, but in doing some research about him a few months ago, I watched his son's eulogy at his funeral, and I broke down in tears.

    The thing is, I don't always know how to deal with that sort of thing either, and I know a lot of people would find it bizarre, but I have at least come to the point that I don't expect myself to conform to what other people expect of my emotions in areas like that. It might not help with the sorrow in the moment, but it helps my overall mentality.

  • i'll put forth maybe there's two parts to this. 1) intense emotions remembered years and years later, just as vividly as when it happened 2) intense attachment to scruffy... so i remember, like, when my cat was killed... certain subtle details, clear as day. other details, of course, are gone. but i'm not quite as attached to furry animals. 

  • Yes, but not ones for which grief lasts that long.

    Anybody demanding 'give me your watch or I'll shoot you' had better remember to bring bullets.