You're obsessed with him, aren't you?

But he doesn't exist.

Drama...

It is a film genre. It is a part of life. It is the annoyance of some and the foundation of others. It is personality, it is exaggeration, it is love and it is hate. It is formally defined as exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances. It is also defined as a play for theater, radio, or television. At the same time, this word is an oxymoron; it is false and it is real at the same time.

Most people have seen a movie or a play before, so it is a well-known fact that the intricate and sometimes delusional stories displayed to us are usually not true. For some reason it is extremely entertaining to follow the life stories of fictional characters that have never existed and never will exist. Sometimes these stories are based on true facts but usually are taken completely from the creative minds of storytellers who transform their ideas into screenplays and storyboards.

The daily life of a person is even more complicated and detailed than those of the characters onscreen. In fact, there are 6,697,229,900 completely different life stories in this world. The daily drama of a fourteen-year-old studious child may be the low grade she got on her quiz while halfway across the world another person of the exact same age is suffering from a serious disease and has other problems to worry about. Each person has their own type of daily drama, some more serious than others, but drama nevertheless. The quotidian dramatic issues that exist in the life of every single human being in this world is nothing but reality, the pure and sometimes even harsh truth.

Distinguishing fantasy from reality seems to be the easiest job in the world, however it may not be as banal a job as some might think. It is evident that there is a fine line between life onscreen and real life, however some people find themselves subconsciously (or even consciously) attached to things that do not exist. There are cases of people who find themselves obsessed with fictional characters. This is definitely crossing the line between reality and fiction. A woman even stated her case and asked for help online to whoever may read it. She claims to be obsessed with the character of Edward Cullen, from the popular book series (now major motion pictures) Twilight. “But you know the character Edward Cullen, well, for some reason I feel attached.” She asked questions in desperation in order to find out if this is normal and why this is happening to her.

An author named Mary-Lou Galician highlighted this issue in a book of hers, Research and Theories of Mass Media Effects on Individuals and Society. In this book she mentions, “Obsession with fictional characters can cause emotionally disabling attachments filled with anxiety, fantasy and over-dependence.” This can become a problem for a lot of women, because if it happens in a high degree it may damage their relationships in real life. Their expectations become too high and their dependence on men may increase as well. Idealization begins to happen, making women desire romances they read about or see in movies, therefore developing an extremely unrealistic idea about what is real love. In some cases, the person might actually develop depression because their ideal partner does not exist.

This is a perfect example of how fictitious drama overlaps with reality. It can become a serious problem in a few cases but as long as this “obsession” with a fictional character does not get in the way of the person’s daily life, it is perfectly normal.  Among teenagers it is very common to have crushes on characters they see on films or television shows, as well as characters from books. They are portrayed as perfect individuals, making more and more people fall in love with them. A perfect example of this is the latest drama in the teen movie world – Edward Cullen, a vampire that is portrayed as a mystical and perfect creature in Stephenie Meyers’s Twilight book series. While this may be a normal thing for now, it is uneasy to imagine to what extent this obsession will expand and how many more girls will be succumbed by this artificial love affair.