Discussion Maladaptive daydreaming

[Deadlyroses]

Who else here does it? I've done it for as long as I can remember. It's my way of coping with this fucked up life of mine.

I enjoy it most when I'm drunk and/or high. Because then it feels so real. Like an out of body experience. When I ctb, I hope to be in this dreamy headspace. I want to pass while in a blissful dream.

 

[WornOutLife]

I'm not sure of suffering from this at a 100% but I certainly daydream a lot.
I like to imagine having experienced a different past and made the right decisions, or being a different person! Maybe famous, a millionaire! etc.

Then, I return to this goddamn reality and I just get more depressed than before lol

 

[Celerity]

I'm not completely sure if I qualify, but my daydreams do annoy me. It's like I somehow enjoy torturing myself by imagining everything I can't have.

 

[LakatosDiogenesz]

It's easy to get addicted, daydreaming is the only time I'm not lonely, hopeless, short, disgusting, etc.
The only problem is spacing out during everyday activities.

 

[Dizzy_Dreams]

Yes I've done it since I was a kid for sure

 

[charlotte greentea]

I have frequently done this since I was a child. When I was younger, I had a long-running internal narrative of a story I had constructed for myself, but I no longer remember it. Ever since I have been an adult I have imagined the start of a daydream, but it doesn't carry over into the next day dream I have. But I do daydream a lot and imagine a completely happy, fantastical life for myself. Sometimes in space, sometimes on Earth, sometimes in a totally different reality. The thing is that any reality is better than the one I currently live in.

 

[StarLight]

Thats how I made it through my childhood. It's probably the only "coping mechanism" I've ever had, and I've never stopped doing it. In fact I'm pretty much always in a daydream no matter what else I'm doing. When I was a kid I could easily just sit spaced out in my own world for hours on end to the point where it was a problem at school, and definitely did not endear me to my classmates. But as I got older I sort of learned to multitask, so no one would ever guess I'm not actually fully present or that I live my life in a fantasy.

 

[Dizzy_Dreams]

Thats how I made it through my childhood. It's probably the only "coping mechanism" I've ever had, and I've never stopped doing it. In fact I'm pretty much always in a daydream no matter what else I'm doing. When I was a kid I could easily just sit spaced out in my own world for hours on end to the point where it was a problem at school, and definitely did not endear me to my classmates. But as I got older I sort of learned to multitask, so no one would ever guess I'm not actually fully present or that I live my life in a fantasy.

Wow me too what do you daydream about?

 

[Chesswiz2002]

I used to do it a lot and it was the only coping mechanism which relieved me of my existential boredom. But later, I became extremely self-aware and embarrassed about spending hours a day within my headcanon.

One day, I found out that I simply couldn't do it anymore. Now, I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a good thing because nothing else has proven as effective in alleviating my everyday ennui.

 

[Deadly_Intention]

I have daydreams like this a lot too... Sometimes I get so caught up in it that I start like "acting" out scenes it's so silly I know... But happens so randomly I can't always control when my thoughts go that way

 

[DarkWolf]

I've done this all my life and I still do. I started daydreaming from a young age and the pacing accompanied it around 6. I learned to do it quietly after other kids starting taking the piss. Hours and hours all day long. I nearly got run over a couple of times and I learnt nothing at school. The dreams aren't as interesting imaginative or pleasant as they used to be. It makes hard to hold down any job other than one which is monotonous, simple, repeative and involves little human interaction as it's almost impossible to concentrate on anything. I used to dream and pace at 8pm everyday for a couple of hours but now I always have housemates I can't do that anymore. It's sad but it just makes me even more depressed I need to escape from reality.

 

[DeadButDreaming]

I could have written some of these posts myself. It's stunning how similar we are to each other.

Were you guys first-born children? I think it may have been a way of coping with loneliness.

 

[DarkWolf]

I could have written some of these posts myself. It's stunning how similar we are to each other.

Were you guys first-born children? I think it may have been a way of coping with Ioneliness

Im a middle child but I grew up the youngest ( my mum had a 3rd child when I was 15, I was kicked out at 16.) I don't really have much to do with my much younger half sister so I still feel like the youngest. My brother is a year older and has aspergers.
I had selective mutism I had one friend but not for long til she got fed up with my lack of socialness. I had no friends and I wasn't attached much to either parent and couldn't connect to anyone. I was very much 'in my own little world' no one wanted anything to do with me and I didn't really want to interact with people either. I prefered animals and things. I wouldn't have said I was particularly lonely but I guess I was pretty isolated.

I think MMD is a form of dissociation caused by isolation, abuse or neglect. But that's just my thought.

 

[StarLight]

Wow me too what do you daydream about?

Nothing interesting or creative. I wish I could say I was journeying off to some fantastical place, but no, It's just always been about what I would like my life to be be and relationships and emotional connections I wish I could have. And tge people that I think of aren't even real people that I known/have known, I just make people up.

 

[Sprite_Geist]

Not daydreaming in the usual sense, no, but I sometimes experience hypnagogia if that is relevant?