Maladaptive Daydreaming

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A revival of a earlier thread I had.

Who here constantly daydreams like all the time? I never have that many people to talk to and when I am talking to and fro my destination or if I am just sitting there I would often daydream constantly. Although I never have it severe where I am oblivious but It often does make me feel a little mentally "Slow" at times. Especially when I am working with people.

*waves hand in air* me, I do!

Oh me all the time! I take every chance I get to daydream. Sometimes Im so excited when I get a little time to myself and I can spend some time inside my own head

Daydreaming and having an imaginary world and imaginary friends are everything to me. It's what helps me cope with boredom and sadness. But lately it seems that my ability to live in a daydream world is rapidly disappearing. Either it's because I don't have a special interest right now (which means there's nothing to base my fantasy life on), or I'm just outgrowing my need for an imaginary world altogether (which I've had 3 separate people tell me is probably the case). If the latter is true, I will be devastated. I never wanted to grow out of it. I thought that my imaginary world was something that no one could ever take away from me, least of all my own mind. But it appears to be progressing that way, sadly. I've noticed that my more recent daydreams deal less with fantasy and more with things I'd like to accomplish in the real world. For example, today I daydreamed about what Christmas presents I'd like to buy for my friends. Daydreaming about shopping is something so mundane that I would have never thought of that during the days when fantasy worlds and imaginary friends were king.

This is me. I daydream pretty much 24/7. Even while I'm surrounded by people or in the middle of a task. I would be terrible if I didn't have a daydream world to retreat to. Daydreams are just so much better than reality. If I could swap things around, I would in a heartbeat.

IdahoRose - I find that I go through phases. Sometimes I daydream constantly. Other times I go through a period where I don't seem to do it all that much. I can't meditate, my mind is too full for that I always end up daydreaming or getting distracted. Maybe if you're feeling sad you could find a moment for yourself sit down and actually consciously daydream. Perhaps a place that you've always wanted to go to. Imagine having lunch with Helena Bonham Carter. What if being sad was hindering your ability to daydream? So sitting and focusing on your breathing and letting your mind wander might help. It has to be better than the alternatives...

I do that all the time. I used to do it a lot more as a kid, and I would get in trouble for it. As an adult, I go in weird swings (I finally realized it could be due to hormones!) in which there are some days when I cannot concentrate on ANYTHING because I'm in lala land all the time.

Daydreaming has never been a voluntary action for me. Well, I guess I help to facilitate it when I'm laying in bed or on the swings, but in everyday life I never daydream because I WANT to do it. It just happens and it's extremely frustrating, because it does make me slow (my mom used to call me pokey). When I was a kid, I got really upset that my teacher seemed to think I was deliberately doing something to avoid listening in class. It was happening against my will, and I was being punished for it. It made me very sad.

When I'm sitting down to write stories, I don't mind daydreaming the whole time

I daydream constantly. At work I'll imagine I'm a noblewoman held hostage in an enemy's castle. When I'm in the car I'm never alone, because my imaginary friends are with me. My pretend friends know me better than real people do because they let me speak my piece and don't interrupt or argue with me.

I agree with Alice -I don't think you'll lose your ability to daydream completely or grow out of it. As a child I used to daydream constantly now I go through periods where I spend a great deal of time daydreaming and others where I only daydream very occasionally-when exercising- I remember that was also a trigger for you. So you might just go through periods where you do it more or less nowadays.

Also,in terms of special interests I remember you said you tried a lot of new things to try to find a new special interest in another post here- but have you tried writing? This might be a good outlet for your imagination-a lot of other dadreamy people find it is. You could either write short stories with your old fictional characters or make up new characters which you might get exited about. Maybe you could just write character descriptions to start. Or you could start by writing in a blog or journal.

Also ,I know you said you tried reading and didn't get really into it but what did you read? If you haven't tried it yet I would recommend novels by R.A. Salvatore -it's high fantasy- there are elves and dwarfs and mages and great well developed characters-it's very conducive to daydreaming. I'm reading the Legend of Drizzt series right now.

Last edited by daydreamer84 on 28 Sep 2012, 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

I daydream regularly, it helps me to ignore the time passing while on a bus or train and is quite enjoyable.

Wow. That's definately me. Though I do it less as I get older I haven't stopped. I used to daydream constantly.

I day dream, but I lucid dream aswell.

My mom has suggested some of the things that you have. That I should come up with my own characters, but I don't know - I've never been able to get as attached to my own characters as I have to characters that I "get to know" through other people's stories. I guess I'm not confident in my own character creation abilities. I've also been told to keep a journal, which seems to help, but I always want to stop writing once I reach a point where I feel like I'm talking about things that are too emotional. Which kind of defeats the purpose of writing in a journal, if writing in a journal is supposed to be therapeutic.

I really like your idea of reading RA Salvatore books; I'm open to the idea of trying high-fantasy novels since I enjoy watching my brother play Skyrim. I read on Wikipedia that Drizzt is a dark elf; I love dark elves! The books I've been trying to read weren't of that genre; they were mostly either historical fiction, romance or both. I thought I would like that stuff since I have enjoyed movies like Albert Nobbs and the most recent adaptation of Jane Eyre, as well as the book "Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters, but I guess if historical fiction isn't well-written then it will be boring.

All the time.

My characters are all reformed versions of real life people though.

I used to have OCs but my imagination is starting to die out.

YAAAAY! I'm so excited about this series. Drizzt is a dark elf who has principles/morals and becomes disillusioned with the amoral ways of his people so he eventually leaves/is exiled from his underground community and makes his way to the surface, where he faces SO much prejudice and rejection because all the surface elves know dark elves as evil/ Of course a lot of cool adventures precede , accompany and follow this journey......but I won't give you plot summaries. There are 18 books in the series which is split into smaller trilogies and quintets. You can just start with one trilogy (which can also stand on it's own-nothing left really unfinished) at first to see if you like it. The first trilogy is the Dark Elf Trilogy but the Icewind Dale trilogy was actually written before it (like star wars 4, 5, and 6 was actually made before 1,2 and 3-same deal). Still I suggest you start with the dark elf trilogy because it really builds Drizzt's character and gives the story a more logical progression. This is an old series (first book written in 1988) but so worthwhile reading.

I used to read a lot of historical fiction and classic literature. I go through fazes of the genre of literature I read....I'm into fantasy right now. Fantasy can be more exiting though.....there is more action and much cooler premises (magical world/creatures) but good fantasy literature still has really well developed characters and relationships/dynamics between the characters. This is necessary for me to like a series (it can't just be action), Anyway the legend of Drizzt has tons of action and awesome characters.

Also I liked a lot of the same things that you did although they weren't special interests for me: My Little Pony, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and some of the other Tim Burton films namely Edward Sissorhands, Alice, and Sweeney Todd (although I only watched it once -I listened to the soundtrack obsessively). Also you mentioned that you liked The Hunger Games- don't worry I'm not a stalker -I just have good memory for these type of things- which I also really enjoyed. You said you didn't like the Harry Potter series much and I loved it (one of my favourite of all time) but still I think we have similar taste overall and so you might like a series that I really liked. In fact I feel like we're kindred spirits in a way - because of our imaginary worlds and daydreaming and childishness (in a good way) so I was sorry to hear about your sadness about your loss of interest in your old special interests. I hope you find a new one soon.