Am I crazy?- Maladaptive daydreaming
Hi, I'm new here and I feel really happy that I have a safe space where I can talk about my feelings. Lately I've been excessively daydreaming about my past mistakes and its been getting in the way of my life. I feel that I've been going through Maladaptive Daydreaming for the past 3 years. It started when I was 12. I was bullied alot in middle school and so it honestly just happened. I would flip my pencil during class(trigger) and listen to music all the time when I got home. And then the daydreaming would start. It was fine at first because I had no idea what was going on. For over three years I never really contolled it. I just kinda went with it, knowing I had this, because it didn't affect my daily and didn't make me sadder. Due to event that happened during high school, I turned to daydreaming as a coping mechanism. It was something I began doing on a daily basis. It just felt better to escape because my school life was so exhausting and traumatic. After a while it became kindof a nusiance and I would be horrible after I went through an episode. I would feel an impulsion to daydream, and spend about an hour doing it, and then afterwards I'll feel horrible about myself for even doing that. It will make me feel worse about my life than before. I realized I had to quit about three weeks ago. I've caved twice. My first attempt lasted 2 days and then I began doing it for a week. Then last thursday I decided to quit, but I caved today. I would love advice on how to stop my daydreaming all together because I don't want it to be apart of my life. Thank you so much for reading :)
@crimsonMaple3764 I think it might take a while to make the daydreams go away completely (they haven't gone for me and I've had them for years) but you might be able to lessen them by writing down whatever you're daydreaming about. Writing it down sort of gets the stories out of my head, and it may help you get rid of them as well. Best of luck.
Hi , I'm new here and I really need others to support me with this. My whole life is a daydream, I spend literally hours a day doing this rather than doing stuff I need to. It feels like and addiction or obsessive compulsive act. I don't know what to do, I've done it ever since I could walk, I'd pace around daydreaming all day, now I just lock myself in a room with music. I've gotten into trouble before for not doing work at school simply because I can't stop daydreaming. Only my boyfriend knows of this and I'm kinda ashamed of it becuase ive spoken online with people before but they say what I have isn't real and that others with real disorders have it worse - that I'm attention seeking.
I'm worried I'm dreaming my life away. I don't do anything, I don't go anywhere and I think I've even replaced real memories with imaginary ones.
Does anyone else suffer this bad?? Can anyone help me stop??
Thank you
I think a new living environment could help you out of it, but its not always achievable. You have to keep fighting it and making more friends online or real life to help you back to reality. But meanwhile you suffering mdd its difficult for you in the first place, so as difficult as it gets you have got to get out, even a word with strangers could help. If you can get in touch with more friends or schoolmates from childhood, its an effective way to help you rebuilt.