Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder

Am I the only one that loves to daydream?

I know I should stop and all the sites say to stop but I jist can't

Hello if anyone else has maladaptive daydreaming and is interested in talking I could use someone to share experiences with. Recently

it has been taking over my life and I'm too embarrased to talk to those close to me.

my email is [edited by Anomalia to remove personal contact information], please tell me about yourself.

MG

It's good to know someone who gots this disorder too. Sometimes I feel like a weirdo because of this. I have tried many times stop doing it because i think it is starting to be a problem :S I would like to stop this behaivor but i have not idea of how to do it.

The Additional Mental Health Support category has move to sit within Get Support (soon to be renamed General Support)

Hi everyone. I've been Maladaptive Daydreaming since I was a kid. The first signs of MD started when I was 8/9 years old. Growing up in a disfunctional home, I would often escape into my fantasy world as a coping mechanism. Over time daydreaming became my solution to everything. If I wanted an experience or needed to resolve any emotion, I would do it in my daydreams rather than facing it in my reality.

I often feel like there are two versions of me: my fantasy self and my real self. My daydreams are so intense and vivid, that when I come out of them, I feel fulfilled, so fulfilled that I don't actually need to achieve anything in my reality, because what ever it is I want to resolve in reality gets resolved in my imagination. It feels so real and good to the point that I actually don't feel the need or urge to find any fulfillment in my reality. AND THIS IS THE MAIN PROBLEM. It's not that I don't have any dreams, desires or goals (in fact I think I might have too many! ) - it's that this passion for living is being expressed and fulfilled in the wrong place - MY IMAGINATION.

I am 34 years old and when I look back at my life, I can't help but feel a sense of overwhelming regret at all the experiences I could have had, goals I could have achieved. I became aware of my MD about 6 years ago but at the time I didn't know that there were other people like me or that there was even a term for it. I recently became aware of the term MD and that there were other people suffering with the same thing. I don't want to live another 30 years with the same regret I feel now. If anyone has any advice on how to deal with MD, or just want to chat, please feel free to message me.

I've had this pretty much all my life. I find that music is my major trigger. I never new there was a name for it up until tonight. I'm thrilled to know I'm not the only one who does this.

I am almost 30. For whole life I have 2 worlds in me, 1 is the reality and the 2nd is the fantasy world with magical beings who can do almost everything. Sometimes I feel urge to write down the story that I live in the fantasy world but I feel scared of others find out about it. I never know since when it happens, but very early, since I was a child. Like everybody here, I found myself happy and addicted living in the unreal world, locking myself alone hours inside a dark room, sometimes with music, sometimes It can come even without music. The time I feel most happy is when at night, dark and silent, when I can drift myself far far away in that world. Sometimes I am a hero, sometimes I rescue others, sometimes I rescue myself from emotional pain with magical friends around. The symtoms are not worst, I feel very happy about it that it made me feel sad if I couldnt dream anymore. I feel bother if there are too many people around, that it made my dream blurr and not real. I need to be alone to dream. It also interfere my concentration a lot of times, cut out my connections with real world. The symptoms can be less if I kept myself busy or find sth fansinate to do. But most of the time, I cant say goodbye to the 2nd world.

Hi you all! Thanks for sharing your experiences. I've just discovered thins thing has a name and this completely changed my perspective on soooo much things of my life. I do it since I have memory. I was a creative and lonely children, grown beetwen adults, out of the town. Maybe this was a way to escape in a more interesting reality, or feel less pressure from my parents expectations. I'm 36 now. It's really difficult for me focusing on something if I have not the strong necessity to do it, like a deadline. It was quite struggling during school and university years. On the other hand, I developed the ability to do a lot of work at the last minute, like a became smarter under pressure! When I finished university things went worse: without a plan and deadlines I really wasted almost 3 years of my life doing absolutely nothing. Than I started to work as creative, but of course a lot of free time and working at home don't help to stay in reality. My mind can really slides away almost all day long. Walking up and down, listening to the same song in loop, a lot of interesting things happen in my mind and it's very difficult to prefer reality instead dreams. Maybe we have just to find a way to canalize this creativity. I felt wrong for almost all my life, now I want just think that this is the pack we received: we have just to understand how to use it.

Hey there, i cannot begin to tell u guys how comfortable i felt while reading all of your stories above there, just knowin there are ppl out there can relate to whatever this is, you guys might call it a "disorder" or some new kind of craziness, but to me its more like a gift, escaping this reality to a one much less stressful and with lesser problems and confusion to my own and personal heaven. I kinda still remember my first stages, i was a kid something around 6-7 my mom bought this cotton doll for me and i got soo attached to it when my mom noticed something wrong, one day she just decide to throw it away in hope that will fix whatever I had, later on I managed to develop it to a whole new level. ofcourse everything has a good and a bad side, I started to become careless, I struggled in the begging in finishing tasks and stuff, but I always finish it in the last mint, made me more open minded person I started to see things from another angle.

Anyways, thanks for letting me share inhere, you guys are the first people I ever told about this, I truly hope for you guys the best in your life <3

I've had this since I was around... I would have to say about 6 years old. I didn't grow up in a very eventful house, it was in the middle of Rural Northern Michigan, with a town population of around 2,000, and only grandparents to watch over me. I can remember very fondly and vividly coming home from school, and just dreaming. All day long. Music would always trigger me and as a six year old I can remember that Orchestra out of all things triggered the most intense daydreams whilst something I would listen to like Pop as a kid wouldn't really "Excite" me.

But even now, I can't just have music alone, what I struggle with is that I need to move. It can't be helped. I HAVE to be moving or walking or something, to be able to daydream so intensely. As a kid I would usually just do repetitive movements just jumping around and I saw nothing wrong with this but now as I grow older I've become embarrased about moving so "Awkwardly" and when my parents here the loud thumping I create on the floodboards since of my weight they always come down and shoot the door open, and when they see me doing these things... Well, anyone would be at least confused on why I move in circles right?

Movement paired with Music, creates some of the most intense daydream worlds I have. It's like a drug to me actually, I love daydreaming, I think of my disorder as a gift instead of a burden though. I've created my own worlds, where it usually spans around Politics (Since I love politics) and war. I dream that I am running a Totalitarian Government and I am the leader. I have assigned Generals, Officers and goals about conquering the "Western Dragons" (America, UK, Etc.) and I spend HOURS dreaming about this. Walking in circles, like a zombie... Listening to music on the highest setting... and the worst part of it is I really just can't stop. Don't get me wrong, I love doing this as well, but sometimes the urge to do this when orchestra plays is such a strong emotion.

But you know what? I feel at home in this forum. I just found it today and you guys are just like me. It doesn't make me feel bad about anything, but it makes me feel happy that I can just talk freely without anyone judging me... Thank you if you read this far!

- Austin