Constantly daydreaming

[PhantomPod]

I have always been a big daydreamer, but lately I've been spending even more time than usual daydreaming. So, I randomly googled the problem and found that it's called Maladaptive Daydreaming.

But I guess my biggest thing is that half of me really does not want to stop daydreaming even though I know that it wastes my time and I could be doing something more productive with this free time. Daydreaming just makes me happy, I guess. I always daydream about being a well-liked and talented person with friends and a relationship. And these are all traits that I do not have in my real life. So, it's almost like I only get social interaction with friends or a relationship in my daydreams.

Have you ever tried to stopped daydreaming so much? Or do you like living in your fantasy world where you're the greatest person ever?

 

[BlueDays]

I have always been a big daydreamer, but lately I've been spending even more time than usual daydreaming. So, I randomly googled the problem and found that it's called Maladaptive Daydreaming.

But I guess my biggest thing is that half of me really does not want to stop daydreaming even though I know that it wastes my time and I could be doing something more productive with this free time. Daydreaming just makes me happy, I guess. I always daydream about being a well-liked and talented person with friends and a relationship. And these are all traits that I do not have in my real life. So, it's almost like I only get social interaction with friends or a relationship in my daydreams.

Have you ever tried to stopped daydreaming so much? Or do you like living in your fantasy world where you're the greatest person ever?

I believe it is a survival mechanism.

You mention that "I know it wastes my time"......does it really though?

It is releasing those pleasure chemicals in your brain, necessary for our survival, that people like us don't get "elsewhere", where other "social people" get them. So in a sense we are "Self-medicating".
Therefore I believe it IS doing something productive.

 

[dannyboy65]

I day dream a lot and I used to think of it as a problem, but I don't anymore. Think about how day dreaming makes you feel, it makes you feel happy. Also if you like to create things day dreaming is an awesome inspiration. My teachers in elementary school were always ready for a 6 page story that had to be written in an hour from me. They always said I had a wild imagination which is true, I think you can use this day dreaming to your advantage.

 

[PhantomPod]

I believe it is a survival mechanism.

You mention that "I know it wastes my time"......does it really though?

It is releasing those pleasure chemicals in your brain, necessary for our survival, that people like us don't get "elsewhere", where other "social people" get them. So in a sense we are "Self-medicating".
Therefore I believe it IS doing something productive.

Yeah, I suppose you're right. I guess when I say I could be doing something more "productive" with my free time, I just feel like I could learn a language or learn computer programming or something like that in my free time. But instead I just sit around daydreaming about my imaginary life.

But daydreaming doesn't negatively impact my life in the sense that it's interfering with my job or something like that. And it doesn't negatively affect my relationship (friends or romantic) cause I literally have no relationships in my life. I do acknowledge that daydreaming is a way of "self-medicating," but I do like how happy it makes me.

I say that my daydreaming has been worse lately though, because I've done weird things like fact check my daydreams. Like, I had this daydream where I was studying at Yale university and I literally looked on their website to see if they really had the degree program that I was pretending I was studying in my daydream. And then I thought to myself, "wow, why did I just fact check my daydream LOL." It was pretty weird.

 

[PhantomPod]

I day dream a lot and I used to think of it as a problem, but I don't anymore. Think about how day dreaming makes you feel, it makes you feel happy. Also if you like to create things day dreaming is an awesome inspiration. My teachers in elementary school were always ready for a 6 page story that had to be written in an hour from me. They always said I had a wild imagination which is true, I think you can use this day dreaming to your advantage.

Yeah, I do like how my daydreams make me feel happy.

I actually have never written down any of my daydreams before, but I should start trying to write down some of the stories in my head.

 

[SoScared]

I try not to daydream. I find that when I daydream I'm repeating the same scenarios again and again. Its pointless. When I daydream I tend to get hold of a repetitive negative thought and spiral downwards.

I have periods when I'm present and don't daydream. They are productive times.

 

[Kiwong]

Daydreaming can lead to great ideas.

Thoughts=dreams=actions=results.

You can write your daydream down, and sift through the great ideas that will surface.

 

[PhantomPod]

I find that when I daydream I'm repeating the same scenarios again and again. Its pointless. When I daydream I tend to get hold of a repetitive negative thought and spiral downwards.

I repeat the same scenarios over and over again in my head too when I daydream. Because they are scenes that I like a lot, so I just keep repeating them over and over again, like rewatching my favorite movie or something.

But my daydreams are almost never negative. They're always fantasies about me being this perfect person who's talented, good-looking, who everyone likes, etc.

 

[Lima44]

Have the exact same condition and relate perfectly. I would only say that it can give me headaches sometimes. When I zone out and stop daydreaming I feel better. Certainly, the daydream itself is awesome and I can go for hours but i notice it takes a toll on me mentally- too much daydreaming makes me nervous and can lead to headaches. Don´t know if you have experienced that. i am 45, don´t know it it matters.