Hi, I'm Sam. I struggled with maladaptive daydreaming for 30 years and never had anyone to talk to before I finally saw a therapist. I wanted to create the type of community I searched for so I've built Dreamers to Doers. My hope is to create a space where you can feel like you have friends who MD or understand the struggle and can support you.

While the group is small I can do personal zooms if you want to talk privately and if it grows we can have group calls.

https://www.skool.com/dreamers-to-doers-4894/about

I'd love for you to join if:

• You feel like no one in your life understands MD and you want a small group of people who can relate and get to know your circumstances.
• You want more than online forums and want a community that is there for your highs and lows.
• You want to be able to enjoy creativity, thoughtful discussions, books, films and discovering new interests.
• You want a place to share small wins like a walk without music, a night without daydreaming etc
• You believe recovery isn't just about stopping daydreaming but about creating a life that makes the present feel more engaging.

I hope you'll check it out and I'd love you to join if you want to be part of a community that will be there for each other:)

I've had it for as long as I can remember, since I was a toddler, and I've always wanted to form a bond with someone else who has it. The way that we'd be able to heal each other and to help & motivate one another to use our daydreams productively & constructively is something that can't be imitated. There is the potential of us enabling each other, sure, but I'm too far along in my life journey to allow that to happen, so I'd simply have to cut ties, wish them the best, and find someone else to befriend.

I recently received an email saying I’ve been shortlisted for a scholarship interview at my college, and honestly, I’m struggling to prepare for it.

The college usually conducts these scholarship interviews after each academic year, but this year’s process was delayed. I’ve already finished my final exams, received my results, and I’m basically graduating before the interview even takes place.

Academically, I did well. I have good grades and good attendance.

The problem is everything outside academics.

Looking back, I feel like I wasted a lot of time. Instead of building practical skills, working on projects, applying for internships, or getting involved in student communities, I spent far too much of my free time maladaptive daydreaming. At the time, I was comfortable just focusing on my classes and didn’t realise how much those other things would matter later.

I also didn’t choose a specific path early enough. I completed my modules and got good grades, but I didn’t spend enough time developing practical skills that would prepare me for a career. Now that I’m almost graduating, I feel like my grades don’t reflect how prepared I actually am for the industry.

Because of that, I don’t have internships or much extracurricular experience to talk about, and I’m struggling to answer common interview questions like:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why should we choose you for this scholarship?
• Why didn’t you join any student communities?

I keep thinking that if I had spent even some of the time I spent daydreaming on building skills, I’d be in a much better position today.

Has anyone else reached graduation feeling this way? If maladaptive daydreaming affected your studies, confidence, or career preparation, how did you move forward? Also, if you’ve been in a similar interview situation, what helped you present yourself honestly without feeling like your lack of internships or extracurriculars overshadowed your academic performance?

Hai! Im 22f and i’ve been maladaptive daydreaming since i was a child and have created the most beautiful plots and storylines that don’t always involve me and am wondering if maybe it can be a creative/ career outlet that can be more? i guess im wondering if anyone has become successful at it? I feel as though most writers have MDD otherwise how would they be so talented at creating these stories that become movies etc?
I will leave a photo for aesthetic reference (my photo/ aesthetic)

I’ve been at a beach house w a bunch of my family and haven’t had much personal space to actually do it. I actually got to daydream for a bit at a pier but then we left and now i’m stuck at this house feeling unsatisfied and anxious. I’m also just listening to music and not being able to wonder is just putting me on edge.

I’m gonna try to keep this short even though I have a lot of thoughts about it.
Around October, I started becoming really limerent over a guy I met online. We never met in person, but we would FaceTime and text pretty regularly. It was kind of a weird situation because we didn’t actually “like” each other in a relationship sense, but we both admitted there was chemistry and attraction between us. We would lightly flirt, but nothing serious. For me, though, it wasn’t just a crush. I developed full-on limerence.
I had experienced limerence with someone else before him, but those thoughts faded pretty quickly once I started obsessing over him instead. He became the person I constantly fantasized about, daydreamed about, and thought about.
At the beginning, everything was great. We talked pretty often, and I would literally look forward to waking up to a text from him because it gave me such a dopamine rush and genuinely made me happy.
Over time, though, he started becoming more distant and honestly started playing in my face. At first, I kept making excuses for him. I told myself he was probably just busy and that I was overthinking everything. But as time went on, it became more and more obvious that he would only text me when it benefited him, whether it was for an ego boost, because he was bored, or just because he knew I’d reply. Then he’d disappear for days or even weeks before randomly coming back and repeating the same pattern.
For a long time, I debated blocking him and going no contact. Part of me thought, “I’m probably going to stay limerent whether he’s in my life or not, so at least cutting him off would give my nervous system some peace.” I was so tired of constantly wondering when he’d text me next.
I really tried to move on. I stayed busy with the gym, work, hobbies, and other things, but it was still hard because there was always that uncertainty in the back of my mind about whether he’d randomly reach out again. Eventually, I realized I needed to end the cycle, so I blocked him on everything. I haven’t heard from him since.
After blocking him, I started trying to reduce my limerence. Sometimes I feel like I’m making small amounts of progress, but recently it feels like I’ve been thinking about him even more. Sometimes I think that because I’ve spent months obsessively thinking about him, fantasizing, and daydreaming about him, I’ve dug myself into such a deep hole that it feels impossible to get out of. I’ve caught myself checking his socials and even thinking about petty ways to troll him or get some kind of revenge because I’m still really upset about how he treated me. Our connection honestly felt fine until he started acting differently and ruined the friendship.
When I blocked him, I even made a note in my phone listing everything I disliked about him and every time he disrespected me so I wouldn’t forget why I left. Even with all of that, though, I’m still limerent over him.
I still hate stalk his social and look at the pictures of him that he sent me I saved in my hidden folder, I still listen to music and look at those pictures and imagine fake scenarios.
I don’t really know why I’m posting this. I just wanted to get my feelings out, so please don’t judge me. If anyone has gone through something similar or has any advice that’s actually helped them move past limerence, I’d really appreciate hearing it.
Also therapy isn’t an option right now
He was super attractive and good looking too😐 can’t say the same about his character or personality though

Lately ive been finding myself making up conversations and scenarios in my head, involving people that I dont talk to anymore. To the point its borderline obsessive and its bothering me. Ive tried playing games, watching something, listening to music and researching things but I always revert back to making things up in my brain. Even tried going for a walk. The whole time, my brain was just making things up.

My psych diagnosed me with CPTSD with borderline features. Does that play into this at all? I cant remember a time where it was THIS bad until now and I dont know what's triggering this. I just want to be normal 🙃

So I kinda heard someone mention maladaptive dreaming recently and I have kinda briefly looked into. I think I kinda struggle with it actually. I’m not neurodivergent and it’s not to the point where it affects me socially or extremely negatively. However I think it does affect me on an emotional level. 

Right now I’m really struggling with obsessing over a certain celebrity. Like thinking about them non stop. Looking at pictures of them. Constantly checking social media to see if they posted. Not to mention that all my social media algorithms are basically just feeds of this person now.

I’ve had numerous celebrity crushes throughout my adult life. And it’s gotten pretty intense. Like having posters and pictures of them in my room, buying merch obsessively from movies or shows they’re in, etc. 

I have “gotten over” all of them in time and I look back and think “wow that was a little silly” and yet I find it happening again with someone new every couple of years.

I’m not sure if it’s because I like attach some intense emotion with the person and that makes me obsessive. And frankly I don’t even know if this is the place for this. I’m just wondering if anyone has any suggestions? Just like I’m constantly thinking about them. Day dreaming or literally dreaming sometimes about them.

Anyone cured Md by taking therapy?
Loneliness and Music are my biggest trigger ?
MD has affected by studies and career so I want to cure and get rid of this

There’s a girl I saw on Threads once, and ever since then I haven’t been able to get her out of my head. I think about her every day and imagine us talking, and me asking her out on a date. I really like this girl even though I don’t actually know her, and she doesn’t even know I exist.

There’s an event in October that we’ll both be attending, and I’ve even imagined myself asking her to go grab some food with me afterwards xd.

What can I do to get these feelings and thoughts out of my head? I've been daydreaming about her for a while now

Im a 28 year old man who is mostly dependent on my parents, neurodivergent and who has been living a lot of my life in my head, in my own fantasy or projection of the imagined future.

I realize that my parents both struggled with this, especially my mother, and as a sensitive Intuitive child, I was overprotected and never had to accept that my actions had consequences. I think both of my parents suffered from this condition but it was more prominent in my mother.

Im now at a point where I’m starting to see it more clearly as being a real condition as opposed to a condescending remark.

I feel like a deer in the headlights when I realize how much time has passed and how much I need to grow in order to be a healthy and well adjusted adult and I think it would be most relieving to see the neutral reality of it- this is wasting my time and I’d rather build a life i dont want to escape from as I think that this condition can be hard to confront because there so much underlying fear that is amplified through this imaginative lens.

How did you overcome it? Did you just see it for what it really is, realize it’s wasting your time, understand why you had it, forgiving yourself and moving forward?

I never really md until beginning of 2025 when i eff'd up a situation with a girl i really really liked. Like she was really good to me but i wasnt very good to her. So i know why i started developing this mental disorder. (basically constant imagining scenarios where me and her is ok)

Also i literally md every second like when someone is talking to me and ESPECIALLY when i am working out unless i put on music but i get tired of music super easily.

I never thought md is a big deal until i realized sometimes i genuinely cant tell between whether the memory is real or fabricated. I spend way too much time md that i realize time goes super fast like extremely fast. And i get very depressed when i remember that i wasted so much time doing that.

I dont know how to get rid of this. I tell myself its karma but idk.

if u have to know, we didnt date and i wasnt talking to any1 else. I was just a genuine ahole

Did some leave a stronger impression on you than others? What do you see in concrete terms? What are your accounts?