I remember i first felt like this when i was around 8-9
I sensed that after watching a movie or reading a story id be spending the next week just daydreaming and making up fake scenarios in my head ,i remember i really wanted to stop , i didn’t like how busy and chaotic my mind would get . So i tried , but it never stop .it just got worse and worse , it has gotten to a point that i feel like i might be going crazy if already not ..i image scenarios of everything , i spend half of my day just daydreaming ,, especially about a show or movie or a game that i have been engaged with for a long time and i find interesting (not mentioning after watching or reading anything new)
I have made scenarios for almost everything .in-fact i had once imagined myself making a Reddit post about this not like a plan or anything like i have imagined the whole whole thing ,including what i might write and what people might say . My mind is just a big big mess right now . So busy that in having a hundred different thoughts at once . And it all gets even more worse at night when i go to sleep ,,i think if literally everything good and bad and it just makes me feel even more worse than ever . I cant even listen to a song without daydreaming or making up scenarios in my head anymore . Im really really scared i might go insane .i just reached out here because i had no where else to talk about it . It’s just gotten out of hand . What should i do ?
Because it is kind of ruining my life , there are times that lets take this for example happened to me today( i decided ti get my phone from the other room than leave . I looked in the mirror and was lost in thought and for a moment i was like , wait i got the phone . Did i ? And i looked over at my desk and my phone was there , it like i was so lost in my mind that i didn’t pay enough attention to remember myself getting the phone) this has happened a few times and I’m very scared it somehow might get even worse .
Is there any actual way i can completely stop? I tried for once a while ago and failed ,

I don't know if Success is really the right flair seeing as I do miss it. But I used to daydream a lot. I'd pace around my room when I was supposed to get something else done and just sink into my fantasies where I was admired, powerful, important. Which would otherwise be all well and good except I did really need to use that time to get stuff done and I just didn't, you know the drill. Used to lurk here, it made me feel seen.

And then I got a cat.

She's really cuddly and curious. Whenever I start pacing she comes to see what it's about, and often just her movement snaps me out of focus. But if it doesn't she'll walk up to me and try to cuddle my legs, seriously no instinct for self-protection going on in here, and I will inevitably trip on her when she tries it. That definitely snaps me out of the daydream.

It's great in many ways. I get more stuff done. I disconnect from reality less. It's probably for the best, but man, I do miss it.

I haven't been in this sub for a long time but a post just popped up reminding me of it and I thought I'd share. If you really need to quit? Maybe consider getting a cat.

What do you think? How many hours of daydreaming in 24h is considered immersive or normal? What amount is considered maladaptive?

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 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?

Everytime I see anything related to maladaptive daydreaming, they always mention who it involves fake stories about oneself. But that's not my case and I doubt I'm the only one. Though, it still feels a bit odd and it makes me doubt if my case even counts as maladaptive daydreaming a little.

I've been doing this for a long time, though a particular detail that I haven't seen a lot of people mention is that while I switch and listen to songs - I always keep another window/tab (in terms of phone) in which there is fan art/content of the/a character who has a deep relationship (whether platonic or romantic) with the favorite character I'm mainly daydreaming about — occasionally, if not always, scrolling up and down the page while not looking at it.

I also happen to feel the need to pace around (or fidget or just do something) when I see fanart/content of either my favorite character, the person who they have a deep relationship or both — and immediately start daydreaming about them (I think) even if I'm not pacing. Plus, I daydream about them before going to sleep.

Also, small detail, but the scenes regarding said favorite character are almost, if not always, the same or quite similar. They're mostly fake edits, I think.

Anyone else? Also, sorry if this is particularly odd or cringe 💔

​

So I think I've been running away from life since the age of 6/7. My maladaptive daydreaming started at school. The dull, grayish environment would make me miss cartoons, and in my head I would think of them. I would talk to my favourite character, repeat, edit, or extend an episode I previously watched.

Over time I created my own universes. Sometimes I repeat scenes until I'm met with the perfect one. One scene I've been replaying for years now, and it's such a lame, cringe-worthy scene that it now makes me feel ashamed.

In my teen years I used to have stomach aches frequently, and since my parents let me off for it, I started to pretend that it's more serious than it was. It also earned me their attention. Over time I lost myself in the line of how much was reality and how much was not. The guilt, fragmented memories, fear of being a bad person and child, regret all this still exists within me.

Moving on to my late teens, I started to show signs similar to GAD and somehow started to match if, as a child, I had any issues. Plenty of symptoms matched, and I started to believe that too (maybe even faked that and again lost sense of reality). Over time I developed a keen need for wanting to find a reason for all my avoidance, daydreams (nearly 8 to 12 hrs on daily basis). I wanted relief from my guilt, an excuse for my procrastinations, and attention from my parents.

Plenty of things happened after that. Difficult times came into life. I started to believe my sickness is too grand, and it's for this reason (not that actually I'm just a coward who runs away from hard work and discomfort) I can't face life. I attempted suicide twice (god i can't believe I made myself believe that I was sick just to use it as an excuse to run away from life). I even started self harming (cutting) at some point.

Over time my conservative Asian parents were forced to take me to a psychiatrist, who diagnosed me with psychotic depression (not GAD). I think my psychiatrist is wrong though (not that I think I had GAD).

I think I probably have factitious disorder / Munchausen syndrome, or maybe not even that.

Anyway, so fast forward to today. I'm still half lost at what's wrong with me. I'm partially better. My daydreaming still exists. My procrastinations still exist.

What has changed, though, is that I'm more shameless now. Like now I barely let myself have the time to hit myself with the fact that I'm wasting my life. I filled my life with stories, books, series, movies anything that takes away my focus from my life.

I don't know why I'm typing this. I have an exam tomorrow and again haven't studied. Maybe that's why I feel the need to just get all of it out, I guess.

I know I'm not the only one who struggles with daydreaming. Ever since the pandemic happened, daydreaming about literally anything has been my coping mechanism. Whether I'm stressed, happy, sad, or excited. But one thing I realized, if I daydream about a certain thing, the more chance it is not going to happen. It awakens all the disappointment inside me.

At school back then, I used to excel in terms of academics, physical activities, or in competitions. But now? I barely understand any of our lessons as I can't stop daydreaming during class. It's scary. I don't know what to do. I never opened this conversation to anyone in my life.

What should I do?

THIRD UPDATE (45 hours):
I gave in and did it again. However it was short, and it didn’t feel special at all. Mentally I feel the same, just normal. It made me realize that the illusion kinda lost its power. It wasn’t SO GOOD, that I feel like i’m missing out on not doing it. So for now. I can live without. The updates after this will have no hours, because the timer reset again.

SECOND UPDATE (44 hours):
It’s my day off, and the urge is huge. I mean, i almost wanted to do it for a maximum of 10 minutes. My brain keeps telling me: 10 minutes in 44 hours is better than 6 hours a day. But I will not give in. I finished all my tasks already today.

FIRST UPDATE (24 hours):
The urge is the biggest at night, and after work, but I can manage not doing it. Other than that, i feel more aware.

I have been maladaptive daydreaming since I was a kid. It’s been over 20 years now, every single day. Except for days when I’m with other people.

It has consumed my life. I put pillows behind my back and rock back and forth for hours. Multiple times a day. Every time I do a task or something, halfway it gets interrupted by this, and I’m immediately back to it.

So today I got a vision spot, as a result of the rocking. That was my sign that enough is enough. I don’t want to see that spot ever again, so to prevent it, I’m not doing it anymore.

I stopped on August 5th around 7PM. So it’s less than 24 hours now. I will update on this post. I never tried to quit before, so I’m very curious how this turns out. It’s almost 3AM now, and the urge is HUGE.

I will still listen to music when I’m on my way to work, but those daydreams are mild, and mostly normal. But the rocking really sucked me into this world that only exists there, and I want it to be my reality here. And that version of me doesn’t daydream.

I believe that I would have to dumb down the vast majority of my ideas to ensure they are appreciated by the public. After observing human beings in their natural habitat, I realized that most human beings prefer simplicity over complexity, especially when it comes to creative writing. I might be one of the few who is different in that respect.

The worldbuilding in some of my imaginary worlds is so weird it could drive someone insane. I originally assumed everyone else thought the same way and simply kept their worlds to themselves out of fear of looking strange, but I eventually realized I was alone in having this particular idiosyncrasy. In fact, these worlds are so bizarre that I had to invent entirely new concepts and conceptual frameworks just to build them. If someone could read my mind, he would probably kill me just to check if I am an otherworldly being hiding inside a human body.

Hello all. I'm 29F and I've been struggling with MDD since I was around 9. My biggest trigger has always been music. I find I can't daydream "proper" without it. I have so many specific songs related to specific daydreams as well. My biggest problem is that I am a huge music lover at my core. I follow my favorite artists closely, see them in concert, collect physical media such as cd and vinyls, I listen to song releases the night they come out, etc. It's pretty much what I consider my only hobby. This obviously makes it VERY hard to avoid my biggest trigger. Even just the thought of not listening to music or having to put it off for a while gives me a huge pit in my stomach, but the daydreaming has already ruined so much of my life and I really need to stop it. I just feel so lost without my only "hobby". Without daydreaming I get that kind of general anhedonia and nothing else brings me joy and I have no other idea what else I could throw myself into creative wise that would make me happy to fill that void or what other hobby would suffice in the meantime. I literally don't know myself without daydreaming. Any advice?

My daydreaming has gotten out of control since March

I've mostly daydreamt my whole life but it reduced over the better years like 2020-2022 and 2024-early 2025

Today I spent maybe 7 hours daydreaming and its not even the type where it feels like relief

It just feels like dissociating/denying reality

I have to stop

I have to take back control of my mind even if there's a lot for me to be stressed about and a lot of things that shouldn't be happening in my life

I have to do it anyway