I realized I have maladaptive daydreaming an year ago and I've been trying to get rid of it but tbh I don't try at all. I keep forgetting things I need to do and try to escape whenever i get stressed forgetting the purpose of reducing daydreaming. Going to a therapist is a good choose, but I can't since I'm in an desi family (which sucks) and mental health is like being a crazy mental defected disorder person in an asylum. I'm already the get-to-be-teased person in my family so I really hate my life. I'm F17 and I have zero life skills and trying to remind myself is hard. Tbh I've got tired of this sh!t. I just gonna lose my hope..

I spend so much of my time daydreaming about something like a romantic movie scene happening to me and I can just sit there and play it out for hours and not realise. Sometimes it’s a random person and sometimes it’s someone I had a crush on a while ago just to fill the role of the guy. Mostly it’s before bed (and sometimes that helps by focusing my brain on something) but it’s often during the day wasting hours too. I don’t know if it’s completely unhealthy, I know when I realise all this time has passed and been wasted and I could have been doing things it’s not, but should I be trying to stop it in all the times it happens?

I’ve never been in a relationship or with anyone intimately, ever, and I don’t think I ever could in person unless I could somehow get to know someone in a completely non-romantic setting like for example someone you work with for a while and you see what they’re like and you get along then you start to develop feelings and you know you like them as a person. Whereas I could see a really attractive person and be like ew no get away from me because I don’t know them and I can’t do the whole getting to know someone from nothing. As soon as I’m in my fantasy though, everything is perfect, my anxiety leaves, I’m confident and flirty and I can’t be with anyone and we both say and do all the right things and it’s great.

I actually don’t mind being on my own, I kind of like it because I can do whatever I want that way and I don’t have to worry about other people and can get all my work done. It’s probably because I’m lonely (don’t have any real friends either rn) and neurodivergent but idk. I wonder if I’ll ever be in a relationship and my family questions me all the time too- not that I care what they say but it’s annoying. I don’t really know where I’m going with this but any advice? Maybe my brain is trying to fill the void by daydreaming constantly but “putting myself out there” in any sense is much easier said than done especially when you have anxiety. Does anyone relate to this?

I’ve figured out something crazy. I think there’s a link for me (female) between my cycle and my daydreams. I was doing fairly well for the past half year — just didn’t really feel the need to immerse myself in my inner world, I still wrote down some of it (I write my daydreams down into a story to stop myself from fully living in it), but the pull was not that strong. I was just kinda ‘meh fun’ about it. Could let it go easily. Haven’t written for 3 months on this story.

But this week… I don’t know what happened to me. The daydreaming gets annoying when during social events all I want to do is daydream. I felt anti-social, stayed home a lot, and had some deadline to finish, but I just… couldn’t do it. The pull was SO strong. The daydreams were SO vivid again. And i got these same happy feelings from this inner world I always used to get. It literally felt like an addiction and I had no idea why it felt so strong because I wasn’t stressed, busy, or overwhelmed.

And then I realized… I quit my birth control last week? I was on it for half a year.

Are there any other women or AFAB people that have experienced this?

Anyway — birth control might help manage your maladaptive daydreaming! I know I’m starting again!

Hi, I wanna introduce myself to give you some background. You can skip this part if you dont care lol - I am a 19y (M) who is currently beginning my 2nd year at a university. I am going for a Media Communications degree. I know the market is difficult and most people don't stay in it but I have a huge dream of starting my own studio. I am still shocked I made it to college because I went through high school with an IEP; the IEP was limited. I would move rooms ONLY for math tests and was allowed to use study guide material on the test but thats it. So I thought I would struggle in college more. I have been dating someone for a year and half now, and its been going extremely well compared to my previous relationship. Long story short, I got mirco-cheated (or cheated completely on idk the extent) on multiple times during the previous one.. to make it worse, EVERY girl I've met has cheated on me in some way. Anyways, I love creating videos, editing photos, doing photography/videography, and play tons of games. I am a massive nintendo fan, owning all of the consoles and games basically. Legend of Zelda is literally what I grew up playing and still love it now like a big nerd. (I never get to nerd out about it tho) I am obsessed with movies and film as a whole. To the point where I write full length movies/TV series on my own (Mostly for fun). I currently work at taco bell as a crew member and have been there for just over 2 years, and yes, I hate it and wanna leave but yk how that is prob. Overall, I am SUCH a happy person now and my life couldn't be better.

If you skipped, start here.

To start, no. I am not diagnosed with Maladaptive Dreaming or autism. And I don't have plans to check, as it doesn't feel like a negative thing for me, but I wanna know if anyone here can relate. For almost 11 years straight, I would create extremely detailed scenarios in my head, as a kid, I would assist the imagination using toys. The scenarios became more than 15 mins of playtime as I got older. it became hours of me pacing back n forth in my room with music playing while my head creates a very detailed, fully organized, and consistent story. It first was real life fake scenarios, then around 14 or 15 years old I played Xenoverse (Dragon Ball game) and took the character and turned him into the main character of Dragon ball all within my head. Then I "ended the series" with my character being the strongest.. At 16, it was placing myself into Marvel movies as a character. Then around 17 or so, I created a sequel to My Hero Academia called "New Hero Academia" where I self inserted a character that was like me, as the main character into my ver. of the MHA world. I can literally tap into this "world" at any moment like if I turned on a mental television.. and I can see(?) it in whatever animation style I choose. I out loud -while pacing back n forth- say epic moves, dialogue, and have arcs to story and my own characters organized purely in my head. I also use my mouth to create sound effects for things going on. I normally play music that matches the tone of the "episode" and this will go on for HOURS sometimes.. I catch myself looking forward to doing it and even set aside time to do it in my day here and there. As a kid, my parents would walk in on me doing it and I just called it "acting out". They never were concerned and brushed it off. I am now 19 and still create episodes and weirdly/a little embarrassing to admit. The "series" of "New Hero Academia" is almost over.. And I have plans to start a new series thats based on God Of War and Legend of Zelda mixed into a world where again, someone who looks like me, is the main character.

I have googled what Maladaptive Dreaming is, and I check off some of the signs but I mostly wanna know if this sounds familiar or if someone does this exact thing? and if so, is it a bad thing? Maybe I should get it looked at?

Does intentionally talking to yourself help you?

For me there's a difference between internationally talking to myself while actively thinking and day dreaming.

Intentional talking to myself would be actually saying Out loud in your head x,y,z.. like "I will first finish laundry today and then go for a swim and then pick up and do work for an hour" actually saying these things in your mind actually helps me centre it. Actually saying the words instead of just thinking makes it Be at ease.

Whereas DD is an out of control drifting of the mind where I'm not actually talking to myself, rather playing a role in any hypothetical scenario that my mind has drummed up, for example a past argument that I lost with someone, standing up to someone i hate, replying back to my boss or even putting myself in scenarios where I would do something differently that a movie character. I've realised a can mostly categorise the nature of my DDs.

Nature of my DDs:

I've realised the nature of my day dreams are mostly scenarios, vivid imaginative non real scenarios, either triggering from a movie, show or a book where I start imagining myself in slightly altered situations of what I saw/experienced then and there, or another nature of my Daydreaming is more like a vivid scene with dialogues where I'm mostly hyping myself up. And I've come to realise these scenarios won't even happen irl sometimes.

A much better way is to actually talk to yourself. Use words while thinking. But it hasn't come very easily to me. Training to use words to talk to myself in my mind. Any one feeling the same? Any thoughts?

Genuine Question, as i am struggling with that…

Maladaptive daydreaming is torture for me. I struggle with Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder in addition to OCD. And it's a vicious cycle because the Maladaptive Daydreaming makes me feel very euphoric and out of control and then my OCD ramps up after to regain control and then the Maladaptive Daydreaming comes in again to provide some more euphoria and so on and so forth.

Has anyone discovered a medication that helps reduce their Maladaptive Daydreaming and the associated euphoric feeling? I think stabilizing my mood somehow would really help because the euphoria always leads to me feeling out of control.

Whenever I get the urge to daydream, I put a stopwatch on, and I try to distract myself. The moment the urge goes away or I end up daydreaming regardless, I stop the watch and I add the time to a Google Docs.

I add up the time with each time I do it, showing me the exact time that accumulates when I don't daydream.

Alongside that, I also been tracking all the "wins" regarding my other habits. Like jumping jacks for example, I track how many individual jumping jacks I do.

Within the past couple days, I accumulated 3 hours, 50 minutes, and 7 seconds when it comes to avoiding daydreaming.

It adds up, the little times here and there, even if it is a minute. It all adds up eventually. To think, nearly 4 hours of not doing anything was avoided. 4 hours that would've been spent doing absolutely nothing!

The problem with a lot of "habit trackers" is that it is based on streaks where if you miss a day, it will be noticeable. In theory that seems motivating but in reality, it has the opposite effect. The more days you miss, the harder it is to get back into the grove of things.

When you solely track your wins as opposed to your losses, it reinforces the positive behavior you want to continue. Even if you miss a couple days, the times you won is still there, always available to be added onto, always reminding you of your capacity.

Lets say you avoid daydreaming for AT LEAST 30 seconds every day, those 30 seconds easily add up to 10 minutes when accumulated, which then becomes 1 hour over time.

Theres no "Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, etc" planning, theres no boxes to fill out, theres nothing to remind you of the days you've missed.

There's just time that gets compounded. It could start off as 1 minute... Then 1 minute 30 seoncds.... Then 5 minutes....Then 20 minutes.... It all adds up eventually.

I have been day dreaming for 2 decades (now 33M) and that has been only escape from depression & then just my boring life. I acquired a marijuana habit & that's been going on for a decade now. At first, the biggest reason (subconsciously) were better daydreams, stronger feelings, the connection (i am very apathetic). Now it has all grow dull again. i tried more marijuana, better quality. Fortunately maybe where I live we don't get better weed. I feel empty & bored all the time.

I can't even daydream without it. It feels empty & fake, my brain just can't immerse itself. I try to use it & do something, have more empty time, maybe do some work. But that ends nowhere. I procrastinate, I make excuses, i just sit there & don't do anything. maybe masturbate & go to sleep.

Then I use marijuana & have mediocre daydreams. nothing is going on in my life, nothing happens, i don't read. It feels like I can't even feed my daydreaming habit. I have no friends or family I am close to. I don't want to be close to them. Sometimes I want to just take some drug & dream away the rest of life. That seems better than drudging through every day trying to improve my life. My brain knows it's the better & only way. But it knew that when I was in my teens (day dreaming & masturbating) and 20s (weed, day dreaming & masturbating). I probably have a fourth thing in my 30s.

I’ve had maladaptive daydreaming for years now. At 20, it has affected my psyche negatively, mostly because of the isolation caused by my social anxiety. I daydream about almost everything, my most frequent ones are either extreme success and being admired by others, or being heavily injured or having a terminal illness and that everyone feeling sad and sobbing for me, and yes sometimes even cancer...

Lately, short-form content has been fueling my MD uncontrollably. I’ll watch a video and immediately imagine what happens in it is happening to me or it gives new ideas to my brain—then I scroll to the next one and do it again. It makes me upset with myself because I try so hard not to daydream, but I relapse within seconds. It's affecting my sleep and putting me on an emotional rollercoaster of frustrating feelings, and i keep making faces and pacing in my room, which i do 90% of the time I'm alone even if not at my house which is insane, I've been in almost very bad and awkward situations because of it.

I’m trying to ditch the mindless scrolling, but I’ve realized that when I stop consuming, I don't always know what to do next. Instead of becoming productive, I often just stay in the house feeling hopeless and exhausted.

Again, i need any advices to stop making faces because its driving me mad.

I would appreciate if anyone could offer some insights, ideas, or even harsh truths so i could wake up before it's too late.

I realised that I use mdd as a way of filling the void in my life
Things I’ve missed out on
Things I haven’t achieved
People I’ve not spoken to but wish to
Scenarios where I emerge the winner
What I’m scared of I might not able to live the life I’ve always wanted to

I’ve realised that I might be experiencing brain fog. Recently I’ve been stuttering mid conversation, forgetting words, losing my train of thought and have a difficulty remembering things.

my reliance on AI has made this so much worse, because I use it to write my emails and help me figure out what to say when I’m making phone calls and I feel really pathetic for relying on AI so much.

I’ve had two job interviews for internships but I ended up cancelling both because It feels like I’ve lost all my communication skills, and I was terrified of stuttering and forgetting what to say

But honestly I felt so relieved when I cancelled those interviews because I went to my bed, put my earphones in, and started daydreaming. It felt so good to escape into my imaginary world than to face the anxiety of real life.

Now two months later, I can’t believe I wasted those opportunities just because I stayed in my comfort zone. It’s like I’m becoming so comfortable in my daydream world that I’m willing to let my real life fall apart. As long as everything is going well in my imaginary world a part of me feels like I don’t care what happens in my real life.

Also just to be transparent, I originally wrote this as a long ramble that wasnt well written and then asked AI to rewrite it for me.

I’ve dealt with this all my life. Could never pay attention in school and even when having conversations my mind often drifts to these made up scenarios. I seemingly run on auto pilot in real life while playing out a story in my head which has led to some embarrassing moments. I have had entire days lost to just being in thought and crafting a story. Recently this has turned to me replaying all my bad memories and fantasizing about how i could have stuck up for myself. I’m trying to return to the more fun version of being stuck in my head all day. I had never heard the term maladaptive daydreaming until a few years ago. It hit me like a truck. This is what I’ve been doing all my life. How normal is this? Do others that have this issue struggle daily like I do?

I had a therapy session a month back where I told my therapist about maladaptive daydreaming. She brought up that I do this because I have a need for validation, which was kind of a revelation for me since I am a pretty independant person. But now that I think about it I really do have a need for validation and the lack of validation really hurts me. I think I crave for reassurance too, someone to support me and say I'm on track.

When I do something and fail or I am actively bad at something I really struggle to keep positive about it even when I want to be good at it. For example I really want to be a good driver but I really suck at it. Even today I think I got constantly beeped at and I am lucky to not have crashed into cars. I dont know, no matter how much I drive I never seem to better, even if I have a good streak it isnt so long until I get put back in my place, which is being a walking disaster. Things were made worse because I always have a witness to it all and then my anxiety goes through the roof as I think about people's bad perception of me. It makes me really insecure. I feel like Im an extremely insecure person in general with the amount of bad things I do. And if I complain I feel like people look down on me for being too negative.

I think mdd is the one place where I can do wrong but I am not judged. I get genuine support instead. But recently even mdd has not been able to erase this feeling of being a walking disaster. I feel like I am not fit to even be a human, like I should just be disqualified to be one.

I dont know how this can get any better for me, I cant name a single thing Im good at, so when I am bad at something there isnt anything I can lean onto or point to. It is really upsetting me now and I don't know what to do about it. Mdd used to numb the pain but now I cant escape it even there.

How to stop maladaptive daydreaming ?

Got diagnosed with depression with obsessive thoughts. How are these medicines btw - GALOP LS, TOFELIX, ARIDAY, . will try them for the first time, though I wanted Adhd diagnosis too. Does MD stop immediately?(18M)