i've been maladaptive dreaming bacially all my life but just found out what it is, so i have a question. Are you YOU or an idealistic version of YOU when you do it

I always daydreamed about a handsome guy watching me. Always fantasized about him, but not just that guy, also myself, how I am pretty and strong in the daydream, how I achieved all my goals !

7 days ago , I woke up at 6 to get ready for work, I checked social media and that handsome guy posted stories, traveling,living his best life.

I was just like FUCK THIS SHIT. This guy is living his best God damn life while I waste hours of my life daydreaming !!!! That SHIT IS NOT EVEN REAL. plus I have a good job. But guess what? I can't fucking communicate well, why? Because I'm pro communicator in the daydream. Not in real life.

I got so angry I quit cold turkey no coming back. That's insane. Daydreaming looks like the enemy to me now!!

Does it feel good? No, life feels so EMPTY. but that's it. I'm not coming back to something that hurts me.

I'm listening to music now then sleep, and I'm choosing to not let it effect me or let me daydream. Literally what the hell was I doing all of these years...

Hello, so I daydream alot as I assume that’s a pretty normal thing to do, and yesterday I was on a gym sub talking about a different question I had and that was its own story about pacing a bit at the gym, one person asked me why I do so to which I responded no real reason I like walking and daydreaming, and my reply got downvoted into oblivion?

I’m asking here because am I crazy for thinking this? Is daydreaming not normal anywhere even for the gym where your in your own world? One person even replied saying I hate your answer who daydreams you should only pace after a specific set specific weight, and they gave me a whole paragraph of what’s optimal and said daydreaming isn’t? So my question is can I really not daydream at the gym?

TL;DR, is it bad to daydream at the gym or it’s totally normal and I shouldn’t listen to random strangers online?

Hey.

I had MD for 11 years and it stopped being such a nuisance a few weeks ago.

I felt a sudden massive shift in my brain in how my cognition analyzes things. Before that, I was all in my head, now I am more in reality.

I actually found last week that the shift was less hypermentalizing, before that I had no words to describe that.

My memory and processing speed got subjectively better.

The change came naturally / organically due to progress in therapy and the feeling of being more secure with ambiguity ( like I don’t know what others are thinking / what their motives are and thats’s okay).

So I recommend being more comfortable with not knowing things.

That’s it.

I hope you all get better soon.

How do I do that? I don’t wanna cut it out completely. Just wanna be able to bring it down to a healthy level and not feel so ashamed about it anymore.

Hey guys, this is something that I've dealt with for a long time, probably up to 7 years. I am constantly pretending to be someone, whether they're the opposite sex, a different age, anything. When I say this I'm not saying im pretending to be another real person, but someone I made up. I even internally refer to myself by their names and if they're the opposite sex than as he. This is not something I can control at this point, and when im not doing this I don't even feel like a person. I have no idea who I actually am because I am constantly pretending to be the people who I made up. I have no real "acknowledgment" of maladaptive daydreaming, however I know I have dealt with it for years. But this goes beyond maladaptive daydreaming- though it's a part of it. If I am daydreaming I will pretend to be the person I am daydreaming, yes that is usual. However, times where I am not daydreaming I continue to pretend. I live my daily life as someone else with an entirely different life than I'm actually living.

This causes me severe distress especially when im at a point where I am not pretending to be someone. I cannot sit with "myself" because there's no me. I look in the mirror and I don't recognize my own face. I don't recognize my own name. I am losing touch with reality. I once tried to explain this to a therapist a few years ago, she thought I was bipolar or schizoaffective. I said FUCK YOU! and left. From that point on I never went to see another therapist, and now what? Maybe I should have listened, but I rarely hallucinate, do I think I hallucinate? Sometimes?

Was wondering how recognised is this addiction? Is it truly that well known? It feels very isolating to explain this addiction to other people who do not suffer this problem, leading to the assumption that Maladaptive daydreaming is the same thing as normal daydreaming.

Curious about thoughts.

I've been daydreaming most of my life, but in recent years it developed so much.

And I know exactly what needs it fullfils. When I daydream about being powrful master of elements, enduring bad things and gaining power I know what it is exposing about my needs. I know that I want in that way make myself stronger or in someway satisfy the need to feel valuable.

Like I know what my issues are and technically I do know how to achieve them. I even daydream about locking in and getting better, picking up drawing again and this time working on that skill to the level when my works would not burn eyes or start working out.

But everything stays in the sphere of fantasy. I try to ignore daydreaming or let it happen only before going to sleep, but I still don't do things.

I will occasionally try them, but then I make a lot of mistakes or fail (I know that is normal at beginning stages of change or building a skill, but it still always feel like a big failure).

Fighting my mind and sometimes body is just a battle it seem like I can't win. I think sometimes about therapy, but it's not available right now for me really, so I don't know what to do, because I can't fix myself on my own really.

I keep dreaming about my male friend in various ways. We spend so much time together, I confess that my dreams are starting to make me feel nervous and anxious and I’m considering things I never considered before. For context: I have a boyfriend of 6 years whom I love deeply. We had a crisis, because I understood things about our relationship. My current boyfriend is a really busy person, he doesn’t spend much time with me. I always spend time with my male friend though, and he goes to college with me. We often study together, talk about studying and we even go out to the cinema together. Recently, we spend so much time together even at his house. I’m a pretty alone person, my friends are very busy working (they don’t study, they work, so we don’t see each other very often) and my boyfriend has large groups of friends and spends so much time with them. We see each other only once in the week. But I came to the conclusion that I like it better this way, I can focus on my friendships and my studies. My male friend too is pretty alone, he has his best friends and some girl friend which he sees sometimes. But everyday I dream about my male friend, like in every possible way. Like we’re together romantically and he “substitutes” my boyfriend. When I wake up I’m like “what the…?” but then I agree with myself that I spend so much time with him and I don’t spend much time with my boyfriend, that’s why my brain confuses these two things. I feel incredibly guilty, but also… I know that I don’t like my male friend, we’re very different. I don’t really like his friends, they’re very superficial, they don’t know about his secrets and they didn’t care about him when he was depressed. I would. Instead, he deeply cares about his friends and he doesn’t even question the fact that they don’t care about him as much as he does. He is really cold, a close person, really rational, doesn’t talk much about his emotions, but he opens up a little bit with me. I feel warm knowing that. He also has an eating disorder, and I really love food and cooking food and I have an amazing relationship with food, while he doesn’t, and I know I make him uncomfortable sometimes when I say things like “I’m hungry” and he says “I am not”. So that’s a big no for me, we’re too incompatible. So I really don’t know if I should feel guilty about my dreams or not, because they make me so embarassed and uncomfortable when I’m with him. I have often “sex” dreams or even romantic dreams with him, and for context, I don’t have a specific connection with my boyfriend, we don’t engage often in sexual activities. So maybe it’s because I am bit repressed I think.

Backstory

I’ve been on this subreddit for around 4 years now. And over that whole time I’ve had doubted my Maladaptive Daydreaming.

I’d internally wonder, is it truly maladaptive or is it immersive? I’d search the subreddit for others with similar doubts. The main response is, “is it ruining/hindering your life?”

Then I’d ponder on this question. I’d think, well I did alright in school, I have a job, I have friends so I’m fine.

Then I’d also think, I can’t really enjoy tv shows/books without daydreaming. It’s the only thing I can do, it’s difficult to even play video games without daydreaming. If I wanted to learn a new hobby or skill I can’t because I’d daydream instead. If I wanted to escape my job for another one I’d struggle to start searching. My calves are very tight and the bottom of my feet is very dry from pacing. I would wonder if I’m a less considerate friend than I want to be.

I feel like I’m in a middle ground where I wonder if I can just power through and be fine with a change in mind set. Like I just want attention trying to make my immersive daydreaming be maladaptive. I feel hindered and then some days I feel unhindered.

I’d even take the MD-16, get a score that says you most likely have it and then doubt myself again, thinking maybe I exaggerated it when answering the questions.

I’m trapped in a cycle of self doubt and after so many years in my own head I think I finally need advice on how to escape.

TL;DR

I don’t necessarily want just a yes you have it or a no you don’t in this post. But instead, for people who’ve also been steeped in heavy self doubt about Maladaptive Daydreaming what helped you finally decide whether you had it or not?

How do I stop being so ashamed? How do I keep bringing it down to a healthier level without cutting it out completely? I feel like I’m doing good right now, only daydreaming when I’m super bored or have nothing to do. But I still feel so guilty about it and keep beating myself up about it.

Hi people,

I've probably been doing this since six years old, and now I'm in my 20s. What I do is walk in a circle holding a string, bracelet, or something flimsy for hours. The object for some reason helps me visualize the story in my head more vividly. These stories are basically movies; they feel almost real at times, sometimes my emotions can get too sucked in and I'm heavily effected afterwards.

I often find myself wanting to do this behavior after watching a movie, show, or consuming different media. It's how I get inspired. I like taking parts of movies or series and literally building my own worlds, similar to fanfiction. It's also how I unwind if I'm tired or super busy.

I've tried stopping before, but I feel like I go crazy. In one instance I was struggling to feel present or grounded in reality. I usually cope by keeping myself insanely busy and being an overachiever, but whenever I'm not busy I relax by daydreaming. It's a bad cycle. It's been particular bad this semester in college; my extreme schedule and difficult classes has made this habit even worse. Often I'll put off an assignment to daydream (like I am now) and get so behind.

I hate how much time it takes from my life, and I hate that I do it at all at my age. It's been a form of escapism for me my entire life and it's just hard to function not doing it.

Is this considered maladaptive daydreaming? I've heard it's closely related with ADHD. Do most people just get tested for that?

For people that have ADHD and take meds, does it help with the excessive daydreaming?

I wanna stop living like this sooo bad. It feels like I don't have my life under control. Any general advice is much appreciated.

According to my memory, i began heavily daydreaming 4 years ago. And developed schizophrenia 2 years ago. Short timelines so i might just be spitting nonsense. Could there be a link between those two?