maladaptive daydreaming poll-please read post then respond

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[quote="DandelionFireworks"]Everything except the part where it's a bad thing. It's absolutely wonderful. It's kept me sane. I write fiction and I want to get it published, so this might even be a money-maker.

Other than that, everything in the OP describes me.


It's a wonderful thing for me as well...it would make sense that I do use it as a defence mechanism...as an escape......but I don't experience it that way...I get really exited and enthusiastic about my daydreams (which are usually related to my special interest. I actually sometimes get an adrenaline rush from my daydreams and start bouncing around the room wildly. Sometimes my daydreaming does keep me from sleeping ( although it takes me a couple of hours to fall asleep regardless...I'm an insomniac ) because I get so excited and involved in my fantasy!

When I was very young daydreaming kept me from doing school work/homework ......but my interest did too.........and the two were intertwined. so it's hard to say how much the daydreaming affected me. I didn't have much motivation in elementary school except in particular subjects. Now it doesn't get in the way of my school work ( in university)..... the only way it really interferes with my life is by keeping me up at night.

I wish I could write fiction...language is definitely my strength...but I am not creative enough. When I try to write fiction I get as far as describing one or two detailed scenes or characters (which I do fairly well but I don't get as far as writing a full story). My daydreams are like that too.....one or two detailed scenes...playing over and over on repeat. =)

me too....... (moderate during the day and severe at night that is) =)

also........on the link that I posted , the wiki article on maladaptive daydreaming....there is a link to a peer reviewed journal article by the psych's who came up with this concept. In the case study they describe in the article the women they talk about has "OCD symptoms". I have "sub threshold OCD symptoms" as well i.e. I did not meet full criteria for the disorder but had symptoms. Anyways I thought that was interesting......is there some sort of link btwn OCD and this kind of daydreaming?.....I don’t really know what it could be………..

I also think it's interesting that a lot of females aspies on this thread have said that they can relate to this experience. I think it might be a defence mechanism that is at least somewhat common among aspie females. Tony Atwood actually talks a little bit about daydreaming and AS in the complete guide to AS and a possible "coping mechanism" but does not say how common it is or whether it is more prevalent among girls than boys........................

*as a coping mechanism.....not and:oops:

well said =)

I can relate to this.......sometimes music triggers my daydreams and sometimes I get so involved in the music that it interrupts a daydream in progress...although I think it's usually the former

Yeah, definitely! Though I pace whenever I'm thinking anyway, so it's just an increase in speed. But all of this, yes.



Well, there are two thoughts that I have on that. The first is that you could write vignettes (single scenes that evoke a mood-- some of my daydreams are like this, most recently a scene in the middle of a rainy autumn night, with a kiss between friends, some giggles, some triumph, some plans for the future). The second is that you might write stories by first coming up with the scene, then asking why. Why is this scene happening? What happens afterward?

I tend to do it in scenes, too. It's hard to explain. I do them, but they're all sort of related. But they're alternate versions of what might happen. There's no specific sequence for them all. But there is, because some of them are story arcs. But I work on them in pieces. There's one arc I have right now with no beginning and no end, but I do have some idea of a mini-arc within it, but there are at least two resolutions for it, if not three or four or five-- several different takes on the same scene, one different scene, and one idea for a scene far in the future that may or may not be the end and I don't know for sure how to get there from the beginning. I wish I could sort this stuff all out! It would be fun!

I actually find that even though I think things out this way, it is a little bit easier when writing stories. (But not much.)

And then there's a thought that just occurred to me. What parts of a story are your scenes, usually? It's possible multiple people who are just the same way could all think on the same idea and have scenes that covered most of the story. Then again, if others like this are anything like me, there might be furious disagreements, indecision about which alternatives to use, people who'd rather draw the scene, utter failure to translate from movie to book and, of course, the usual legal problems with collaborations.

But it would be cool if it worked.

Fixed your quote tags, by the way.

Mine aren't necessarily part of a story. For example when I was a child and I was interested in octopi , in one of my fantasies I was an octopus and I would imagine this one scene that was sort of like a day in the life of an octopus. Most of my daydreams are like that now too (a scene from a day in the life of). For example one of my more recent obsessions was with a particular culture (and country). In one of my daydreams related to this I am a person who belongs to this culture. I am explaining to friends (who have come to my home) why I have to eat certain things and do things in a certain way based on "my culture" and "cultural values". I treat the guests in accordance with my cultural values etc. This way all of the facts that I had accumulated about this culture were worked into my daydream.....and applied to me! The thing is.. my surroundings would also be related to the culture and I would dream them in exquisite detail and my "character" was also very well developed. In this way it was like a scene from a book or a movie…or perhaps more accurately a character description . When I write my own stories they are like that too. I describe a character in great detail or describe what I referred to earlier as a scene , but maybe setting is a better word (i.e. psychical surroundings and context). I could try and write vignettes though….. I think that would be easier for me then developing and organizing a whole story with a coherent plot.

I think there would be massive fights if I tried to collaborate on a book/story etc. with someone else as well. ..I'm a [pretty big control freak and don't work well with others. =) Also I don't think anyone else would come up with the same scenes that I do ... I think mine are pretty idiosyncratic (as described above) but then how would I ever know?? If your scenes are similar to mine that will freak me out!!

How do I fix my quote tags?? I tried to do it manually this time. I am terrible with computers...despite the fact that I use them quite a lot

Yes, this is what I do. It's why the stories end up so schizophrenic. You don't want to know what happened in my head when I read up on medieval torture.



Well, sort of. Some of them do indeed involve one character explaining to one or more others a culture or how something works. Some are different, though. Sometimes I start off with something I learned and want to have a scene that features it. Then I work out a whole story based on that scene.



You need ending quotes. You say [ /quote], but without the space between

Then you need two closing quote tags. Let's look at the same thing, but with spaces after the [, so it registers the code as text rather than code.

[ quote="Dandelion's daydreams"]It was a dark and moonless night when all of this stuff happened...

[ quote="daydreamer's daydreams"]"You see, the chopsticks are your fingers. It's not hard at all."[ /quote][ /quote]

The first [ /quote] ends "daydreamer's daydreams" and the second ends "Dandelion's daydreams."

I have evaluated my thoughts and do not seem to excessively daydream. My find is very one-track and I have good focus so even if I did daydream a lot I doubt it'd ever be a problem.

Does non-AS autism count as AS for purposes of this poll? Also, what do you mark if you used to have the problem then got rid of it?

For that matter, I haven't answered yet because I exhibit this trait but do not "suffer" from it, because it's useful to me.

Yes to all. Although, I think I do it less excessively now than when I was younger. When I was a litte kid my sister would make fun of me for my endless pacing.

I guess I should edit the poll to say "ASD" instead of AS..........sorry If you completely got rid of it...but had it as a child then check "other".

How do I edit the poll??? Can it be done at this point? I'm just asking anyone....I am not very computer savvy (as I've said) I tried to edit my first post which the computer let me do but it didn't give me access to the poll again.

No. You can't edit a poll.

I had a very short lived interest in medieval torture and a "daydream" to go with it too!! ! I've had a few other short lived interests in other morbid things and they always come with a morbid fantasy!



Very interesting...........




Thank you!! I decided to cheat this time and not put in my original quotes (that you were responding to) so that I this thread doesn't get too convoluted.