Maladaptive daydreaming

Post Reply New Topic

This condition fits me to a T. I've been this way for as long as I can remember, lost in my own world. I've spent more of my life in my head than I have out there. It's a coping mechanism for when I do not know what to say or do in a social situation, but I'm pretty sure that's not the only reason I do it.

[I spend the majority of my waking hours daydreaming. I feel like I live a double life: one in the physical world and one in the world I've created in my mind. [/quote]

Same for me. Just that there is more than one purely fictional world for me.

I'd say I have this but I actually haven't been doing it as much lately I think. I can't think of anything interesting to do.

I definitely daydream way too much. I use it as an escape mechanism to fantasise about things I can't experience in my pretty mundane life. To be honest I wouldn't say my life is mundane it's just that I find life in general really pretty boring. Nothing seems to enthrall, entertain me or evoke emotion in me that much. So I often daydream of being rich and winning the lottery and being able to do all the things in life that I find would actually excite me. I do this especially when I'm working long 9 hour shifts.
Hopefully one day I will actually win the lottery and be able to live out all the things in my daydreams. My favourite daydream is about driving around in a nice big expensive saloon car on a sunny day, smoking a cigarette with my music playing full blast

Yeah, this describes me well. I can get so absorbed in my own thoughts that I end up totally unaware of what's going on around me.

Masoala, I never believed that I could feel other people's energy vibes, but I did once believe that I gave off vibes that were dangerous. I believed that I gave off dangerous vibes that would hurt people if they spent time with me, or were even connected with me, for example, I gave someone a picture I drew for her son's room, and I was pretty sure her son would be hurt because of this.

It was not related to my ASD at all, I was having a psychotic episode linked to my bipolar disorder. I believed that I had broken free of my predestined path and was bumbling into other people's predestined paths and screwing them up. Therefore, I was dangerous. I was hospitalized at the time, and shut myself in my room and wouldn't associate with anyone. They put me on medication and after a few days, I was no longer believing this.

Not saying what your son is going through is psychosis, I'm not a doctor and I can't assess that. I just wanted to share with you something from the point of view of someone who went through it. I believe isolation is a trigger for my bipolar disorder, and I am isolated because of my ASD so I need to take extra care not to lose touch with the world.

I think most people that daydream a lot know that their daydreams aren't real no matter how much or obsessively they daydream.

Of course I know my daydreams aren't real, but without them, my life would be a lot worse than it already is. They're an escape from the harsh realities that face me every day.

No matter how badly I wish my daydreams were real and no matter how many times I try to trick my mind into believing them to be true, deep down I realize that it's not so. When all is said and done, I'm just a starstruck girl with a wild, untamed imagination.

I daydream quite a bit. Not a lot, but quite a bit. My daydreams are always rather realistic (as in I don't make up characters or worlds etc) and they consist of a lot of wishful thinking. I often daydream about conversations and what I'd say if I'd meet certain people (people that often have something to do with my special interest). If I listen to music I quite often daydream about being the one performing the music. Things like that. Does that make sense?

I daydream alot and it sucks because i can never finish my projects.

I guess some would have called my daydreaming "maladaptive" because I would spend time in my fantasy world over doing things in the real world. Often I would use my daydreams to put myself to sleep, and when they would keep me awake instead, that could be termed maladaptive, too. Normally, though, I go into my fantasy world to escape the pressure of the real world. I might do this differently than others, because my daydreams are not happy, they're not nice, there's nothing in them that would relax an ordinary person. Anxiety in a world that doesn't actually exist seems to deflate the anxiety I feel in the real world. Until I start including real people in my fantasy world, then it becomes maladaptive again.

one of the positive elements of daydreaming is that it lets me role-play and script a huge number of scenarios that i can then use in real life to appear more NT and be more socially adept

i usually have scripts pre-prepared for conversations

it's kind of like scripting a multi-scrtpt/path computer game. ever play Fallout 3 or Mass Effect?

you can easily predict the standard patterns a conversation will flow around

if you make sure that your interjections and anecdotes are appropriate contextually for the conversation, and then pop in every now and again with a relevant story or question, your other participants will never know that you are clueless about what to do

i'm told that i am brilliantly funny

i personally think that i rip off a lot of material and adapt it through creative daydreaming to work in my real world

not that i can't be witty or funny or have good repartee - it's just usually pre-scripted

----

i have the ability to think or work on two things at a time

i liken it to having two brains running at once

one of my psychologists said it had something to do with the amount of working memory i have available to me - sort of like running virtual machines on a server... he gave it a name but i can't remember and he was a dick, so i don't want to call and ask him for the word again

one part of me is talking, working, doing stuff

the other one is off in cloud la-la land daydreaming

----

the last few years i have been working to integrate my real life brain with my daydream brain

i met an awesome lady whom i am engaged to (helps she is a counsellor) and i like being with her so much that i want to leave my fantasy worlds behind

i want to create my fantasy worlds in my life

to this end we are planning on moving to the Caribbean and living there doing the things i dreamed of - surfing, sailing, running around naked in the warm tropical sun

that sort of thing

X2 on that! I can see how some people don't have any problem with it. I don't just like to daydream, I love it! It help's me cope with the stress of daily life, failed social encounters, planning for social interactions and many other things. That isn't the problem though. It's the sleepless night's spent fantasizing. Not being able to get work done throughout the day, and as you said, daydreaming while speaking with people. The worst part for me is getting caught in the act. I tend to pace about and talk while I daydream. I try to do this while no one is looking, but it's impossible to avoid being caught when I so easily drift off. It's just humiliating.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt150582.html

This is a thread that I started a long time ago which has a pole about maladaptive daydreaming. Also resounding yes I "suffer" from this , hence my username, my stated location and the fact that I created a thread about this.

I just discovered this whole topic last night by searching "pacing and talking" on WP.
One of those real "Oh, Wow - that's exactly it!" kind of moments.

This is exactly what my 13yr old AS daughter does. Paces and makes up stories - loudly saying all the character parts out loud, complete with various intonations, laughter and exclaimations. She has been doing it pretty much since around 7 yrs of age - but I wonder if the roots of it were there earlier because she had echolalia and used "movie talk" to communicated sometimes with us.
If I catch a snippet that sounds interesting and ask her if she will tell me what the story is about, she will - complete with all the character details.

She does this openly at home only. I have never tried to get her to stop but have made it clear when I feel like she has been at it too long and will interrupt her to go do other stuff - like draw for a bit, etc. She cooperates easily with me on this. Her father used to tease her a bit by making random comments. But I taught her the expression "MYOB" which dried him up pretty good.

I think it is a great release of stress for her and spurs creativity - she draws her characters beautifully and will write very long stories sometimes. So I think it is beneficial on the one hand but too much of a good thing could become maladaptive if it is preventing someone from doing other things that would also be beneficial - like doing homework, paying attention to important info, etc. In other words, if it crowds out everything else then it becomes maladaptive - as opposed to a healthy, useful adaptation.

Sheesh, is there a spell check function here that I'm missing?