I want to stop daydreaming...

Post Reply New Topic

That sounds so much like me.
Is this really an Aspie thing, or just an individual thing?

i literally can't believe so many of you have the same symptoms as me. i thought i was the only one. i waste hours on end dreaming and i feel it's gotten worse over the last few years. even at primary school i remember i used to dream, and i remember in secondary school too. but now in uni i waste days away dreaming and being unable to focus on work.

i think i might need to get diagnosed for Attention Deficit Disorder and perhaps a prescription of Ritalin might help. It's really stressing me out, as my daydreaming is ruining my life. I waste hours doing it and I flunked the first year of uni because of it, but persuaded them to let me stay on. Also I don't even enjoy it - when I look back on my day it's not like I've enjoyed dreaming the day away, I just think, well I could have spent time with friends or gone shopping or done some studying and gotten cleverer.... It makes me frustrated that I feel I have no control over it, it makes me think I'm a bad person as I can't control my mind like i can the rest of my body or like other people can. And it makes me depressed sometimes. If any of you have tips that work please help!

I'm pretty much in the exact same position. Plus I'm a pisces, whose strongest trait is being a daydreamer, haha. I don't think I'll ever be able to cut it out completely; it calms me down, and I imagine I would get incredibly depressed without it. Sometimes (often in my case) crappy things happen in the real world, this is a form of escape, and sometimes my only way of relief is my imagination.

I would suggest forcing yourself to do productive things each day, like going to school or getting a job-- working towards fullfilling whatever goals you have, while daydreaming in moderation in your spare time, unless you're fortunate enough that you're able to happily cut it out completely. It'll take some dedication to get started, but you have to start somewhere if you're sincerely looking for change. Baby steps.

Last edited by Tragedyanne on 19 Apr 2009, 6:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, I've often felt the same way, too.

yes, all good advice thanks. i'm at uni now, and the hardest thing i find is when i sit down to study and obviously instead stare into my notes and daydream...... i think it's partly because i know the work is difficult so i'm stressed about it etc. and then i'll take a break to try and re-focus my mind, and still be thinking about my daydream and how the story ends or a different end to the story. i feel sometimes that i've been daydreaming so much thru my life that i have loads of neurons for daydreaming, and very few for learning or being aware of things.... i'm scared it's affected me more than i think. i think i might go see a psychologist.

i'm trying to think how this all started.... i think i was also trying to escape the harshness of reality when i was younger and thru my teens and even now perhaps. i think it's bad to daydream out of control, instead we should take steps to become happier and more fulfilled in life, altho that's of course idealistic.

thanks for the advice anyway, it's relieving to know others are in a similar situation too.

I am a terrible daydreamer, and tend to do it while driving long distance, which is quite dangerous
as I am also a truck driver, and I tend to zone out and go into automatic while driving.

Ever caused an accident?

Forty years ago I regularly became aware that I had just driven from one end of town to another without any memory of traffic, signals, stopping and starting -- all of which must have been there! I came to accept that my auto-pilot dealt quite well with all the navigational needs to safely drive a car. I can count all the traffic accidents I've been in on one hand.

The one accident I DID cause was during a time of at-the-moment focus, upon a first date.

Don't fret, young folks. Day dreaming is brainesthenics; I now possess a formidable imagination.

dp

I used to spend hours and days daydreaming, mostly in the evenings on going to bed, also on long, ( or even short ones so long as totally routine/daily ), bus and train journeys, weekend mornings, and at certain periods for whole days at a time, sometimes two or three days in a row.

A really long stint would leave me feeling strangely but wonderfully refreshed, rejuvenated, happier, ( for a while ), but that may be simply because to do it I had to be alone, in my room, and the positive effects may simply have been the result of concentrated "downtime". But even then it wasn't the same as sitting drawing or reading; it was as if I had drunk from a spring of energy.

I haven't been doing it so much for quite a while now. I still daydream evenings sometimes before falling asleep, ( which occasionally then actually keeps me awake! ), but the trouble is I don't know what has brought about this change. I can only speculate; I think that it may be because I have accepted a lot more things, am more at peace with the world/life/myself than I used to be.

I think it may have been something I did a lot of when I felt insecure, whereas for several years now I have felt fairly safe. And of course daydreams are the ultimate safe space, where absolutely everything is under your control.

I particularly identified with merrymadscientist's description of daydreaming, by the way, and think that another reason why I daydream so relatively little now is that I have "exposed"/deconstructed many of the dynamics which used to fuel the "stories", so that they no longer seem so credible/gripping or attractive.

.

OMG, I have this problem too and have always been embarassed to bring it up.

They get in the way of everything.

Use to take Ritilin and Adoral for it which worked great.

Daydreaming has been a big problem for me too, much of my 42 years, very similar to what you all have described. Recently I've wondered about the hormone factor - it seems to drop off dramatically when I'm on the pill. And, I found a website recently that discussed this kind of daydreaming, and a woman said it stopped abruptly when she hit menopause. Interesting.

I have the same problem. When I'm bored and my mind is not otherwise occupied I will default to daydreaming mode. When I was a kid I was completely lost in my own little world, daydreaming constantly. I had hardly any interest in what was going on around me, I found my fantasies much more enticing than any, book, movie, conversation etc. Now I will pay attention to what is going on around me if I'm interested, I watch movies and read books etc. I can force myself if I know I have to and pay attention to something boring for a while, but after awhile I will zone out and daydream . Did any of other aspies have that same experience of being completely lost in your fantasy world, now or as children?

I daydreamed my way through school and failed nearly everything. I still have spells when I don't even realise I am in a daydream. I drift off from time to time and miss a lot of information and then I am unable to ask people to repeat it incase I am yelled at or ridiculed. I made myself more aware over the years so I can actually learn something.

Strange, I've never seen my daydreaming as being a bad thing. If accompanied by music, it can often get me into periods of excitedness, where the energy inside me just want to come out in the form of 'private dances'. I don't really understand why anyone who have had such moments of pure joy and vivid imagination would want it to stop...

OMG I do the dance thing too. I dance around my room and probably look ridiculous. I also often daydream when I am about to go to sleep, and get so exited and into my daydreams that I can't sleep.
I also daydream a lot when actual music is playing, music that I like. I can't listen to music while getting ready to go anywhere, because I get soo distracted and lost in my own little world.

the worse daydreams are the ones that are funny and make you giggle, theyre f*g embarrasing!

MR FLIBBLE!! !! !, sorry i love your profile pic, but yeah i zone out on long distances too