maladaptive daydreaming poll-please read post then respond

Post Reply New Topic

Is it daydreaming with a disassociation of some kind? I started daydreaming a lot when I was in school. It was mostly about food or what I would do when I got home. Maybe, daydreaming releases endorphins which explains why it becomes addictive.

I live much of my life in a fantasy world. However, it does not disrupt my life in any way. That's the only thing that doesn't really apply to me, but I think that means it's not "maladaptive" or something I can be diagnosed with.

It's definitely an escape, because when I get overwhelmed, I shut off the outside world and retreat into my head. However, it's not only that. I do it even when I'm feeling just fine.

Daydreaming is a kind of dissociation, I believe.

That's awful I'm glad you still daydream though (cautiously)........I would be so lost if I couldn't retreat into my fantasy world!

I do not have AS, only been diagnosed with dyspraxia for now but have been "suffering" from this for years. It was actually one of the reasons why they wanted me to see a psychologist when I was in nursery school.

Yes, it started very early during my childhood, one of the reasons I was afraid I might have schizophrenia. It am strongly addicted to it, in fact, I cannot do my work properly if I don't have my "daydreaming break", even during a test. I also tend to have tantrums when I cannot daydream enough during the day.
Books and movie often trigger the daydream but also looking at the window or my life.



It is very elaborate and detailed and I love using both verbal and visual thoughts for that. I tend to make gestures though I avoid speaking, sometimes I laugh or talk to myself it's true. I do not realise I am doing that. I also pace or rock sometimes, and when I am in my bed, I tend to stroke something or shake my leg.
I used to be unable to sleep because of that but it's better now. However, I have to admit that I can spend days in bed in order to satisfy my need to daydream.



I know the difference of course.
I do not know whether it causes difficulties or not though I said it prevents me from working properly sometimes, it also helps me planning my day.

How can you tell that the day dream is not real and what we know of reality is?

Just kidding. In case you took that as a serious question I was referring to theories about reality not being real and really being a computer program designed by aliens.

Hey, what's with all the feline avatars? COOL!

This is so reassuring to me.... I can relate to all you!

First, those of you who can't relate to this MD but claim to 'space out', especially the one guy (sorry not too familiar with quoting yet), that sounds more like an ADD thing, which is very commonly comorbid with AS. (I have ADHD, and my AS is being looked into.) Spacing out and MD are different, but one can lead to the other. Whereas spacing out is like your brain 'blinking' on its own, and you not really being aware until you're 'back', daydreaming in this context also has the full-awareness component; we often 'go there' on purpose, because, as many say here, it feels really good, is entertaining, helps to cope, keeps us sane / happy, etc. etc. It's a product of a creative mind. The reason it gets called "maladaptive" I think refers to those times where it's led to someone being late (me too, for instance!), or living so much in fantasy that it's hard to connect with reality.

This is big for me: I sometimes notice that I'll fantasize a situation, and when the actual situation doesn't materialize the way it did in my head, I get disappointed, because I've set the bar too high or created an unspoken expectation; when that is not met, I get genuinely disappointed, even to the point of depression and despair. I think this it where it becomes maladaptive. The difficulty is that because it is something that is so alluring and natural, we can't just stop, and choose to cope with the depression by further fantasy. THAT is what makes it a potential addiction. In the narcotic world, withdrawal symptoms are mediated by another 'fix', right? Think of it that way.

I'm by no means bashing anyone, because I 'suffer' most severely, and I personally believe it's part of autism. It can be used to one's advantage, as someone already mentioned creative literature and scientific invention. I compose and arrange music, which I naturally hear in my head all the time. I wrote a poem about this very subject, but I'm wary of posting it because of copyright laws.

Now I'm going to do a bit of research into this "schizoid fantasy" thing... thanks for sharing that, whoever you were.
(I will learn to properly quote! hehe )

P.S. sorry for any wordiness... I know that longer posts may not always be read in their entirety, but since this is such a sensitive topic to me, and now knowing that others 'suffer', I TOO want you to know that you're not alone.
I am forever fascinated by the amazing human mind!

~E.

I relate to this.

I have daydreamed excessively since I was a child. I have a "catalog" of incredibly detailed, structured daydreams to draw from. When I start a daydream I repeat the same scene over and over in mind, slowly moving the dream forward. I can pop into the daydream (much like going to a DVR and hitting play) at any time. It may take weeks to work through the daydream and sometimes I have many going at a time. It does interfere with productivity and conversation.

Part of it is fantasy in living out the dream. Part is perfectionism in repeating and modifying the story until it is perfect. Part of it is my working through social situations, making small tweaks and seeing how the story or personal reactions change. The daydreams are not pure fantasy. There are no plot holes, or logical inconsistencies. It is a system where everything interacts, can be explained and makes sense.

Daydreaming is why I have trouble reading fiction. I get a few sentences in and my mind takes the story from there. I read until the book triggers something more interesting for me to daydream about.

That is absolutely brilliant, thanks for speaking my mind... haha!

Why do some people do this, and some do not... does anyone agree with me that it's an autistic trait

Yes, I read an article that mentioned specifically the "fantasy aspies"... that paragraph was a perfect description of what a lot of us are talking about here. (I can't find the exact page but I saw it on the "Your LIttle Professor" website -- a very comprehensive source, I must say!)

I've also seen daydreaming mentioned in the AS context in other sources. Makes me wonder why some do and some don't, but I wonder if the whole video game thing is the daydreaming alternative, since many of our daydreams are so movie-like, involving the interaction of characters. It's perhaps also an "idealist" trait? Hm.

I've always fantasied a lot since childhood. I never really told anyone much if anything about it though because then they would have thought I was weirder/crazier than they already thought I was and I doubt anyone is interested in hearing about my fantasy life.

One symptom I read that I find interesting is this.
Some people have reported dizziness, headaches and other physical symptoms after daydreaming.
I have had physical effects from my fantasies and have thought that maybe I should work on trying to use that to my advantage more, such as something in my fantasy calming me to help with my panic attacks.

No, no,no,no.....
I'm sorry, the line has to be drawn somewhere. They are essentially trying to say that a very active imagination is some kind of disorder. I don't think so.

This just looks to me like the psych industry attempting to make every aspect of the human mind a "disorder" that they can profit off of. This is completely ridiculous!

Ok, so you exhibit the so called "symptoms"...
Congratulations! You are a creative person, aka, an artist.
Rx: Go paint, or draw, or write some stories, maybe learn a musical instrument.
But certainly don't waste your money on a shrink over this.

I do this, but I wouldn't say that I suffer from it. I enjoy daydreaming, but it does sometimes interfere with my life. I daydream a lot, everyday, and always have, as far back as I can remember. My memory is pretty good back to about age 3. I wouldn't call it addictive, because I really don't have any control over it. I just kind of slip into it. It's different though, from spacing out, where I really don't think about anything, I'm just not present. It's also different from being "lost in thought"because when I do that I'm thinking intently about something specific. I shut everything out, and I think in pictures, but it's not the same as daydreaming. When I daydream it's very elaborate and I tend to get lost in it and lose all sense of time passing. This can be a problem. I also sometimes rock, talk out loud, and make facial expressions when I daydream, which can be embarrasing if I'm in public and someone comments on it or I bring myself out of the daydream because I hear myself speaking. If anything I wish I had better control over my mind because I wouldn't want to stop daydreaming but I would like it to be voluntary so that it doesn't interfere or so that I could use it when I wanted too. My husband uses his one very obvious stim to put himself in a daydream state. He uses a drinking straw (it has to be a specific kind) and he puts two bends in it, always the same way, and then he twirls it between his thumb and forefinger. He says he can go anywhere and be anything when he does this. He has tried to stop doing it so much though because it can interfere with him doing things he needs to do.

I've put "suffer from this" but seriously though, I don't. I mean yes I do that, no it doesn't hurt lol....
Alright sometimes I suffer a bit from lack of sleep due to lying in bed and watching movies in my head but it's not very bad. I used to be much more prone to this as a child though, I'd be in the middle of reading a book, and spend half an hour imagining related things (me living it, or a different issue to something in the book, or even the way I would have worded it if I had written the book myself, etc.)
I had much more time on my hands back then though.
Edit: "time on my hands"?? is that a real expression? It's funny....

I do this too, perhaps a bit less than I used to as a child or teenager, but I had no idea it has a name, as it were. I also wouldn't say I suffer from it as I quite enjoy it. I would agree there is an element of escapism/dissociation to it. I'm NT, so whether it's an ASD trait or whether it's a trait I have I don't know.

You don't have a button for:
I am self-dx AS and I suffer from not having the rich inner life I used to have.

When I was a child I escaped into daydreams or books. Sometimes it got me in trouble but it also kept me relatively sane. Later I used my inner world to explore all kinds of concepts. Depression has largely taken that away. I want it back.