Permalink Reply by Sian on December 16, 2018 at 6:09am
I have never told anyone about my addiction to daydreaming, and I doubt I ever will. But I have found admitting that I have periods of feeling down has helped . I told my husband about this and a close friend, and honestly such a relief to admit I'm not happy with myself and I don't want to be this way. And they've been very understanding too. After all, daydreaming is often a coping method for something else, and if you can tackle the something else it might help the daydreaming too.
My parents were pretty understanding when I told them, although they both still pulled the “I went through the same thing” thing when it’s obvious to me that they didn’t. My mom immediately tried to shut me down just because I got the term from the internet and she doesn’t like the idea of labels, but she later took the time to write me an email that showed her understanding, so I felt better after that. My sister was also cool about it, she actually had already heard of MD since she’s likes to keep up with the latest research. My brother doesn’t know the actual term “Maladaptive Daydreaming”, but he’s pretty smart and still figured out that I have a bit of a problem. Actually, he probably knew I had a problem before I did.
My daydreaming didn’t decrease much at all, since my family doesn’t react much when I have an episode in front of them, but telling them still lifted a weight off of my shoulders.