Does getting older has an impact on MDD?

[Cemre]

Well, I just wondered something. Do your daydreaming decrease when you get older ?Specially, when you get married, have children etc. Or does it continue just like it was when you were younger? It might be a stupid question, but i just wonder it.

[Amanda Lewone]

For me, it's gotten better. But I find that my mind has found other ways to avoid the real world. The main thing I'm fighting now is procrastination. (I'm 26)

[S.D.]

Gotten better? no not really I am just more organized about it, like I try very hard to control it during working hours, basically counting down the minutes till I get my  daydreaming time back. So I complete my work and then I am free to daydream. I don't have kids and I am not married, I can focus at work but I don't  think it would be fair to my children or spouse if I was not focused on them like they deserve, so I don't plan on entering that part of my life unless I find a way to stop or to significantly decrease my daydreaming. At this point in my life I am too selfish to do that and cannot control this very well so I don't want to have children until I am ready.

[Ivy White]

For me, it has gotten worse. As I am facing more and more demands from life (professionally, relationship-wise) I feel the pull to escape more and more. When I'm not battling DDs, I am often procrastinating. It is very hard to control it during working hours and the pressure I'm under is a lot worse than when I was a student. I hardly ever got that itch that I really really need and have to daydream, something that I get now every once in a while.

[Cruel Ella]

I have always viewed my daydreaming as a very positive aspect of my life, especially considering that I have a lot of mental problems that make it impossible for me to live like a normal, independent adult. Daydreaming has given my life the richness that I can't experience through living more proactively.

Unfortunately, I find that the older I get, the less intense my daydreaming becomes. I have to consciously choose to enter my fantasy world as opposed to practically living there as I did when I was a child. I am also increasingly unsatisfied with the content of my daydreams, because I have become a perfectionist who looks at every daydream through the lens of a harsh critic instead of enjoying my own creativity.

I would happily trade places with anyone who daydreams compulsively and enjoys the content of their daydreams instead of constantly scrutinizing it.

[Kay M]

There was a point when I was a teenager that it was really bad, and I would spend all day in my room daydreaming, but now I am older I don't have as much time for daydreaming, especially when I have to try and focus on the kids. Generally now its just when I am in bed at night, when I am walking anywhere or at home alone doing chores. My daydreams have become more complicated though, for the last two and a half years, I have had the same daydream world and it has expanded into a load of characters with their own complicated stories and continuity.

[Tia Joseph]

Not sure. I've told my mom I daydream a lot and she said she was like that when she was younger, but has changed since then like after having a family and stuff. And she also keeps really busy so idk. Hopefully it becomes less prominent for me. I would rather be fully engaged in life.  But I mean she might not have had maladaptive daydreaming, but just daydreaming here and there so who knows.