Maladaptive Daydreaming and Relationships

[Alisha]

I have a question. Does anyone ever find it difficult to hold a relationship with another person when they have this condition?

I have had many on and off relationships with other guys my age, but never anything serious. I just wanted to know, that if I were to enter into a serious relationship, would this maladaptive daydreaming be destructive to my personal life?

[greyartist]

I say yes. I find it makes me colder to my spouse, the more I DD the less I want to be around him. You know, you want to be left alone to DD. It seems hard to open up and be yourself or let them in. If you DD about romance I think it is worse. To me it is like having an EX on your mind, someone is always kind of, in between you and your partner. If that makes sense.

[OhMyMagenta]

Can't say for certain if it'll affect you, but I can speak to my own personal experience and say it has. I've found that oftentimes I'm so involved with my characters in my daydreams, I pull away from my partner. My romantic interest in my daydreams sets an unfair standard to live up to, and I lose interest in my real-world partner. Either that, or I resent them for not being my DD.

[Aquarius]

@Elude : how can you be sure that your husband has no clue about your MDD? I know you mentioned earlier on that he has own set of struggles with mental health, but surely he must have noticed that you tend be lost in another world? No? Yes?

This part depresses me the most of MDD. I know I can get a grip on it, it's at a manageable stage for me. But it saddens me that this will go on forever even when I'm in a strong relationship, and even if my partner would know about it. The fact that there will always be a parallel world in my head is something I will have accept. But my hope is that somehow I will reduce it's control significantly. Or maybe not.

[SilenceIsBeautiful]

It does ruin relationships......tbh I don't want to sound cocky but a guy was in love with me and I ruined it. My whole life is ruined because of MDD I was able to stop it last summer my life was great I was happy and my relationship was wonderful ... I attained all my goals and succeeded now its back and it's eating me alive ... I hate it and I'm not the person I used to be I don't recognize myself I'm scared because MDD is soo bad for me my health is at risk I went to the hospital nothing feels right anymore

[Tom L]

I found out that MDD was a real thing and not just something weird that I did that I tried to hide from everyone until my wife discovered the wikipedia link about it and sent to me. MDD does not help get through the 'expected' trials and tribulations of any serious relationship. It's really hard to be communicative, I find myself taking longer to process information and when I do not respond to my spouse it causes even further contention. She is aware of MDD, and complains that she is not ever 'in my head' ... yes, mdd is definitely a relationship complicator if you ask me.

[New York dancer]

I for one disagree. I'm happily married and been with my spouse for over six years. Before him I was in two other long term relationships and none were by far affected by having Maladative daydreaming. My husband is the only guy to have learned about my MD issue and of course at first he was freaked out. But to be honest once he understood what it was all about, he got over it. I'm an artist by profession so my husband sees at as something some creative types just do. I use my MD condition as a muse that inspires me to write stories and such. See I maintain a distance between the characters in my head and my husband. I don't hold my husband up to the standards of imaginary people because "hello" they are imaginary. Also, since my husband knows that I do this, I can just tell him "leave me alone, I'm daydreaming" and he lets me be because he knows it makes me happy (especially when doing boring housework). So have faith, having a relationship is totally doable if you balance and separate things :)

[Lysa]

I was in a three year relationship that ended about a year ago (from non-MDD-related issues), and I told my boyfriend about my MDD after dating for about 7 months.  We didn't live together, but we would occasionally go on vacation together.  During vacations, it actually worked out well because I would tell him "I'm gonna go daydream for an hour or so" and he would go do things that I didn't particularly enjoy, like watch TV or play Xbox, and I would go daydream.  I always wondered if it would be an issue with my future husband, since I usually daydream for an hour or two straight before I go to bed (which I don't do on vacation), I wonder if he would get annoyed with that.  Bottom line: if he loves you, he's going to be okay with it, and if he's not then he's not the man for you!

[Mynx]

Well im 22 in a half and never had a boyfriend. I think me having one would lessen my MDD problem not make it worse or be a factor. My mdd comes from boredom so having someone as company is one of the keys to me stopping.

[Leda]

I am married and I have a bby. I never shared my problem with anyone in my life as when I started telling my sister she said I was scaring her so I stopped and decided to keep my little secret.
Sometimes I drop some emotions from my daydreams and my husband has asked me twice what I was laughing and that I was acting weird. My baby saw me laughing and laughed at me but I.m so scared of that time when she.ll be asking me what am I laughing about!