New To This

[emily]

I've honestly only just found out about Maladaptive Daydreaming...never knew it was an actual thing. This is my first time speaking about this with anyone. I'm not quite sure when it started..perhaps in my freshman or sophomore year of high school? It was never the same characters or scenarios. When I first began doing it the scenarios usually involved some of my friends or my significant other(s) at the time but now the scenarios are of a totally different life with a totally different person as my 'main character'. The daydreaming ALWAYS occurs when I'm jogging and/or walking (I do both every day) I can only really do it while moving around. I also do it when laying down but only if I can't sleep. I can't quite remember how often it's happened in the past but, at the moment, it feels like it takes over so much of my day. I continuously think about it. If my mind isn't on something important than my thoughts often go right back to daydreaming. Sometimes even certain conversations will get me to think about it. It kind of helps me feel relaxed/content if that makes any sense at all? I don't know..it almost feels like an addiction. I do have chronic depression (Dysthymia) so I'm not quite sure if that's connected in some way but, honestly, I feel embarrassed. I feel like a total weirdo thinking about the fact that I do this so often and that it's been happening for quite some time now. It always seems to find a way to distract the task(s) that I'm working on. It makes me feel like something is wrong with me. Sorry for this long post, I needed to vent all of this out as this is my first time finding a place like this where I can talk about the daydreaming without worrying about others not understanding a single word.

[An Enigma]

I'm new to this too.

I can really relate. For me it starts . . . probably around 4th grade. During a time where I had problems at home, I was being bullied at school and I didn't really have any friends so I started to day dream. I day dreamed about being me but better and impressing everyone at first bee eventually I started to slip into the realm of make believe. I start to live in other worlds or I would take worlds from books I was reading or shows I was watching and imagine I lived there instead. After that, it never left and here I am today, like 11 years later. Although for the longest time, I didn't know MaD was a thing. I thought I would grow out of it and then I turned 18 and I told myself that was fine but 19 I had to stop, I was too old but it just kept going and I couldn't stop. But then I discover MaD not that long ago and I realized I wasn't childish, immature, and irresponsible, I have a thing! It has overall, made me feel better.

I'm happy you found this site and I'm glad you shared your story.!

[Snazzy]

Oh god so relatable.....I don't think this thing has a quick solution. Some things have to be done daily in order to get this problem removed completely, like meditation. However,the problem is that there are too many triggers for this thing. If I am watching my favourite show it screws me up starting this daydreaming thing where I am so  cool among everyone, unveiling my constant desire for validation. It is a really tough toad but I do not want to let my goals affect due to this, I have big goals.