Wild Minds network

Maladaptive Daydreaming: where wild minds come to rest

All Blog Posts (2,875)

If it hadn't started

I have regrets. If I hadn't been daydreaming the way I did—my life would've looked so much better today. I wouldn't still be dependent at 34. And I'd be happy with what I'm doing. I probably could've had a few partners and traveled places. The problem was I wasn't here, and what I did was maladaptive. I even remember when some of my jobs literally got effected by my daydreaming. I've had employers and staff find out, and then I was out.

Trouble is instead of…

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Added by Jessica Ballantyne on February 8, 2021 at 8:23am — 1 Comment

when will it be in the past?

I always like it when people refer to their problems as something in the past and they are happy that they are not dealing with it anymore.

I had anxiety.

I had financial difficulty.

I was in toxic relationship.

I used to hate my life.

When will it be all in the past for me as well? I've been dealing with this for too long and I'm at a point where I don't really know who I am anymore.

Added by Erica Tamizi on February 6, 2021 at 6:33pm — 1 Comment

Traveling

I wanted to travel since I was 18. The summer I graduated from high school and got ready for college, I thought about studying art and freely just visiting places everywhere. Not realizing that it's a very expensive hassle to fly to other countries, let alone, you need to really plan your routes wisely. Well, when I was in college, I decided to take a road trip to New York. At this time, I was quite a daydreamer too. This would take place during reading week in February. I argued with my…

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Added by Jessica Ballantyne on February 5, 2021 at 3:35pm — 1 Comment

Meus devaneios atormentam-me

Olá à todos, sou Alice ou Laís. Até 3 dias atrás eu não fazia ideia de meus devaneios poderiam se tornar um transtorno ou melhor que já são um transtorno.

Resolvi pesquisar sobre porque senti que isso está me atrapalhando. Foi aí que encontrei essa comunidade, para mim será um refúgio tenho vergonha de contar isso à alguém, sinto que vão me entender mal e me chamar de louca.

Não lembro como os devaneios começaram, só sei que tem algum tempo, de 4 a 2 dois, não sei. Antes eu… Continue

Added by Alice no país das ilusões on February 4, 2021 at 3:48am — No Comments

New member

Hiya,

I’m soon to be 36 years old and from as far back as early adolescence I have what I now seem to understand is MD. It does not negatively impact my life but I do have periods where I am compelled to find time to focus on my daydream. As a full time working mum of 2 it’s not always easy but lately I am finding that I am carving out time. If I have down time at work I put on music and succumb to my dreams. Driving is also precious time for me. Music is definitely a trigger. I use music… Continue

Added by Katy on February 4, 2021 at 12:10am — 1 Comment

How does maladaptive daydreaming affect your life

Hello, this first part is going to be about my experiences with maladaptive daydreaming (also sorry if there are any typos my keyboard is not the best)

Let's start at the beginning, I started out my daydreaming experiences many years ago with only one character, who traveled in different dimensions, the oc (original character) was used as an avatar, so they were basically me and had my personality emotions and rational.

Fast forward to 2020 at this point I had detached… Continue

Added by Jessica on February 3, 2021 at 1:41pm — 1 Comment

My Past

I quit doing maladaptive daydreaming, because it gets scary as I get older. I moved into a small village town, starting at 6, looking forward to making friends. Instead, I made many bullies. I was surrounded by crowds of people who didn't understand I had this special gift, and thought I was crazy. Also dumb, because I hardly ever expressed myself verbally. I rarely had a social life, and people began to talk, but especially about how my eyes swivelled around the…

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Added by Jessica Ballantyne on February 1, 2021 at 9:18am — 4 Comments

Want to compare my experience (Long text)

Hi everyone, I’m French, 23 and I just recently found out that there is a medical term for my « inside stories » that is maladaptive daydreaming . I’m happy that there is such a place to talk with you all.

I read a lot about your own experiences, I saw that some of you wants to stop because it can affect love or social life.

I started daydream in middle school, around 12 or 13 yo. At that time I was often bullied and my days were long and lonely. I loved (and still do) to… Continue

Added by Marie on January 31, 2021 at 6:25am — 4 Comments

Anyone else

This post is going to sound weird but who is normal here anyways?

(Please warning dont try the below you could end up like me and hurt your kidneys)

So I believe am the only one who has this urge to hold in my pee and fantasize about negative scenarios

I have been doing the above since I believe the age 12 until I finally leak in my pants. And i also feel pain in kidneys and bladder at times but I still cant help it .I still do that till this age (am almost 17) even… Continue

Added by Xyz on January 28, 2021 at 3:16am — 2 Comments

New member

Hi
I’m french and I’m 41 years old. I’ m new on this forum and I’m happy to find this community for sharing about MD. as far as I can remember I daydreamed. During childhood it helped me to protect (unconsciously) against some trauma and I thought it was pretty helpful. Then I realized that it became maladaptive. During some periods of time, it disappears and it comes back, especially now.
I would be interested to share about all of this and about the way to handle it.

Added by Aerial on January 27, 2021 at 12:46pm — 1 Comment

full blown daydream binge

I had my MD under somewhat control for the past year and even had a few productive months. And then, out of the blue, I had this big time-consuming daydreaming binge I didn't experience since high school.

It's been going on for the past two weeks. I found myself daydreaming from the moment I wake up to the moment I get back from work and until the night demands me to sleep.

I neglected my family, my husband, my health, and my work. I skipped a few days at work because I couldn't…

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Added by Rose Only on January 27, 2021 at 10:00am — 8 Comments

Talk

Hey I am not so good to write all my story in English but I wish that all understand what I mean

Some doctors and pepole say that this daydream cone from that the pepole have stress or problem that's make them make a dream or a story at their mind all at this story must be perfect and make us feel happy and go away from the stress and the problems but I just dream when I was young and I was not have a problem to run away from it

I was make my dream to enjoy myself

When I was… Continue

Added by Life must be on January 21, 2021 at 4:44pm — 2 Comments

Details of Daydreaming

I began daydreaming around the age of 7 and it progressively got worse once I reached age 13. For me, I daydream and reenact scenarios only by listening to music with the exception of occasionally whispering conversations whenever I am not able to listen to music or just throughout my day sometimes. I replay the same part of a song over and over again and can do this for hours. If my bracelets or other noises are too distracting then I will take them off. I had to recently adjust my volume… Continue

Added by Luna Lilana on January 20, 2021 at 12:44am — 2 Comments

Hi

Hi! I'm Maddie, I am 14 years old, and I am new to this website, I don't really know what to say, there is just so much.

I first started to daydream about different worlds, characters and plots when I was little. Some nights I wanted to keep going with my story I wouldn't get much sleep at all. My parents just said 'I had an over reactive imagination.'

Anyway, I would start a story, and when ever I was bored, mad, or sad I would add a little more. I always added some more every…

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Added by Maddie on January 10, 2021 at 7:33am — 1 Comment

My Personal Experience With Maladaptive Daydreaming

Hi,

I'm new here and I just wanted to talk about my personal experiences and see if anyone can relate. I'd really like to talk to some other people with similar experiences because up until recently, I didn't know there were other people who had this.

I've been daydreaming since I was at least seven, maybe younger. It started as something I did when I was bored. I'm an only child and while I did have a group of friends, sometimes I still ended up playing by myself. I really…

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Added by Grace on January 9, 2021 at 7:31am — 7 Comments

Hi everyone

I’m new here. It’s a long story since I’ve basically been living in the neverending story for about 6 years. Did it bother me in the beginning? Yes. Really high highs though. But it left me with a lot of questions.

At first I thought I was schizophrenic, you know, voices in my head? I thought we’ll that’s great I finally snapped. But the REAL head scratcher was that all the voices were soo nice. They were all my friends and were really kind and understanding and funny. We’d just… Continue

Added by DJ on January 4, 2021 at 7:40pm — 2 Comments

The roots of my imaginary self and life

I'm new to this forum and I wasn't sure I wanted to share something right away but there's something that I wanted to add that may hopefully help someone - one thing I don't see on anyone's posts - although maybe I'm not going back far enough?

And that is that, for me, my addiction to my imaginary life happened because, as a child, I really came to hate myself. I hated who I was.

I remember when I was very little I used to have more normal fantasies, about growing up to become…

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Added by Brett L on January 4, 2021 at 6:19am — 9 Comments

Enquirey on maladaptive daydreaming

Do you think maladaptive daydreaming could just be laziness?

How damaging is this disorder?

Do meds really help?

Will seeing a psychologist help or should i only see a psychiatrist?

It is hindering my academic performance badly

I do not want to see a psychologist until i turn into an adult by myself since my mom is narcissistic that is she will use my disorder against me to hurt me.btw i believe she already knows that i am abnormal.

But then at… Continue

Added by Xyz on January 3, 2021 at 3:01am — 1 Comment

things that i think helped me to curb my daydreamings

1)stopped indulging in fiction books ( which has been my childhood habit) and movies too i suppose

2)And then when i was 13-14 i used to sleep almost the entire day, every day for maybe approx 1 and a half year

( i was depressed at that time )

So I think doing the above did reduce my "desire" for maladaptive daydreaming .

But still i daydream uncontrollably.

So i infer my daydreaming could be a comorbid with some other disorder rather than just being a… Continue

Added by Xyz on January 3, 2021 at 2:55am — No Comments

My Story

Hi everyone!

This is my first ever post so I thought maybe it should be about my story and why I decided to join this network.

My name is Erica, 20 years old. This is the first time ever I'm sharing this part of my life so my post might be a little awkward.

I don't know when I started to become a daydreamer but I guess I just had it in me for a long time. I don't usually dream when I'm sleeping but I always had this belief that if I dream about taking the exam in my…

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Added by Erica Tamizi on January 3, 2021 at 1:59am — No Comments