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Maladaptive Daydreaming: where wild minds come to rest

Changing My Destination

My goal in dealing with daydreaming has always been eradication. Quite frankly, though, nothing has worked. Anything I have done to try and stop this has failed miserably. The brief periods where I have put the daydreaming off, did not make it go away. In fact, that usually makes it come back even stronger and makes me hypersensitive to my main triggers and other things that aren't normally triggers, set it off. So, after doing some reading about this whole situation, I have been thinking about changing my goal. Instead of getting rid of this, I have been considering learning how to live with it. This is a completely radical idea for me and very new. It kind of scares me.

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Comment by roxanne on December 5, 2011 at 8:06pm: I have lived a very full life with it. I have certainly paid a price in some areas, but I am glad for it, when all is said & done. I think, for me, the most important thing was running it closely parallel to , and regularly intersecting with, my real life.

Comment by Amy Buttz on December 5, 2011 at 9:46am: Thanks, Roxanne. You are right about the failure and disappointment. I think that is one of the reasons why this has been so frustrating for me. I have OCD as well, but it doesn't bother me the way daydreaming does. I don't have expectations of getting rid of it either and have learned to live with it. I am trying to wrap my mind around the idea of living with daydreaming, but don't quite know how yet. I have some ideas. If you or anyone else has any specific ideas, I would love to hear them.

Comment by roxanne on December 5, 2011 at 8:55am: I also think that the goal of getting rid of MD is unrealistic. Learning to live with it, learning to exert some higher degree of control, learning to eradicate it for moments at a time (see Jennifer's blog), learning ways of making it help you, as opposed to hurt you - these are all more reasonable goals. I think wanting much more sets you up for failure & disappointment. At least that's what I believe.

Comment by Amy Buttz on December 4, 2011 at 8:14am: Hi, TJ. I don't know about others, but for me there is normal daydreaming and maladaptive daydreaming, they are two seperate things. If I were able to get rid of the maladaptive daydreaming, I would still have normal daydreams. I do not know if I can explain the difference, because I have never thought about it specifically until your comment.