Hello.

[littleschrodinger'scat]

Hello, my name is Madalyn. Since I was about 3 years old, I have always been immersed in my world. It has never posed a problem  until about two years ago. I stopped visiting (or even speaking to) any of my friends because I wanted to watch a television show (that I used as my world. I would make up my own episodes in my head). Last year, I would refuse to go to school because it was a constant reminder that my world would never be real (by then I was already making up my own worlds instead of copying televison). I have now managed to get myself to school, though I still miss more than I should. I find it increasingly difficult to think about ever getting a job or life as an adult because they are so very different from my world. I actually only found out about Maladaptive Daydreaming a few days ago. I thought my excessive daydreaming was something completely normal, that everyone did, but I was just more absorbed in mine because I do not have friends. Anyways, it is nice to know that there are others.

 

[Jessy]

Hello, Madalyn, and welcome to this site! It is indeed reassuring to know that you are not alone out there with this problem. I, too, was well aware that everyone daydreams, but not to an extent that we became consumed by it.

 

I definitely understand how it feels to want to be in your own world most of the time. Unfortunately, we are in the real world and we have to adapt to it, by disciplining ourselves to set aside our daydreams for a moment. I learnt this the hard way when I avoided tasks and social interactions by spending most of the days daydreaming, and in the end I did not get anything from it other than disillusionment. Because of this, I have quit school twice, and I am currently at a stop point. I have come to realize that daydreaming is not the way to solve this situation.

 

So, I agree with J Noland's suggestion that you focus on school as a way of getting by in the real world, no matter how many times you feel tempted to daydream. You can always learn to discipline yourself and fight the urge to daydream - put your tasks first before you make time for your daydreams. Indeed, it's hard to stop procrastinating, but you will find that by doing so it will have saved you from a lot of trouble in the long run. Once you retreat from real life every now and then, you can still always try to put your daydreams into good use.

[J Noland]

Hello littleschrodinger's scat...I saw you at the chat "dinner" today! Welcome!

It seems to get more manageable as I get older. There are times when I don't want to go out, don't answer the phone, just tune out everything but the dds. But I have trained myself to get to bed for (mostly) enough sleep, get to work on time, maintain minimal but necessary realionships and so on. Having a good job with regular hours allows me to really lose myself in dds in my time off if I want to. So think of getting through school as something that will help you dd in a non-maladaptive way for the future. I've been dding for as long as I can remember. At first I though everyone did it too, then I realised I was abnormal for doing it. A few months ago I did a search online out of frustration and found everyone! It's been so wonderful!