Hello, fellow dreamers

[Cheryl Calvino]

Hello, my name is Cheryl.  I came upon this website while researching Maladaptive Daydreaming and felt that I had to become a member and interact with this community.

 

I only recently discovered that Maladaptive Daydreaming was the term for what I have been experiencing from a very young age.  If someone had introduced me to the concept much earlier, my teenage years might have gone much, much better.  Alas, it's no use crying over spilt milk, and I'd rather have resources now than never have them.

 

I've always had a wild imagination, and I thought it was pretty typical of people my age when it started.  However, I now see that my daydreaming was quite out of control.  It got to the point where my performance in school was dramatically effected: in high school, I would leave class early to go for walks and daydream!  At the time, I honestly didn't think that was the problem, mainly because I wasn't sure it could be.  Some part of me thought that blaming my truancy on daydreaming was a far-fetched excuse.  Now I'm not so critical of the theory...

 

It got to the point where both my school and my mother were fed up with trying to "fix" me.  At the age of 17, I left high school and obtained my GED.  After that, I spent two years completely enveloped in my dream world, unwilling to get a job or move forward with life.  At times it caused me much pain: I knew that I had to move forward and become an adult, but I couldn't get my head out of the clouds long enough to do it!

 

Ultimately, however, those two years did me some good.  Without distractions, I was able to spend a lot of time examining myself and thinking of ways to become a better person.  Now, at the age of nineteen, I am a full time college student and learning how to cope with my daydreaming, as I never could in high school.  I have a lot of hope for the future.

 

To be completely honest, I'm not sure I want my Maladaptive Daydreaming to leave entirely.  I'd much rather find a way to control it than be rid of it.  You see, there is a fair amount of good that comes from it, despite all that it has put me through in school.  It was dreaming that made me into the writer that I am today, and through dreaming I create stories to put to ink.  My biggest motive in attending college is to gain more life experience for my writing, and eventually publish some of my work.  After walking through the city for hours with my headphones on, I can come up with a real doozy of a story, and I value that enough to want to cope with my daydreaming than purge it from my life.  I'd rather transform the hinderance into a gift.

 

After reviewing the list of common symptoms, I see much of them in myself.  Music is a large trigger for me, as well as repetitive motion.  When I hear a good song, I'm transported somewhere else in a matter of seconds, and it's even more effective when I am walking or moving in some fashion.  It seems like my daydreaming is further triggered by works of fiction--books, comics, video games, etc.  (A friend introduced me to the Silent Hill series a few years back, and I've gone through a rather lengthy streak of Silent Hill daydreams ever since, haha).  I'd love to hear how you all like to daydream sometime!

 

Anyway, thanks for reading this long blog entry.  I look forward to getting to know you all and learning more.  I've never really been a member of an online community before, and I'm quite excited.  Thanks again.

[Cheryl Calvino]

Thank you for the welcome, folks.  I've never really been one to join a blog/forum community (the internet intimidates me at times), but I'm glad to be here!  :D