Does mood affect your ability to daydream? Socailizing, Personal, etc.

[Gina M]

I can only daydream when I'm happy or excited. I have the type of daydreaming where I absolutely have to pace or skip (and usually have music playing), and sometimes hints of conversation and laughter seep out. If I'm sad, I simply cannot do this. (So would constant sadness end my daydreaming problem? Haha.) My dreams are centered on myself and the typical idealized version of me. I don't really get into tv characters and I don't have anything that is saga-like. I just daydream about current life interests and having a wonderful time. Although, it takes up hours of my day.

I wondered if I was bi-polar, because I get incredibly manic. When I'm happy, I get extremely happy and lose common sense. Both of my parents have mental illnesses and I was always verbally abused. This is probably why I started all of this when I was in kindergarten. I'm 23 now.

My daydreaming has not affected my social life since high school. I think the difference is I'm around people who understand me now. I'm comfortable being outgoing. Sometimes I feel like I have too many friends. However, that doesn't stop the feeling of loneliness. I think those of you who want more friends need to find free spirits. Try participating in activities the average person would not. Trust me, most of us probably can't relate to the average person.

Unfortunately, it has had a negative affect on work and school. I'm absent a lot because I just don't want to deal with the world. Maybe it depends what you value more. I have a tight schedule but I always want to see my friends, and I always make room for those spontaneous daydreams. That leaves me exhausted if I actually do homework on time. It makes me hate almost every job I've had. The workplace has been the anti-fantasy for me.

I've managed to be successful in most of life except in relationships with men, and eve since tenth grade I always fall behind in school because I don't do homework on time. People like to leave me after a few months and usually won't explain why.

I'm happy a lot, considering how much I daydream. It makes me nonchalant about bad things that are really happening to me.

[Lily]

Hey Gina M!
My mood definitely effects my ability to daydream. However, I am unsure of when I am able to do it and when I'm not. Sometimes I look forward to my chance to daydream for days. My boyfriend goes out every Tuesday and a couple of days before I get really excited because I know I'll be able to be alone and daydream as much as I want. But sometimes, I just can't. I don't know why. Sometimes it just doesn't feel right. For example, it's Tuesday and I had a hard time getting into my fantasizing. I'm looking at the clock and getting anxious because I know he'll be home soon and I haven't fantasized much at all tonight. I missed my opportunity to do it. I guess I wasn't in the mood. I tried and did it a little but couldn't fully get into it. Yet other days, I can't stop. Sometimes I can't sleep because of it or as soon as I wake up I start fantasizing and at work, all I want is to get through the day so I can do it. Anybody else experience this inconsistency with fantasizing? Seriously, I can't express enough how happy I am that I found this website. I can't believe I can just openly talk about this!

[sky]

yeah im exactly the same i can do it more when im happy. i know its a place where im happier but when i try to do it to make myself feel better after a bad day or break up i just cant concentrate enough to do it.

[Feng]

I am actually the opposite. When I get happy, I still do fantasize, but not as much as when I'm sad. When I feel depress, lonely, anxiety and stress I get an extreme tendency to go into fantasizing mode where all problems go away and I am happy. By constantly fantasizing and not doing productive work, of course, makes my initial situation even worse - which forces me to fantasize even more. It's a vicious cycle for me. That is why my life has been such a failure so far. I fantasize because I have problems and I can't fix my problems because I can't stop fantasizing. I'm now borderline obese, borderline diabetic, have several other health problems and addictions. Of course, I can't begin to correct those problems because my fantasizing habit is not letting me. I am also unemployed and poor. I have no friends and I still live with my parents (I'm turning 23 this year). My parents think I am useless and pathetic for sitting in my room all day and not going out to get a job - I think the same way too. Sometimes I contemplate whether or not I should just end my life.

[Nicole]

I daydream with all moods, but when I'm depressed or lonely (which happens a lot), I go into a heavy daydream.  I guess it's my brain's response to anything hurting me to bring my mood back up.

[Charles Glenn Ladd]

My mood doesn't really affect how much I daydream so much as what kind of daydreaming I do. When I'm happy or content, my daydreams are more realistic, usually centering on my perfect daydream self doing amazing but realistic things. When I'm depressed, I sink deep into elaborate fantasy worlds with their own rules of logic. I fantasize all the time, no matter what my mood, probably because my mind needs a way of getting rid of all the extra energy it has (my mind is always racing. Daydreaming for an hour or two usually helps calm it down for a while). But I guess what kind of daydreams I have depends on what I need at the time, which in turn depends on my mood.