Do you have conscious control over your daydreams?

[Carrie]

I've gathered from a few things people have said here, they go to Youtube for more ideas on what to daydream and movies and books and so on.

 

I am influenced occassionally by certain things--if there is a TV show I really relate to for instance, but it's got to be something that resonates with me in a really big way for some reason. 

 

But my brain just makes up whatever it wants to.  I go into my head and I have no control over what I daydream or what the storyline or characters are going to be.  I couldn't change it or direct it if I wanted to.  If it incorporates, say, some characters in a TV show, I don't have any control over that.  And the storyline itself is just whatever my unconscious conjurs up, not much different from night time dreaming in a lot of ways. 

 

And when it changes to something else, I don't have control over that, either.

 

It's different depending on what kind of place I'm in emotionally, also.  But they generally go along a certain theme even though they are different.

 

Does anyone else have this, or do you have some aspect of control or influence over what you daydream?

 

I also get a "compulsion" to do it, I don't really know what it is, or how to describe it, all I know is I have to.

 

Sometimes a lot less, right now more than in a long time, but it's never a "do I feel like doing this?" type of thing.  I just have to. 

[roxanne]

In Psychology, many disorders blur around the edges and it is not unusual for someone to have elements of different disorders.  The self-deserting avoidant apparantly finds fantasy less and less effective at buoying them up, whereas I don't know if that's true with MD. It isn't at least in my case.  One technique I have started trying is something I borrowed from OCD literature.  Instead of scheduling a time to daydream, which really wouldn't work for me, I have started scheduling breaks when I don't daydream.  I tried 5 minutes and when that was too hard, I lowered it to 3 minutes.  OCD rituals are believed bysome current therapists to be very much like an addiction and OCD sufferers  are advised to set a timer for 30 sec. or whatever they can tolerate to forego the ritual.  There is some evidence with brain scans that, as you increase the time tolerable, you actually create changes in your brain for the better.   

[Tila]

I try to compartmentalize my daydreams constantly, with some success. But triggering thoughts are NEVER very far below the surface. They always worm their way back in.
When a daydream is threatening to take over, I imagine the daydream itself as an impatient gradeschooler pressing his face against the window...he just wants recess to come so he can run around. He wants to be a horse or a lion... not a human, because being human comes with so much pressure. :/
I have to firmly tell this little kid in me that he'll get to daydream later- but now is the wrong time.
I also think of Ferdinando the Bull, the one who "just wanted to smell the flowers"..

I don't think we should try to kill off this restless, sprightly spirit inside of us (which I KNOW has a dark side too). I think it is the source of all our creativity, and it is truly a strength that we have this. We need to recognize its importance as the Source, but NOT indulge in it- that is where the creativity turns into laziness, and then into fear of pushing our comfort limits! Daydreams can be a really cool way to plan our future in the real world- they tell us what we truly want, and much more. How many people have that kind of insight? :P

[Truthful Alibi]

Well, my daydreams are quite spontaneous sometimes. I sort of flow along with my daydreams. I control what happens in them, although my mind will sometimes make evil comments about the characters, but I just decide that didn't happen in my daydream and carry on with it.

[Nicola Wallace]

I have complete control over my dreams, like i am the story teller. I plan them before i have them!