Do you feel like Maladaptive Daydreaming is an addiction?

[khaughey66]

I am a recovering  drug addict.  However, if the truth be told, my first "self medication" was daydreaming. The only difference that I notice between daydreaming and drugs is that   I tend to binge when it comes to daydreaming and I had to use drugs every single day.  This is not to say that I don't daydream every single day, because I certainly do.  I daydream everyday to the point of annoyance when I'm trying to read my assigned chapters for school and can't stay focused for very long at all.  This is not the same thing as one of my binges, however.   The last binge I went on lasted about 3 weeks.  I couldn't do anything else.  I laid in bed and just fine tuned my fantasies over and over this whole time.  I forgot to eat even.  I lost around 10 pounds.  (which I've unfortunately gained right back) This round scared the hell out of me, I've never disappeared for that long before.  Although some good did come out of it as I found this website due to my panic about what I'd just done.  all of these feelings are sooo familiar.  I did the same things when I was using drugs.  It is truly the same pattern for me.  Do any of you have any thoughts on this?  Do you feel addicted to your own thoughts too?  Does daydreaming make your life unmanageable?

[The Altruist]

Daydreaming for me, most certainly does inhibit my ability to concentrate/focus, and my family don't understand it, I want to tell them, but then again I don't even like them, but I think they would think I was much weirder. My sister knows, she thinks its weird but she's okay with it. As for a comparison to drugs, I often do drugs to have a good time, whereas I daydream when I'm bored or alone, or walking, or even randomly, its so annoying because it takes so much out of your day. Often it's so hard to escape too. It is certainly like a drug in my opinion, and just like other drugs, moderation is key.

[Drake]

I am a drug user (I don't go overboard mind you) and I do think MD addiction and drug addiction are similar. The key is of course moderation which I've had to learn for both drugs and daydreaming

[Tila]

YES, I think it is definitely an addiction. It gives you immediate pleasure and relief from the pain, or sometimes lack of stimulation, in your life.

It is a sweet escape...my daydreams fill me with a warm rush of love, instantly. My heart beats faster, and I'm suddenly full of energy wanting to prance around my room. If that is not a physical and emotional high, then what is? :P

 

I had an eating disorder (anorexia) for 5 years, which includes the years spent trying to recover, and binging (on actual food!). Eating disorders are also addictions. I take some pride in the fact that I have recovered from it. But my daydreaming is still out of control. If daydreaming makes you think and act like an addict, well...if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...Lol! I think learning how to have some control of our wild minds is what we are all trying to do here.

[khaughey66]

Yeah I agree that we are all trying to do that here, control our thoughts.  I have food issues too but mine go in the opposite direction.  I tend to swap the drugs for food and I just quit smoking too so it's especially bad right now.  Those two problems, while not nearly as harmful I  grant you, are worse in a way.  I CAN stop smoking and getting high--- But I HAVE  to eat and I HAVE to think, of course.  Controlling something and quitting it all together are two entirely different things.  Thanks for responding Ivy,  I appreciate it :)

Dayglotter-Ivy said:

YES, I think it is definitely an addiction. It gives you immediate pleasure and relief from the pain, or sometimes lack of stimulation, in your life.

It is a sweet escape...my daydreams fill me with a warm rush of love, instantly. My heart beats faster, and I'm suddenly full of energy wanting to prance around my room. If that is not a physical and emotional high, then what is? :P

 

I had an eating disorder (anorexia) for 5 years, which includes the years spent trying to recover, and binging (on actual food!). Eating disorders are also addictions. I take some pride in the fact that I have recovered from it. But my daydreaming is still out of control. If daydreaming makes you think and act like an addict, well...if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...Lol! I think learning how to have some control of our wild minds is what we are all trying to do here.

[khaughey66]

Thanks for replying all of you! I've never started a discussion I was afraid nobody would say anything.

@Altruist, It's funny that you mentioned boredom being a "trigger" for you.  I was just thinking about how boredom is probably my worst enemy just the other day.  Boredom makes me want to eat, smoke, get high, think about living a better or more interesting life in a daydream, or, on really bad days, all 5 of those things all at once.  I guess I should be grateful that I'm not a sex addict too--but even that can be an issue if the subject of my daydreams is romantic in nature lol.  You know what's funny is I've done just about every drug under the sun and I've done them addictively... except for two.  One was speed, I did it once and all it did was screw up the buzz that I'd spent a whole lot of money and effort to have and make reality super-real so THAT really sucked.  Having MD in the first place attests to my dislike of reality.  The other is pot.  Pot took me in completely the other direction.  AAALLLL I could do on pot was day dream.  To the point that it scared me and people noticed and that was really embarrassing.  

@ Drake,  just because I'm an addict and can't usually control it doesn't mean that I think using drugs is bad for everyone.  Of course, that depends on the drug too though.  But, if I'm not prying, do you think use drugs in order to maybe try to manage your MD, or avoid certain ones because they make it worse?  I ask because I just realized, by writing this reply, that mine did apparently  have  some influence in which drugs I preferred and/or which ones I avoided.

[The Altruist]

Drugs don't seem to affect my daydreaming, but i'm sure boredom causes nearly everyone on here to do it. It's such a good time consumer, sometimes its bad, like when I wake up, I start daydreaming, then I'm late for work :( not helpful lol. I just can't seem to control it, I really would like help for it. Any tips anyone?

[scooby]

Yes most defenitaly for me it is. MDing use to be enough for me but now it seems ive let it go so far I can't forfil the crave anymore. Like the way a drug users amount needed to get an up increasesthe mo they do it.
Daydreaming seemed to make my life more manageable when it was really bad as it allowed me to escape, and I honestly dont know where I would of ended up if I didnt have that. But in the long term its making life harded, and kinda reinforced my origonal worries I.e lack of social contact skills, unreasonable expection of others compassion, fear of the world ect.

[Story_Teller]

I think it can be addicting.  I was watching some show about strange addictions, and the people on it were addicted to all sorts of things from eating toilet paper to sleeping with hair dryers.  For most of them, it was all about self-soothing.  They had randomly found something that soothed them and caused pleasure.  Their mind then associated that thing, however weird it might have been, with the pleasurable feelings and the cravings began.  It's almost like you can become addicted to anything.  There are certainly stranger addictions than maladaptive daydreaming. 

 

I don't daydream much anymore, but sometimes if I have time left at the end of the day, I'll sort of get excited about the possibility of allowing myself to go off and fall into a daydream.  I know that pre-daydreaming excited feeling is  just my mind associating daydreaming with something euphoric, and I wish it didn't make that association.