Non-story-based daydreams

[Ellen]

Hi, guys, here is a question for you: do any of you have thought patterns that feel like daydreams but that aren't based on stories?  It sounds like most of you have daydreams that are based on stories, with characters and plot lines.  Most of mine are like that, too, and since the story-based-daydreams seem the most unusual, they are what originally brought me to this website.  However, since learning about MD, I have begun to suspect that some of my other thought patterns might be a different type of daydream.
Often, I will talk to myself, monologuing about real-life subjects that I am interested in.   For example, I often talk to myself about my favorite novels or academic subjects. What makes me think that these are abnormal daydreams is that I sometimes pace while doing this, just like with my other daydreams, and I have some of the same conversations over and over again, about topics that I am really excited about.  These are usually conversations that I would probably not ever have in real life because they are so nerdy and obsessive the no one would want to listen to me; I think I enjoy talking to myself because I don't interrupt myself and I can go off on all sort of rabbit-trails and still completely understand myself.  I sometimes just talk to the air, and other times imagine that I am talking to someone I know in real-life. However, I never imagine myself talking the the fictional characters from my other daydreams.  Maybe this are just my way of venting since I am a quiet person who doesn't talk a lot normally.  Maybe these are normal thought patterns that everyone has on occasion and just never talks about; I don't know, probably not.  The solution to this is probably just for me to get a social life so I can actually talk to other people.  What do you all think?  Do you have daydreams like this?  Do you think they are really MD daydreams?

[Nomad]

Yep, I do that, too. Unlike you, I sometimes envision conversations with my characters, but I relate to the nerd factor--I'm a big talker in real life, but I don't know anybody I could have these conversations with. I probably look just as crazy when I have the imaginary conversations as I do (did?) when I went to my worlds, but the conversations feel like a strength rather than a weakness. They seem light and fun (as opposed to completely obsessive, shameful, and strangely empty), and they've inspired me to accomplish creative things. In contrast, I've been dreaming up fantasy worlds for about 38 years, and I can't recall a single positive consequence--except that they probably distracted me from pain I couldn't deal with at the time. Of course, by distracting me, they also made it impossible for me to get stronger or address the sources of the pain. To me, that's addiction.

Anyway, I'd say the conversations enrich my real life instead of killing my taste for it. Maybe they're the positive side of MD that people keep talking about on the Yahoo forum (barf!).

[Tila]

Ellen, I talk to myself too (not aloud or in public, but you get the point!). The dialogues you have with yourself, in my opinion, are healthy and more productive than a full blown daydream......when you are being yourself, even if you think it is "obsessive and nerdy" at least you are still choosing to be here in reality as You, as oppose to escaping completely into your daydreams.

I don't talk to the fictional characters from my daydreams either.....the character of Me does not exist in my daydreams, so that wouldn't make any sense.

[rebecka]

Yeah, I do this too!

[Matto]

I daydream a little about imaginary scenarios, but I daydream a lot about just random crap.  I will look at a CD and think "who invented the CD, It was Phillips, or was it Sony.  Sony makes a lot of products that can only be used with other sony accessories.  Will universal compatibility be the way of the future?  In terms of the future, is time travel really possible?  If it was, people from the future would have already visited us in the present, so probably not.  That new movie Hot tub time machine didn't get a few logical facts right.  But skiing in the 80's would have been fun...."  Then 10 minutes have passed and everyone else has moved on.

[Katrina]

<3<3. Yeah i do that too!  I think theyre real md daydreams if you slip into them seamlessly.  These usually happen when im in the shower for some reason or after watching or readind the news/ or after hearing or seeing something that puts my nerd alert on code red.  I agree i think theyre a lot healthier than storylines because your at least engaged in the real world in terms of at least thinking about it.  What are some of your nerd topics?  Maybe we could do daily or weekly blogs on a chosen topic and have real debates on them here? Something tells me youll have a hard time finding the shallow sort here;)

[Heath]

this is EXACTLY what i do. I'll play a videogame or something and kind of talk to myself as i play it in my head as if i'm showing it to a friend. i don't know why i do it...its the main type of daydream i have really. usually just think about explaining something i am interested in to someone else

[Ana Suau]

Oh I do that very often, I have a series of monologues about different topics that I repeat to myself (in my head, though I might mumble), as my alter-ego (so I can't get rid of the classical daydream method completely), and it's true that I need some mute fictional character or real person (but "fictionized" by me) to be my "public", to disarm their objections and convince them I'm right, in a brilliant and genious way... what can I say, I bet many of you understand what it is to have such an desillusional egomaniac alter-ego. So, yes it happens to me, but withouth being able to free myself from my alter-ego, which doesn't stop my monologues from being rational and logically developed, giving birth in many occassions to my own theories about social relations and other issues, very influential in my vision and understanding of the world.

[Tabitha Duncie]

Hi,  I've only recently found this site and that what I thought was my odd behaviour is not unique to me and has a name. My MD doesn't involve superheros or imaginary lands but more as described on this thread.  Like Ana Suau I do the outwardly verbalising to myself to people who aren't there my views on subjects that can go on a loop.  I also go over and over conversations that I have had and correctly or clarifying what I had said or wanted to say by creating situations where this could happen. I also create an alternate life which is very simular to my own but with the addition of people, jobs and activities that are missing in my ordinary life.  I just off on a tangent on any little comment I hear on the radio or telly and before I know it time has just slipped away.

 

[Magenta]

I've caught myself moving my mouth in tandem with a conversation I'm having in a daydream, but not vocalizing.  To the unaware observer, I'm sure I look as though I'm having a conversation in every respect, but clearly I'm not interacting with anyone.  For this reason, I am only able to really let go and be comfortable enough to fully engage in a daydream when I'm home alone.  Don't get me wrong, I daydream in other places, I'm just super nervous that people will notice my facial expressions or mouth moving.  I can be a bit socially awkward at times, so I like having my conversations "scripted".  In my daydreams, I'm so much more confident and at ease while talking to people.  It's nice to not be hyper-aware of every little thing I say and how it affects people for a little while.

[Ellen]

Hi Magenta, I can totally identify with what you are talking about.  This is one things I love about this forum; it's so comforting to know that I'm not the only one, when I read something that someone else wrote that could have been written word-for-word about myself. 

I have pretend conversations all the time when I am walking between classes and my mind is not engaged by anything in particular.  Over the years I think I have trained my face to stay still more or less when I am in public, but I think I still slip up sometimes.  I try not to let it bother me too much; most of the people I pass on the sidewalk are strangers anyway, so who cares what they think?  If someone I know catches me doing it, I try to shrug it off like its not a big deal.  I mean, talking to yourself can be a sign of genius, right? lol

Interesting story: I was eating lunch with a group of people today, and one of the guys said to one of the other guys, "Hey, you know that really quiet girl we met the other day? I saw her yesterday, and she was smiling and appeared to be talking to herself."  I don't know who they were talking about, but it sounds like there might be another daydreamer running around campus.  I wonder how common this is... Probably more common than one would guess, since it seems like the majority of us are trying to keep it hidden.

[Skylar Grey]

wow this is so strange, i never really noticed that i do this until after reading this forum! i always just did have conversations in my head with myself as all of you have stated, but i never actually thought much about it. Such as, when in math class we were discussing a problem about a person rowing upstream or whatever and i had about a 10 minute conversation with myself and it ended with me thinking about robots controlling canoes. By then we were about 8 problems past the one that got me thinking. and often when im reading books ill stop and ponder of things they said or what they wore and just contemplate ideas in my head! this is all just pouring out because the things im saying i am just realizing now! And one last example: when im riding in the car ill think about the person on the other side of the highway and wonder where theyre going, who they are. what school did they go to, the problems that they couldve possibly had. like i said its just second nature to me... wow i sound TOTALLY and COMPLETELY insane dont i?

[littleschrodinger'scat]

Yes I do that.  I do stories much more frequently but I still do this quite often. It is almost like I have an interview with myself about the world I have created or something of that sort. I do not actually speak but I form the words with my lips and sort of breath what I am saying ( it is difficult to explain ).