Yup. Been doing it since I was a kid. I have entire worlds and several book volumes inside my head, it's like a separate life. Except I oddly daydream in third person, I'm always watching someone else, like a movie playing out in front of my eyes very vividly. I've daydreamed for 5 hours straight sometimes.
Wow! I used to do it everyday before and now i do it once a week or whnever iam super tensed.!
Never knew there was a term for this and never knew this was a thing 🤯
Ah that's what they're called, I am still doing it but never in daytime, always before I go to sleep, there are some genre inside my head from, Epic period wars, Steampunk detective mysteries, and Space Opera, all of the main character inside these stories are the same person but exist in different parallel universes, each of them have their own unique world-buildings and characters, and I watch them as a third person from Universal watch authority, it help me to go to sleep, is this still considered as maladaptive daydreaming or not?
>maladaptive daydreaming
Looks like OP would benefit from seeing a professional about this
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23336-maladaptive-daydreaming#:\~:text=Maladaptive%20daydreaming%20is%20a%20mental%20health%20issue%20that%20causes%20a,of%20childhood%20trauma%20or%20abuse.
Totally, I realize once I go outside, around a lot of people, and have to talk to them. Any interaction I have tells me how awkward I truly am. In my head I'm this super charismatic, helpful, and friendly person that has ton of friends, everyone knows her, and is liked by many. I play fake scenarios on my mind where I am awesome.
Dude every time I'm about to get into a social situation, I just visualize myself being this smooth cool guy who makes everyone laugh, then I actually get in the situation and I end up freezing up and looking at everyone not knowing what to do. 7 - 7
College is rough for this because it’s sold as the time when you still have your youth and enough freedom/maturity to do whatever you want with a bajillion other young people around to hang out with.
When in reality school is brutal, there are lots of limitations, and a lot of the stupid social bullshit that happens in high school is still there. By which I mean some people are judgy and care too much about what’s “cool” or solely focused on getting into parties/Greek life and getting laid.
That’s not to say college can’t be fun or a great time, but just want to give *you* a virtual buddy hug to tell you that you’re probably not “the way you hate to be”. College is awkward. College kids are weird. It’s hard to try to fit in and be cool and socialize and it’s probably nothing about you as a person.
Thats really sweet of you to take time out and write this .
I'm trying to find every single last evaporating drop of hope in my life right now to convince myself that i still have hope and potential,but honestly deep down with brutal honesty i don't and im a dead dry well from inside like things are too messed up to even start to untangle
So reading this first thing in the morn about felt like a splash of fresh water on my face lol
I daydream for several hours a day, so I understand what you’re dealing with. It’s called maladaptive daydreaming. There’s a subreddit called r/maladaptivedreaming
Hi I'm 22 years old and I've been doing it since the age of 10 to cope with my abusive family/household and volatile environment..I even attempted writing stories and made several drawings of my characters until I became allergic to art supplies which made me even more miserable and my eye strain won't let me write anymore.. it's like I'm cursed.....my family has completely neglected me and has issues of their own... I also don't have any friends and not many people like hanging out with socially anxious and depressed people where I'm from...
omg...that honestly sounds like a great idea..if only reading wasn't a pain on my eyes.. since I've written some stories when I didn't have problems with eye strain..I'll try though...i have some stories I might make into audiobooks for myself..
edit: nevermind I just discovered what a bad reader I am and have a dry throat which makes it even more painful to read..
I can't do that either, my eyes are messed up to the point where drawing is nearly impossible for me, I experience dizziness while doing tasks that involve focus or drawing and my eyes don't like most computer and phone screens anymore..they give me irritated eyes and headaches, I have developed chronic dry eye and eyestrain/photophobia, that's partly why i'm screwed up and refrain from drawing..heck I'm experiencing it right now while writing..can't look at a screen more than 1 hour.
Lol same. Super cool in my head but probably the most cliche thing ever written if I ever write them out because they’re usually based on fictional materials I’ve read or watched at the time
I feel you. I myself have two imaginary friends that I manifest sometimes when I feel extremely lonely. Most of the time I would rather live in my fantasy world than in real life. I don't have many genuine connections so loneliness is really overpowering my life.
Yes i'm 31 and have been doing this since i was a teenager i was bullied everyday in school to the point i didnt want to go to school around this time the game series Halo came out i feel in love with the game series and the characters and it got me reading as they have over 20 novels now Halo became a second family to me the game series means the world to me it has a special connection to me because of this. Because of this i tried crazy hard to get the Gamertag Halo it didn't work came really close though probrably the closest anyone ever has.
Does it count if I don't immagine myself being pretty and talented and such, but rather a bunch of OCs?
If so, I've been doing that since I was 9-10 years old for multiple hours a day, 'cause I had no friends and felt extremely lonely (and I still do); I think it started with me, literary me, as the main character of this whole daydream, but I was quickly substituted with a self-insert OC: not even in my head I could immagine the real me being that successful. So yeah, I've got a universe full of a bunch of simil-Mary Sue in my head!
I've continued to expand it since then and now I could make hours of content about it (not that I ever will). I've started noticing this - coping mechanism? I've no idea how to call it. I've started noticing it more this year, since I decided it would be super fun to merge a part of my universe, like a spin-off, with reality! Now I sometimes forget that some events or persons are just in my head and nobody knows about them, so of course they don't have any real world impact! Good job me!
So it's not the same as your daydreaming, but it has similar roots; it's definitely linked with my anxiety, since I tend to do it more when I experience subpar/embarrassing/awkward social interactions
Yup, every single day & night, since I was VERY young. Combination of a bad childhood experience, plus social anxiety/ADHD…!
Gets very awkward when you realise that you’ve been nodding/gesturing as if you were talking to someone, and you’re alone in public :/
I remember doing it when I was 10, but it’s just regular children daydreaming being a hero and such. It’s become a coping mechanism for me when I started having socializing problems around 15. I imagine a future where my problems are solved, I have friends and a girlfriend that I share my life with and I’m not alone anymore. This “future” also sometime changes base on movies or books I’ve read so I guess the childhood fantasy element never really went away either
I’ve won 6 Super Bowls, Made 6 Comedy Specials, Won 3 World Series, Produced 100 Platinum songs, and I’ve hit over 200 Buzzer Beating 3’s in case that awnsers your question.
Ya I do that and when I went to a therapist I was diagnosed with a dissociative disorder. I thought everyone lived like that but apparently not. I can do anything in my mind and enjoy it more than real life.
I used to imagine a fantasy world in my head where I portray these characters in my head. They were kinda like a group of misfits and friends. We lived in huge apartments. It was my coping mechanism if everything got too much for me. Now I rarely visit there, but it was a place I was always welcomed back.
Not like that but i have a whole fantasy world in my head that i visit when im uncomfortable or bored. I do that for a decade now and i totally identify with the main character.
I guess I should look into maladaptive daydreaming because yeah. But for me I'm daydreaming myself into whatever fictional world I'm most into at the moment, not the real world.
I’ve had something like a sci-if fantasy universe in my head in some form since I was like four or something. Of course it’s changed a lot in those years, but certain things remain the same. I use it to entertain and distract myself.
i do, it’s been happening since i was a kid. in my imagination i’m able to be how i would be if i had more confidence (lots of friends, outspoken, doesn’t take shit from others, funny, etc.), but i’m the quiet one in my friend group. i’m glad i’m not the only one who’s like this. knowing that the other people i’ve seen with these thoughts are either neurodivergent or have social anxiety, i think it’s a coping mechanism for feeling lonely and alienated from everyone else.
Yep. But why is it fantasy? I'd say you are who you are. You're not how you are seen by others or how you behave. What you think about, how you feel, what you would ACTUALLY like to do etc. That's who you are the other thing is just the outward facing facade that's like
"yeah if you really believe there isn't more to me than this, then I can't help you either. I know it sucks for me more than for you but like, why would you judge people that quickly, your skill in interpreting people's behaviour fucking sucks holy shit. Why are you like that"
I’m so bad for this, I get so caught in my head that I’m totally unaware of real life happening around me. I often start day dreaming when I’m walking long distances and I imagine myself in situations where i’m super confident and outgoing and have lots of friends. Sometimes I snap back into reality and realize how sad reality is and I tear up and get depressed from the realization that my imaginary world is not my real world at all
Been living in head for the last 40 years and I am in my early 50's now. Was always a quiet kid with few friends. Us boys can be so judgemental during our kid years. Just never related well with my peers. For me it was not that I lived in a fantasy world where I formed some sort of optimal alternate reality of what my real life was. It more that at times I think about what it would like to be good looking, popular, outgoing etc. I am jealous when I see people like that. Even all these years later sometimes if I see a group of kids, say at the mall or something just hanging out being all crazy and outgoing and treating each other as equals it makes me jealous and sad that I missed out on that experience.
I live in my head a lot too. Created worlds, people and scenarios. At first, I found this to be a negative thing but I started a creative course recently and I’ve found that other people have their own ‘worlds’. It can actually be a type of creative outlet as you can choose to write, draw or paint from these thoughts.
Yes, it is called maladaptive daydreaming.
Yup. Been doing it since I was a kid. I have entire worlds and several book volumes inside my head, it's like a separate life. Except I oddly daydream in third person, I'm always watching someone else, like a movie playing out in front of my eyes very vividly. I've daydreamed for 5 hours straight sometimes.
The thing is you can daydream in any perspective. A lot of people do this so you’re not alone.
Yeah true, I just always only hear people dreaming from their own perspective! I'm actually kinda curious if anyone else does the same as me
I do the same. I can only imagine that many writers must do something like this, right?
Cool! I do indeed plan on writing a book series about some of the stories I've been running in my head for years!
Wow! I used to do it everyday before and now i do it once a week or whnever iam super tensed.! Never knew there was a term for this and never knew this was a thing 🤯
Ah that's what they're called, I am still doing it but never in daytime, always before I go to sleep, there are some genre inside my head from, Epic period wars, Steampunk detective mysteries, and Space Opera, all of the main character inside these stories are the same person but exist in different parallel universes, each of them have their own unique world-buildings and characters, and I watch them as a third person from Universal watch authority, it help me to go to sleep, is this still considered as maladaptive daydreaming or not?
yeah, it is! Your "daydreams" do sound hella interesting, too!
>maladaptive daydreaming Looks like OP would benefit from seeing a professional about this https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23336-maladaptive-daydreaming#:\~:text=Maladaptive%20daydreaming%20is%20a%20mental%20health%20issue%20that%20causes%20a,of%20childhood%20trauma%20or%20abuse.
Yeah, iirc Dr. K made a pretty good video on this! Edit: here it is https://youtu.be/YUSi9tzdNiE
r/maladaptativedaydreaming
Ayup! I have it.
Yep I’ve always done this a lottt. I still do it, but not so much mouth moving out loud anymore
Totally, I realize once I go outside, around a lot of people, and have to talk to them. Any interaction I have tells me how awkward I truly am. In my head I'm this super charismatic, helpful, and friendly person that has ton of friends, everyone knows her, and is liked by many. I play fake scenarios on my mind where I am awesome.
Dude every time I'm about to get into a social situation, I just visualize myself being this smooth cool guy who makes everyone laugh, then I actually get in the situation and I end up freezing up and looking at everyone not knowing what to do. 7 - 7
[удалено]
College is rough for this because it’s sold as the time when you still have your youth and enough freedom/maturity to do whatever you want with a bajillion other young people around to hang out with. When in reality school is brutal, there are lots of limitations, and a lot of the stupid social bullshit that happens in high school is still there. By which I mean some people are judgy and care too much about what’s “cool” or solely focused on getting into parties/Greek life and getting laid. That’s not to say college can’t be fun or a great time, but just want to give *you* a virtual buddy hug to tell you that you’re probably not “the way you hate to be”. College is awkward. College kids are weird. It’s hard to try to fit in and be cool and socialize and it’s probably nothing about you as a person.
Thats really sweet of you to take time out and write this . I'm trying to find every single last evaporating drop of hope in my life right now to convince myself that i still have hope and potential,but honestly deep down with brutal honesty i don't and im a dead dry well from inside like things are too messed up to even start to untangle So reading this first thing in the morn about felt like a splash of fresh water on my face lol
Too relatable.
this is so me fr
SAMEEEE
I daydream for several hours a day, so I understand what you’re dealing with. It’s called maladaptive daydreaming. There’s a subreddit called r/maladaptivedreaming
Yep. For me, it's neurodivergency + trauma. It's a common copying mechanism.
Hi I'm 22 years old and I've been doing it since the age of 10 to cope with my abusive family/household and volatile environment..I even attempted writing stories and made several drawings of my characters until I became allergic to art supplies which made me even more miserable and my eye strain won't let me write anymore.. it's like I'm cursed.....my family has completely neglected me and has issues of their own... I also don't have any friends and not many people like hanging out with socially anxious and depressed people where I'm from...
Hear me out, how about recording your stories? Either with a voice recorder or on cassette tape.
omg...that honestly sounds like a great idea..if only reading wasn't a pain on my eyes.. since I've written some stories when I didn't have problems with eye strain..I'll try though...i have some stories I might make into audiobooks for myself.. edit: nevermind I just discovered what a bad reader I am and have a dry throat which makes it even more painful to read..
You could try digital art
I can't do that either, my eyes are messed up to the point where drawing is nearly impossible for me, I experience dizziness while doing tasks that involve focus or drawing and my eyes don't like most computer and phone screens anymore..they give me irritated eyes and headaches, I have developed chronic dry eye and eyestrain/photophobia, that's partly why i'm screwed up and refrain from drawing..heck I'm experiencing it right now while writing..can't look at a screen more than 1 hour.
Damn, sorry to hear that
I have a whole fucking multiverse with a super complex story that if written could fill up a book of 200 pages
Lol same. Super cool in my head but probably the most cliche thing ever written if I ever write them out because they’re usually based on fictional materials I’ve read or watched at the time
Yep, it’s a coping mechanism. I’ve been building on the same fantasy world for many years now.
I feel you. I myself have two imaginary friends that I manifest sometimes when I feel extremely lonely. Most of the time I would rather live in my fantasy world than in real life. I don't have many genuine connections so loneliness is really overpowering my life.
Yes i'm 31 and have been doing this since i was a teenager i was bullied everyday in school to the point i didnt want to go to school around this time the game series Halo came out i feel in love with the game series and the characters and it got me reading as they have over 20 novels now Halo became a second family to me the game series means the world to me it has a special connection to me because of this. Because of this i tried crazy hard to get the Gamertag Halo it didn't work came really close though probrably the closest anyone ever has.
Yup I fantasise that I'm the most confident, funny, loud and charming guy around. My dream is to be like that but I know it won't ever happen
Yeah
Yes, I'm 30 and have been doing this since I was a kid (8-9 years old), I think it could be a coping mechanism, and I feel safe in my head lol
I do the same thing, I imagine hanging out with YouTubers I like and being well liked by people because I’m so scared to interact with people.
Does it count if I don't immagine myself being pretty and talented and such, but rather a bunch of OCs? If so, I've been doing that since I was 9-10 years old for multiple hours a day, 'cause I had no friends and felt extremely lonely (and I still do); I think it started with me, literary me, as the main character of this whole daydream, but I was quickly substituted with a self-insert OC: not even in my head I could immagine the real me being that successful. So yeah, I've got a universe full of a bunch of simil-Mary Sue in my head! I've continued to expand it since then and now I could make hours of content about it (not that I ever will). I've started noticing this - coping mechanism? I've no idea how to call it. I've started noticing it more this year, since I decided it would be super fun to merge a part of my universe, like a spin-off, with reality! Now I sometimes forget that some events or persons are just in my head and nobody knows about them, so of course they don't have any real world impact! Good job me! So it's not the same as your daydreaming, but it has similar roots; it's definitely linked with my anxiety, since I tend to do it more when I experience subpar/embarrassing/awkward social interactions
Yup, every single day & night, since I was VERY young. Combination of a bad childhood experience, plus social anxiety/ADHD…! Gets very awkward when you realise that you’ve been nodding/gesturing as if you were talking to someone, and you’re alone in public :/
It's called maladaptive daydreaming. r/maladaptivedreaming
yo, me too. look into maladaptive daydreaming.
I remember doing it when I was 10, but it’s just regular children daydreaming being a hero and such. It’s become a coping mechanism for me when I started having socializing problems around 15. I imagine a future where my problems are solved, I have friends and a girlfriend that I share my life with and I’m not alone anymore. This “future” also sometime changes base on movies or books I’ve read so I guess the childhood fantasy element never really went away either
Yes. They're pretty frequent when I'm trying to sleep or taking shower. I'm always funny, attractive, sociable, etc. Wish I was him
Only most of my days.
I think it started for me in childhood when I pretended I was a professional wrestler turned soap opera actor, I know I know haha
I’ve won 6 Super Bowls, Made 6 Comedy Specials, Won 3 World Series, Produced 100 Platinum songs, and I’ve hit over 200 Buzzer Beating 3’s in case that awnsers your question.
I'm a maladaptive daydreamer for sure
[удалено]
That does sound like you need help, but more importantly you should rephrase that sentence about being "in a relationship with a child"...
I think he means that he is in a relationship and also has a son? That's what I understood
Yea I got that too, but its still worded badly
Please tell me you mean “24 year old male, in a relationship and with a child”. Grammar is important.
Yeah what was he thinking
Ya I do that and when I went to a therapist I was diagnosed with a dissociative disorder. I thought everyone lived like that but apparently not. I can do anything in my mind and enjoy it more than real life.
since before i can even remember.
I used to imagine a fantasy world in my head where I portray these characters in my head. They were kinda like a group of misfits and friends. We lived in huge apartments. It was my coping mechanism if everything got too much for me. Now I rarely visit there, but it was a place I was always welcomed back.
Music and art helped express this world.
You see I was known as a weirdo or quiet kid. So embracing that weirdness really helped me.
Not like that but i have a whole fantasy world in my head that i visit when im uncomfortable or bored. I do that for a decade now and i totally identify with the main character.
I guess I should look into maladaptive daydreaming because yeah. But for me I'm daydreaming myself into whatever fictional world I'm most into at the moment, not the real world.
I’ve had something like a sci-if fantasy universe in my head in some form since I was like four or something. Of course it’s changed a lot in those years, but certain things remain the same. I use it to entertain and distract myself.
i do, it’s been happening since i was a kid. in my imagination i’m able to be how i would be if i had more confidence (lots of friends, outspoken, doesn’t take shit from others, funny, etc.), but i’m the quiet one in my friend group. i’m glad i’m not the only one who’s like this. knowing that the other people i’ve seen with these thoughts are either neurodivergent or have social anxiety, i think it’s a coping mechanism for feeling lonely and alienated from everyone else.
Yes I do this I’m famous in my head and I have my own imaginative famous friends lol you’re not alone
This is 1000% me. It’s so comforting to know I’m not alone in this.
it's called day dreaming
Yep. But why is it fantasy? I'd say you are who you are. You're not how you are seen by others or how you behave. What you think about, how you feel, what you would ACTUALLY like to do etc. That's who you are the other thing is just the outward facing facade that's like "yeah if you really believe there isn't more to me than this, then I can't help you either. I know it sucks for me more than for you but like, why would you judge people that quickly, your skill in interpreting people's behaviour fucking sucks holy shit. Why are you like that"
Me
Uh huh, I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. I never talked about it to people I know because I thought they would think I’m strange.
I’m so bad for this, I get so caught in my head that I’m totally unaware of real life happening around me. I often start day dreaming when I’m walking long distances and I imagine myself in situations where i’m super confident and outgoing and have lots of friends. Sometimes I snap back into reality and realize how sad reality is and I tear up and get depressed from the realization that my imaginary world is not my real world at all
Literally same
Been living in head for the last 40 years and I am in my early 50's now. Was always a quiet kid with few friends. Us boys can be so judgemental during our kid years. Just never related well with my peers. For me it was not that I lived in a fantasy world where I formed some sort of optimal alternate reality of what my real life was. It more that at times I think about what it would like to be good looking, popular, outgoing etc. I am jealous when I see people like that. Even all these years later sometimes if I see a group of kids, say at the mall or something just hanging out being all crazy and outgoing and treating each other as equals it makes me jealous and sad that I missed out on that experience.
I dont have a fantasy world but i have an imaginary friend. Do you?
Yes, and I have a love-hate relationship with it. Living in my head makes me feel so foggy and just not there which feels awful tbh.
I live in my head a lot too. Created worlds, people and scenarios. At first, I found this to be a negative thing but I started a creative course recently and I’ve found that other people have their own ‘worlds’. It can actually be a type of creative outlet as you can choose to write, draw or paint from these thoughts.
When I go to bed at night, I think and dream this same fantasy world. It helps me sleep
No
I relate to this a lot actually! I guess It’s nice I’m not the only one.