- Username
- Rachel52
- Date posted
- 5y ago
I do this as well and there’s nothing wrong with it!!! It’s called immersive daydreaming not to be confused with maladaptive daydreaming, which is dangerous. Immersive daydreaming is a healthy and fun experience and is great to clear your mind. People who are immersive daydreamers also have to capacity of lucid dreaming. So consider yourself special :) Anyways a lot of daydreams do paint yourself in a better light and it’s not that you’re necessarily unhappy with your life. You’re just playing around with the what if’s. I daydream of acting even though I don’t really have an interest to do so. It’s just a curiosity thing. It can become time consuming as well, but that’s if you let it. You can learn how to manage this and your time. Some people manage to dream while doing other tasks, so they can have fun and still be productive. I personally just daydream in most of my free time and whenever I get bored. Anyway, hope this helps!
If you daydream about fun stuff, why not accept the daydream and take it as: you’re visualizing what you want, therefore you’re working towards it? You’re becoming a visionary ;) If you’re not happy with your life, your mind is giving you a movie of how to make it better, or at least where to head towards :)
I feel like why should this make you a bad person you know? It’s like you watch titanic and dream of marrying Leonardo Di Carpio haha. If ocd is telling you, no no no no no you’re bad don’t do it. Take a deep breath. And see where that impulse to feel like a bad person is coming from. Maybe you learned that you were a bad person if you showed certain behavior? From teachers, religion or parents? Also what stands out in your post is that you say that maybe you’re just unhappy in your life. Is this related to your current partner as well? Is the daydream a way to visualize how it would be otherwise?
This thread was so helpful! I catch myself daydreaming a lot about someone other than my husband and it has been worrying me to death!
But if it’s about other people than my partner... does that make me a bad person? You know? That’s where my head goes a bit. Then the whole spiral happens and something that was fun and light and easy turns into something toxic. Sigh... ocd
You mean daydreaming romantically with someone other than your current romantic partner?
Yes :( but like... just funny scenarios or like I’ll watch a romantic movie! And say dream in that aspect but other people, none is ever be with or anything, just diferent. It can be difficult.
Thank you! It really did! :)
Awww I’m so glad!
I’m wondering if anybody else deals with an intense inner dialogue. It seems like my thoughts overlap each other and sometimes don’t make sense. Whether it’s a song stuck in my head, a million thoughts at once or both. It seems to never stop, even my dreams are super vivid. More recently I’ve been noticing random words or sentences that somebody has said before that has no meaning to what I’m thinking about, it will just pop in my head for no reason. For example I’ll be in the shower and “hear” a sentence one of my friends said. It sounds like their voice but it’s just in my thoughts if that makes sense. My core fear is losing my mind, so this spirals and my ocd tries to convince me that I’m hearing voices. Can anyone relate? If so what are some things that you have found to be effective when it comes to staying present. I hate not being as involved in conversations or not giving my 100% attention to things happening around me
I’m thinking thoughts 24/7, from wake to sleep, everyday, every moment. I don’t even get a one second break. It’s exhausting. What do I do? Is this normal? I want to be able to get out of my own head. I analyze and have thoughts about every action/event, every person, and every thought. And unfortunately there’s a set of traumas my brain makes me think about tons of times everyday. The only time I can stop thinking is when I’m super drunk (don’t worry, I’ve made sure to only do this like once or twice a month.) I’m not interested in trying medication, I’ve been on meds a few times and they never helped. Any advice?
I struggle so, so much with maladaptive daydreaming, have since I was little, and it's taken over my life. I want it to stop, but it's so hard when my thoughts keep REPEATING. I've heard from others that I'll need to break my own heart, tell myself that nothing I'm thinking is real, and to face up to reality. I know daydreaming is a distracting and reality-voiding coping mechanism, and it's not healthy or helpful when overindulged. And I identify thoughts in which I imagine certain scenarios going perfectly. But it's really difficult because a lot of my daydreaming thoughts are about creative stuff. And not made up characters that I spend time with myself, but characters who I draw and write about just like any illustrator. I've talked to a therapist about the difference between nurturing my creativity and daydreaming in a harmful way, and her advice was useful: "It's wonderful to use your imagination and be creative. Stop when your thoughts start to involve real-life people." I'm still having difficulty understanding how harmful my fictional stories/daydreams are, since I still use them to distract myself. Does anyone else struggle with maladaptive daydreaming?
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