Do you have maladaptive daydreaming?

[Briar Rose]

@Living in the 70s :
I never imagined any of my pets in my daydreaming worlds, so I try to see her as an anchor.
She can help me grounding, I thought that might be helpful. When i get intrusive memories or flashbacks, she often comes to me by herself, so I thought her closeness might help me here as well. :)

 

[ms spock]

That is a great grounding strategy @Briar Rose!

 

[ms spock]

I am struggling with this yet again.

 

[Briar Rose]

I spent the whole weekend living in my head again...
To be honest I don't even regret it, because I can't handle stuff any other way right now. My body is really struggling at the moment. I can't deal with it! It's constantly triggering and I feel myself slipping into intrusive thoughts and emotional Flashbacks allot.
When I am not daydreaming I start dissociating, I prefer to zoom out by myself.
Only thing bothering me is, the lost of time...it feels like nothing will ever change. There is so much control in my daydreams, so much more of a 'life'...

 

[Still Standing]

Just saw this thread. Add me to the list. I have gone as far as play acting and verbalizing my daydreams when younger. Now I find me making hand movements and mouthing words and rocking back and forth when I am engaged in daydreaming. Through the years, I have known this to be an escape from the present stresses. It is a world of my own that no one can enter. I am safe in these daydreams. I am not conscious of others when I am lost in my world until they ask me what I was saying or why I was moving my hands. I try hard not to physically act out my daydreaming so attention is not drawn to me. I understand this is not a real world. It is not delusional. It is simply an imaginary world of imaginary interactions with people that I wish could be real...it is a place where I can
"talk" about troubling situations safely This is the first time I have admitted to this activity. I have always seen it as neurotic and "wrong".

 

[ms spock]

I also make physical movements, and am asked what I was saying. I am really struggling to stay out of this at the moment.

 

[Still Standing]

I also make physical movements, and am asked what I was saying. I am really struggling to stay out of this at the moment.

Ha! Ha! I have often thought that I was going to be the most interesting, neurotic old lady because of this character flaw! Now I know I have competition!!! Glad I have company! :)

 

[ms spock]

I have cut down on this significantly. It is a huge improvement. It is still a huge issue for me, but I am improving.

 

[ms spock]

I did really well with stopping the maladaptive daydreaming for several days but it is back again now. I am stressing so much the Dr Christine Blazey Ford stuff is really pushing my buttons.

 

[hithere]

This is one of my biggest problems (next food problems) ... I have wasted my entire waking moments today on this, and distractions of the meaningless kind

 

[ms spock]

I am working on it, @hithere, and I am struggling at times with it big time, but I am making progress, sometimes significant progress.

 

[Deleted member 47099]

Thank you for this thread and explaining the issue so well.

I struggle with this but never knew it had a name or was a "thing" either.

I've been using some grounding techniques to get out of it since reading this thread and am making some (tiny) progress.

Loooong way to go yet, but it would/ will be amazing to get so many "wasted" hours per day back, if I can make progress on this.

Thanks and thinking of everyone who's struggling with this on their journey. :hug: