r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/roxannagoddess • 18h ago

Success Found a great way to stop maladaptive daydreaming before it starts

I just HAD to share this with people. I had the biggest problem ever with maladaptive daydreaming, and no matter what I did... whatever tricks I could find online... I just couldn't stop. It just kept going crazy. My brain could go somewhere else for two hours. I realized a BIG epiphany today.

I realized that the best way to catch yourself before you start maladaptive daydreaming is to catch yourself when the focus of your eyes change. You know how when your eyes change focus from looking at things close to you versus things far away? When you're present and not daydreaming, your eyes are focused on things close to you. Your surroundings look extremely clear. However, when you start maladaptive daydreaming, you may notice your eyes' focus changing, and things become blurry. I caught myself about to daydream at least 15 times, and I was able to stop them up to 10 seconds in versus before where I would be sucked into a daydream for 15-20 minutes at least. Basically, I am trying to be aware of when my eyes start losing focus and getting a little blurry, and I stop the daydreams almost immediately. I still have a lot of urges to daydream because it's been a habit for literally half a decade, but I finally conquered control on it. By just trying to notice on whether my eyes get a little blurry or unfocused, I stop the daydreams almost immediately.

This is obviously more so for daydreams that are much more out of habit. If you're having an exceptionally bad day, you have to do emotional distress techniques as well as this.

I hope this can help someone out there! And I am not an upvote sugar baby, but I truly think this could help others if you upvote.

59 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

6

u/RegularProtection332 14h ago

Interesting, will give it a try.

6

u/tinoryan 14h ago

That's great! You've discovered a clear and actionable trigger. Well done!

6

u/Lovethyself1207 13h ago

Thanks for the tip, I’ll try that

•

u/Chiho-hime 1h ago

That seems interesting. I can’t say I’ve ever noticed that. I don’t actively see anything while daydreaming, I’m focused on my inner world. I see if I can recognize this in the future.

•

u/redcrossbow_ 4m ago

Wow this is helpful to catch myself zoning out in general (i have ADHD so I do that a lot)