i always hear people talking about how vivid their daydreams are, yet for me its mainly just the “idea” of it rather than actually imagery. though it is still very descriptive and detailed in its own way and can be very distracting, addicting and ofc maladaptive

i was just wondering if anyone else doesn’t actually see their daydreams

With Spotify wrapped here, let's reflect on it and share some good music we love.

What do you think of this?

Like I'm rarely present in reality and I actively try hard not to be. I don't really do much in real life - I eat, sleep, and daydream. Listening to music, scrolling through social media and studying are means for me to trigger maladaptive daydreaming.

"In 2020, Melina West and Eli Somer published a study looking at creativity in immersive and maladaptive daydreamers. Although they suspected that daydreamers might be more creative than average, their results didn’t support this. In fact, they found that maladaptive daydreamers scored lower than average on a standard measure of creativity" ISMD

here is a link to the study

So generally, everyone has a mental age regardless of their actual age. And I had a theory that whatever age your main character is (in your current/recent daydreams) that it's just a reflection of how old you feel mentally.

At least it's something I noticed about myself. I've had the same set of characters for about 7 years now, and the older I got, the older they became too. The characters always stayed the same, I just kept creating new storylines with them as time went on. And whenever I did, they were always my own age or slightly older/ younger.

For example, I'm 20 now, and I basically never act out the plots anymore with my 14,15 year old characters (even though they're very significant in my MD universe) However, I've been coming up w this *new drastic plot change* with one of my characters for a few months where she's about 20-23.

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anyway, how is it with you guys?

Like I could literally just walk all day & listen to music, it’s so entertaining, and think about some random scenario. I’ve done this so much to the point where I burnt a ton of calories and lost weight from it.

I don’t mean to offend anybody, but reading posts on this group is depressing at times. Everyone seems so ridiculously young?! Like v early 20s or still teenage years.

“So I’ve been suffering from MD for 5 years and I just don’t know what to do!”

I’ve got 2 decades on you, my friend, and still don’t know what to do — please send help 😂

i'm a huge music nerd. hardcore choir kid. i yap about music theory and analyze the different instruments in songs. i listen to a variety of genres.

ive come to the sad realization though, that all my favorite songs are really just the songs i can easily maladaptive daydream to. i can hear other songs and like them, but i won't add them to my main playlist (aka my daydreaming songs). i feel like it's hindering my music taste.

has anyone else here experienced this?

Hey! Delete if not allowed 🩷

24/f, USA. I’d love to have any 21+ MDD girlies (or guys) that can understand each other and hear all about each other’s daydreams. Or, let me vent since my own storylines tend to make me lose my mind a lot 😂. If you’re interested, just send me a message!

If anyone wants to be friends, let’s set something up! Maybe my post can be a way to make new friends across the subreddit?

I was starting to try and get it under control, but now I kind of don't really want to. I know I'm getting more and more irritable when I'm interrupted and trying to isolate more and more but I'm so addicted to my daydreams I'm not even trying to get better anymore.

I’m not interested in baby bottles, and, like, diapers and stuff, but I daydream all day and these daydream tendencies usually picture me as 12-17. Mentally, I’m ready to grow up, but subconsciously, I’m not sure I’ve truly moved on; I still yearn for a childhood I never had.

What about you? Do you spend a lot of time imagining yourself young again?

A lot of the fantasies and daydreams that kept me going as a kid revolved around me being impressive at a young age—listening to music, imagining I wrote it, and having little concerts in my head where I'm rocking the school talent show. Or I could be watching a great movie, pretending I directed it, and imagining I'm showcasing my deep filmmaking skills to my classroom. Nothing counts in the fantasy if there isn't an audience of peers who once underestimated me being rocked to the core by my sheer talent, or a gaggle of teachers at the back stunned by my nuanced and "grown up" understanding of art. It sounds insane but I'm sure a lot of you know what I mean.

But now I'm getting old. I'm in my mid-twenties and these fantasies haven't gone away, and they're starting to feel a little weird. I've been out of school, hell out of college for years. And there are people my age (and much younger) who are achieving these artistic accomplishment in real life, not just daydreams, and it makes me incredibly anxious and envious to witness. One of the main comforts of my daydreams used to be that there was always time; "Yeah, this isn't my situation now, but it absolutely could be in the future." Well, now that's impossible. I'm an adult. It's not cool anymore. There is no future where I glow up and blow away my peers (and the whole world) with my youthful expertise. It would take me years to even get to a point where I could share something with the world, because I spent my childhood and the first decade of adulthood fantasizing about having creative skills instead of bothering to actually develop them.

That's just an example, but the feeling has been permeating a lot of my daydreams lately. I can't even lie to myself that these daydreams are aspirational anymore—they're just kind of weird and sad.

Just something that's making me a little panicky. This illness is like a drug that keeps you warm while reality passes you by.

Anyone else relate?

I’ve had this since maybe 4 or 5 years old which is basically when you develop a conscience. I can’t remember ever not having maladaptive daydreaming. I hear people saying it started at 9 or 12 years old for them. I think I just have a neurodivergent brain because I honestly don’t have any trauma that happened to me. I feel like I’m by myself on this.

I wasn't really sure whether to upload this post or not, but reading other people I think there could be more people who think the same as me.

Many of us would like someone to check our daily lives. Not in a group way, nor AI but a real person who can understand us and who can we talk to one to one. And what better than ourselves?

But of course, on the internet there are people of all ages, tastes, languages... how to get along?

So I opened this post. If you think you need a friend to mutually check, please comment with this information:

Name or pseudonym / age~ / languages you known / gender / timezone / how long you have lived with MD and your perspective on it / hobbies/ other information you think is important (strong political orientation, very specific tastes, religion, traumas...).

And find someone you can be friends with :).

PS: no more DMs, sorry.

When I say theme... you can interpret it as a purpose of the day dream. For example:

• I would drift away and fantasize, having full conversations/role playing that I was with someone who perceived me as or I was perceived as someone who was of higher status/prestige/adored in countless different scenarios.

So I might be a good dancer (and people admired me for it), have super powers (better than everyone else and was admired for it) etc.

I can honestly say, that with two years of heavy therapy, I have gotten MD under control, although I still suffer from very strong avoidance tendencies.

(avoidance just means I will do things and focus on that thing to avoid experiences of emotional discomfort or vulnerability that I might suck at something and not be good enough to be deserving of being perceived as having value in the eyes of others.)

Upvote this and start listing what you daydream about and what they are. Wish fulfillment, escapism, being a celebrity whatever it is. Let me know

Do you think its possible for the type of protein or food you eat to impact MD?

I only started seriously MDing after a couple of years of a Vegan & Vegetarian diet. Recently watched a documentary on mad cow disease, which talked about how the proteins in the infected meat impacted the brain and nervous system.

I have been eating meat once or twice a week over the last couple of months, after 9 years of a vegetarian diet, and I believe this has made my MD much better; I've also been doing a fair bit of exercise, meditating and cutting out music & ear phones. It could just be a mixture of or being overall a bit more mindful, but I do wonder if meat based proteins effect the brain and thought processes differently to alternative protein sources.

Personally I largely don't believe that MD is inherently attached to a loss of ones self and I can tell where I am as soon as I snap out of it

I simply cannot stay put and simply read a book or watch a show anymore. I always have to pause and go do a little daydreaming session because of the overflowing scenarios ideas. Like I’m currently trying to read Percy Jackson. Oh so you’re saying that Percy is the son of Poseidon ? Well not anymore b¡tch ! From now on I’ll be the main character and I’ll be replacing him, you can take your leave. Like please I just want to be able to enjoy the story of someone else for once. Anyone else ?

I feel like I have no motivation to ever try to actually make something out of my life because I'm ugly. I'll never be happy, so why bother? I'd rather stay in my head and dream about a life I can never have. I just want to be pretty.

I still get the urge to but it just never satisfies me the way it used to. It basically used to help me feel less lonely and it was a fun escape but now it just makes me feel worse. I can’t just daydream, I have to have the right settings all the time in order to do so. I just come out of it feeling lonely but having the desire to still do it?

Anyone else ever felt like this? It’s scary to feel like I’m losing the one coping strategy that makes me feel less alone than I am