Daydreaming non-stop for 6 years (Maladaptive daydreaming?)

Hi!, I have suffered from depression since i was 12 years old and i have tried almost every medicine there is for it and nothing seems to work.. I have missed so much school, lost friends.. all of that stuff.. But now to the problem, when i first got depressed i started to daydream. At first it was quite innocent stuff you know, my favorite actor came to my school and i got super popular hehe things like that..

But it soon developed to something much more complicated and i remember it was that summer (2006) that i really started daydream all the time i was on our trampoline in the garden, jumping and listening to music.. I dreamed that i was a big star and everybody wanted me and then i dreamed i had a boyfriend and things like that i don't remember it too vividly..

Since then i have been daydreaming all the time, the only time im not daydreaming is when i have a conversation with someone else.. Otherwise it is constantly and i just want it to stop.

I have over the years had different daydreams they have all been about me imagining that i am a movie star and i always have a boyfriend/husband. Sometimes children.

Since about 2010 i have had the same daydreams which is me, the exact person i am today only a 1000 times better. I am a successful filmmaker and movie star, I write all my own films, I star in them, I pretend that it is a few years in the future so i am maybe 20, 21 (the older i get the older me in this fantasy gets.)

The worst thing about my daydreaming is that it is always involving real people who are famous (not always i am currently pretending a girl who runs a blog is my best friend) And i know these people are real but i get so attached to them and i feel so creepy when i think about it. It's always a guy i get obssessed with and i pretend we get together and eventually get married. It tend to change every 6 months to a year.. what changes is usually if i read that the guy is in a relationship and then i have to find someone new.. But it's not always a guy sometimes it's just someone i see in an interview or in a film and i pretend they are my friends..

It's not always good tho in these fantasies i do imagine that i am depressed and even tho i am so famous and successful and beautiful and talented i am depressed at times and i have several time tried to kill myself in these fantasies (I have tried once in real life.) And i take a bunch of drugs and i am super miserable sometimes..

This is affecting my life so much to the point where i dont know what to do, i have so often over the years tried out different schools and activities to get out of depression but i just wanna go home to my room and daydream, I have one friend and whenever i am with her i just wish she was like my friends in my daydream. But she is not. I don't like her so much but she is all i got. This is ruining my life. But i don't know how to stop.

I am going to a shrink tomorrow and i am going to try to tell her. I have been going to her for a few weeks and she is fantastic.

So a few questions; does anyone else have this problem? Is this maldaptive daydreaming? What can i do to stop it?

I call it my unreality where I escape to and hang out in for a good part of the day everyday. I sit or lay down where ever I am at and daydream and become lost in thought and shut off from the world for a while. I have few friends (close ones atleast) and my grades in school were nearly straight E's from about 4th grade until graduation. It can change for me. Sometimes it people I know, other times its people I have seen like a character in a movie or an actor and other times I make them up or its just me doing things myself. If its with another person its usually a man and its obsessive.

I get what your saying about the constant day dreaming and its effect on your life. Not dx'd with anything so idk about depression or if its anything really related but I could see it being so. Never heard of maladaptive day dreaming. Is that an actual thing or are you just asking for a way to describe it? All I can say to stop it is try and focus on what's happening around you and don't give yourself too long to stop and shut down and go into the fantasy world. Try and keep it to only thinking about it during the evening when your laying down to sleep and no other time during the day. It might make it easier as long as you allow yourself the time. Its like a diet. If you say no sweets and don't allow yourself any then its all you think about and crave so you should allow yourself tiny portions or rewards to eliminate the craving and keep under control.

Post how it went at the shrinks? Hope it went well and you're okay.

Hon, that definitely sounds like Maladaptive Daydreaming. Here is a website with more information about it:

http://daydreamingdisorder.webs.com/

Is this similar to what the protagonist goes through in 'A beautiful mind'?

i would suggest getting into buddhism and a real effort to practice meditation, works like CBT. you need to focus on what is real in the present moment and try to still your mind. also have you tried SNRIs? that in combination with a stimulant works well for me (aside from side effects).. used to be more inside my head. But most of all you prob have to make a real conscious effort to change and refocus many times throughout your day until you rewire your brain a little

-- Sun Dec 09, 2012 8:50 pm --

i would suggest getting into buddhism and a real effort to practice meditation, works like CBT. you need to focus on what is real in the present moment and try to still your mind. also have you tried SNRIs? that in combination with a stimulant works well for me (aside from side effects).. used to be more inside my head. But most of all you prob have to make a real conscious effort to change and refocus many times throughout your day until you rewire your brain a little

If you are still reading this in 2017...

Before totally falling into a disorder treatment cycle:

Do not allow your life to become a treatment that never ends!!!
I believe that when you see that other people actually lived their lives while you spent yours in "treatment mode" this will hurt even more.

Know yourself deeply.
Instead of adopting the "I'm broken, forever mentally ill, someone please fix me" mentality.
It only makes you feel powerless
You need to understand who you are what you can do

*mod edit*

Please look for Steven Pressfield's books:
"The war of art"
"Turning Pro"

All of your daydreams can actually be raw material for your work.

You might be over-identifying with the scenes you can easily create and allowing them take over your life.
But not your sanity as long as you're perfectly able to write what is happening to you here.

You are way more sensible than average people and your smart mind found a very entertaining way to double-cross the dullness of real life and provide you the feelings you desperately want to experience.

It certainly feels awkward and it hurts a lot.
Then you go back to your daydreams, it's way more safe and pleasing there.
You even wish people could see and feel it too.

This cycle can bring a lot a of sadness and a often a turbulent life.
You don't necessarily have to stop the fantasies, the stories, just find a way to put them where they belong.

You need to stop using them to hurt yourself.
You need to stop the war against yourself and against the world.
Your mind works with depth, detail and at a speed that even you can't keep up with. Find a way to manage it.

You are likely to respond to what you feel and this might be affecting your decision making.
Stop expecting people to please you.

If you wish people could act the way they do in your daydream, these are characters.
Have you ever considered that your daydreams can actually become written short stories, books, tv series etc.?

Imagine if J.K Rowling daydreamed about being a witch instead of writing Harry Potter?

HP just appeared in her mind, then she decided to write it, not to live it.
All the aliveness, mystery, danger, fantasy, fail, victory, everything is there.
In the story. In the book.

Then in the movie. How do you think directors were able to create that kind of scenes?
Stop the urge to demand your fantasies to adjust to reality or vice versa They are just not meant for that.

Finally, go do your treatments if you need to,
seek for professional help to re-balance yourself, heal your wounds.

But keep this in mind:
What your mind creates can be an excellent material for the work you can do
and certainly should be doing.

There is a better way to live than spending all your life trying to recover from something.

FriendlyFriend wrote:If you are still reading this in 2017...

Before totally falling into a disorder treatment cycle:

Do not allow your life to become a treatment that never ends!!!
I believe that when you see that other people actually lived their lives while you spent yours in "treatment mode" this will hurt even more.

Know yourself deeply.
Instead of adopting the "I'm broken, forever mentally ill, someone please fix me" mentality.
It only makes you feel powerless
You need to understand who you are what you can do

*mod edit*

Please look for Steven Pressfield's books:
"The war of art"
"Turning Pro"

All of your daydreams can actually be raw material for your work.

You might be over-identifying with the scenes you can easily create and allowing them take over your life.
But not your sanity as long as you're perfectly able to write what is happening to you here.

You are way more sensible than average people and your smart mind found a very entertaining way to double-cross the dullness of real life and provide you the feelings you desperately want to experience.

It certainly feels awkward and it hurts a lot.
Then you go back to your daydreams, it's way more safe and pleasing there.
You even wish people could see and feel it too.

This cycle can bring a lot a of sadness and a often a turbulent life.
You don't necessarily have to stop the fantasies, the stories, just find a way to put them where they belong.

You need to stop using them to hurt yourself.
You need to stop the war against yourself and against the world.
Your mind works with depth, detail and at a speed that even you can't keep up with. Find a way to manage it.

You are likely to respond to what you feel and this might be affecting your decision making.
Stop expecting people to please you.

If you wish people could act the way they do in your daydream, these are characters.
Have you ever considered that your daydreams can actually become written short stories, books, tv series etc.?

Imagine if J.K Rowling daydreamed about being a witch instead of writing Harry Potter?

HP just appeared in her mind, then she decided to write it, not to live it.
All the aliveness, mystery, danger, fantasy, fail, victory, everything is there.
In the story. In the book.

Then in the movie. How do you think directors were able to create that kind of scenes?
Stop the urge to demand your fantasies to adjust to reality or vice versa They are just not meant for that.

Finally, go do your treatments if you need to,
seek for professional help to re-balance yourself, heal your wounds.

But keep this in mind:
What your mind creates can be an excellent material for the work you can do
and certainly should be doing.

There is a better way to live than spending all your life trying to recover from something.

Thank you so much for this! You have no idea how much it's helped me.