Well, I never thought I’d be back here on this subreddit with a success story. It’s been about nine years since I was active here.

I’m 26F, I had a severe case of MD all throughout my teens. The triggering incident was my parents deciding to relocate our whole family to another country when I was 11. I would be scared and overstimulated, I felt alienated from my classmates, I was made fun of for speaking the local language with an accent, and ended up retreating inwards where at least I had control over the stories and fictional characters i created in my head.

At around 18, I eventually realized I had a severe problem and would spend hours on this subreddit, reading about other people’s experiences and trying to self diagnose.

There was one post in I stumbled upon that turned my blood cold, and I remember it nearly nine years later. It was a guy confessing how he recently became a father and how he had voluntarily let MD destroy his family life because he would rather spend time daydreaming than raise his kid. He said he would sit on the floor staring blankly at the wall for several hours every day while his kid begged him to play. I read that and cried.

Reading that was probably my wake up call to turn my life around and take this shit seriously. I don’t mention this with the intent of shaming anyone-No one knows what he might have been going through, and I have absolutely no right to judge. But in the moment, his post was the only thing that helped me realize the severity of this disorder. Wherever he is today, I hope he was able to get the help he needed.

Removing negative influences and triggers from my life was the only thing that worked for me. Toxic friends, toxic workplaces, anything that could overwhelm me or pull me towards wanting to participate in escapism. Getting a remote job was a game changer. I think it got better after that. It took many years but I stopped around 21. My self confidence really improved after i graduated and started working, so there was less of a reason to escape. It turned out that external factors mattered way more than I thought. I know a lot of teens struggle with this disorder- I always thought I would be stuck with it for life. Stick it out guys. You never know.
My DMs are open for anyone who wants to talk.

I’m still guilty of spending way too much time in my head these days but I find myself dreaming about things I can apply in my real life. Career goals, traveling, creative hobbies etc. it’s still self indulgent daydreaming but it’s far more action oriented than it was before. The maladaptive part is gone. I’m onto conquering my next demon now which is adhd 🥲

I see a lot of people here talking about how theyre isolated, lonely, NEETs, mentally unwell, and use MD to cope. I think this is understandable.

But I'm 23. I have a boyfriend of 4 years, I have friends I love, I'm pretty, I party, I go to the gym, I have a job that pays me enough to get what I want and I quite enjoy doing, etc.

I love all of these things. But it's all just starting to feel like grey slop in comparison to my fantasy world. I daydream for 7 hours a day right now. It's so sad. I work at a mental health crisis centre, and I daydream between calls and dont want to talk to my colleagues who I used to love chatting with. My bf and I watch a film, and I'm not paying attention because I'm daydreaming. I meet friends, and I want to go home early so I can go and daydream in my kitchen. I wait for my bf to go to bed all excitedly so I can go and twirl in our kitchen rather than spend time together. I have 20k steps a day average. Its so bad.

I've been doing this literally as long as I remember, but its never been this bad. It's usually distinctly seperate to my actual life. I try and justify it by saying I'm "writing a story", but I dont write - I just daydream. I'm on an SSRI and have tried two different types of therapy, I worry there's not much that can be done for me

I have been maladaptive daydreaming for about four years now, it started at a very awful time in my life and has now progressed to something so horrid I don’t think I can come back from it.

I am constantly maladaptive daydreaming. CONSTANTLY. Showering, brushing my teeth, working, eating, driving etc. No matter what I am doing I am daydreaming, I feel like I have no control over it and I don’t know if I ever had control, I have no idea how things got this bad but I literally cannot take it anymore.

I daydream about people I know in my real life as well as celebrities and even some made up characters of my own, today I feel like I have literally opened my eyes about how bad it’s gotten. I was pacing around my living room/kitchen listening to music and simultaneously having a conversation with a group of people that did not exist and I just thought to myself what the actual fuck are you doing. I had a brief moment where I calmed myself down by saying that it’s normal and okay. ITS NOT NORMAL OR OKAY.

I have spent the better part of my day googling, researching and YouTubing how to get rid of this god awful habit but no one actually tells you what the fuck to do. It’s just videos and articles about what it actually is. I am at my wits end.

Please someone tell me how to fix this, I am genuinely spiralling and it just keeps getting worse.

Hi everyone! Would anyone be able to help me? I used to use this as a coping mechanism and safe space for things from ages 9-15, Sometimes I feel really stressed and feel the urge to do it but I just… can’t. I don’t see anything. It’s stressed me out so bad to the point at times I have cried, I know it’s a good thing to cut anyway however sometimes doesn’t hurt, what are the factors in being unable? How do I help getting my mind back? I also realised im unable to visualise alot of things the way I used to. I’m 19 now so I wouldn’t exactly blame it on getting old. I’m unsure if it’s hormone related or anything, I do unfortunately nowadays have a bit of a worse sleep schedule and worry it’ll never come back and that I’ve dulled myself due to that.

Maladaptive daydreaming feels like being stuck between reality and imagination

I spend most of my time alone and rarely use social media. I don't really have anyone to talk to, and even when I do, I often don't feel like it.

Lately, the isolation seems to have made my maladaptive daydreaming increasingly uncontrollable. Even small triggers, like a game or character, can send me into elaborate daydreams.

The frustrating part is that I'm stuck in limbo. I can't fully immerse myself in my imaginary world, but I can't stay present in reality either. On top of that, my intrusive thoughts are becoming increasingly annoying and exhausting.

I feel mentally drained and struggle to enjoy things the way I used to.

Has anyone else experienced this? How do you cope with feeling stuck between your imagination and reality?

Hey has anyone else experienced the urge to eat a lot more after quitting/spending less time maladaptive daydreaming? Specificially I get higher sugar cravings, and I'm also anxious a lot more than I usually am. I've experienced a few anxiety attacks this past month which was completely new for me. Idk, I'm considering getting on SSRIs but I'm worried that I don't actually have an anxiety disorder and it's just the stress of quitting maladaptive daydreaming getting to me.

So I have been struggling with this weird daydreaming nightmare thing for as long as I can remember, and finally tonight after experiencing a more extreme awake nightmare I decided to do a minor research session and came across the term Maladaptive Daydreaming. I am not sure if this is what i’m actually experiencing or not…. I want to give a few examples from my own experience to hopefully see if anyone else here experiences similar symptoms as me. Tonight, I was walking to my car after work and as I was crossing the street I was hyper aware that a car parked by the crosswalk was making a blind spot for any oncoming traffic that wanted to turn into the crosswalk. I suddenly started getting a vivid image/movie in my mind of a car quickly turning and hitting me, and the back wheels rolling over my skull and cracking it open crushing it. I didn’t completely feel any pain, but I could feel what it would feel like for a car tire to go over my head. Kind of like feeling pressure or pain while dreaming? I will admit my mind tends to come up with a lot of scary morbid things in my regular nightmares, but experiencing them while awake and not really being able to stop it is very unsettling for me. Another example I can think of recently; I was leaving my room and walking past the fireplace in our living room. I saw something in there out of the corner of my eye and then realized it was my cat burning alive inside the fireplace. It was horrifying and I could hear him and see him just burning alive, but there is glass covering the fireplace so I couldn’t even help him, all I could do was watch. When I “woke up” my heart was beating really fast and I was literally sweating on my neck. It happened in what felt like seconds. I’m not exactly sure why this happens or if it pertains to anything in this sub, but i’m wondering when I should consider it serious enough to get help? Or if it even is serious enough to go to such lengths. I have noticed it’s usually triggered by something I see or notice in real life that suddenly becomes a part of a horrific daydream. Anyway, thanks for anyone taking the time to read this!

I never engaged with disco music in the MD world I built and was trapped in, so it's pretty much the only genre of music that doesn't trigger it. I'll 100% take disco over no music, which I had accepted for my first few weeks of quitting, but I do find it pretty humorous that this is my life now. I definitely miss my preferred genres that I used to pace to, but alas, we boogie 🕺

MD is a cope. I knew that since I started daydreaming excessively, it started when I had to do any kinda of work that’s hard or challenging for me, like studying, then working in my twenties, it got worse when it started happening even during my favorite activities and hobbies, like reading, watching, exercising…it happened everywhere, anytime. I knew it was taking more space than I should’ve allowed it to. 

I don’t know how it occurred to me exactly, but I know that I had an urge to grab pen and paper, then started writing about whatever came to mind, I was fed up, anxious, ashamed of myself and how a man of inaction I’ve become, I swallowed that to heart and just started writing.

Then I started seeing a pattern: 

-My daydreaming often occurred after being triggered by a negative feeling (like fear and anxiety)
-The content of my MD consisted themes of success, grandiosity and fake wins 

I always knew I was coping with my unfulfilled self by MD, but I had to face it, I had to recognize it, I had to name it and give it shape.

By journaling, my unspoken thoughts and unbirthed dreams started to take shape, I could see them in the paper and I could understand myself better, something about putting words in front of my eyes gave me control over my MD, what was once an uncontrolled obsessive habit started to be tamed and more to be bend by my awareness. 

I don’t suggest this is a solution for everyone, but I thought to share, maybe someone needs it.

I have had insomnia for the past 2-3 years where I couldn't sleep properly most days (really bad quality sleep and no dreams), there was one day where I did not sleep for a second throughout the whole day and I felt I was going insane, my level of botheredness was through the roof. Eventually one day (almost a year ago) I just gave up on trying to battle or fight against the overthinking that I had in mind and to just let it all flow, that night I had the best sleep (I think I was MD'ing), however the very next morning I was tired AF and had no motivation at all, to this day it is the same though it is slowly getting better. I now MD throughout most of the day whilst simultaneously doing other things resulting in derealisation, I use it as a way to help with my sleep. Does anyone else have a similar experience?

I always daydreamed growing up (stereotypical head in the clouds kid lol) but it became an issue during middle school. It was an escape from my personal life and it primarily consisted of me pacing my room while listening to music, typically self insert storylines for shows and books I loved or just my life going better in general. Daydreaming was the only thing I actually enjoyed doing for years. The worst it got was when I started staying up until 5am every morning pacing, daydreaming (I was homeschooled during this time which meant I had a flexible schedule but also meant I had no friends lol). I realized something was wrong and that I needed to change my habits if I wanted to be the person I would daydream that I was and someone who deserved to be loved (not healthy but that was my thought process).

At 15 I bought an instrument and picked up skating as an attempt to fill my time in other ways. I also devoted more effort to my studies. I had gone a few months clean of daydreaming but eventually went back to it. I learned a lot in this attempts and this lead to a cycle of me going a month or so without pacing but eventually falling back to it. Even though this initial I never stayed out of the habit for too long, I still play that instrument, skate, and I am currently majoring in the subject I focused my studies on, so I'm very grateful for making that attempts when I did :)

I started going to a community college at 16 and while I still didn't really have friends, I got busy with school and work. I noticed that the more responsibilities I had on my plate, the less time I was able to pace.

Things got significantly better when I started developing friendships and got a boyfriend - over a year in and were still locked in :). I realized that relationships were what daydreaming would replace in my life and now that I have them I didn't feel like the only way I could be happy is in a reality I construct in my mind. I'm not saying that daydreaming is no longer an issue - I still fall to it at times when I am particularly stressed about life - but I feel like I am able to spend my time in ways that make me the person I want to be rather than someone who just succumbs to the instant gratification that daydreaming can offer.

I was ashamed of my habit of daydreaming and as a teen I what it could be until finding this subreddit :) I just wanted to post this here to hopefully encourage anyone who may be like me as a teen feeling lost and like their self sabotaging habits were going to leave them with nothing in life. Filling your time with responsibilities and relationships, along with actively practicing discipline and avoiding triggers (lets be real, in extreme cases it is an addiction, and with strong will power, that can be overcome) has helped me tremendously, and things have gotten much better :)

I'm so tired of daydreaming all the time. I'm 16f and I've been doing this since the age of 6. I don't do anything. I can't fall asleep without dreaming. I don't pay attention in class. I daydream in the midst of my exams instead of writing the exam. There's so much. I just need any advice from people who have been able to quit

Hi, I know that there's a strong relationship between ADHD and maladaptive daydreaming. I was wondering if anyone diagnosed with ADHD who daydreams a lot might have noticed changes in their daydreaming habits after taking medication. Please share your experience/thoughts if you are able to!

i completely recognize maladaptive daydreaming as a problem for me. at the same time though, i would be extremely depressed and hopefully without my fantasies. i’m so lonely and sad as it is in real life already that if i couldn’t daydream to cope, i would be deeply DEEPLY depressed, a lot more than i am currently (and im already far into depression).

i want to just not be depressed anymore, and i know maladaptive daydreaming has taken over my life, but at the same time it’s saving it.

i hope this doesn’t come off as insensitive, just sharing an alternate view of this hell we’re in

Not just MD but other adhd symptoms like binge eating also gets better during this phase. Anyone have a theory why?

I’ve been daydreaming for 8 years since I was 12. The daydream that I am on right now have been going on about 3 years. The problem about me is that when I daydream I like searching for details more than the daydream itself. Choosing fits for the occasions in my daydreams, looking at apartment prices in my dream city and finding the perfect apartment for my daydream ,obsessing over that area, using Google Maps looking for shops and bus stops in that neighborhood thinking what I will do if I ever lived there, sometimes using Google Maps walking mode to walk that neighborhood, decorating my apartment looking at furnitures , looking at prices calculating if I can afford it with my daydream salary that I made from my daydream job. Sometimes my mom and sister visits me for a few days and I show them around. I mainly travel for my job seeing other cities (using Google Maps for travel). Looking at souvenir haul videos from that city for choosing gifts for my family. After that I get married to my celeb crush,I started looking for wedding dresses ,wedding venues, wedding rings. Decided where will we live in his country looking at house prices and areas all over again. I also imaged having two kids one boy and a girl. I created scenarios so detailed I started to have baby fever. I don’t even like my celeb crush much anymore but for the plot and the kids I’m keeping him. I know this is not real life I’m aware of everything but It’s like building your sims characters life for years and deleting it.

Ever since I started spending significantly more time in reality-only occasionally escaping into fantasies-I’ve wondered why I feel especially bad after using that method to cope with negative emotions. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am the one—quite literally-comparing my real self to something "ideal" and unattainable, which only ends up burying me even deeper.

Oh, my dear... 🥺

So, I just met up with a friend of mine. She really is a very beautiful and striking young woman—and she’s well aware of it, too, showing it off in every way: through her clothes, her behavior, and her personal style. I suppose I might actually be envious of her.

After this encounter, I feel so humiliated—so small, invisible, and completely unwanted.
Yeah... that’s my mother’s voice. ✋
"Look at other girls! Look at how they look, how they dress! Look at how they behave and what they do with their lives... 😍And YOU—who are YOU??🤬»

And as I experience all of this—all these truly unpleasant feelings—instead of comforting MYSELF or recalling what my psychologist and I discussed regarding this very topic... I make a simply brilliant choice!!💎💎

"Hey, let’s hop on Instagram! Let’s take a look at those 'perfect' girls and their 'perfect' lives... let’s get a glimpse of that, see it with our own eyes—and then, let’s take a look at ourselves in the mirror! 🤗🤗" (I swear, that’s exactly what it feels like)

And damn. Of course, this will only make things worse!!

This realization just completely blew my mind. It’s like I took a step back and looked at what I’m doing from the outside.

Md heavily stems from ADHD which is worsened by an Iron deficiency. Still that's not enough correlation wondering will Iron supplements help reduce MD? Quite literally nothing else works.

I wanted to start first by expressing my gratitude to find this space.
I feel so seen♥️
I have started MDDing since a very young age.
It started getting worse and worse with time
Until it became really disabling at my teenage years
I started dissociating even when i am out with my friends.
I used to lay my head on my desk and start daydreaming at any free time at school instead of socializing and having fun with my friends.
And after that i started to develop clear psychological disorders .
I had OCD twice during my teenage years and also Social Anxiety .
Since these years i have never felt normal or aligned.
And i have been incredibly silent about my suffering.
I never thought i could open up about my struggle to anyone.
I almost felt it was impossible for me to do that
I felt it was impossible to hear myself telling my suffering to anyone.
Even when I approached two therapists i felt so guarded that i couldn’t express myself hence i never got the proper help i needed.
That why i am so happy to find this space☺️♥️
I was actually thrilled when i found out a place where i can express more freely and found people who can understand my struggles.♥️
Until now i am struggling with MDD and society anxiety .
But i took the decision to stop MDD and take some action.
The journey is very tiring and challenging
It needs a lot of work on it and the underlying causes as will.
It so hazy and i don’t know if i will get eventually somewhere.
But trying is all i have right now and it’s better than nothing.
I would love to share my experience and journey in another post but for now i just wanted to lift some weight of my chest and also express my gratitude of finding this space ♥️♥️

How Maladaptive Daydreaming ruined my life

Exactly as what the title states

I still remember when it was that it started it was around 4 years ago when I read a manga named named Blue Box,looking back at it that was where it all started,I experienced vivid scenarios and stimulations for a while but I didn't really know what it was back then and it actually went away after a while and they came back after I read another manga,and Here In all of these scenarios didn't really affect me in real life a lot sure I was having vivid dreams but I was not a character in it

And fast forward 4 years

My life is in shambles due to maladaptive dreaming and yes as everyone else in this sub experiences it,I also suffer from high level of vivid stimulations running in my mind through out the day,completely thwarting me off and you know what the worst part is?

It completely changed my life but not in a situation one might think,in the process of maladaptive daydreaming,As we all know the more you know about a person the more prone you are to MaDD about them and yes for context my MaDD stopped being about fictional charecters and instead it revolves around me now and that was the WORST thing that could have ever happened to me as it's completely throwing me off from reality and in the process i was so overwhelmingly thinking about a person,I eventually started having panic attaks or anxiety episodes one might say and I still can't help but dream about this person and due to all of this I am now very distant with this person dude to the mistakes i made with them

And I wish that was the worst of it but mind you it is NOT,It progressed to such a point that I would literally change my speaking style and every single word when talking to a person to make it more ideal for my MaDD and to dream about,even if that was very unconventional of an answer, and I don't even know where to start bro,I have a competetive exam soon not even 50 days later and I'm in shambles,I literally can't even WALK without experiencing MaDD like #uck walking i can't even sit without MaDD

I simply can't exist without doing that,I know people say about how there are ykw triggers for MaD,for me it has come to such a point that there are no triggers anymore as in Everything is a trigger for me walking,eating,nostalgia,sitting without speaking to anyone,sitting while speaking to anyone,doing my work anything literally anything

And I want to change and I've read some suggetions on this sub but I don't even know where to start as everything in my life is a trigger for this and It's crumbling my life away and even as If I'm writing this, I'm still doing it

I can't please someone help me,I am not able to do anything as my life is crumbling away only for me to watch like a third-person and MaDD about this too

PLEASE

I have a horrible crush on a current celeb actress... and its become really rough LOL.

My MDD has become me as a famous actor, us working together, with other famous actors, her admiring me, me looking strong and her slowly crushing/falling in love with me

Its become really rough bc im spending a lot of time doing this...

1) is this normal? Do y'all do this too?

2) do I need to stop? It helps me cope. Currently going through some stuff but im in a rigorous grad program and it helps a little but i need to lock in

3) the crush is crazy. Its almost like ive built this weird odd parasocial relationship... like i'll picture us on dates, texting etc. and it helps a bit but it makes me almost want to live in this fantasy more than real life. But its in my head... have any of yall experienced this?

4) the crush just sucks. Idk why it hit me so so hard ... im not sure what to do about it

Wondering what advice or tips you guys had about it. Pls give advice.

MD in my case and personal opinion is an addiction and a very nasty habit. This habit can be influnced by boredom, low serotonin, quitting addictions or taking drugs etc.. But you always have choice to be in the moment and dont go inside your brain.

But why is it bad? And why you need to quit?

I will start by saying One hour as a king is worth more than 1 lifetime of a slave..

1 hour of you achieving your goals in reality is worth more than 100 years living inside your brain. If you day dream about you being a crazy smart inventor and doing all these crazy inventions and making robots can travel to space etc.. In reality reading only 1 page of a book is worth more than day dreaming you are super intelligent. Because this is fake and reading one page is real.. It is realer than ever. 1 page in reality is better than day dreaming you are super human.. It feels like you are becoming this so smart guy but it is a lie that you adapted your mind to listen to so much that now it feels reality but it is fake.. Just lies.

Most humans prefer to be kings in their mind than being students in reality. Our egostic self want the best. It dont accept the humility of being a student and taking baby steps. You need to accept the boredom of reality to get to where you want.. Or just be a king in your mind and this means slave in reality.

Real warriors never accept the lies of day dreaming and only accept real action

In reality achieving a test and passing it give you like 100x times more dopamine than those cheap shots.. You day dream feel good for few minutes then back to old nasty self. It is like a cycle and you are never heading forward. In reality achieving things feels much better. Now imagine this.. You get horny so you masturbate to fantasy.. This act is just a lie.. You are laying to urself about you getting this hot woman. In reality getting an average 4 of 10 woman is much better. The feeling of you sitting on her lap, hugging you etc.. Is worth more than 40 years of pornography addiction. Getting a woman in reality is 100x better. It feels like heaven but you accept those cheap shots than never make you fully healed from inside.. You get get worse and worse self esteem..

The key to real self esteem is hating those fake lies. The real key to healing self esteem and building self worth is to not accept those dreams and to feel disgusted by those lies. Not real so no deal. never accept lies. One muslims schoolar said: Real honored self and real self esteem comes by neglecting all day dreams. And this qoute motivated me a lot. because everytime you day dream you are telling yourself that you are a lier.

Day dreaming also is like you are fasting now for 24h and extremely hungry and ask ur mom i want to eat.. Ur mom replies: Go dream about eating a susage. If you day dream about eating food you will get hungrier and thirstier.. It will make you feel way worse. Real satiation comes from real foods not lies. Actually if you dont day dream and dont eat it is better because it will just make you feel worse if you day dream on top of hugner.