I never though deeply about that, never tried to know what it would be and it never bothered me...
Firstly, nowadays i'm diagnosed with depression, sightly panic and i'm on meds (escitalopram oxalate).
However, far ago, since i can remember, i always daydreamed. Almost all the time i'm thinking about surreal situations, they always change depending on my mood, wich book/movie i watched , wich game i've played or what happened to me.
This was an escape routine that happened every single day, i just accepted it and kept daydreaming, but i worry this could be something worse. I dont hear voices or see anything, i just lose my concentration after like 5 minutes and start thinking.
I'm 19, let's say this happens since i was 10, what the fuck can it be? I can't simply stop. Never used any recreational drugs.
Small bamp
Start sketching or write a story about your day dreams. Turn it into something creative in real life
Look up maladaptive daydreaming.
This world is boring for you that's why you dream of such things. It's probably why you are miserable. So long as you don't start believing in your daydreams (delusions) or hallucinating, it's nothing much to worry about
>>17105477
Heh thanks i feel like doing it but some of the histories are so cringeworthy...
>>17105491
Ill check it out. Should i talk to a psychologist about that? The dreams are not that strong but they take most of my time
>>17104984
19 years old compulsive daydreamer reporting in. I'm just like you, and this started happening when I was a small child as well. I just try to go with it, as it is the most interesting activity I do on a normal day. Also, I have started smoking pot a month or so ago and, at least in retrospect, the daydreaming went along perfectly with my highs so far. I don't know what your stance on drugs is, but I absolutely recommend you to smoke pot in the future. If your "condition" is similar to mine. It felt like any moment I found myself in while high was a daydream of mine. Once I noticed this, I consciously started trying to perceive my environment as picturesquely as I could, and sure enough doing that evoked the eerie feeling I usually only felt when daydreaming. It made me perceive reality as a daydream of sorts, if you know what I mean.
>what the fuck can it be?
I think >>17105491 hit the nail on the head there. I had never seen the formal definition of the concept, but I have been thinking about my daydreaming for years now, (although mostly from the "I don't do shit with my life and I feel miserable for that" perspective) and I came to a similar conclusion. I daydreamed because life simply felt... boring. I always felt something was lacking, at least in comparison to the idealization I always imagined for myself and for the world, and the fact that I am a lazy fuck makes me daydream about idealizations I have and other things I might find interesting 24/7, mostly because doing that is easier than working towards what I idealize. Not sure about you, but my daydreaming probably releases dopamine at a very slow albeit steady rate, which makes me feel terrible on a conscious level but subconsciously ok with my current not ideal self on a daily basis.
Also, if I may ask, could you elaborate on your daydreaming? What do you daydream about?
>>17105926
Oh man, that's exactly like me.
>The most interesting activity i do on a normal day
>I daydreamed because life simply felt boring
>I always felt something was lacking [...]
This whole part describe me. I always thought something was missing, there must be something more. Even if i have the chance to work toward my idealizations, i'd rather sit down and dream about it with some good music.
Like, i'm learning to play guitar for 1 year now. Sometimes, i lock myself in my room, blast music at the earbuds and start dreaming a scenario where i'm playing for many people, where i know most of them or recently knew.
As >>17105491 stated, this could be really related to Maladaptive Daydreaming. The part about playing for people may be related to loneliness and my lack of abilities to do it, and also wanting to impress and be know/accepted.
Well, there's also another constant scenario where i'm generally with a "power", some kind of strength, affected by fantasy games i play or music, where the people i know show me respect, generally the world gone to a kind of obscure age/ended and i'm the one keeping the bad shit away from them, by fighting, sometimes even if i needed to sacrifice myself in some way, i still protect them.
There's also this illusional cute girl that i always protect no matter what, but we never stay together because i or we both die.
>Drugs
Well i had the chance to try them. To be honest my dad is on pot since he was a teen, he's now like 53 years old and still take the car and go for a ride while high;
I never tried them because i was in fear: I don't know if it can trigger any panic/depression or even schizophrenia if i had it and i didn't knew.
I always wanted to try some acid and try to find an answer about things and all. Can you elaborate on your experiences with pot?
>>17104984
There's nothing necessarily wrong with this. It's common in schizoids, for example. I was like this too growing up.
When you stop doing it, then it's time to really worry.
>>17106132
>Well, there's also another constant scenario where i'm generally with a "power", some kind of strength, affected by fantasy games i play or music, where the people i know show me respect, generally the world gone to a kind of obscure age/ended and i'm the one keeping the bad shit away from them, by fighting, sometimes even if i needed to sacrifice myself in some way, i still protect them.
>There's also this illusional cute girl that i always protect no matter what, but we never stay together because i or we both die.
Yeah, i know the fuck outta these feels.
It's interesting to look back on my daydreams and see how they changed over time: as the depression and anxiety got worse (both treatment-resistant) and the disassociation set in, iimagined myself more and more as cyborg and robot characters, as well as amnesiacs, and the girls slowly disappeared, no more "damsel in distress" scenes, no more romantic subplots. Plus a lot more of me getting injured and dying.
Helping and protecting people never went away though (helped me make the decision to go into medicine).
>>17106132
Weed is generally great for people like us, it's noted throughout the psychiatric literature how much we self-medicate with it. The funny thing is that I've never smoked myself, nowhere to get it (never really had any friends, now in a foreign country).
Plenty of research being done on endocannabinoids recently too, a couple are promising.
Side note: I just pulled up a wikipedia article to refresh on this and saw:
>where the CB1 and orexin receptor 1 (OX1) receptors physically and functionally join together to form the CB1–OX1 receptor heterodimer.
>mfw i have narcolepsy type 2
goddammit why the fuck didn't i read anything about this earlier, welp time to scribble notes and draw diagrams all night
>>17106132
Our situation is pretty similar indeed. A few years ago my daydreaming was very similar to yours, in the sense that I created worlds where I would find myself contempt due to the fact that there I was who I wanted to be, no matter how unrealistic it was. That didn't change, but during the last few years my daydreaming has turned into something that relies more and more in abstractions of our world rather than the construction of something brand new. For example, I used to create idealized characters, and now I usually idealize real life people I consider relevant to the idealized world.
Now, about my experiences with cannabis. I don't think I have smoked enough to properly delineate what I'm going through exactly, but I'll do my best. Also keep in mind that I'm talking about my own experiences with it, so they might be far from what commonly happens. Anyways, I don't really remember, but I think I'm around a total of 20 occasions where I got high. Every time I smoked it took a short time to make any effect and it was always something gradual, in the sense that it happens quickly but I never could notice it officially kicking in. For me it feels as if my surroundings were changing and that made me feel different. I like to think about stuff, and I mean tirelessly think about any subject I consider to be interesting to think about. Being high makes that way more interesting for me, because pot kinda makes me think differently. By that I mean that it makes you think in a different manner. When high I always find myself thinking "how am I thinking about this?", although the ideas and thoughts I have while high are mostly only interesting in that perspective. I never write down anything I think about due to laziness and a sort of disbelief in my own capacity to come up with something worth documenting, but I made exceptions for that when I was high for the sake of experimenting and reading it sober on another occasion has always left me disappointed.
Woah, I thought I was the only one.
Most of my day is spent doing this. I wander into these illustrious story lines or fantasies I create in my head. It's great because when I check back in to real life, whatever I'm doing that I dislike is usually over.
They usually consist of me being in some incredible power or being a martyr that's worshiped or something.
Maybe it's just escapism.
>>17106354
That being said, the few experiences I had with marijuana have changed me in a meaningful way, I believe. Going out of the mind, the high is usually affects my senses a lot too. My vision gets noticeably better in a few respects. I notice that I can't focus that much on peripheral stuff, but I can notice any minute detail in what I'm currently looking at. My visual acuity for distant objects becomes much sharper too. I can usually discern sound better too. When music is playing, it's like I can dissect it and notice its many nuances and how they fit in together to create one whole. When I listen to or participate in conversations I have the impression that I'm able to gather more information than I would sober from both the person talking and also what they are talking about. It's like I empathize with them on a deeper level while high, so I manage to understand what they are talking about closer to their perspective on the topic. Tastes and smells become more pronounced and overall better too. My body also feels pretty strange when I'm high. When I smoke a fair amount I usually start feeling a "cozy warmth" in my entire body and feel generally comfortable. Something interesting is that when I'm high I always go down a train of thought where I manage to rationalize my life and its intricacies, which in turn makes me feel a certain peace I only started feeling when high. The interesting thing is that I can now remember that and recall that same state of mind at basically any time. The same effect is probably achieved by meditating or any other introspective activity. I think I never could do it sober because of that different thinking I mentioned. It just never clicked. As >>17106300 said (dubs checked), I truly think weed is generally great for people like us.l in fact, any change in perspective might be interesting for chronic daydreamers like ourselves, and weed certainly provides that.
>>17106132
>>17105926
>>17106359
20 year old daydreamer here
If any of you want to take the daydreaming a step further and are ok with drugs, i highly recommend trying lsd, it is such an amazing experience. I find myself daydreaming more about life, the universe and magic than before taking lsd for the first time, and it has helped me feel more at ease with myself and my problem, realizing that it really isnt a problem at all, just my way of thinking and coping with the world. It has also helped me to snap out of it when i need to, like at work or when i'm driving.
Peace out brothers, i hope you find the answers you are looking for
>>17106300
Check'd
>As the depression and anxiety got worse (both treatment-resistant)
Have you tried treatments with meds like esc or similars? I wonder if they really work.
>helped me make the decision to go into medicine.
That's sincerely awesome anon
It's nice to know i'm not the only one and that's actually not wrong. It's also interesting that the scenarios have so much in common. I wonder why there's no much research about this by psychiatric
>>17106354
>>17106359
>>17106453
>>17106356
The cannabis experiences you had seem to be something worth doing, because after all, i agree that "any change in perspective might be interesting for chronic daydreamers like ourselves".
I think that's what made me choose the music path, as i always try to explore new horizons, new forms of thinking, every song brings a different world, a different perspective, same with different genres of movies and books.
And after thinking about that, it doesn't severely affects the way i live in a worse way. As >>17106356 said, it can even help me get distracted when i'm doing something i don't like.
Lsd is also a experience i want to hit someday, i really imagine, like >>17106453 did, it must be the best experience for people like us. All the change in perspective.
I'm going to take a nap, it's really comfy to find more people with this characteristic.
Thanks for sharing all your experiences, brothers
>>17106300
>It's common in schizoids, for example
Care to elaborate? Recently I've been identified by my therapist with schizoid symptoms (not yet a diagnose, somehow), what's the correlation between being Schizoid and constant daydreaming?
19 y/o daydreamer here as well
it's been happening since around 4th or 5th grade
i remember some of the first ones i ever had in elementary school were of a fucking passenger jet crashing into the school and me saving everyone from the wreck lol. i dont know what is wrong with me.
i do it in the shower a lot too. sometimes i'll spend 30 minutes in the shower, completely in my own story. had a 4 or 5 shower long zombie saga story one time in high school where i ended saving the girl i was in love with and building a base together. shit was cash
i wish life didnt suck
Have the same problem OP. I'm 22 I came here and r9klooking for others like me a long time ago.
I found out what it were 2 years ago and realize ive been doing it since I were about 10 too. That's around the same time I began drawing and playing games. It actually took me a while to realize what the hell I were doing.
Also found out Weed and acid make it worse. Weed can keep you there for a while while you multitask and Acid makes the daydreams a bit more vivid.
Took Zoloft for depression/Anxiety and it went away. Quit the meds about 2 months ago and now it slowly came back. If I tell a doctor about this I'll possibly be put on medication not completely fit for me though it'll probably drive me insane. Its nice to have an escape whenever wherever but It makes me afraid to drive or walk down the street. I've gotten fucked up a few times while walking/biking because I were deep in thought.
Could also be ADD related.
>>17104984
Holy shit, you're in the exact same situation as me! Even down to your age!
I usually self-insert into whatever work of fiction I've been playing/reading/watching recently.
I also automatically commentate everything I see or hear, as though I'm making a "Lets Play" out of my entire life. Been doing this for as long as I can remember, makes focusing on anything completely impossible for me.
>>17106551
>Have you tried treatments with meds like esc or similars? I wonder if they really work.
Yeah (hence the "treatment-resistant"), escitalopram didn't work at all for me (not even any side effects, it apparently did nothing at all). None of the meds really did, and i went through a ton. Even the anxiety is treatment-resistant (valium, xanax, clonazepam, trazodone, seroquel, etc all made it worse). I'm on amphetamine right now as a crude short-term solution. Note that this is highly abnormal and shouldn't be taken as a typical experience (that's why these are called "paradoxical reactions", they shouldn't happen and advanced neurochemical theory is required to explain them).
>I wonder why there's no much research about this by psychiatric
One reason is that it's traditionally thought to be extremely rare. Of course, that goes out the window when you look at 4chan users.
>>17107407
Basically, almost all schizoids daydream extensively. For one, it's an outlet for those that have frustrated prosocial or extroverted tendencies and/or high empathy (since they can't satisfy those needs via simple interaction with other people). These are the kinds of people that participate in things like competitive debate or social work/volunteering despite being described as totally "antisocial" and reclusive by their peers.
The daydreaming is also considered a benign form of the delusions suffered by their cousins in the rest of cluster A (the schizophrenia spectrum, schizo-typals/-affectives/-phrenics). Many schizoids basically "dodged the bullet" and could have been insane if they'd inherited any more schizophrenic risk factors or excess dopaminergic/serotonergic activity (enabling psychosis).
In many schizoids, both factors are at play. I personally inherited a shit-ton of the schizo risk factors from my father (also schizoid) but also high empathy and social orientation from my mother, so I was essentially guaranteed to develop schizoid.
I've always been an extensive daydreamer as well. For most of my life my dad tried to beat it into my head that I'm worthless because I'm a daydreamer. It made me feel worthless, and I tried for years to stop. When I stopped, I became highly depressed and tried to kill myself.
Anyway, I decided last year to just give in and embrace it. I'm currently writing a series of books based on my daydreams. I'm trying to get the money together to make them into shows.
I've come to the conclusion that people like us exist for the simple purpose of bringing fun and entertainment to the world. Stan Lee was a daydreamer, and so was the guy who came up with Pokemon.
It's dreamers that give life to the world. Without people like us, imagine what television and music would be like. Talk shows and Documentaries.
As a side note, I tried taking the pothead route. Pot just made me depressed. Every time I've been high, I just sat there thinking of all of my dad reminding me that I'm worthless and stupid.
>>17104984
I was like this too.
In my case it was a coping mechanism. I've had been sexually abused from age 4-13. Heavily daydreaming to escape reality and repress memories of the abuse from age 4-20 to keep on living. After the age of 20 shit hit the fan and my memories came back. The daydreaming stopped, now I have a pretty normal life with little to no depressions.
In the course of six years with struggling to overcome the past and about a year of stress handling therapy I successfully fixed myself with great help of my husband. I'm 30 years old now.
Just wanted to share my story, maybe someone is in similar situation to mine.
>>17104984
Look into meditation, 'awareness' and 'living in the moment'.
Your daydreaming is causing your mental problems, here is why:
To experience awakeness and happiness we have to let go of the ego and get our sense of selfworth out of everyday activities and our interactions with the people around us.
Our mind is a tool we can use to effectively to execute our daily activities. You can compare it to a computer. However, like a computer, it looses its purpose and becomes counterproductive when used wrongly. For example; watching porn all day on the internet opposed to writing an essay in word.
You are using your mind in a way that only produces hedonistic pleasure, daydreaming about things that you like or would like to be(or not), these thoughts make you happy for a very short time but not in the long run. And thus your brain becomes weak and mushy like the muscles of a fat person. You have lost the ability to function optimally(depression, anxiety) because you are not taking care of your mind and along with that have lost touch with your body.
But fear not, with meditation, healthy diet and a good routine this is fixable in a relative short period. But you have to be willing to learn how to use your brain and change the things in your life that have been holding you back(this sometimes means breaking contact with certain people). Meds can help, but only if they give you that space in your negative cycle to start up a good daily routine(rise and sleep early, exersize). Otherwise they are useless or could even make matters worse as your mind gets even more distracted.
Good luck.
This thread hits my feels hard. I 100% relate to all the people who described their dreaming ITT. Fantasy-ish scenarios influenced by games/books/comics/films, recurrent themes (ex. love). Been doing it since before elementary school. Absolutely my most interesting daily activity (few irl things could ever compare), and i dive into it whenever.
Nice to know that this daydreaming also causes inability to focus (or at least is one cause). I always had an incredibly hard time focusing on studying. Now i at least know that my brain isn't just broken. There might be something i can do.
