Daydreaming in quarantine

Welcome to the forum!

Yeah, a lot of us are really having issues with being quarantined because of the wealth of uninterrupted free time that's suddenly available to us.

I think that the rubber band trick could be potentially helpful, though if you have a history of self harm, maybe do it with caution. When we start to daydream, it takes a lot of effort to pull ourselves out. Maybe you have full awareness for a fraction of a second at a time, but not long enough to go through the process to pull yourself out. But if you have a rubber band or a hair tie or something on your wrist, you could use that fraction of a second of awareness to snap it, which will be painful and startling. It will give you awareness for a little bit longer, which you can hopefully use to pull yourself out. Once you get in the habit of pulling yourself out using the pain, you can start to work on pulling yourself out without the pain. Its all about getting your awareness back long enough for you to be able to address whatever triggered you and/or decide to do something different.

If you don't want to do that, mindfulness can be helpful, as can exercise and removing yourself from whatever's triggering you. When you get the urge to do something, such as daydreaming, that urge should go away in about 15 minutes. If it's not gone in 15 minutes, then that means you're still exposed to the trigger. If you can't get away from the trigger, like if its more of an overall mental state (such as anxiety or depression), then you need to find healthier coping skills for dealing with that trigger.