I'm Ambrosia:)

, I've really found my people! I've been having vivid daydreams since I was 5 or 6, and over the past decade (I'm 16 now) my daydreams have progressively gotten worse (now 4-10 hrs a day). Now I can barely function; I try to avoid social situations, I avoid going in public, I put off eating and showering, and I procrastinate on studying, all so I can daydream instead. It's a serious problem, and I've tried to quit, but I fail every time. As I said I've been dealing with this for a decade, and I have not told a single person ever about my daydreams because I thought I was the only person in the world who did this and I thought I was actually crazy and would be put in a psych ward against my will if I told anyone, until last night when I discovered the term "maladaptive daydreaming" and fell down a research rabbit hole. I'm embarrassed about the fact that I daydream so much, but finding out other people deal with this too made me feel so understood.

When I daydream, I pace in circles for hours in my living room while blasting really loud music in my ears, and I've been doing this for years. About a year ago my family pushed me to get professional help because they realized something was wrong. (I was diagnosed with OCD, but I never told anyone about the daydreams because I was scared they'd think I'm crazy). Even though I'm in cognitive behavioral therapy I still daydream on average 6 or 7 hrs a day. I'm  about opening up to my therapist now about my daydreams too, although I'm still scared because its not a "real" diagnosis yet :/

This is a long post and I'm sure nobody really cares, but I just wanna say that I'm so thankful that someone made this forum because reading other people's experiences and knowing I'm not the only one has really given me a new hope for my future that I didn't have before