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Post by siren on Oct 12, 2020 5:10:33 GMT
Hello, I am a 19 year old girl and I personally never had any issues with daydreaming until recently. I am aware that I have been daydreaming since I was about 10 but they never got in the way of my everyday tasks or social life. Nonetheless, when I was 13 I moved across the state and was diagnosed with anxiety. My life wasn't going as smoothly as it had been before I moved so I understood where the anxiety was coming from. This was a confusing point in my life because I didn't know how to deal with my anxiety. I was not on any medication or attending therapy. I had no friends or hobbies so I began to daydream excessively. This was not evident to me at the time, but I can see how maybe it could have been MD. Afterwards, things started looking up and I started to go to therapy, take medication and even got diagnosed and told that I actually had panic disorder as well as OCD. I graduated high school and moved away to go to college, during which time the daydreams continued but infrequently. I would not intentionally create these scenarios within my mind they would simply occur. For example if I was watching a video or movie that I enjoyed I would imagine how I would fit within what was happening. (What I would say, how I would react, etc..) Still though, this was not impacting my life much. My grades were fine, I was making friends and socializing and if I was in the middle of a daydream I could snap out of it when I was asked a question and answer with something that made sense. The problem I have started up during the pandemic. I am obviously back home and have a lot of free time. I don't leave my house because I fear getting someone inside my home sick so I really have no forms of distraction. During this time I stopped taking my medicine which might have been a huge mistake on my part but after suffering from multiple panic attacks I am back on it. Nevertheless, I have since been going through a depersonalization/derealization episode where I feel like I am not real. The maladaptive daydreaming is part of it as now, I am spending most of my time daydreaming and listening to music I feel would be the "soundtrack" to the story. I hate to think this but I am scared of going insane. Maybe because these recent daydreams are much more detailed and lengthy. I can spend hours daydreaming (even coming up with outfits I would wear??) and once I am out of the daydream I get confused and scared about how much time I just spent daydreaming. Since my daydreams have been more vivid, lengthy etc.. I have been having trouble organizing my thoughts and I've become extremely forgetful. I am aware that my daydreams are simply that, and I even try to schedule times to daydream so as to not disturb the time I spend with family or doing homework. Still, if I am doing any normal thing like making breakfast, I imagine the characters from my daydreams are around so I am basically inserting these characters into my real life. I have avoided acting out my daydreams in front of people so they only occur in my head. I was told by my therapist to avoid googling but unfortunately I did anyway.When I did my googling all that it could suggest was that I had schizophrenia. This really scared me and I don't know what to do about it. I am completely aware these scenarios are all fictional yet the fear I feel is horrible and paralyzing at times. Since then, whenever I come out of a daydream I remind myself of who I am and what my real life consists of (as depressing as it may be) even though I know all of this already. I could use some advice. Should I try to avoid these daydreams though it seems impossible? What should I be doing differently? Most importantly, am I actually going insane?
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Post by Sam on Oct 12, 2020 16:33:59 GMT
Welcome to the forum!
First of all, you aren't going insane. What you're describing is pretty similar to the experience I had when my daydreaming changed from immersive to maladaptive. And right now, with all of the stressful things happening, it's entirely understandable that you'd end up daydreaming more because MD is most frequently an unhealthy coping mechanism.
MD isn't, in any way, shape, or form, schizophrenia.
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Post by siren on Oct 12, 2020 20:50:37 GMT
Welcome to the forum! First of all, you aren't going insane. What you're describing is pretty similar to the experience I had when my daydreaming changed from immersive to maladaptive. And right now, with all of the stressful things happening, it's entirely understandable that you'd end up daydreaming more because MD is most frequently an unhealthy coping mechanism. MD isn't, in any way, shape, or form, schizophrenia. Thank you! I really needed to hear this right now.
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