Daydreaming is a part of most people’s daily lives, acting as a way to get creativity flowing or as something to do while bored. Escaping into your mind is known to help with stress and anxiety, as long as you’re thinking about the right things! Studies show that we daydream 46.9% of the time when we’re awake, which makes it pretty crucial to our day-to-day life. But, what happens if it gets excessive? Then that makes it Maladaptive Daydreaming.
A simple explanation of Maladaptive daydreaming is excessive daydreaming; a mental health issue that interferes with your daily life. It has been linked with mental conditions such as OCD, dissociative disorders, anxiety, depression, PTSD and ADHD as a coping mechanism. Music, shows, movies and certain emotions are the most common triggers for scenarios, however, there are an endless amount of others. It all varies on the person and their interests.
“How do you know if someone maladaptive daydreams?”
Common characteristics and symptoms include
- Having complex, vivid storylines, plots and characters
- Having a strong urge and need to continue daydreaming, complete absorption; to the point where you may not complete work or engage with friends and family
- Acting out the scenarios subconsciously by mimicking facial expressions, vocalisations or other movements.
Art by Ella Mooney
Picture this:
A song comes on and your brain is triggered into action; that’s all it took. You find yourself copying what you’re doing inside your head, mouthing the words, making the same pose and acting it out like a play. Pacing around your house, or even just sitting down staring at nothing, eagerly making up what comes next; getting annoyed when it suddenly gets wiped from your mind or if someone interrupts you when it’s just getting good.
Around two or three years ago, this girl came up with this unique story idea at school during a short writing session. She started thinking beyond that and before she knew it, she had characters and a whole storyline in her head. Every day she would act out scenarios in her mind, following the plot and being the persona in her head that she made for herself. It was fun at first, but she felt tired quickly.
“Why couldn’t she just stop?”
In one way or another, she didn’t want to. Daydreaming was her way of having fun, destressing and to feel some confidence. She wasn’t in a great spot which made it her comfort activity, not knowing it would affect her down the line. Her brain moved to autopilot whenever she heard her biggest trigger; music. And trust me, that’s something she could not have lived without.
“But being in her own world all the time sounds wonderful!”
Sure, she felt great in the moment; like you would if you were playing a game you really liked, but she started noticing physical and other mental effects. Her daydreaming determined her mood, she got headaches, she was finding it hard to get to sleep at night, her procrastination got worse and she felt ashamed. But because of these feelings, she daydreamed more to hide from them, it was a cycle.
Once she started noticing that she was being heavily affected, she knew she had to find some way to help herself. She was scared of going into detail about it to someone trusted because she felt ashamed and she felt as though she was overreacting and could just stop. But a big part of her was scared to stop, it was such a big comfort that she wouldn’t know what to do instead.
She grew older and continued, but she started to notice some changes.
She got help for her depression and anxiety, met new people, found new hobbies and started finding herself.
“And how is she doing now?”
She is doing way better these days. She has fully identified her triggers and has learned when and how to stop when they get a bit much. Distractions mostly help. Whether it be talking with a friend, family member or playing a game that requires her full attention (looking at you, Stardew Valley), as long as she gets her mind off her mind for a while, I know she’ll be alright.
Maladaptive daydreaming is still a part of her life, and she doesn’t know if she’ll ever fully be able to get rid of it, or even if she would want to, but now she knows how to enjoy it healthily and positively. She daydreams now to get motivation, think of creative ideas and feel happy, it’s still a big form of comfort but now she has other ways to do those things.
Something that could be counted as a win is that her daydreaming isn’t in control of her procrastination anymore, it’s completely on her now… I mean, you’d hate to know how long it took for her to sit down and finally write this article.
If this piece of writing resonated with you, then please know you’re not alone. If the symptoms given relate to you, then you’re encouraged to do some research about Maladaptive daydreaming… you do not have to be ashamed! There are plenty of ways to cope if it’s negatively affecting you.
Special thanks to Georgia S.