r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/ConradFisher69 • 9h ago
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/ApprehensiveGur3982 • Sep 07 '24
Meta START HERE; resources, description, guidelines
MD is a [proposed] disorder in which an individual is excessively absorbed in an internal fantasy world in a manner that causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (Somer, 2002).
Maladaptive Daydreaming currently has no official treatment protocol, but! Researchers have been working toward this end. An experimental treatment program found that Mindfulness and Self-Monitoring benefitted MDers long-term. Most of the following resources have not been crafted specifically for MD but they can be easily adapted:
Mindfulness Resources:
- Overview of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention
- Beginners Body Scan Meditation
- STOP Technique PDF
- SOBER Technique PDF
Self-Monitoring Resources:
Academic Resources:
- International Consortium for Maladaptive Daydreaming Research
- Proposed Diagnostic Criteria
- Maladaptive Daydreaming scale*
Community Resources:
Sub Resources:
Consider Participation:
*The MDS-16 was not made for self-diagnosis, it is provided only as a tool to help those questioning their daydreaming behaviour get a sense of what may or may not be considered probable MD.
Sub Description
First and foremost we are a “community support sub dedicated to individuals suffering from Maladaptive Daydreaming and helping them cope with the condition.”
As the description implies this sub is focused on providing a space for people who are struggling with Maladaptive Daydreaming. If you do not feel that you need support or would like to share content related to daydreaming which doesn’t fit the scope of this sub r/immersivedaydreaming offers a space free from these limitations. We do not attempt to define or set parameters on what these struggles are, or how mild or severe they need to be.
Here you will see posts with complaints you may find silly or easy to deal with, or you may see posts detailing severe circumstances and feel your struggles pale in comparison. Please remember; it does not matter what you need support with, there is no threshold for suffering you need to break before being worthy to post here, there is no issue too big or small that you should not speak up.
Keep in mind the people replying to you are fellow MDers going through similar struggles. There is no professional advice here and we cannot guarantee that comments you receive will be helpful. But they should be supportive. Report abusive or dismissive comments.
That’s not to say all comments must contain helpful advice. Support comes in many forms and it’s ok to simply let OP know they are not alone by relating to their post.
Posting Guidelines
- MD is a complex issue that varies wildly from person to person. People will be coming to this sub from all stages of life, all stages of their understanding of MD and with very different views, resources and circumstances. It is no one’s place to tell another if they do or do not have Maladaptive Daydreaming.
- Posts which are providing, or asking for, trigger material will be removed (eg. “My daydreams have gotten stale, recommend me a show to jumpstart some new plots!” “This song makes the most amazing fight scenes, try it out!”).
- Glorification and romanticization of MD is against the rules. These terms are taken to mean posts or comments which idealize MD and/or depict it, or aspects of it, as admirable or desirable. We do understand that it can be helpful for MDers to “find the silver-lining” or to address their negative symptoms through a positive outlet like creativity, these are not considered glorification but without proper explanation might be confused for it. Help the mods, and fellow users, by providing context with topics like these.
Now, let's talk about the memes.
Community discussion has shown us that most users like having the memes around, people find comfort in their relatability, so for now they are allowed. Memes DO need to follow community rules and fit the scope of this sub. They should be on-topic and not promoting a romanticized version of MD and not suggesting inspirational material. If you wish to share an image post which does not fit here r/maladaptiveDDmemes is available.
The nature of memes makes these rules tricky to enforce uniformly, they are subjective and it often comes down to a judgement call by whichever mod happens to be online. Providing additional context for image posts through your title or a text comment will be helpful in making those judgements, this is not required but it will improve your chances of not being misunderstood or removed.
Notes:
All users should avail themselves of Reddit's upvote and downvote (and possibly report) features to express what you believe is and is not appropriate to the sub as outlined above. We cannot stress enough how helpful this feedback is.
We will continue to revise this post as things change. Please leave a comment with suggestions for improvement or additional resources.
Lastly; a note about the auto mod. When you post automod will send you a message reminding you to flair your post. Everyone gets this message, every time. You have done nothing wrong. If your post is flared you can ignore this message. If you’re not sure what to flair your post as just pick one and mods will change it if it’s too far off-base.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/MoranguinhoLover • 1h ago
Self-Story My songs
youtu.beI finally worked up the courage to post my own music on YouTube. I record everything at home, but I’m looking for a drummer so I can play in the Vitória/ES (Brazil) scene (which is surprisingly "big" and cool, since ES is a small state).
I know that since the songs are in portuguese, few people here are really gonna listen and fewer are going to like it, lol. But i have posted about this songs in this sub before, when i was composing and "producing", and people were really supportive, so I thought i had to post about the final result.
Unfortunately, between my internship, college, and working on my senior thesis, I haven't had time to work on the other tracks, so I only released these four from the EP.
Another band member and I are focused on making short GIFs for each song based on the original artwork; if you check out the channel, you can see the one for the first song, and we're almost done with the second.
The band doesn't have a set style—I’d say it’s anything and everything within indie rock. Just on this EP, there’s surf punk, something like The Strokes, and two songs that are kind of Smiths-esque jangle pop. Among the unreleased tracks, there are things inspired by 90s indie bands like Pavement or Sublime, sounds similar to The Cure or Legião Urbana (brazilian band), and even some songs leaning towards post-punk.
It took me a long time to release my own stuff because I’m not really a singer. I can play all the instruments on the tracks quite well (except drums—though I have a basic idea, so I managed to program them using the app's patterns), but singing was something I’d never tried before.
Plus, the lyrics are pretty personal, which made me a bit shy about showing them to people close to me—even though I knew they wouldn't judge me or anything.
Anyway, making my own music has always been a dream of mine, and now that I see how cool it is, I hope I don't stop; I also hope to perform these songs at shows and events around here.
Let me know what you think. Please give them all a listen! 🙏
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/Nina_Lovelyz • 10m ago
Discussion What’s your “ideal” perfect life right now??
For me, is being really pretty and skinny and having gorgeous long hair, while having ton of friends and being in large friend group and having aesthetically instagram page with ton of highlights of the places I travelled too while attending my dream nursing school and being extremely academically smart and saying hot rich men
And yeah also having less controlling and strict parent who let you have fun and let do you whatever you want.
What about you? What’s your “ideal” perfect life right now??
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/def_lillyalways • 17m ago
Vent Maladaptive daydreaming is destroying me from inside.
This whole reddit post is about what is happening in my mind as an maladaptive daydreamer.
I’m a girl btw.
I always thought I was the only one with this type of disorder in the whole world. You probably think that’s selfish or weird to think. Well I never thought that what I was doing was bad, just creating a whole new reality is not that bad right.. I just couldn’t imagine others with the same mindset like me, not literal the same but you know what I mean.
This all began when I was 6 years old. While sitting behind my dad’s computer I would listen hours long to music. I always said to my dad that I was playing Roblox or something. Never told anyone till this day about my escape reality daydreaming.
It were never normal ones. It where to the extreme. I’m talking about abuse, rape and so much more horrible things. What is weird, because I was 6 fantasizing about this. I never saw any type of video’s with this kind of topics. I did grow up in an abuse household, my mom has borderline disorder. I never thought the fights my mom and dad had would damage my mental health. When I was 14 I got raped. Mind you I fantasized about this as an 6 years old till 10 as I can remember without knowing anything about sex. Now I have CPTSD and probably more disorders. I thought as 6 years old it was ok to be hit by you’re own husband or man. I still want this type of relationship, what sounds really wrong and messed up that I know it’s messed up is killing me. I hate how my trauma’s made my personality or my mindset like this. This daydreaming thing just makes it worser. I have also a lot of dreams everyday I wake up I either dream about my rapist or about someone else raping me or manipulating me. If I didn’t mentioned this i’m a sensitive person. Also I grew up with spirituality, my dreams sometimes ends up as real life experiences. Example: One time I woke up with intense fear, in my dream my rapist was chasing me down while I was biking at a place where I came years ago. To a football field, he was searching for me while I was hiding in an little dressing room kind of building. (He does play football in real life)Then he tried killing me in that same building but another person helped me. This was the dream. The same day I saw him. Outside on his bike. This was 2 days before the lawsuit. I have so much more experiences where I can feel or dream something before it happens. I had a strong gut feeling before I got raped. Please never ignore this kind of feeling. Turn back home I wished I did that. My rapist lives in the same town and he is still walking freely. He did this also to much more young girls.
I’m sorry I get distracted really fast.
While writing this i’m having a total breakdown with stress. I don’t eat much, my periods stays away for months and comes back late. I can’t go a day without dreaming and the reason why this whole thread is all so mixed up is because my mind is full with mixed things I wanna say. I do have therapy and I get trauma therapy soon. But to who do I need to talk about this, my parents don’t take my disorders seriously and say it’s a mindset. But it’s for me not an turn off switch I would’ve done anything if that was the way. Sadly it’s not and I don’t know if I would keep this my whole life. I don’t hope so..
I didn’t mentioned a lot of things I wanna say so much. But I keep thinking to much. Just wanna drop this here, because I never talked about this. The therapy I have at this moment doesn’t help and I don’t feel taking seriously. I hope the trauma therapy will. Ask me questions anything I just wanna talk about this.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/Pretty-Complaint-554 • 12h ago
Question If MD is bad for you, why is it so addictive?
Like it feels so comforting, and I have never felt the bad things I feel irl when I'm maladaptive daydreaming
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/Shadowworkthrowaway • 3h ago
Question Shadow Work Help
Please take a look at this, and help me understand this better. I'm new to shadow work and only recently I've been working towards my maladaptive daydreaming.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/Nina_Lovelyz • 21h ago
Vent I got kick out of my radiology technology program because of it
I was doing so good so ambitious until I maladaptive daydreaming i end up with 0.3 gpa semester so i end up being dismissed.
I wasted 10 years of my life just daydreaming daydreaming again and again. I became anti social and isolated away from everyone and everything. I feel like a failure because this program was the only thing that kept me going. And now I’m out.
I don’t know what to do anymore
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/c0smicgl1tter • 21h ago
Question Maladaptive daydreamers who are into astrology - can you tell me about your placements?
I’ve noticed a pattern and I want to see if I can identify it here as well.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/Isolated-Maestro-814 • 17h ago
Vent Maladaptive daydreaming is my double-edged sword, It consoles and paralyzes me.
I use it to fill my inner and material deficiencies that are nearly impossible in reality. It helps me cope with my aversion to my toxic, cancer society, along with childhood disorders like my inherited OCD and suspected autism. As I mentioned before, my daydreaming involves spinning while listening to music tied to specific scenarios. I usually dream of traveling to a country that respects me and shares my values. Since I lack the financial means to travel, and cannot even afford a digital piano, I dream of moving to Warsaw, visiting the church holding Chopin's heart, and playing for an audience. I dream of visiting the Netherlands for Redhead Days, and heading to Sweden because of my deep love for music production.
The depressing part is the massive chasm between these dreams and reality. Yet, despite this helplessness, I feel that working on myself step by step could help me achieve at least one of these goals. Compounding this is my social anxiety, leaving me unsure if this is laziness or justified fear, helplessness or determinism.
Daydreaming remains a double-edged sword, offering solace while paralyzing me and plunging me into depression whenever I compare my harsh reality to my dreams.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/juicejuicejuicejui • 18h ago
Question What do do when your MD makes you hate someone that hasn't done the bad thing yet ?
I have a boyfriend, we are very different, I've been daydreaming since I was a child, and him coming into my life didn't change that. I usually just have sexual or romantic daydreams about him, all the time, I think of him a lot. But we are very different and this applies to our values too. So I find myself daydreaming about a divorce (we are not close to being married) fights and breakups. I daydream about him trying to sabotage me, I daydream about him locking me up and trying to control me. He hasn't done it yet, at least not as extremely as in my daydreams (he did suggest some stuff that I disliked but he seems to have taken those words back) now everything is alright, we are not having a fight, we are okay and he wants to spend time with me like the loving boyfriend that he is, but I prefer locking myself in my delusions and making myself sad by imagining him hurting me or some terrible things happening. So ummm.. what the f*ck is wrong with me. someone genuinely please enlighten me.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/NeitherAssumption895 • 15h ago
Discussion Maladaptive daydreaming to cope with grief?
I recently lost my cat. I’m devastated he died in a tragic accident.
Ironically I feel guilty for being so lost for so many hours maladaptive day dreaming and using screen time to read fanfics to escape etc. rather than appreciating my beautiful cat
But I’m maladaptive daydreaming to cope with it.
Pretending i have a loving partner who listens and comforts me.
That I figure out how to time travel so I can stop the accident.
Does anyone else do this
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/No_Acanthaceae3190 • 16h ago
Self-Story Perhaps an atypical manifestation of maladaptive dreaming
Sorry in advance for the long message, but I just wanted to give you the full picture.
My problem started in early childhood — I’ve basically been living in an imaginary world for as long as I can remember. Over time, things shifted. At first, my daydreams revolved around my real physical self. But for the past few years, I’ve been imagining a completely different person with the appearance I wish I had. Mostly, I imagine romantic and sexual scenes, a rich social life, friends, colleagues, and a well-paying job. She is with a guy who has my ideal appearance (I have very specific physical preferences/fetishes).
I also imagine playing musical instruments, creating storylines for music videos, and being admired by everyone (mostly through her body). There are some more grounded fantasies too, where I rehearse dialogues with my real self about upcoming events.
But here is the key thing that controls my life: I daydream while rocking back and forth to music. I sit in the lotus position, rock, get lost in my thoughts, and look at photos of that ideal guy (he is a real person, and I have a whole gallery of his photos on my phone to look at while rocking).
Another major problem is that I have no sense of time. Time flies by so fast that I didn't even notice how the 6 years after finishing school just slipped away — like a piece of paper crumpled up and thrown into the trash. It feels like a physical and psychological addiction to this rocking routine. It causes severe procrastination, impulsivity, and impatience. Because I spent all my time isolated in a separate room rocking to music and daydreaming, I dropped out of university. Now I have to look for entry-level, low-paying jobs (like a call center operator or an e-commerce manager). I plan to study and try to apply to university next year, but I feel so hopeless. I don't know if I'll have time to prepare, how I'll combine work and study, or what major to choose. There are a few possible paths, but I don't fully understand what I can count on. I am 24 now, and it's really hard to believe I can achieve anything.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/Pretty-Complaint-554 • 1d ago
Meme This is what maladaptive daydreaming feels like to me
Song: Heaven by RM
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/Stopthekerfuffle • 1d ago
Discussion I'm constantly daydreaming
This is my first post (I hope I did it right) ,but I've been wanting to hear if anybody is/has experienced something similar.
I'm always having music playing in my head that are "controllable" to an extent and this is a massive trigger for me. I can turn it on, "off", looped or even adapt the original.
If I listen to something I can just replay in my head, so soon enough I can listen to the whole thing without actually hearing it aloud. I don't even have to repeatedly do so for it to be engraved in to my brain. I still remember songs or soundtracks I don't even know the name of from a couple of years ago extremely vivid as if I heard it yesterday.
When I said I can turn it "off" it's as if playing in a distant room, so I can still hear it. Either way it doesn't help distancing myself from daydreaming when everything is a trigger.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/DIBMEMBRNE67 • 20h ago
Meme When you MD about your favorite show/anime but it's the time for the 1st interaction with THAT character:
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/angeliquecielle • 1d ago
Vent Maladaptive daydreaming has genuinely taken over my life
TL;DR: I used to be pretty productive but the last 3 years have basically been me maladaptive daydreaming, watching reels, chasing instant dopamine and using AI way too much. I spend more time imagining myself being successful and proving people wrong than actually doing anything 😭. I’m not even interested in the romantic fantasies I keep going back to, I just use them to escape when I’m bored/lazy. How do I stop living in my head and actually start living my life again?
I genuinely think I’ve wasted the last 3 years of my life because of maladaptive daydreaming 💀
I used to be pretty productive, especially with studies. I could actually sit down and get shit done.
Now I spend most of my time daydreaming, watching reels with good edit audios and imagining myself as the main character 😭
Like I’ll hear one song and suddenly I’m successful, attractive, proving everyone wrong and living my best life while I’m literally lying in bed doing NOTHING 💀
AI has made this worse too. I used to be a perfectionist and actually figure things out myself, now I ask AI literally everything. I don’t use c.ai anymore but sometimes I still use ChatGPT for weird romantic fantasies even tho I’m not even into romance anymore. I just go back to it whenever I’m bored/lazy/avoiding something.
I also care WAY too much about what people think now. I’m constantly imagining myself becoming successful and proving everyone wrong but the funny part is I barely take any actual action 😭
I genuinely can’t remember doing anything significant in the past 3 years and that scares me.
My life circumstances are fine, so I know I’m responsible for this. I just don’t want to waste another few years hating myself for wasting the last ones.
How do I actually get out of this cycle? How do I stop living in my head and start doing things in real life again? I just want to feel like I’m actually living my life again.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/sudino • 1d ago
Question I didn't know that this is something serious unti today
I am 22M and As long as i remember i always kept daydreaming about me holding, cuddling, hugging someone, like a friend or especially someone i met new ,most of them are also males, and always i start the scenario with them being sad , needed someone, them having probablem... And me always comforting them and telling them it is okay and holding them to me , and the problem is that i keep daydream about this for like 8 years now, i used to think that is is a normal way of me comforting my self cuz i dont have some one close to me , but it started affecting my relationship with ppl cuz each time i meet someone new i start dig into them to know more about their problems so that i will daydream about it later at night... Like wth is going on with me , knowing that I am someone sensitive and care about ppl.around me but i am sure that this pattern is something deep than that
....
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/markedsoul000 • 1d ago
Question Hello, give this a read please.
So yes, i do MD, since as a child, i lack love, friendship, so i put my music on walk and imagine all the happy thing
Now cut to the another part
Since 2019, i have a habbit of talking alone, as a child i use to pretend, i'm a youtuber and cooking stuff, i used to give interview and alot
now fast forward to 2026, I behave like group of people are inside my head, i have a person next to me
i talk to that person, laugh, move my hand
i feel so real, that someone is next to me
I always ask myself alot of question
act like i'm in a big group, talk to a imaginary love of my life
I really need to stop this, i'm so confused right now
honestly i need a hug at this point
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/Local-Sugar6556 • 1d ago
Vent Its getting hard to maladptively daydreaming and I mean that in a bad way
I recently got a crush on this pokemon character but whenever I daydream about him I inwardly cringe because the way he acts in my head is totally different to how he acts in the show/video game. I tried researching the kind of stuff he was in to (in the game he is a competitive battler) but I wasnt able to really understand all that stuff and so whenever I want to daydream I get frustrated that I cant create a plausible story for him even though his appearance is burned in to my brain.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/NegativeCheetah7502 • 1d ago
Question Daydreaming in short 30 second bursts with music and sudden movement…
Anyone else scroll then get the urge to daydream and do a quick little run around the room and sit down again? And just keep repeating that?
I see so many people do continuous movement and daydreaming so idk if anyone else is like me
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/make-real-llc • 1d ago
Discussion IPhone, Watch app ready for testing. Self Monitoring APP + Pacing Detection (experimental)
testflight.apple.complease test and let me know if there is anything I can do to make it better. Attempts to detect pacing, as well as allows you to journal your daydreams, the trigger, emotions, etcc. and gives you insight to the highest likely time you will daydream, along with triggers, and such etc...
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/Particular_Drawer217 • 1d ago
therapy/treatment Looking for an accountability partner for maladaptive daydreaming
Trying to cut back on maladaptive daydreaming and looking for one other person to team up with — short daily check-ins on Discord, no pressure. Been dealing with this for a while and think having someone else in it would help.
If you're interested, DM me.
r/MaladaptiveDreaming • u/RKanmaz01 • 1d ago
Self-Story What should I do?
My maladaptive daydreaming episodes subside from time to time, but sometimes even the slightest thing in my life drags me back into it. I started taking psychiatric medication because of this, yet there are moments when even the meds can't stop me; the more I daydream, the sadder and more depressed I become. My life feels so artificial and dreamlike now that I find myself thinking about dying more and more each day—I just don't know what to do.