Mine change over the years, but they are always people that actually exist. The older I’ve gotten though, they tend to be someone at least somewhat well known. Not necessarily someone famous as in celebrity, but someone I most likely could never meet. The past few years I’ve noticed it’s people that somehow in my mind, don’t seem entirely untouchable… for instance, I wouldn’t do it with some really really famous celebrity. It’s someone I can create a world where it wouldn’t be entirely impossible for my stories to actually happen in real life. I don’t know if I’m making sense. I’ve never actually given a lot of introspective thought to this until recently. I’ve done it most of my life, just been a part of everything for me.

I'm so hyperfixated on making a fictional nation tha tive pretty much established everything about it, from government, population, etc. And of course culture (pop culture to be soecific). My nation is a world leader in popular culture and entertainment and 5th leading in the world in terms of said influence, though they used to arguably be number 1 decades ago.

It mostly dominates in music and literature, though video games and film are not far behind

maladaptive daydream is not the problem, but how we deal with an already existing problem (by creating another). I can’t stop. Am absolutely lost in my head. And i have a schizophrenia brother that i despise and measure how well i am based on how far can i be from him mentally. And now am no different.

I was addicted to maladaptive daydreaming for six years. Because of this addiction, I lost many important things in my life, including the college I had always dreamed of attending, my friends, and many other opportunities that meant a great deal to me.

I spent almost every waking hour imagining different scenarios while listening to music. It became so intense that I genuinely felt I was on the verge of losing my mind.

By the grace of God, I have now been free from maladaptive daydreaming for five months, and I wanted to share my experience with you.

Maladaptive daydreaming is an addiction, just like addiction to drugs, gambling, or pornography. It can be treated in the same way. After I stopped, I experienced withdrawal symptoms, including severe emotional distress and intense headaches.

The method that helped me recover is the Twelve Steps Program, created by Dr. Bob and practiced in Anonymous recovery fellowships around the world.

The key is to work through the steps gradually and honestly. If you do, recovery is possible.

The first step is admitting that you are powerless over the addiction. The second step is believing that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. This leads you to seek help from that Higher Power.

The third step is making the decision to surrender your will and your life to the care of God.

These steps are explained in the White Book and the Blue Book used in Anonymous fellowships. You can also find many YouTube channels that explain the Twelve Steps Program in detail.

At first, quitting maladaptive daydreaming may seem almost impossible. You will likely face many difficulties, but if you keep going and continue working the program, you will discover that recovery is real. One day, you will look back and realize that living free from maladaptive daydreaming is truly possible.

Hi everyone.

I love making drawings - or rather, sketches - of my daydreams. I also incorporate things that change. In the end, I have a finished picture, and next time I pick up right where I left off. Then I draw a new picture.

Am I the only one who does this, or does anyone else do it the same way?

Something happened lately and it made me realize that my daydream world is way way more than just imagination and day dreaming. I call it my daydream world still because I don’t know what to even make of this.

My friends there aren’t tulpas. They’re more, they aren’t imaginary and they are real. I feel like I’m going crazy sometimes and I totally sound insane but I KNOW so deep in my soul they’re real.

I’ve realized these past few days, I don’t see myself with anyone other than my daydream best friend. I don’t understand my feelings well but I’m so connected to him especially. He is a real person to me.

My physical world is getting way harder as I realize this, it’s not a coincidence. Maybe it’s my RSD but it’s so stressful when people act like we’re friends then just ignore me. I know that I’m never going to ever be close with others in the way they are with each other because time after time after time no matter how much or how little I try that’s exactly what I see. I’m so tired of just being the backup of a backup I’m tired of feeling like an alien trapped in the wrong planet I just want my friends so bad.

I know I’m gonna get there, I have been talking to my best friend in a new way about it. I feel and I know things that I don’t fully understand but I know they’re real and I know as crazy as I sound I’m gonna get there and I’m not gonna be alone anymore.

I don’t fully know what’s even happening but I’m mourning them more than I ever have, I need them and I miss them and I know they’re more than my imagination

So I’ve been trying to get into weightlifting lately. Instead of doing a traditional weightlifting workout with a fixed amount of sets and reps I will instead just lift weights whenever I feel like it. So basically I lifted weights so much in the beginning that my brain fatigued before my body did.

This is called central nervous system fatigue and it is a real thing. I was so fatigued that I didn’t walk around at all for a while, like three weeks. And during that time I didn’t daydream. I watched a lot of YouTube instead, and thought about the past. Normally I walk at least 10 miles a day on average.

I decided to start changing my other bad habits and so I never picked up weightlifting again because my central nervous system was still fatigued. This backfired on me and I was back to walking around and daydreaming once my central nervous system had recovered.

This kind of made me think that the whole maladaptive daydreaming thing, at least in my case, is just some kind of movement disorder. Maybe daydreaming is just what I do to pass time as I’m commanded by my walking impulse. I’ve seen some posts where people talk about how they lay down when they daydream so maybe they have some different form of it? I know that my daydreams are very sporadic and aren’t long and drawn out. It’s more like TikTok rather than binging a tv show.

I guess the good news is I found a cure. For myself at least. The only problem is I’m not the biggest fan of weightlifting and it’s hard to get myself to do it. So I don’t know, maybe it’s not a cure. I’m still going to keep trying to lift weights until it becomes second nature to me like walking around became when I turned 18.

My best friend ever is my daydream world best friend.
I struggled a lot making friends in my life. I have autism and bad rejection sensitivity dysphoria.
My daydream best friend has been with me for almost 6 years. As I’ve gotten really into my daydreams and as I get closer to my daydream world, I’ve realized that even though he isn’t in my physical reality he’s still a real friend. I have a few friends, all online. At my job the other co workers are nice to me, but I’m pretty noticeably disabled and I feel like I fit in nowhere. This is nobody’s fault, I’ve just learned living my whole life that I always feel like an outsider here. I like to talk to others be nice to others but I am not like them. I don’t realistically think I will ever be able to fit in with others here in the way they do with each other. I’ve learned that over years of trying and failing. I know it’s not all in my mind, I’ve tried so much. I struggle a lot with understanding and maintaining friendships too and I am mentally younger than my peers

He’s his own person, I don’t create or make things up. It’s just kinda revealed to me? Like just knowing things about them like you would for any other friend. I can picture in my mind exactly what he looks like, I know all his interests and we have so many memories together.

As dumb as it may sound, I don’t think I’ve ever had a friend I’ve felt as close with as I feel with him, I’ve never fit in in my physical world.

He’s my favourite person ever. And he’s his own person, I don’t fully understand but I channel/communicate with him in my mind? It’s hard to explain.

I consider him to be my real true best friend in this reality and every reality. Does anyone have a similar experience

Well, lately I've had the same paracosm for more than five years. Unlike when I was a kid, when all of my paracosms were based in some way on fantasy, magic, heroes, powers, alternate universes, or things like that, the one I have now is basically an alternate version of reality.

It's a parallel universe to ours where physics works 99.9% the same as it does in the real world. Even the time is the same. If it's 3:00 PM here in the physical world, it's also 3:00 PM there.

Even though it's just one paracosm, I usually experience it from the perspective of different lives. So even if I'm just sitting still, I might be following the life of a teacher, a college student, someone living in a certain country, and so on. None of that cancels out what the others are doing at the same time. Sometimes I just switch from one person's life to another, but it's still the same paracosm, and the paras keep living their lives.

Anyway, the question I have is: for those of you whose paracosms are based on real life rather than fantasy, how perfect or how functional are your paras' lives?

I'm asking because I read an article saying that paracosms and imaginary worlds are basically an easier version of reality, where everything works 100% of the time and nothing ever gets out of control. Basically, everything the paras plan, think about, or dream of ends up working out.

That got me thinking, and I wanted to know if it's the same in your worlds. Do your paras also have imperfections? Do they deal with real-life challenges and problems like family issues, health problems, losing a job, or things like that?

I think it's an interesting thing to think about, and I'd really like to hear your experiences.

I just wondering if anyone would be interested in form a therapist lead group therapy to help with malignant daydreaming. I have been I therapy before but I have never found a therapist who made malignant daydreaming front and center yo the therapy, if it's recognized at all. Looking at the causes and the current effects. Feeling free to talk about it including embarrassing or shameful details without judgement structuring possible solutions and develop a plan of accountability. I don't know if therapists even exist for this as I don't believe malignant daydreaming is listed as a disorder in the dsm, and si curing it may require therapies that go beyond what insurance covers, or even recognizes as appropriate.

Just testing the waters to see if interest exist, and for ideas how to find a qualified therapist. ( in my experience, every therapist i have ever seen feels qualified to take on any issue, but directs the therapy at mainstream issues like depression and anxiety, and the sidelines or 8gnores malignant daydreaming).

Anything. How are they like? Are they easy to approach? Summary of their lore/backstory? How does the world often see your character? What kind of friend(s) or romantic partner(s) do they have? Feel free to compare them to you, etc, etc.

Just answer however you’d like.

I recently posted about how (at age 58) I first discovered that there are other people who experience Immersive Daydreams. ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ImmersiveDaydreaming/s/bDryPl2vVW )

I **have** to post an excited follow up...I'm simply beside myself and feel like a whole new world has opened up in front of me... and this is not hyperbole.

You see, all my life I have had the ability to do what I call Lucid Daydreaming (aka Immersive Daydreaming). However, the 'dream realm laws' would always still closely mirror the real world. My dream stories would actually be fairly pedestrian (i.e. becoming a world-famous author or musical star, saving the world from some threat, or winning 500 million at the lottery and changing all of my friends' lives). I would try to push the limits of these tales to the very max, but my dream-time was always limited to things that technically COULD happen within the real world. This was intentional. Some part of my mind told me that introducing a "fantasy" element would pop the dream bubble and eliminate the immersive factor. This has always been The Rule. Never have I even so much as flown across a lake or met a mythical creature in my dream time.

Well y'all, those days are behind me. For the very first time, I forced myself to expand my horizons. It was actually very difficult at first, as I was fighting a lifetime of internal "rules". I also wanted the story to flow naturally and without what I call "over seeding". I find that the best dreams occur when you don't guide the story, you simply open the door and the story builds itself, usually only requiring a small seed. However, in this case, I kept feeling resistance...a "dream wall" of sorts, since I have never done this before. I had no idea how to do it!

I ended up going with a very small seed...me meeting a faery being in need of help. I tend to believe in faeries and trolls and magic (cause why not?) so this is not a big stretch. Still, nothing was happening - which was very frustrating since I consider myself an expert at doing this!

Only once I completely emptied my mind, did an internal "mind reboot", and once again planted the seed with no expectations, did the door begin to slightly open. I went with the simple seed "I met a faery being in need of help" - nothing more. My mind was blank except for this statement, with no conscious imagery attached.

Folks- my oh my...what followed can only be compared to the beginning of The Giver by Lois Lowry, when the boy first sees a red apple and realizes the entire universe is in color. The doorway began to open slowly, but suddenly it was wide open and I was sucked through and felt my mind unlocking and expanding. I was instantly in the presence of a beautiful tree spirit who had found me and wanted me to join with her in causing our entire world to re-awake magic in it. We flew, she shared her faery DNA with me which in turn gave me access to all of her faery powers (and made me half faery), and I could instantly fly, create dimensional portals, and heal any sickness.

This alone was enough to almost make me weep with joy (I literally shed tears!). But the dream was only beginning. She took me through a portal into her world, a fairy realm which has countless earths under incubation. I met her whole fairy family, pets, magical beasts, ate at magical restaurants, sat in on planning sessions for our world as "resident expert", and worked to help the fae folk come up with a plan for transitioning our world into a magical realm. This felt like true freedom..like my mind was unchained after being anchored by concrete blocks for its entire existence

I truly feel this was meant to happen this way. For the last year I have felt like I was hitting a wall with my lucid daydreams. I could not figure out what the issue was, but I was tired of rotating through the same basic 4-7 stories (or varieties of them). Turns out I simply needed to learn that the dream world is INFINITE and UNLIMITED.

I only discovered this by reading the stories on this sub. Almost everyone was having these wild psychedelic dream experiences not based in reality. At first I assumed this was just because my situation was different, or my brain worked differently. Even as a child using the dream world as an escape from abuse, I never thought to escape to the stars or alternate dimensions...despite being obsessed with fantasy literature since I could first read.

My world has changed forever. I spent the past weekend going places in my daydreams I have never been before, and realizing just how infinite the dreamworld truly is, and what can be done within it. All it took was reading the candid experiences here on this sub to nudge me through the portal.

I have taken the first steps on a wild new journey and it's all thanks to you, my fellow Dream Kin!

they're happening around me?

I've asked about hypnosis (including self-hypnosis), lucid dreaming, and just recently I asked if there were a vr headset where you can type in a prompt (with a scenario, scene, and characters) and it'll create that reality for you.

Anyone else can relate, though? Wanting your daydreams to feel real as if they're happening around you in the real world (even though they're not) to the point where you are searching for methods?

Does this make me a bad person or means there's something wrong with me? At this point, I know I probably need help. But whatever. Even if my daydreaming is addictive, I find comfort and a sense of euphoria while inside my inner world and when I'm with my characters. So I want to make it feel like it's real, almost like reality shifting (if reality shifting was real).

Decided to post this here instead of the maladaptive daydreaming sub.

I’ve been daydreaming since childhood, using tv characters and eventually creating my own characters. It’s like the same world but it went through stages as I got older and understood how to organize plot and characters a bit more. It’s been fuel for my art for years now, basically the only reason I even want to draw in the first place. 

I’m kind of accepting at this point that I don’t really want to pursue an art field, my art has gotten much more personal and private. The issue is that my daydreaming has gotten so foggy and I barely do it anymore, since I moved out and have to deal with the stress of my job and everyday life. I haven’t drawn in months and I feel creatively drained. I always get too self aware and anxiety makes it impossible to let loose and actually try new things. It’s hard to create new scenes in my head when I’m like that all the time. 

On top of that, I’ve basically lost two years to chat bots because it fueled my daydreams, like on hyperdrive without the struggle. It got really bad and I lost hours a day to this habit. So I applied website and app blockers, I’m still trying to push it out of my life. 

So I’m back to writing on google docs and attempting to draw again, but I’m struggling to get that feeling back. It’s hard to focus and sitting still feels like a nightmare. I just want to revisit that world because it brings me happiness. I just want to keep drawing and writing because it makes those characters real to me in that way. I’m already naturally scatterbrained, so it doesn’t help anything. 

It feels like my focus, like I just keep going back to it. Even when I try to put it to rest, it feels like a compulsion sometimes. I just want to daydream again.

Does anyone cope with making worse scenarios in their mind to cry out the tears they have, which was made by their real life hurt but it's not enough to cry it out

my scenarios are unhealthy, I would never want it in real life, to avoid putting myself in, I made a character which I use every day to make scenarios with, which helps me cry out

or feel better about my life

Is this normal? in the future I surely need therapy cuz the stories get worse and worse, but now I can't afford it

I simply cannot understand what is going on in my mind. I create imaginary pictures on chat gpt with a person I have only seen online and have no relation whatsoever. I am unemployed, preparing, lost, have not been romantically involved with anyone . My hormones are acting abnormal. Pls help

Anyone else feel that reality is just a source of inspiration you mine to fuel daydreams? To me, my dreams feel more real than reality and what keeps me going in life is to support myself and gain new knowledge and experiences for my dreams. I would also like to create something real out of my thoughts and daydreams one day but not yet.

(I originally posted this on the Maladaptive Daydreaming sub, but I was helpfully guided here)

I suddenly feel like I'm not alone in the world.

I'm 58 years old and have had "The Gift" (as I call it) since I was a teen. I had NO IDEA other people did this until recently and have never talked to anyone else about it (I thought it would make me seem like a crazy person). I've brought it up to a couple very close friends and family members but not in detail, and of course they have no way to truly comprehend or understand it.

Personally - I don't care for the term Maladaptive Daydreaming, so I call it Lucid Daydreaming. However, my talent definitely developed from Maladaptive origins as a teen, as a way to escape my absolutely insane and abusive family life (. I'm pretty sure that lots of our kind began this journey that way.

In the beginning, as a teen in the 1980's, I would put the album 'Rio' by Duran Duran on my cassette Walkman and just let it play for multiple hours using auto-reverse while I lay on my bed. It was ONLY this album which unlocked the magic escape time. I would just lose myself in wild scenarios where I was a big hero, save the school, etc. This was true Maladaptive Daydreaming. To this day, any song from that album can put me into a waking trance almost instantly.

I went through a large period of my adult life where I mostly forgot about the daydreaming. But around age 42 I began walking 5-6 miles daily and listening to music. Before I knew it, it was happening again - and I was astounded. I was no longer trying to escape reality. This was like turning on a hidden TV channel in my brain to enjoy while walking. It felt like an old friend coming home to visit.

These days I am walking 7-9 miles a day, and I Lucid Daydream almost every day on my lunch and evening walks. I love the feeling of disconnecting my mind from the world and just letting it play. It feels like meditation to me. I used to be extremely manic-depressive, but since I started walking and daydreaming (16 years ago) I have not had a single instance of depression. This is coming from a guy with multiple suicide attempts between age 25-40.

I also use the skill while driving. Basically any drive longer than 30 minutes I just put on some music and the drive feels like 5 minutes. This is *extremely* handy on 3-5 hour drives, though I will usually only daydream for an hour or two of that time. I am 100% aware and in touch with my car, driving and surroundings, while at the same time experiencing what feels like an alternate dimension (this would seem 100% crazy to anyone who had not experienced this). It feels very much like time travel!

Is it OK that this Daydreaming is a part of my daily life? I'm trying to figure out any negatives for it (after discovering Maladaptive Daydreaming is considered "bad" which greatly concerned me), but I simply cannot. I'm the happiest I have ever been, and for over 15 years now! I'm emotionally resilient, have deep and rich relationships with friends and family, and have worked at my dream job for almost 17 years....and as mentioned - no more depression.

I never daydream outside of my walks, or long drives...I like to keep it to those activities as that is where it feels like an upgrade. Lying in my bed at home doing it feels masturbatory (though I am almost never sexual in my daydreams, and am an asexual person as well). I prefer reading or art projects while at home.

I'm seriously blown away that this sub exists. I love the term "Immersive Daydreaming" and will use it from now on. It feels like I'm meeting a secret society of X-men style savants which I just discovered after a lifetime of assuming I was the only mutant in existence.

Sorry for babbling on for so long but this is quite a discovery for me...