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Anxiety Disorders
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Maladaptive daydreaming/depersonalization

fuusheegii
fuusheegii
Does anyone else have a problem with excessive and unhealthy daydreaming? I have this whole fantasy life in my head and I will spend literally hours lying in bed living this other life. I'll admit I'm extremely unhappy with my life the way it is now, and this fantasy me helps keep thoughts of hurting myself at bay. I haven't really discussed this with my therapist because not only am I embarrassed by it (I'm twenty-four and have imaginary friends fml) I also don't want to lose this other me, and this other life that I have built over the last ten years (when my "traumatic event" took place.)
bluedragon41
bluedragon41
...sounds like fodder for a web comic?

...So, changing your life takes little baby steps.
Two suggestions: make something shared, concrete and creative from your fantasy world, and set little do-able goals towards getting your life together.
dsf95
dsf95
Be careful. My problem is that I get fantasy crushes on men and sometimes it blurs for me. Doesn't work out very well. And then I realized that it wasn't just attraction I was feeling; it was fear stemming from my background of incest and being assaulted. I wasn't in touch with my own feelings and was using fantasy as a denial. Whatever you think about could be acted out in some way.
neocortex27
neocortex27
I've had chronic insomnia for 6 years now, so I've taken to creating fantasies to pass the time it takes me to fall asleep. I have 5 'main fantasy lives' I switch between, depending on my mood, or I create small new ones. To me they are both a form of entertainment and a way to process some of my traumas, but what helps is that I'm actually rather content with my real life right now.

I agree with blue, maybe you should make something creative from them. Personally, I write them out as stories. With most of them, no one gets to read them, some are quite messed up, but I enjoy writing them up. The longest one has a little over 120 pages now (A4, on my computer, I admit I'm kinda proud of that) and I have more than 50 short stories. Writing has become almost meditative to me and it really helps me sort through stuff.

It'd be a good idea to talk to your therapist about this, but since it helps you not to think about hurting yourself, maybe it's a crutch you still need right now.
LuckyEmpath
LuckyEmpath
It sounds to me like this is your coping mechanism for stress. When we are experiencing trauma we often dissociate or escape to another world within our minds. I know I did this as a child. During the abuse (done by a neighbor) I would dissociate and at home with my crap family I would escape into my mind. It was how I coped. It was what kept me alive. This is what it sounds like you are doing and its now nothing more than a habit. I would mention it to your therapist so he/she can give you the tools you need to break this habit and to help you find other ways of coping with stress.

Take care
arfie
arfie
Yup, I have the problem in spades. Who needs the over-lit idiocy of the human species? I have Fuchaduckia and its herds of dragonfly shepherds.

I think I have gotten mine down to healthy proportions. I spun mine into full, psychotic delusions before I was able to admit it was a problem. When I brought it up with a therapist, she suggested I begin working to shape my fantasies into novels. I did. Now to get it together for ALL THOSE EDITING SESSIONS. ?!?WORK?!?!?!? There is writing and there is hyper--graphia.

And then there are the obsessive/analytical thought loops. . .
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