Excessive Daydreaming Linked to Several Mental Health Conditions
There’s nothing wrong with a little daydreaming. In fact, as I wrote about last year, certain kinds of daydreaming are associated with having a greater sense of purpose in life.
But there can be something wrong with too much daydreaming. As I’ve also written about, some people lose control over their daydreams – their daydreams become distressing and start to interfere with daily life. Psychologists refer to this as maladaptive daydreaming or sometimes even daydreaming disorder.
And now, a new study has provided some of the clearest evidence yet that maladaptive daydreaming is more than just too much of a good thing. Rather, maladaptive daydreaming appears to come hand-in-hand with real implications for mental health and to be highly associated with several mental health conditions.
In the study, researchers surveyed 39 people who showed symptoms of maladaptive daydreaming. The researchers were especially interested in whether the participants showed symptoms of any “comorbid” conditions – that is, psychiatric disorders other than maladaptive daydreaming.
And did they ever. As it turned out, three-quarters of the participants met diagnostic criteria for at least three additional disorders, and over forty percent met criteria for at least four.
The most common comorbid condition was ADHD, which 77 percent of participants met the diagnostic threshold for. In a way, it makes sense that people who lose control over their daydreams would also tend to have clinical levels of inattention.
Seventy two percent of the participants also met criteria for anxiety disorders, and two-thirds had depression. Fifty four percent had OCD or an OCD-like disorder. Finally, twenty eight percent of the people with maladaptive daydreaming had attempted suicide at least once.
These results paint a pretty stark picture: maladaptive daydreaming correlates with a range of serious mental health problems. But knowing this also provides hope. Clinicians can use this information to better spot people at risk for a variety of mental health conditions, and ultimately to provide more effective treatment for people who suffer from distressing levels of daydreaming, often along with other disorders.
Image: Public Domain
Do we really need a study to tell us people who escape into fantasy might have issues worthy of escaping from?
Yes. If you read some of the links I posted, you’ll that while some kinds of people who “escape into fantasy” do “have issues worthy of escaping from,” other kinds of people who “escape into fantasy” actually have more meaningful lives on average. It’s always easy to say “we didn’t need a study to tell us that” after the study’s already been done. 😉
May be you are in early stage of maladaptive daydreaming.after some more time pass you will understand what it feels like not to live in present moment and how precious time you loose from your Lifend by only sitting and dreaming.
Any study of an excessive behavior will find maladaptivity.
Well, notice how vague that statement is — it doesn’t say anything about the extent of the “maladaptivity” or the type of “maladaptivity.” So, we could just leave it there, not actually knowing anything at all … or we could do a study to learn more. 🙂
If you grew up in an abusive home, beaten for no good reason, by a catholic Alcoholic, that believed that to ‘spare the rod, was to spoil the child’ , you would get the ideal, that day dreaming was at times, the only was to escape. Escape the horrors of childhood in the 1960’s , or stay in reality and cope with beating, by belts, rulers, and paddles?
Escaping in my mind, made the pain easier to deal with. My sisters turned to drugs, and I, well I did what I had to do..
Thanks for sharing your story, Smokythebear. It also brings up a good point about some limitations of these studies: researchers aren’t clear on when “excessive” daydreaming contributes to mental health problems and when it’s the other way around — that people react to adversity by daydreaming to escape reality. I suspect that both can apply in different situations.
I agree 100%!! I’m sorry that you had to deal with all of that abuse, it makes me sick to think about.
I had to grow up in a terrible, neglectful, abusive (sexual abuse for 3 long years ages 5-8 and watched mom get beaten unconscious right in front of me), mentally unstable, addict/alcoholic household and those are not even all of the struggles.
I read books constantly to drift away from reality, and also turned into a bit of a daydreamer/worrier at a very young age. Maybe I was more of a worrier now that I think about it. But I did read books to the extreme, sometimes reading the same book ten times just to ignore real life.
I’m 25 and my daydreaming has gone too far to the point that I think my life sucks without daydreaming. And now I think I suffered from instrutive thoughts and it’s due to it. Now I can only enjoy daydreaming (sometimes with masturbating),, when I try to enjoy things in real life like watching movies, listening to music or even eating my instrutive thoughts comes in and ruin my mood. So if I stop daydreaming will my instrutive thoughts go away.
Hi Muiz. When daydreaming and intrusive thoughts get to the point that they’re interfering with your life, talking to a mental health professional is the way to go. I’d encourage you to do this. A mental health professional should be able to help you with taking your life back from these thoughts. Best of luck!
I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this, it’s not fair 🙁
I do not enjoy anything in life either, except my children. Everything else leaves me distracted and depressed. I cannot focus on anything except my constant intrusive thoughts, 24/7. I have no quality of life anymore. So many horrible, unjust things have happened to me that I can’t stop obsessing about them and my inability to make things better. It’s a vicious cycle! I’m depressed and insecure (outside of motherhood) therefore nothing brings me joy. The lack of joy makes me insecure and depressed and I don’t know how to break the cycle. I’m on one mood stabilizer and one mild anti depressant and the only thing they help with is the mood swings (bipolar II) so now I’m a complete zombie plus I’ve gained 50 lbs from a fibromyalgia drug that I have to take to function. Again the vicious cycle; I think I’m disgusting and want to cry when I look in the mirror but I’m 44 years old and it’s too much work, and pain, to get in shape. So again, I feel like I’m totally disgusting therefore that adds to my depression and loneliness. I refuse to date after being single for 5 years because I obsess about being pathetic.
I need therapy and will hopefully start soon. I believe you could benefit from the same. I wish you well
I believe I do have maladaptive daydreaming I created myself as a different character and create stories all in my head. It does not interfere with my everyday life I can assure you, also I do suffer from mild OCD.
i used to that I would go into my world with my character and Create a whole story line it would interfere in school and when I was at home I would do it too very chance that I got and also I would daydream everywhere and when I mean everywhere I mean everywhere I even continue my daydreams in my sleep I even had a super realistic dream that I thought it happened in a past life is something .
I wish I could have participated in that test. I know I have maladaptive daydreaming. I am 31 and have wasted more than half of my life daydreaming. I have already been diagnosed with Major Depressive disorder and an eating disorder. This was years ago, and I know my problems are getting worse. I wish someone would research this more, it needs to be made a real mental disorder. I belong to a group of so many people that have it. I would volunteer to participate in a study if the opportunity came.
I’m not sure whether there are currently any studies on maladaptive daydreaming looking for participants, but it’s worth keeping an eye open for, since research on maladaptive daydreaming can’t happen without people like you being willing to participate! Thanks for commenting.
I understand how you feel! I am now 30 years old and daydreaming about the same story for 23 years but the characters have developed over the years. I feel like their apart of my family now. I try to say my goodbyes but their the only thing i feel a strong connection to. It all started when i was in kindergarten, i would imagine characters with my hands , next i start visualizing them in my mind. The reason was because i was shy and quiet with no friends and plus my mother shipped me off to stay with grandma in a different state, while my sibling stay with her.I was a loner as a child. My daydreaming gotten worst when i was 10 years old and my stepfather started molesting me,So I think I’m confused about reality. I daydream to escape my pain and i use it to feel any kind of emotion;sad, happiness,passion, and anger; I was numb for years . I can’t keep friends and I divorce my husband because the pressure of a wive was too hard and i cant focus anything and it affect my work. I feel stuck in my mind.
I’ll remember that. I m studying psychology in the best French college and I’ll make a thesis about it
I’m 21 and I live in Iran
I think my daydreaming has been started when I was 7 or 8
I had and have a hard life
My dad was a taxi driver but when I came to this world he lost his job because of addiction
Those days was so hard for me and my mom and sister and of course himself too
Finally he gave up and died when I was 9
After that,there were new problems
till now
So I live in my lovely world,I dream about everything,about
my wishes that I know will never come true but I enjoy them
But they take so much time
Now I can’t study anymore
Hi Sara. Thanks a lot for sharing your story. I’m really sorry to hear about everything you’ve had to cope with — wishing you all the best!
Hi Sara, I’m 20 y/o and also from Iran. I’ve been daydreaming as far as I can remember, I also have some anxiety problems and OCD. As you know, Maladaptive Daydreaming sucks but not being able to talk to someone about it sucks even more. I was just a 13 years old boy when I told my mom that something is wrong about me and I can’t control my MD, of course she ignored me at the time, she said everyone does that and it’s normal. My father had anger management issues, I was beaten up from time to time for no reasons. When I was 15, I reached out to internet to cure myself, that was the first time I heard MD and it was kinda a relief because I wasn’t the only lunatic and I wasn’t alone. Anyway since then I’ve been self medicating myself, I’ve tried so many medications and methods like mindfulness and CBT… I know it’s wasn’t smart, but I had no choice, you know there’s no way that people like us get help here. Sara you’re not alone, I’ve been on a same boat and I know what you’re going through. I have created a social support group which includes other Persian daydreamers. If you’re interested, let me know.
And I feel that psychiatric methods can’t help people like me, cause this hateful trait of excessive daydreaming is deep rooted in my brain. Maybe medical drugs can improve the situation, or maybe its just a fool’s hope. From the moment I wake up till the time that sleep overcomes my brain is busy with racing thoughts. It has on and off times during the day, but it doesn’t fade away. Too sad about how this condition ruined my life plans so far.
I’m 19. I’ve had maladaptive daydreaming ever since I was sexually abused when I was 4. In addition to that abuse, I was chronically ill as a child and neglected and emotionally abused. I was pulled out of school because I was sick, and I ended up spending days at a time home alone. I developed an eating disorder, anxiety, and depression, all of which I’m getting treated now. Nobody has ever understood my MD though. When I was little my family called it having imaginary friends, but then started chastising me for the fantastical content I was getting too old for. I had to start hiding it from them. I learned to do it with the lights off and music on so that they couldn’t hear me talking or pacing around. It’s always been dismissed by therapists, regardless of how much I try to tell them that I pace around my room talking to characters in my head in a detailed fantasy world, and I know it’s not real, but It’s a compulsion, and it sucks up hours of my day, makes reality feel unreal, and my daydreams influence my real life actions and decisions (I put myself in situations based on how it played out unrealistically in my head, especially romantic relationships, and I often get hurt because I’m fixated on the fantasy so much that I can’t see reality until afterwards). I’ve never been able to get treatment, but articles like these help me feel less alone.
Hi Grace, I really appreciate your comment that you found this article helpful. As far as getting your therapist to understand this, can I suggest printing out this comment you just wrote and giving it to your therapist? I find that these types of things are sometimes easier to express in writing. Best of luck!
Hi i feel for you, i found pray is very good for me even when my md overcomes it I tend to stay more focus and back on track while praying. I know that fasting is one sure way of winning over md, Youre mind wants this and that and you move away from your thought’s till they are reduced or disappear. I have a similar history like yours not as physically abusive i wish at times it was, the head screw and heart can be very emotionally tearing
Not to belittle the content of the maladaptive dreamers comments above; but it all seems either fake(seems like the same person writing since the sentence structure and grammar are similar) and perhaps some real(no one wants to refute a physical/sexual abuse case) but it all sounds the same in the comments. I am a professional, but I suffer from maladaptive dreaming, which for me is the result of ADHD and depression. It can be bad or good; for me it’s all the made up/lost arguments you’ve one in your head. Or the million outcomes you can have about any anticipated or hopeful conversation in your future. It sucks because it takes away from your daily life.
I don’t really get this comment. I’m not seeing the similarities in the other comments, which are separated in time by many months — other than the obvious similarity that these people are experiencing maladaptive daydreaming. I find it especially puzzling that you say you experience maladaptive daydreaming yourself but that these other people’s stories are “fake.” That said, I definitely see how ADHD and depression could contribute to maladaptive daydreaming, and I hope you’re able to find treatment that leads these symptoms to interfere less in your everyday life.
Hi Andrew, I suffered from it too (diagnosed with ADHD when getting my son assessed at 35years old it explains a lot interestingly I also suffered chronic nightmares as well as happy chronic daydreaming during the day maybe they are trying to cancel each other out lol), 2 things have helped me 1. The ADHD medications and 2. Work which helps me stay in the moment.
I’m 41 and spent my entire life daydreaming. I would experience emotions that exceed that of the emotions that I experience in real life. Both positive and negative, but I had control of them. I would create story lines that would let me experience “move-like” emotions. I would experience a broken heart and indulged in it, because I knew I was about to experience my heart becoming complete again. I could live the life you only see in movies.
All of that stopped a few years ago and now I feel empty and without emotions. They were replaced by anxiety. My life isn’t better now. I didn’t waste my life in day dreams. They were in fact the only life I had.
I’m so empty without them.
If you seek to end your maladaptive daydreaming, be careful. Once you reach reality, there’s no turning back. There’ will be no way to escape what caused you to day deam in the first place.
I don’t want to feel so empty and without any real emotions or experiences. I honestly just want to return to my day dreams.
This sounds similar to me. I’m 46 and not able to daydream like I used to. When I was a kid I never thrived in school and spent a lot of time alone in my room, daydreaming. Especially after seeing movies or reading books, I could really daydream movie-like and feel all the emotions like you say.
I don’t know what caused these quite pleasant daydreams to be replaced by anxiety. Maybe due to taking on too much responsibility? Work, marriage, kids, house etc. I experience a form of burnout from work that might play a part in it.
Or is it that the imgination required wanes with the years? I hope not, I still have hopes to be able to daydream like I used to.
Wow, this what i bave been looking for. I day dream a lot!
So much i bave ben worried if i was going a bit loopy and was thinking about getting proffesional help.
I would love to talk to someone confidentIly and NOT on a public forum.
My daydreaming is basicaly about good things from the past logical continuation of the life that i had before unemployment and the economic crisis in southern Europe (from where i am from). It is usually about things i had and could do, (like travelling and going for art stuff and such, like having my own place and not sleeping on someone elses couch), i daydream painfully about beloved possibilities and moments i had before someone else destroyed my life (despite my massive efforts to keep it going). It would be real and not daydreaming if it wouldn’t be taken from me by others. I became very destroyed and every attempt i made to get back my life , was torn apart by others and the system. So often i daydream, except when i am watching a movie or videos like wtf and fun stuff and whatsoever (no documentaries or serious sh*t thank you). I have to keep daydreaming or otherwise i would be long gone 6 feet under, and someimes i think, why not?
I think the effect that economics has on mental health is something we don’t talk about enough. If one in five people in your country can’t find a job, a good therapist can only do so much for your mental health (although of course a good therapist is better than nothing!). Best of luck!
Thank you Neil Peterson for a forum to discuss and correspond about Maladaptive Daydreaming. I’ve read all of the posts above and can relate entirely to them. I’m pretty sure I have had this trait for most of my 50+ years and have absolutely no doubt it has effected every aspect of my life. I can’t say it wasn’t initially an escape from something and I never found my way out, but the post last year from SmokeyTheBear brings back some accurate vibes. I’ve been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, like I didn’t know that, but I grew up in a time when there was no such malady that a good smack I the back of the head didn’t cure.
But I’m not complaining and I’m not sure I would enjoy a permanent cure. There are good emotions and bad ones. I struggled academically because not only was it difficult to concentrate on the reality of classroom instruction, but also reading. I can read only a few chapters of a book before my brain is triggered to place myself in the story –always as the hero who saves the day and gets the girl, etc. Even in mundane day-to-day activities it’s hard to escape the imaginary dimension of doing something else somewhere else, but it’s generally a time and place that’s preferable to reality. The problem though is that it’s constant and there’s no switch to turn it off, and I cannot help it.
It’s also very difficult to turn off my thoughts when I know my body needs sleep -also a trait of ADHD, I know. I’d be interested to hear other people’s take on this. And if there’s no music playing I’ll have a chorus of a recent song looping in my head. Looping. And man did I nail the guitar solo or what!
Through life you create coping mechanisms and can pass yourself off as less aloof but the daydreaming is always there. I’ve learned very good social skills but it wasn’t always easy, I’m definitely more of an introvert and do not enjoy larger groups. In my dreams I’m the life of the party but in reality more of the wallflower. Generally a party for me is drinking alcohol alone and leaving reality completely behind. Not a good trait I know, and I fight it constantly. Anybody else? We can encourage each other.
Hi Patrick, thanks for sharing your story. Have you ever considered taking up writing as a hobby? Just curious because you write well and it might be interesting to get some of those “other worlds” down on paper. I’ve found that writing can be a good outlet for ADHD. Anyway, best of luck!
I will daydream about situations that either have happened or situation that I will have to face soon. I will imagine the worst A lot of the daydreams are about confronting the people in my family like my husband or my teenager. I guess those that I have the most conflict with. There was a point in time at work where I was taking 5HTP for mood and I was daydreaming every time I put on music. I would put on the headphones and in my mind I’m dancing down the hall. I have finally been diagnosed with ADHD. But i have been daydreaming since I was a child, back then it was more about me doing impossible things like fantasies. Weird.
Thanks for sharing your experiences! It sounds like daydreaming has both positive and negative aspects for you. BTW, as someone who also has ADHD, congrats on the diagnosis!
I think that doctors are way too quick at tagging people with mental disorders these days, especially children. When you grow-up in foster homes and never have the time to adjust or attach to anyone & you get physically, sexually & mentally abuse your entire childhood, it takes a lifetime to learn how to re-educate yourself to what’s considered “normal” interactions with others. If parents keep putting down a child, telling him that he’s stupid, worthless and he’ll never amount to anything for the first half of their lives, of course they’ll develop OCD, that’s just normal. You’re constantly trying to do more than what you can to be accepted & loved, you develop patterns often imposed to you in order to be acceptable to them, you’ll do ANYTHING. And if on the contrary a parent constantly puts their child on a pedestal, never to be challenged with anything, that child will often become a narcistic hater, possibly even borderline as he’ll have a hard time coping with any form of failure in the future. Those are not mental issues, they’re bad education and bad parenting. you don’t have a mental illness, your brain has been programmed from the start to be like that.
And then there’s the daydreaming theory. Generally for daydreamers, it’s because your right brain is more active & prominent than the left and works independently, often giving you the potential to multi-task. Right brainers frequently become artists, creators, writers, inventors, scientists, because your brain never shuts down, not even when you sleep; you remember most dreams vividly. Daydreaming enables you to conceive new projects while the other part of your brain is doing the boring technical part. The left brain is mechanical & will function out of habit while the other side is busy doing new fun stuff. I’m not saying it’s not potentially dangerous as I was once composing an entire chapter for a book in my mind and I hadn’t even realised that I was no longer at a desk, I woke up behind the wheel realising that I was driving at relatively high speed in a tunnel. But somehow my subconscious knew at what time to leave, where my car was parked, I apparently paid the parking fees and went off my merry way respecting the highway’s speed limits. I’d compare it to somnambulism. Somehow, my left brain is able to take charge of an insane amount of stuff without me being present. It handles the crappy routine part of my life. Am I bat shit insane or ADHD? Well, according to medical science I am. But I don’t see it as an attention deficit, I see it as the opposite, a gift that permits you to concentrate on several things at a same time. Often as a child I was WAYYYYYYY far in my mind, my thoughts weren’t even in class anymore, I was visualising a better life and things that made me happy such as art & animals and yet, when the teacher would snap me out of it and all my classmates would laugh ’cause it took several attempts; she’d ask me to repeat the question and I would. It’s really as if you have two brains acting independently. In any case, daydreaming kept me sane and saved my life. I was 12 the first time I attempted suicide, by the age of 14 I was homeless. Even the garbage I was eating from were being taxed by a street gang, so I became their “property” to repay my dues. In dark times like these, if your brain stops providing you with positive outcomes when you’re going through such inhumane situations, you give up, plain & simple.
But of course I have some issues, you can’t survive being abused & bullied half a lifetime and pretend you’re fine (I’m now 50 BTW). But I don’t believe pills are the answer, just a tremendous amount of work on your own behavior, actions & lack of self confidence. Knowing your limits, not putting yourself in positions of potential failure, avoiding being around people who tend to make you feel small, better organising your time to help better organise your thoughts and stop or avoid as much as possible doing the crap your left brain is stuck doing so that your right brain can flourish more. Also, every now & then, stop dreaming and go do what your heart desires every now & then, that helps a lot (unless you’re a serial killer of course! LOL). Find ways to make some of it possible, compromise on what’s less important. Go do it.
If you never treat yourself to the stuff you really wanna do, you’ll end-up feeling trapped your entire life. That’s when you become suicidal. And AGAIN, being suicidal isn’t always caused by a mental disease. If you”ve lost your health, family, job and eventually car & home within a few months due to, say, an accident or such, it’s fricken NORMAL to be depressed. I believe that it should be left to the discretion of the victim what if they wanna go on or not because YES some things ARE too unbearable to deal with. Living the rest of your life as a broken zombie on pills is no way to live. Can some people overcome all this and go on with their lives? Of course, but it’s not given to everyone. If a person has been broken to the point where they no longer live but merely exist, don’t be selfish, let them go. It’s THEIR right. They never asked to be here in the fist place. My cousin lost her 2 year old after 2 years of medical & financial Hell, the doctors didn’t even give her time to grieve, WHICH IS A NORMAL PROCESS. They’ve shoved her with pills right away. Seriously, it’s like it’s not even permitted to be human & have feelings anymore. You have to be functional and productive all the time. I’m sorry but I don’t agree with that.
If a person is struggling and can’t find solutions on their own, it’s fine to get help, in fact, it would be stupid not to, as it’s available in most countries. But if you already know what your issues are and most importantly WHY you’re the way you are, I don’t think any amount of chemicals can help, the only person that can help you be a better you is YOU. Now if you’re too lost, weak or overwhelmed to get yourself out of what you’ve been conditioned for, that’s another matter. Talk about it. But for crying out loud, evaluate all the other options before you accept getting numbed with pills. Therapy is a far better option with a much more effective outcome. Talking about it often helps the most. Once you realise you’re not alone, that half of the planet suffered similar ordeals as you, that’s a relief on its own. Find discussion groups and if there aren’t any, start one, that’s what social medias are for. Just don’t let other people’s problems overcome yours & weight even more on you. Open your right brain to some and shut your left brain to the rest. Live happy, it’s not always easy but you can do it!
I’m 47. I’ve been daydreaming since I was a kid. Vivid memories I still have of escaping and daydreaming at 6,7,8 years old. Visions of myself with superpowers and being invincible carried me through so many lonely days as a kid. As a teenager, they got even more vivid. And as an adult, being single, living alone, and turning to alcohol to ease the loneliness has made the daydreams become part of my life. After work, I’ll sit at home on my bed, drink beer, smoke cigarettes, forget about my obligations, and sink into a deep fantasy which can last hours and hours. Nothing in particular usually, but I give my mind a few minutes and they naturally come. I feel as like I need to escape reality because I am lonely living in it.