@TheNightWhistle , it's nice that you added this thread to PC. Maladaptive Daydreaming is definitely an issue for a small number of people out there, enough that Reddit has a whole subreddit for it. Have you ever checked that out?

I can't know the severity of your issue with daydreaming, but for some people it is far from being a good thing or simply a "perfectly healthy [way]... to calm down" like that one therapist told you. Some people daydream so much that they almost ignore reality and/or neglect important things in life. The daydreaming can even become dangerously distracting in some ways.

I had a period of maladaptive daydreaming in the past. I have always been a daydreamer, but there is a difference between frequent daydreaming and doing so maladaptively. At my worst, I spent all day long in my bed daydreaming, only getting up to eat and go to the bathroom, while still daydreaming. When my husband came home, I mostly ignored him in favor of my daydreaming. I stayed up late at night because I didn't want to stop my "stories" going on in my head. My daydreaming mostly had just a handful of characters and were like long mini series that when they seemed to end, I would start from the beginning with some modifications to the story. In real life, when I would see one of my daydreaming characters face to face, I often experienced dissociative symptoms, including hallucinations. At one point, it was suspected that I was having Simple Partial Seizures when in fact, it was likely associated with the dissociation related to the maladaptive daydreaming.

Why did I start to daydream maladaptively? Well, I think as a protection and escape for me mentally. I had had some traumatic experiences in years prior and had not yet found a healthier way to cope and eventually heal.

I wrote about my experience and recovery with maladaptive daydreaming in a blog post at Obsessive or maladaptive daydreaming easing back into grounded creative thinking – Bird Flight if you're interested.