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mat007
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Default Jun 18, 2019 at 03:01 PM
  #1
Firstly, I didn't find a category destinated to the Maladaptive Daydreaming disorder. and that's why I decided to post it here, although I don't consider it something that can induce dissociation.

I'm a daydreamer. I always was. Since I was a small kid, I have created myself a world, where I could be anyone. Like, a cop, a president, a singer, an actor, a film-producer... and I spent like 50% of my daytime in my mind.

And that's what I also do today. When I'm bored, and even during some activities, I fantasize. I don't imagine myself as a cop, or something, but I imagine myself as a successful person, a CEO, in most of the cases, at a worldwide-known company, such as Apple, Samsung or Microsoft. I also tend to fantasize about girls I fall in love with, or I just find attractive. I imagine myself in situations with them, and those things last like... i don't know. They just keep my mind busy for more than 50% of the day.

I'm also a very creative person. And I'm scared that if I will stop daydreaming I'm going to lose some (if not all) of my creativity. I won't imagine myself as a successful programmer anymore, that creates the app named "X", or "Y", and that's why I won't have any new ideas for apps.

As the title says, my question is: Will I lose my creativity if I stop daydreaming? Should I stop daydreaming or just try to take it "easier"? How can I do that?
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Default Jun 19, 2019 at 09:52 AM
  #2
Hi, mat007,

I noticed this is your second post on PC. Welcome!!! There are lots of kind people and a wealth of information on this website. I hope you find what you need here. Let me get Skeezyks over here, he is great at greeting new members and guiding them to helpful articles on this website.

@Skeezyks

What I just did there is called a "mention". We use it to get a person's attention. You do the @ and follow it with their forum name with no spaces unless there are spaces in their name. Does that make sense? I am just starting my morning coffee and my brain is wobbly, LOL

On the daydreaming, I can relate. I am a daydreamer myself. My family was horrid and my daydreaming helped.
I think no, you won't lose your creativity if you stop your daydreaming. I am also creative and I haven't lost mine through all of my years of suffering and healing. As I get better, my creativity gets better because I have gotten a lot of the negative garbage in my brain to leave.

What do you like to create? I am a mental health blogger and a crafter, I love to write, make beaded jewelry and some crocheting. I can sew and paint very simply!

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Smile Jun 19, 2019 at 02:13 PM
  #3
Thanks for bringing your concern here to PC. I recall replying to your first post here.

You asked if you will lose your creativity if you stop daydreaming. And you asked if you should stop or just take it easier. Honestly, I don't know the answer to that. And I doubt anyone else does either for certain. My intuition suggests to me that there isn't any specific relationship between daydreaming & creativity. So I would doubt stopping or decreasing daydreaming would necessarily have any impact on your creativity. But I don't know that for a fact.

I don't know how one would be able to stop daydreaming, practically speaking. It's one thing to think about doing it. It's something entirely different to actually make it happen. In a sense, I suspect it would be sort-of like the idea of "don't think about pink elephants"; & then all you can think about is pink elephants! The more you try to make yourself not daydream, the more you may find yourself doing exactly that. And, as I recall, you've had some issues surrounding OCD. Trying to make yourself stop daydreaming might, I would fear, possibly feed into any OCD-like tendencies you already have. There again I don't know that for a fact. (I'm not a mental health professional.) But that would be my concern. If it is possible for you to simply take it a bit easier, as you mentioned, I certainly don't see any problem with that, there again, as long as it doesn't morph into an ongoing struggle.

Here are links to 7 articles, from Psych Central's archives, on the subject of daydreaming including one "Ask the Therapist" column where a person wrote in asking about daydreaming:

Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Daydreaming?

Daydreaming - Creativity or Avoidance | The Creative Mind

Need to Generate Another Big Idea? Try Daydreaming!

What Happens When Daydreaming Is Intentional?

Daydreaming May Be Sign of Intelligence

https://psychcentral.com/lib/harness...our-daydreams/

https://psychcentral.com/ask-the-the...p-fantasizing/


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Default Jun 19, 2019 at 06:47 PM
  #4
@mat007

thank you for sharing your truth. This is one of the most interesting posts I've read.

My first Q would be: is this something you actually can control/stop/reduce or does it just sort of happen?

If so, why do you want to stop? Is it interfering with your non-daydreaming world? If so, in what ways and to what extent?

I think since you're a creative person, that will continue on regardless...part of your nature. I would say the only things that could potentially really dampen or destroy someone's creativity would be cognitive decline (neural disorder or disease), cognitive deprivation, intense chronic pain, intense depression, malnutrition etc. Not that those are guaranteed to destroy creativity but they could certainly increase the likelihood. Note I didn't include reduced daydreaming on the list.

I don't know if this helps. I am a daydreamer too but perhaps in a different way from yourself.

I wish you peace and hope.
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Default Jun 21, 2019 at 06:45 AM
  #5
I know nothing about maladaptive daydreaming disorder or what defines it. I do know however there have been times in my life where I actually preferred and looked forward to time for daydreaming than I did to reality.

Interestingly though, the extent to which I have daydreamed has been directly proportional to the unhappy and difficult times in my life. I built for myself an escape I guess you would say. Is this your own experience? Under what circumstances to you most daydream? Is there a time of day this tends to happen? At the worse periods of my life I would go off to bed well before my spouse and would will myself to daydream. For in the life I lead in the dream, while also fraught with difficulty, I always came out on top.
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Default Jun 21, 2019 at 08:08 AM
  #6
I doubt you will lose your creativity if you try to reduce your daydreaming! I'm not sure however. Does daydreaming interfere with your occupations in real life? Is that why you want to reduce it? I'd suggest to discuss this matter with a therapist if you aren't doing it already!
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mat007
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Default Jun 22, 2019 at 02:00 PM
  #7
Quote:
Originally Posted by MickeyCheeky View Post
I doubt you will lose your creativity if you try to reduce your daydreaming! I'm not sure however. Does daydreaming interfere with your occupations in real life? Is that why you want to reduce it? I'd suggest to discuss this matter with a therapist if you aren't doing it already!
Yes. Daydreaming interferes with my real life occupations, and it also influences the decisions I take, and the things I say. Although everyone around me denies that, I am able to relate the fact that I am quite an immature person. And if daydreaming doesn't influence my creativity, I would not want to stop it, but reduce it, at least when I am around people and I need to speak or do a certain task.
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Default Jun 24, 2019 at 07:15 PM
  #8
When a friend of mine died a few years ago, he was often in my daydreams, my daydreaming almost died. I actually did see how it affected my creativity. It acted negative on my whole mental health. It affected my sleep and dreaming. It made me start using drugs. I feel like I'm just thrown out in the world now. I have lost a huge part of my life, even if it was not seen as real. I feel utterly bad and sad.

It's not like I can restart it at will either. I'm just lost I think. My daydreams weren't so much about success, more about adventure, but they were still needed, like the glue that kept me together, the drug that kept me safe.

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