/autg/ - Neurodiversity General

[haruhi]

does anyone else struggle with maladaptive daydreaming? today i decided to block all of the instagram accounts that trigger my daydreams and i'm really proud of myself! […]
i've gotten pretty tired of social media, even if it's long form content. i either use it as fuel for my daydreams or i immediately get bored of it, thinking "why don't i just do it myself instead of watching someone else do it?"

Late reply, but I struggled with this really badly when I was young, it became manageable after I turned 12 or so. My guess is that it was mostly caused by how isolated I was as a kid. I used to spend hours to days in my own complex worlds where I had entire storylines, sub-plots, and where I was able to be in control of the situation. I had an entire mental plot similar to the game of Corpse Party that I would daydream about for hours on end, it was quite scary because I would pace in circles in my room nonstop until someone snapped me out of it. Music/social media wasn’t a trigger though.
It was really bad. Id fantasize about doing things I could do in real life but doing them “better.” I had a fantasy where I would do laundry but instead of liquid detergent, I’d use a tide pod and how cool that would be, I’d have wool balls in my dryer to help it dry faster, and when I folded my clothes, they would look neater than they did in real life. Then when I put them away I got to roll my clothes up burrito style to save space. All these things were reasonably things I could do in real life, my mom eventually got wool balls and after middle school me cried about how I didn’t like getting detergent on my hands and the smell, we got biodegradable detergent pods. I just had the fantasy of doing them because it was (to me) better than doing it.

After around 12 I think I started making a handful of proper friends. Additionally around this time I started becoming more confident about my ability to make art and I was able to channel the complex worlds my mind came up with into art. I really began getting into fan spaces for anime too, and soon discussion about my favorite animes with friends and my artwork took over my old daydreaming. I still daydream like everyone else, and I can get caught up in it, but it’s no longer something that really impairs me.

[ccloverclub]

I used to spend hours to days in my own complex worlds where I had entire storylines, sub-plots, and where I was able to be in control of the situation. I had an entire mental plot similar to the game of Corpse Party that I would daydream about for hours on end, it was quite scary because I would pace in circles in my room nonstop until someone snapped me out of it.

thanks for sharing! i differ from most maladaptive daydreamers because i don’t daydream about complex plots or characters. it’s usually very simple things like “boy asks me out” or “fun outing with friends” and the people in my daydreams don’t have names or even faces. the actual situation doesn’t matter much and i bounce between daydreams pretty often. i do love pacing around my room tho

After around 12 I think I started making a handful of proper friends. Additionally around this time I started becoming more confident about my ability to make art and I was able to channel the complex worlds my mind came up with into art. I really began getting into fan spaces for anime too, and soon discussion about my favorite animes with friends and my artwork took over my old daydreaming. I still daydream like everyone else, and I can get caught up in it, but it’s no longer something that really impairs me.

daydreaming goes away when the need you were daydreaming about is fulfilled. for example in middle school i daydreaming a lot about irl friend stuff and that went away the second i got to high school and had the friends i wanted.

recently what helped me reduce my daydreaming (and doomscrolling too!) is limit how long i can do it. i tell myself “if you do something productive (like cleaning or going outside) ill reward myself with scrolling/daydreaming for 20 mins”. i did this a couple of times and it made me realize how much i didn’t actually enjoy any of this stuff. obviously in that small timeframe you want to maximize your time. most social medias became useless because 99% of the stuff i was scrolling on sucked and i didn’t want to waste my time looking for something good. eventually i just used those minutes to blast music, but even then i wasn’t fully enjoying myself. eventually switched my rewards to other things. i really recommend this if you’re struggling with doomscrolling, i’m not fully cured but im a whole lot better