Living Inside Your Head

Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming about being in different situations or different storylines?  Do you ever do this excessively? That might be something called maladaptive daydreaming. 

Artwork: Hommage à Odilon III by Alexandra Levasseur.

Maladaptive daydreaming is when a person daydreams so much—to the point that their day is completely spent daydreaming. Maladaptive daydreaming isn’t just one of those random fantasies where you imagine yourself getting kidnapped by One Direction and get asked to be the sixth member: it’s actually much more consuming. It can pull you away from reality. Psychologists say that maladaptive daydreaming is used as a coping mechanism—an escape to a much better world where you experience comfort, happiness, and all of the emotions the real world may withhold. Regular daydreaming usually lasts a few seconds, maybe minutes at the most; but maladaptive daydreaming can last for an extended period of time. They are also very vivid and can feel very real because you are the sole person that is in control of that reality. 

The reason why maladaptive daydreaming can be harmful, and self-destructing is because it strays you away from the present moment. It can make you extremely nostalgic or it can push you to constantly think about your future. Instead of taking action in the present, you get stuck in a cycle where it feels like you’ve already taken action, but the action only happened in your head. Some people call it overthinking, but overthinking has never built a future, it’s only ever broken things apart. Maladaptive daydreaming is where everything comes easy, but it causes a lack of motivation in real life—because reality is difficult, and things take time and effort.

Although maladaptive daydreaming can give you a rush of dopamine, it can’t replace the present moment.