I don’t wanna stop. I’ve done this for basically half my life and I think it’s good for me to keep being creative. It fills a void. At times it can get a bit much and I have to come back to reality but I find it’s been a good way for me to get over trauma and give myself things I don’t have in reality. I don’t think I’d be happier if I stopped, I get why people stop though I just don’t see myself ever stopping

So when i was younger i use to draw all the time i would redraw things create my own oc etc all i wanted to do was draw and improve my art skills but as i got older i started to maladaptive it 100% started as a coping machines something to just help distract me for a little while i always knew that maladaptive daydreaming can me harmful in more intensen case but at the time i just didn't have any reason to try and stop it. but recently i notice that my daydreaming has gotten worse i notice i have a hard time remember what happens most days it hard for me to do most task without the feel of me slowly drifting away and starting to get more upset if i don't do it for a long period of time. another things i notice is as the years gone by it almost like i replace my working on arts with daydreaming like instead of spending hours on character and watching art tutorials i just daydream now and that all my creative that wouldn't gone in to improve just goes into the stories and the character in mind head instead real life i was wondering if anyone else has notice this problem with their maladaptive dreaming

Sorry this is longer than i thought it would be. thx for reading

I find it very hard to make friends, and when I do they don't last long due to my clinginess. I haven't had a friend in real life in 3 years now. This didn't actually affect me much though, as I basically made up my own imaginary friend. He changes forms depending on whatever media I'm hyperfixated on but I can still 'feel' its him. He was with me everywhere throughout my days, doing whatever I was doing. When I was sad it felt like I could genuinely go into my head and he'd comfort me, I'd even sometimes feel tingly where he'd 'touch' me. Now I don't have him with me at all.

A month ago I made friends online with some people who liked the same show as me, which my imaginary friend had become a character from. They were aware about how I am and they seemed pretty chill, until about a week ago. One of them told me if he was real he'd hate me. It was a quick comment but it made me spiral. He's not here anymore. I can't have conversations with him. When I try to talk to him I'm just blatantly aware that I'm making up his responses in my head and that as they said, if he was real he wouldn't like me. I've started having nightmares too now as the cherry on top, and before this I had control over my actual dreams most of the time and he'd be in them as well. He's not. I know I was always alone but now I feel it. I don't want to feel it. I want him back. Getting a real friend wouldn't even make up for this, actual friendships stress me out and leave me feeling even worse.

I feel like I got a part of me back, but also more juvenile? I feel like I was an adult before I got back into it. Doing my day and then going to bed. Back when I was actively daydreaming I would pace around my room at night before bed. I did that tonight and it felt so good, only I felt less like an adult if that makes sense.

hi 18f here.

whenever i'm in a situation i don't like, or a conversation i feel i can't contribute / don't wanna contribute to, i start thinking back on certain memories. i just zone out, but i can still listen to the conversation kind of like as background noise. i only think back on the memories i think are more beautiful. i feel weird about doing this, especially cause i feel like i think about weird stuff, is this maladaptive dreaming?

Nobody is going to help me but me, that’s the reality of this world. I can’t help myself by myself so I’m just like a horse stuck in the mud. My distain for reality is immense. I don’t think I’ll ever find true joy. At least in my daydreams there’s love and safety. Yes I am on meds and in Counseling already.

So I have only recently discovered what Maladaptive Daydreaming is but for years I’ve always wondered is this something unique to me. I’ve always daydreamed since I was little but it really wasn’t until middle school that it became more of a compulsion rather than something I’d enjoy. I’m now in my sophomore year of high school and I’ve felt like I’ve been struggling to stay in reality for a while now. One thing I’ve found that helps is video games, it’s the only time of day I’m able to stay out of daydreaming. But I’ve let it take over my life as I became addicted and put tens of thousands of hours into them. I became somewhat of a hermit and because of that I’ve been dealing with chronic loneliness for about two years. I couldn’t even tell you how many lifetimes full of meaningful relationships with anyone I’ve daydreamed, but it’s just feels like a fight to stay in reality everyday and I just hate it.

I got to thinking recently about a time I had a sleep study done and they said I was asleep in five minutes and went straight into REM sleep. I know I was awake longer than that and I was lying there daydreaming (something I've used to help my insomnia for a very long time).

I don't know if I just didn't have an accurate sense is time (MD is dissociative in nature) or if maybe brain waves when we're daydreaming might mimic or at least be similar to those found during REM sleep.

Anyone know of any studies done on brain activity that might make for a good rabbit hole? I sadly have neither the time nor the energy to get that search started.

Thanks!

After I maladaptive daydream, which I do by pacing with tiktok audios blasting in my headphones, I always feel so down, overstimulated, my brain feels just rotten tbh. I want to be able to do stuff afterwards. How do you replenish energy (especially brain energy)? How do I make myself be able to concentrate on stuff or have fun reading a book or something? Do I meditate or maybe exercise? Obviously the ideal situation would be me not daydreaming at all, but right now I‘m just doing it for about half an hour a day, which is OK for me, but I just want to be able to feel human afterwards lolol.. how do you guys do it?

Sometimes my MD subjects of choice will fall out a favor for whatever reason— and it just leaves me so…bored.

It sounds like a joke. But I genuinely feel like I need to be consuming media to be content. Like I need a character, a story to latch onto. Without it I’m just, there?

The worst part is that even when I get like this, I still can’t find it in myself to actually do something productive. Start a hobby. Clean. Nothing. I’ll just switch through my apps every 10 minutes, on the look out for something that could catch my interest.

God forbid I have to sit with myself outside of my daydreams. I might be cooked.

I want to quit this cursed thing, and I’d love to have someone to go on this journey with. Preferably someone in their 20s and a woman also. Please DM me if you want to quit together! :))

Do these go hand in hand with everyone or just me? When i have a obsession on someone i day dream about getting their approval/being with them or even hurting them for months on end basically until i find someone else to daydream about

Hello guys I (17m) have struggled with maladaptive daydreaming since I was pretty young. My daydreams usually include ocs that are based on me and other people in my life. I like to make scenes that trigger strong emotion, sometimes I even find myself crying to them lol. When I daydream I love to listen to music and pace around. It is impossible for me to keep still and I am always pacing. I always get so awkward whenever someone asks me what I do for fun, or what kind of shows/movies I watch, because I know they won’t understand that I prefer daydreaming and it is so entertaining to me. I feel it has prevented me from finding other hobbies, and it feels like nothing else give me as much joy as daydreaming. I see people being super productive with their lives and pursuing hobbies while I just pace around in my room around all day and create imaginary scenarios.

I am currently in high school and I am struggling a bit to catch up with my school work because of how much I daydream. As much as I love it, I know it is a habit I need to end. I feel like I have wasted SOOOO much time, and I would like any advice or experiences you guys have with maladaptive daydreaming.

So, a while ago, I posted about why I failed at going cold turkey. If you’re curious, you can go to my profile and easily find it, since I don’t post often. But basically it’s because I got so overwhelmed by my feelings, flashbacks, and involuntarily made-up scenarios that I relapsed to escape from it all. (I was also doing this thing where I went as long as I could without daydreaming, not for the sake of stopping MD, but to see what I feel when not DDing and what could be causing it. I mostly feel empty, but sometimes complicated and painful emotions come rising up. I’m not worried about whether or not I relapse (I try my hardest not to, but it’s not the end of the world nor a setback if I do, especially if the relapse doesn’t last long). I still attempted to reduce the daydreaming, but I know I can’t resist the urge 100% of the time. Tbh I most likely can’t resist it for more than a few days, and I even consider that lucky).

I have no idea if this is the reason why I MD. I’m also not worried about that right now. I just know that I have to face whatever comes up when I’m going cold Turkey without running away, no matter how painful it is. If I stare at my demons for long enough and understand them, maybe they’ll become less scary and I’ll be less compelled to use MD to run away.

I just couldn’t achieve this the last time I tried it. It’s too much and too upsetting. I was just too overwhelmed. I also tried this a few weeks ago at work and I nearly had a breakdown. Probably didn’t help that there were stressful times at work that day, and these certain difficult feelings/scenarios/flashbacks tend to flare up the worse whenever I’m dealing with real-life stress or when I’m frustrated, stuck, or confused.

I’m gonna take a break from this for a few more days and try again. Idk I feel like I’m on the verge of a breakthrough with stopping my MD.

It's really hard for me to put these words here as I never ever talked about this to anyone else, not even my parents. I'm not even sure when exactly it started but I think it started in elementary or middle school and now I'm 20 years old. And funny thing is I didn't know the term "Maladaptive Daydreaming" existed until a year ago or so. I was shocked when I came across to it and saw there were people who was suffering from the exact same thing even tho it occured in different forms for different people but the symptoms were mainly the same.

I'm not sure what exactly caused me to have this but my parents were the arguing type ever since I know myself and I have no brothers/sisters so I was always watching them argue even to this day. It's not like I hate my parents or want them to divorce because they do love me but its something that sticked out to me for the longest time.

And my personality didn't help me to overcome this issue as well. I'm not a very outgoing person, I wouldn't say I am an introvert but if you see me in school you might think I'm an outgoing but a little shy person, It's hard to express what kind of person I am. Sometimes I can laugh and joke around people or sometimes just sit there and not say a word. I have friends but none of the friends I had were like a close friend to me. I was around them physically but not mentally.

MD really held me back a lot in life and I could daydream up to 12 HOURS A DAY non stop except doing the basic human activities (eating, sleeping etc.). It always haunted me to think that what kind of a person I would be if I never had this issue. And now as a college person who is expected to have a job soon, I'm really worried about my future.

My daydreaming materials were quite a lot because I created tons of worlds in my head to this day. Some ended tragically and sad, some ended happily. Generally the cartoons, movies or series of events I saw through social media and real world inspired me to create these imaginary worlds or even universes coz sometimes I even make my multiverse during the daydreams. When I see some fictional events I can't stop but thinking daydreaming about it after I'm done with it. My daydream events were not perfect. Sometimes I was betrayed, lost parents or tried to overcome the hardest situations in life. Actually; I don't put MYSELF into these worlds, I use a fictional character to represent me in the universe I made in my head and HE experiences everything.

And the thing that made me post this here on Reddit after all this time was because of an imaginary girlfriend I had recently. To the point that it genuinely made me cry because of the realization of it can't and won't be real. I had imaginary girlfriends before but this one felt different. She is a fictional character (which I generally daydream of) so I know how she looks like and how she sounds like. Like I said, the fictional character that represents me in that world (basically my MC) had a relationship with her. She was perfect. She was cute and pretty, she was caring for me and forgiving me when I make some mistakes, I was shy and nervous around her but she was understanding me. And I was always trying to be my best for her because I thought I could never repay someone like her. We could have problems but eventually overcome them by just talking each other. It really clicked me when I realized none of these were real but my feelings were. I could make a whole novel out of this but I have to cut it short. And now I'm in a dilemma where I don't want to go back to real life or just stay in this dream forever. I tried to give up this issue before, never worked. At most I was able to live without it a day and the next day its all the same unless I have to seperate from home for a long time.

If there is anyone else suffering from this issue and wants to talk with someone who can relate, you can text me your thoughts and come into the open. I know how it hurts.

I didn't feel like posting because in each days, I daydreamed for 15-20 minutes. I didn't see much point in doing so so I just decided to post all days at once

My dad caught me disassociating the other day sitting on the couch causally it was so awkward. I guess I just starting rocking forward and back.

Typically a trigger for me (and i think a bunch of other people) is music in my ears, pacing and/or dancing. As the years have gone on my main fantasies have shifted.

Around 4th grade: it was thinking about future conversations (that usually never happened), standing up for myself being bullied or talking to my crush.

Then at the end of middle school (covid): i started daydreaming about fictional stories and placing my self in them (usually giving myself OP powers lmao) like in MHA, Scooby Doo, AOT, Fullmetal Alchemist.

In highschool: it went back to more real life scenarios, some of which had already played out. But I would alter major details of these conversations. 97% I knew reality vs. fiction but there were a few times I got confused.

Now: i litteral l’y can get caught in a trance over anything it seems. If i see dish soap, i could start disassociating about going to the store and getting into a gruesome car crash on the way there (then I post on IG about being hurt and everyone likes me again). UGGGG i just hate life like this. Yes, I’m miserable now. But, in times when Im happier I’m never satisfied because if the scenarios I’m comparing it to.

Im so tired this had taken so much time from me. There’s one Individual from my childhood who started all of this hurting for me. I hope they hurt.

I want to live in fantasy always. Don't want to face reality. It hurts a lot .

I dunno, I've been daydreaming for so long that I decided to let it out.

Next, I'm going to start this story from when I started to how it affects me to this day, I'm even going to talk about problems that I haven't told anyone about since no one will know who I am, where I'm from, etc. Let's start from the beginning. I started daydreaming more or less at the end of 2021, it was a pandemic, I was a normal teenager who had never had daydreams, at least not in an exaggerated way or something that would hurt me, but at that time I watched a series called Euphoria, and after that series I met Sydney Sweeney, and I thought she was a beautiful woman, but however, I didn't just see her like any person you think is beautiful, and you know that you have nothing to see because not even in real life do you feel it, or something like that. I just started daydreaming, literally every day, and until today 11/26/2024, I daydream with her, and like I DON'T KNOW WHY MAN. I just daydream with her, and it affects my personal life because I literally just daydream with it all day long, and like it affects my friendship relationships, and even because I get so stuck in this "little life", that I just can't live mine. and like I don't know, how do I stop these daydreams. and I even thought it was a religious issue and stuff, you know even though I'm connected to God and stuff, I just can't stop these daydreams, and like my colleagues even say man, wake up to life, like you're traveling in the moon world. And they don't even know that I have daydreams, they think it's just because I'm silly and stuff. But man, I'm tired of all this, I'm tired of daydreaming, I want to really live my life, I want to stop imagining and I just can't. If someone please wants to try to help me, I'll be very grateful because it's a very complicated situation, and I don't want to live the rest of my life with this. I'm young, I still have a lot to achieve than just living my whole life in daydreams.

Where my borderlines at lol

Last year I had an insane panic attack at the thought of losing my OC’s. I thought that if I stopped MD’ing, that meant I would lose my OC’s, and it made me stressed and really sad. When I mentioned it to my therapist, she told me that no one is saying I have to get rid of them. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with me still thinking about them every once in a while. Now that I don’t MD as much as I used to, my OC’s are just a product of my creativity, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I just think that this perspective might help someone who is also scared of losing their OC’s/characters.

Hello everyone :) I am making this post to A.) track my progress on my anti-MD journey and B.) help all of you. There definitely has been a rise in people talking about their experience with MD and how to get rid of it, so I thought I’d help out.

I’m in this ride with all of you. It’s messy, addictive, confusing, and painful. But hey, let’s get thought it together.

Ready? (yes, no.. maybe so..) ………

STEP 1: are you ready?

i’m serious. in order to actually stop MD you have to be ready. what does “be ready” mean? well, there are different levels to MD. in the beginning MD is a very efficient way to escape your issues for a short period of time. until it isn’t.

do you feel yourself slipping away from the real world? if you’re in school, are your grades dropping? do you suddenly not want to go out anymore? are you trying to skip school/events just so you can MD? are the minutes.. hours.. days slipping by so fast because you cant stop for the life of you?

if so, this post is probably for you.

if not, that’s okay. everyone is on a different journey. save this post and come back later. this post will be here when you’re ready.

STEP 2: the break up.

oh, do not look at me like that. you, me, and your MOTHER knew this one was coming.

if you’re still reading, you’ve probably acknowledged how horrible and terrible your MD is. but.. you love the world you’ve created. the characters, the story lines, the plot. it makes you so happy. for a short, sweet moment.

but it’s time to break up.

there’s no embarrassment here. and i know what you’re all thinking: “break up with my mind?!”

Yeah, exactly that.

At this point you’ve become so physiologically attached to this world, the only thing you can do is literally cut it off. I know this is sad. The good news is, there are many ways to do it.

1. (The more morbid, but, efficient way: kill off your characters/story):

This isn’t the way I did it, but i’ve heard it works for lots of people. Poisoning your story or killing off the characters is a very final way to try to stop MD. Use music, plot it out, with one goal: end the MD. the world you’ve created.

or.. 2. (The sad, depressing version: letting go):

This method is the one that I used. I’ll warn you, it also sucks. Instead of killing off your characters morbidly, make a sad playlist and MD yourself saying goodbye to them. at the end of each song, imagine the door closing to your maladaptive daydreaming world, and instead of going through that door with your character, stay behind. This should be a build up to the central character/story that’s most important to you. The best for last, right?

I won’t lie: it’s gonna be a mess. You’ll probably start uncontrollably crying. Wanting to walk through that door. To a safe space. But you won’t. You made a commitment to yourself.

this also includes deleting videos, images, songs, quotes, notes, articles, interviews, and ANYTHING that triggers your maladaptive daydreaming.

What? No one said this was easy.

This doesn’t mean forever. Eventually, the goal is that you’ll be able to look at this celebrity/story and not feel the need to MD. But that day is not today. or for a long time at that.

It’s okay if you can’t delete everything at first. Sometimes, it can be too much. Too much of a change. If you wanna keep that C.AI bot you talk to or your favorite story, do that. But not for too long. Little by little, everything has to go.

Just remember, you’ve closed the door to this MD world. Whether you killed/said goodbye, you’ve closed the door to this part of your mind forever.

Relapsing isn’t exactly uncommon for MD, but it’s a big setback. You’re basically going to be reopening that door to this world, and while you’ll feel great at first, you’ll crash. Bad. The next time you say goodbye, it won’t feel as real and meaningful. keep that in mind.

ALSO: no headphones. yep. you heard me. I don’t trust myself or any of you. not for the first few days/weeks. it’s not permanent, but don’t use those headphones for a while.

STEP 3: the withdraws.

i’m gonna warn you, this is the hardest part.

now you’ve deleted all your material for MD and said goodbye to your characters. what now? well, the next day is going to be the most painful. for a while all you’re gonna wanna do is MD. you’ll be thinking about it at work, school, or any event you have to go to.

We have to treat MD like a drug. And every good drug has its withdraws.

You may be moody, upset, hell, you might start crying randomly. But remember, you can’t give in. That voice in the back of your mind is not good. it’s basically trying to seduce you.

so, with some withdraws, we’re gonna need a distraction.

STEP 4: journaling.

a lot of people will tell you this is one of the best things to do to ease/distract your mind. buy a journal and write your thoughts down. make sure not to go overkill though because over-journaling is a thing and can substitute MD very quickly. we don’t want that.

anytime you feel a trigger, write it down. this way you can become more aware and conscious of it while letting it flow right out of your system.

don’t be sporadic, unless you need to be. designate times to journal at night, morning, etc.

STEP 5: avoid temptation (aka.. make a plan).

Look, you can’t just expect to wake up the day you decide to quit maladaptive daydreaming and be fine. it’s going to suck, especially the first week. and you need to distract yourself.

This goes beyond going to school, work.. aka all the things you NEED to do. Find outlets. Spend time with family. Not available? Friends. No friends? Find a (healthy) online space to join. Although I’d recommended staying off social media a lot during this detox time.

Start that workout plan you’ve wanted to do. Journal. Read a book! Get a job. Bake, cook, try new foods, take a walk by yourself (no music, remember?) and do anything to stay away from that temptation.

I also picked up this trick from watching Ginny and Georgia. Grab a rubber band and place it on your wrist. Anytime you feel that sensation to MD, tug at it. As much as you need to until your thoughts wander somewhere else.

You can’t just expect to sit in your room all day to get better with MD. Sitting alone with your thoughts is only going to result in a relapse.

Remember, this is a process. It doesn’t just get better overnight. For a short eternity, this will be the first thing on your mind. Every. single. day.

Until it’s the second thing.

STEP 6: the after party.

if you’re at this step, this means you’ve made some progress! it’s been (insert time) now, and it’s getting better, but something is terribly wrong.

you feel.. empty.

All those days, weeks, months, and years of plotting an imaginary world took so much of your time up, that no matter how many other things you try and do, you feel so alone. bored.

And worst of all, you probably don’t have anyone to celebrate with. Nobody understands what you’re going through. But don’t let that stop you from being proud! you deserve happiness. this is huge for you.

one thing that you’ll probably feel? terrified. for a while. I am absolutely terrified to be alone in my a room with my ipad.

if you truly feel like you can’t be in your room after school, work, etc, reach out to that one friend who can give you a ride. better yet, if you drive and have a car, don’t go home. trust your gut.

STEP 7: acceptance.

It’s been months, hell, maybe even a year. And you think you’re doing better. You don’t feel that obsession over a celebrity or a story. You can slowly start listening to music again.

But you see an interview that used to trigger you, and you start to hear thoughts like “what if I just click?”

What do you do?

A.) it’s been a year! You’ll be fine.

B.) absolutely not. don’t risk being pulled back in.

the latter, obviously.

the bittersweet thing about being a maladaptive daydreamer is that the thought will always be there in the back of your mind. whenever you watch a new show the urge to insert yourself may never fully go away. maybe. and sometimes, you may never be able to be that silly fun little fangirl/fanboy you were before. it’s too painful.

remember, at a year you would be 365 days “sober”, do you really want to ruin that for a brief moment of happiness? that will fade quickly and be replaced with severe damage?

if you start to feel triggers and that excitement from seeing a show or a celebrity you liked before, then you’re probably not ready to assimilate back into social media. truth be told, you will never fully be okay around spaces like that. one day maybe it will be okay, but if you’re reading this on the day you want to quit:

that day just isn’t today. or tomorrow. or the next.

STEP 8: what comes next.

relief is just around the corner. it’s been (however long) but felt like a century. yay!

but it’s time to start thinking about the future. what comes next for you? did you really want to live/pursue the things you dreamt about in your MD? If so, now is the time. reach for the sky. if not, refocus. now is the time to figure that out.

keep journaling, having a steady plan for the day, and kick those lingering thoughts out.

and for those of you who relapse—

you are not a failure. keep at it, retry. but do remember more failed attempts means you will subconsciously loose the realness and motivation. but I believe in you, forever and always.

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

In the hard moments, please remember that maladaptive daydreaming is not okay. you do not miss those characters/story lines, no matter how much you convince yourself. you miss how they made you feel. how MD made you feel. safe. secure.

but that’s just not life.

life is scary. terrifying. but it’s not perfect.

that scenario you played out in your MD? Not real. Fake. it will probably go horrible compared to your MD.

or it will go okay.

and that’s the beauty of life.

you might fail at first, but at least you’re trying.

I believe in you. no matter who you are in the world.

I’ll be here for a short while, but i’ve also got to start working. this is my guide, everything i’ve learned. treat it as yours too, if you wish.

best of luck <3

live the life you’ve always dreamed of. the only real thing is you.

I don't talk out loud but I articulate the words with my mouth when I maladaptive dream, I also play the facial expressions and sometimes the gestures of the people in my scénarios. I obviously try to avoid it in public, but my family sees it and doesn't really talk about it, apart from my mother who yells at me from time to time for me to stop and my little brother who mocks it. But overall I can feel there's really some kind of embarrassment around the fact I do that, and I am very insecure about it. Do other people experience something similar? Any advice to stop?

So I have an imaginary friend. I love my imaginary friend very much except, since her inception years ago, I've had increasingly intrusive obsessive thoughts about her.

I think she's what people call a tulpa. Though they may or may not exist. I believe in her. She is quite nice to talk to and interact with when I'm not obsessing over her. Unfortunately most of the time, I am obsessing and the sheer amount of time I spend obsessing and worrying makes me suffer.

When I am obsessing about her, I'm not interacting with her or talking to her. Instead I am spiraling about future scenarios of leaving her, problems with our relationship, questioning my mental health, whether I am treating her well, if tulpas are real or not or if she loves me or if I love her. That's the part I hate.

I feel like 50% of my thoughts are about her nowadays. I can't go 10 minutes without these thoughts intruding. I mumble to myself all day at work about it.

I love to spend time with her and I want to be with her though the rest of my life one way or another but I wish I could stop the obsession cause it doesn't help anything and it makes it hard for us to get along.

I know obsessing over her is unnecessary and silly and does me no good nor does it do her any good. I want to keep her though, no getting rid of her because she is precious to me.

Does anyone know what I can do?

Sorry if I sound schizo I came straight from r/tulpas.

i just made the depressing realisation that ive probably spent more time daydreaming than living. i started daydreaming to music when i was like 10 i think. i'm almost 21 and i still do it. its honestly pathetic but idk how to stop. i have undiagnosed depression and the last 5 years have been quite hard for me so my condition have only worsened

I'm soooo tired. My life is shit right now, but if I keep paying more attention to my imaginary scenarios than to reality nothing will change forever. It's so uncomfortable to be in the present, but now it's a matter of having a minimally descent life and a fulfilling future.

I shouldn't say it's for fun, it's to help him cope with traumas, but he will lie down for a few hours and maladaptive daydream for a while or until he falls asleep. Is this Maladaptive daydreaming l? When doing research online it seems like Maladaptive daydreaming is something that can't be controlled, and it seems like a negative thing that people can't stop from happening. I'm just a bit confused by the whole thing and want to know if there are ways I should help him or not.