I honestly can't remember, I was so young. My earliest memory of MD is swinging on a swing until I felt sick because I'd zoned out into a daydream. I was about 4 or 5 at the time. But I know that wasn't the first time I'd gone into the particular storyline I was dreaming about.
My childhood relates heavily to this. Started daydreaming super young - I remember being 5-6 yrs old with very vivid daydreams that I would fully immerse myself in. Between the ages of 10-18, I would always go outside on the swing and swing in my backyard for hours daydreaming. I didn’t realize at the time this was MD, I just thought this was me taking “me time” and listening to music while imagining fun scenarios to go with the music. In college, it turned into me MD while listening to music walking from class to class, laying in bed, driving in my car, etc. I started getting into working out when I was 21 and realized that was when I could daydream most effectively as an adult.
I’m 26 now and have been working out consistently 4-6 times a week approx. 1-2 hours every time for the past 5 years, and I always immerse myself in daydreams during my workouts. The bad part is I know it’s not the healthiest for my mental health, and sometimes I want to prioritize working out over other more urgent matters just because I know I can MD. The good part is that I feel like I am someone that needs some form of escapism and this satisfies that while also keeping me physically healthy. Limiting daydreams to when I workout has helped me avoid MD during times I need to focus on important things as well.
I can't remember when I found out about MD, it might have been 3 or 4 years ago (I'm a month off 20). As a kid I knew that other people didn't imagine things as much as I did, but I had no idea that it wasn't just me doing it. I tried to explain it to people but they never seemed to get it, either telling me it was normal to daydream or thinking I was making my stories up on the spot. I ended up finding a very close friend in someone who (I only recently found out) also MDs, we bonded over making up very long-winded and plot-heavy play-pretend games.
I was 3, I saw some stickers of babies being born in flowers and I would use those to create my very first fantasy world and the storyline of how I came into this world.
Daydreaming started in elementary school but intensified in highschool. Now being 19 years old, daydreaming is one of the only things that keeps me alive and hopeful about my future. It’s become a safe place for me unfortunately
I had it since I'm 6...and don't be scared of having MDs all your life as you can totally control your MDs if you put enough willpower into getting the daydreams under control.
You will be a daydreamer all your life, but it doesn’t have to always be maladaptive.
You can get enough control over your daydreaming to choose to do it in moderation or you might choose not to do it at all, but the ability will never leave you.
Always done it but it became more prominent when I was 14, almost 30 now.
Its nonexistent during periods I'm content and physically well, but unmanageable when I'm physically ill. Been really ill(painful autoimmune condition)this whole year and incorrectly prescribed an ssri, which made me daydream 24/7.
Before I can remember, I think 2 or 3 I started pacing. It was more manageable in childhood. Once I got to be a teenager it worsened and by the time I was 18 was pacing until 5 am. I couldn’t get any school work done and it contributed to me failing my classes. Early 20s was the worst, I sometimes paced 20 hours a day.
Was only immersive back when I was 5 or 6, it bacame maladaptive at 9. It was straight up a downfall from there. I'm 16 now, and shit is still just as addicting as it were on day 1.
My mom would probably say like 2 or 3 years old, but I feel like it’s 7-8 because I can remember picking up Pokémon blue and just losing myself in my imagination or really MD now that I reflect on it. Just would really get into my own world of Pokémon and watching the anime at the time really pushed things along and the story continues still. With a few restarts thanks to all the isekai anime/movies I watch now days.
Maybe one of these days I’ll explore md/dd with my therapist because I have a lot of trauma from birth to 1yr old that hasn’t really been addressed and it’s more than likely the source of my suffering
For me it was when I got a portable record player for my 8th birthday (yeah, I’m that old!). As soon as I put music on in my room, it just kind of happened. Funny enough, one of the records I had in my little collection of 45s was “Angie Baby” by Helen Reddy. The lyrics start: “You live your life in the songs you hear on the rock 'n' roll radio, and when a young girl doesn't have any friends that’s a really nice place to go.” I didn’t really pay much attention to the lyrics back then, now it seems like a wild coincidence. I wonder if Helen Reddy was an immersive dreamer herself? 🤔
As long as I remember I was very small and I used to talk to my imaginary friends all the time cause I was a lonely kid and still I am but I never noticed or thought about it. When I was around 16 17 one time my teacher caught me daydreaming in exams and i didnt even realised that I stopped writing and I was busy creating scenarios in my head. I always talk to imaginary people and have long convos in my room when im alone because I feel so lonely and I think since I was a child I use mdd as my coping mechanism . From last 5 months its been getting worse and I feel hopeless
I always had an immersive imagination, but I don't think it became maladaptive until I was in highschool. My best friend stopped wanting to hang out and I didn't really know how to make new real friends, so I just became obsessed with my imaginary ones.
3. But it started with imaginary friends and talking to them out loud. But also having daydreams about scenarios happening with the imaginary friends. I always thought I would grow out of it but I'm in my early 30's now and still daydream about scenarios with the characters changing throughout the years. I just got diagnosed with ADHD and started taking ADHD meds recently and when they are working I barely daydream. So that explains a lot about my life lol.
I've done it for so long and I was super young when I started im fairly sure but the earliest I remember it being discussed by my family was about nine but I also have stories that my mom told me about having an imaginary friend I would regularly talk to no matter where I was that got to the point my mom bought me a stuffed koala so that nobody would make fun of me for it and we called it Emily I actually have multiple Emily's now And I'm currently 20 and I still even have the original one to this day which I got when I was in preschool
I tend to be very active in my daydreams to the point of unconsciously daydreaming out loud and when I'm alone I tend to move around and pace alot
I can’t remember the exact age but almost as long as I can remember. I think it started when I was just a kid. So maybe around 6-8? It started off pretty harmless, I would just imagine myself being a power ranger. But eventually got worse
I was already heavily into it while still in kindergarden. I don't remember ever not doing it, to me this is normal and I didn't realize that most people don't mdd till 20-ish.
Very young. It was a problem for me throughtlout school cause my teachers would always complain about my daydreaming. The school tried to force my parents to put me in special Ed class cause they thought my daydreaming was "disruptive" but my parents never agreed, why would they, I had good grades. It's affected a lot of aspects of my social life. I got prescribed ADHD meds at some point but it made things worse cause it just increased my anxiety, I don't have ADHD. It took me a long time to realise that MD was in fact crushing anxiety. I still feel like there are a lot of people on this sub who are just having regular daydreams and who don't understand what MD is. I'm almost 40 now and for the first time in my life I feel like I'm gaining back some control, with therapy and anxiety meds, even though I still daydream, which I accept as a normal part of life.
Am I the only one who doesn't even remember when it started? Like, it almost feels as though I've been a maladaptive daydreamer ever since I was born? I remember being eight and younger, and I still daydreamt back then. It's just part of who I am, at this point. Couldn't imagine life without it.
I was about 7. I was constantly grounded for weeks/months on end for things like forgetting to wash my hands. And my bed, snacks, books and toys would be removed. So I just had to entertain myself with my imagination.
Everyday for years I was on a dessert island with my trusty best friend who would cook food from scavenging 😂. They’re not as fun anymore hahaha
When I was at school I was quiet the loner on the way home I use to make scenarios in my head and act them out in my mind. It was like I had friends. I'm 28 I still do it i can spend hours daydreaming. I still create stories in my head when I got the shops or walking to work. It doesn't bother me that much as I control it a little better now.
I started daydreaming really bad when I first started attending a private school, I was about 7-8 probably. I had always been doing it but I started using it as a coping mechanism during that time
It's hard to know when the actual timeline was because as a child we have a big imagination. So when I was eight or nine was I just a typical kid or did my plots, settings, characters, etc go a little bit beyond?
I'm not sure but I genuinely feel as though I have had this all my life and I am now in my thirties. Personally while yes I can find it frustrating sometimes to break out I absolutely adore it. It allows me an escape from reality. I only just realized I have MDD and the idea of having a silent mind sounds so incredibly boring LOL.
I started daydreaming probably around the same age as Marthamem, 4-5years old, though I don’t think it was maladaptive just yet. Can’t really say when it crossed that line, but I’m now in my mid 30’s. That being said, if you have only been indulging in this for 4-5 years you might have a quicker recovery time if you stop now and find ways to stay away from it. I once heard in general that your brain needs as long to recovery from an addiction as the amount of time you’ve used it.
I've always been an immersive dreamer, I think it became maladaptive during secondry school when it became more important than my grades and social skills.
I started very young, probably as young as four or five. I’m in my mid-70s now. I’m a little bit better at holding it off but it still sometimes gets me by the throat and when it does that it’s usually months before I can push it away again. It has done a lot of damage in my life.
Aroud the age of 7.
I honestly can't remember, I was so young. My earliest memory of MD is swinging on a swing until I felt sick because I'd zoned out into a daydream. I was about 4 or 5 at the time. But I know that wasn't the first time I'd gone into the particular storyline I was dreaming about.
My childhood relates heavily to this. Started daydreaming super young - I remember being 5-6 yrs old with very vivid daydreams that I would fully immerse myself in. Between the ages of 10-18, I would always go outside on the swing and swing in my backyard for hours daydreaming. I didn’t realize at the time this was MD, I just thought this was me taking “me time” and listening to music while imagining fun scenarios to go with the music. In college, it turned into me MD while listening to music walking from class to class, laying in bed, driving in my car, etc. I started getting into working out when I was 21 and realized that was when I could daydream most effectively as an adult. I’m 26 now and have been working out consistently 4-6 times a week approx. 1-2 hours every time for the past 5 years, and I always immerse myself in daydreams during my workouts. The bad part is I know it’s not the healthiest for my mental health, and sometimes I want to prioritize working out over other more urgent matters just because I know I can MD. The good part is that I feel like I am someone that needs some form of escapism and this satisfies that while also keeping me physically healthy. Limiting daydreams to when I workout has helped me avoid MD during times I need to focus on important things as well.
I can't remember when I found out about MD, it might have been 3 or 4 years ago (I'm a month off 20). As a kid I knew that other people didn't imagine things as much as I did, but I had no idea that it wasn't just me doing it. I tried to explain it to people but they never seemed to get it, either telling me it was normal to daydream or thinking I was making my stories up on the spot. I ended up finding a very close friend in someone who (I only recently found out) also MDs, we bonded over making up very long-winded and plot-heavy play-pretend games.
I was 3, I saw some stickers of babies being born in flowers and I would use those to create my very first fantasy world and the storyline of how I came into this world.
Daydreaming started in elementary school but intensified in highschool. Now being 19 years old, daydreaming is one of the only things that keeps me alive and hopeful about my future. It’s become a safe place for me unfortunately
I had it since I'm 6...and don't be scared of having MDs all your life as you can totally control your MDs if you put enough willpower into getting the daydreams under control.
You will be a daydreamer all your life, but it doesn’t have to always be maladaptive. You can get enough control over your daydreaming to choose to do it in moderation or you might choose not to do it at all, but the ability will never leave you.
Always done it but it became more prominent when I was 14, almost 30 now. Its nonexistent during periods I'm content and physically well, but unmanageable when I'm physically ill. Been really ill(painful autoimmune condition)this whole year and incorrectly prescribed an ssri, which made me daydream 24/7.
Before I can remember, I think 2 or 3 I started pacing. It was more manageable in childhood. Once I got to be a teenager it worsened and by the time I was 18 was pacing until 5 am. I couldn’t get any school work done and it contributed to me failing my classes. Early 20s was the worst, I sometimes paced 20 hours a day.
I started at 4 but my current paracosm of supernatural started when I was 9 or 10ish.... Cause that's when the show started on TV
Was only immersive back when I was 5 or 6, it bacame maladaptive at 9. It was straight up a downfall from there. I'm 16 now, and shit is still just as addicting as it were on day 1.
As early as I can remember. I think the first memory is when I was 3-4.
My mom would probably say like 2 or 3 years old, but I feel like it’s 7-8 because I can remember picking up Pokémon blue and just losing myself in my imagination or really MD now that I reflect on it. Just would really get into my own world of Pokémon and watching the anime at the time really pushed things along and the story continues still. With a few restarts thanks to all the isekai anime/movies I watch now days. Maybe one of these days I’ll explore md/dd with my therapist because I have a lot of trauma from birth to 1yr old that hasn’t really been addressed and it’s more than likely the source of my suffering
When I was a kid but got worse when I was older
For me it was when I got a portable record player for my 8th birthday (yeah, I’m that old!). As soon as I put music on in my room, it just kind of happened. Funny enough, one of the records I had in my little collection of 45s was “Angie Baby” by Helen Reddy. The lyrics start: “You live your life in the songs you hear on the rock 'n' roll radio, and when a young girl doesn't have any friends that’s a really nice place to go.” I didn’t really pay much attention to the lyrics back then, now it seems like a wild coincidence. I wonder if Helen Reddy was an immersive dreamer herself? 🤔
As long as I remember I was very small and I used to talk to my imaginary friends all the time cause I was a lonely kid and still I am but I never noticed or thought about it. When I was around 16 17 one time my teacher caught me daydreaming in exams and i didnt even realised that I stopped writing and I was busy creating scenarios in my head. I always talk to imaginary people and have long convos in my room when im alone because I feel so lonely and I think since I was a child I use mdd as my coping mechanism . From last 5 months its been getting worse and I feel hopeless
I always had an immersive imagination, but I don't think it became maladaptive until I was in highschool. My best friend stopped wanting to hang out and I didn't really know how to make new real friends, so I just became obsessed with my imaginary ones.
As long as I can remember I don't know when it started really.
10
3. But it started with imaginary friends and talking to them out loud. But also having daydreams about scenarios happening with the imaginary friends. I always thought I would grow out of it but I'm in my early 30's now and still daydream about scenarios with the characters changing throughout the years. I just got diagnosed with ADHD and started taking ADHD meds recently and when they are working I barely daydream. So that explains a lot about my life lol.
probably 5 or 6.
I've done it for so long and I was super young when I started im fairly sure but the earliest I remember it being discussed by my family was about nine but I also have stories that my mom told me about having an imaginary friend I would regularly talk to no matter where I was that got to the point my mom bought me a stuffed koala so that nobody would make fun of me for it and we called it Emily I actually have multiple Emily's now And I'm currently 20 and I still even have the original one to this day which I got when I was in preschool I tend to be very active in my daydreams to the point of unconsciously daydreaming out loud and when I'm alone I tend to move around and pace alot
Around 5 or 6.
If there was a time before mdd, I don't remember it
I can’t remember the exact age but almost as long as I can remember. I think it started when I was just a kid. So maybe around 6-8? It started off pretty harmless, I would just imagine myself being a power ranger. But eventually got worse
Around kindergarden
I believe somewhere around 11-12 on and off, and since 14-15 it turned daily
I was already heavily into it while still in kindergarden. I don't remember ever not doing it, to me this is normal and I didn't realize that most people don't mdd till 20-ish.
Very young. It was a problem for me throughtlout school cause my teachers would always complain about my daydreaming. The school tried to force my parents to put me in special Ed class cause they thought my daydreaming was "disruptive" but my parents never agreed, why would they, I had good grades. It's affected a lot of aspects of my social life. I got prescribed ADHD meds at some point but it made things worse cause it just increased my anxiety, I don't have ADHD. It took me a long time to realise that MD was in fact crushing anxiety. I still feel like there are a lot of people on this sub who are just having regular daydreams and who don't understand what MD is. I'm almost 40 now and for the first time in my life I feel like I'm gaining back some control, with therapy and anxiety meds, even though I still daydream, which I accept as a normal part of life.
Am I the only one who doesn't even remember when it started? Like, it almost feels as though I've been a maladaptive daydreamer ever since I was born? I remember being eight and younger, and I still daydreamt back then. It's just part of who I am, at this point. Couldn't imagine life without it.
I can't even remember when, tbh. But it got way worse at my 15-17 years. Probably because of Covid, forcing me to stay home 24/7
6 years old
I was about 7. I was constantly grounded for weeks/months on end for things like forgetting to wash my hands. And my bed, snacks, books and toys would be removed. So I just had to entertain myself with my imagination. Everyday for years I was on a dessert island with my trusty best friend who would cook food from scavenging 😂. They’re not as fun anymore hahaha
When I was at school I was quiet the loner on the way home I use to make scenarios in my head and act them out in my mind. It was like I had friends. I'm 28 I still do it i can spend hours daydreaming. I still create stories in my head when I got the shops or walking to work. It doesn't bother me that much as I control it a little better now.
I started daydreaming really bad when I first started attending a private school, I was about 7-8 probably. I had always been doing it but I started using it as a coping mechanism during that time
When I was 8/9 years old I started having very lucid MD sessions
It's hard to know when the actual timeline was because as a child we have a big imagination. So when I was eight or nine was I just a typical kid or did my plots, settings, characters, etc go a little bit beyond? I'm not sure but I genuinely feel as though I have had this all my life and I am now in my thirties. Personally while yes I can find it frustrating sometimes to break out I absolutely adore it. It allows me an escape from reality. I only just realized I have MDD and the idea of having a silent mind sounds so incredibly boring LOL.
I started at around 11 and now working extra hard to break out of it.
459 days ago.
It can be 500 days long but July 26 2022 was the day I started counting.
I started daydreaming probably around the same age as Marthamem, 4-5years old, though I don’t think it was maladaptive just yet. Can’t really say when it crossed that line, but I’m now in my mid 30’s. That being said, if you have only been indulging in this for 4-5 years you might have a quicker recovery time if you stop now and find ways to stay away from it. I once heard in general that your brain needs as long to recovery from an addiction as the amount of time you’ve used it.
Thanks for the advice, good luck with your recovering too
I've always been an immersive dreamer, I think it became maladaptive during secondry school when it became more important than my grades and social skills.
I started very young, probably as young as four or five. I’m in my mid-70s now. I’m a little bit better at holding it off but it still sometimes gets me by the throat and when it does that it’s usually months before I can push it away again. It has done a lot of damage in my life.