Maladaptive daydreaming is taking over my life
Hi everyone, Lately I’ve been feeling hopeless and I feel like my addiction to Maladaptive daydreaming has taken over my life. It started back when the covid-19 pandemic happened and I was isolated at home most of the time and then one day when I was bored I decided to search up pictures of random people I find attractive and ever since then I’ve been hooked at staring at this one photo, putting in my headphones and listing to music while creating intense storylines based on me and that other character. I end up doing it for hours and now two years later I’m in university so I feel like I’m wasting so much of my life and other opportunities. I get so sad and guilty at the end of the day because I want to accomplish so much and expand on other hobbies yet I get literally nothing done which makes me depressed. It’s embarrassing because I feel like I’m attached to characters and photos that prevent me from meeting new people and even dating. I’ve tried to quit cold turkey and that didn’t work because I’ve noticed doing that brings out the worst of my thoughts and feelings and I’m so used to dissociating from them that I start panicking when I don’t have the photo. Is there anyone else that’s in the same boat as me or in a similar situation? I would love to hear your opinions💗