How do you define daydreaming? | ADHD Information

They way I daydream is.. thinking about animated images of what's going on in my life, what could happen if this happened both good and bad, and worst case scenarios, and then there's my own little fantasy world.  So, basically it jumps from one thing to another, or when I'm listening to music it can go on forever or vice versa. Now when I listen to someone talk, I then start to daydream about whatever I can dream about which can be scary and people ask me why I'm making the certain facial expressions in reality and I'd rather not tell them.

So it's confirmed ... I have ADHD inattentive type (and generalized anxiety disorder ... not surprisingly ).  One of the questions my psychiatrist asked was: define daydreaming.  So now I'm curious ... for all of you ADHDers who daydream excessively, what do you daydream about?  Are they structured daydreams, or do you jump from one topic to another?  Do you daydream the same thing over and over again, or do you never return to the same daydream?  I know these are  odd questions, but I'd really like some input into these ... I'm starting to feel really abnormal.  

I daydream about many different things. Sometimes I stay focused on one thing but usually I jump about to related things. A lot of the time I am not aware of thinking of anything at all when I come out of it. Sometimes I remember that there was something I was thinking about but I don't really remember what.

Oh my goodness, the question I've always wanted to be asked! I don't say I have ADHD, I just say ADD because I always daydreamed, I never had an ounce of "hyperactivity". If I spaced or went out, I just quietly did so.

My daydreams can be broken up in a variety of ways. I'll give "chronological" a whirl:

1-3rd grade: Don't recall the specifics, but I very much liked thinking and planning "my own spaces". Daydreamed of little homes, living in small hotel like rooms where I had everything at my beck and call (particularly Chick-Fil-A sandwiches!) Daydreamed of the kinds of homes I'd build when I grew up.

5-12th grade: Daydreamed of simply growing up and escaping the prison of school. Becoming a veterinarian, living with my best friend with our own practice. Being a journalist. Simply being an adult. Living on my own. I took up seven years' worth of classes thinking about this stuff. Through my daydreams I had the most planned and organized adulthood ever.

Single Adulthood: Daydreams get much more scattered now that my singular goal of "not being a child" is reached. They vary from "What to fix for dinner" to "How to redo my office" to "Living all by myself alone in a home on a beautiful mountain along California's Coast with my own personal trainer, yoga instructor, chef, etc. etc. Just alone in a cool, comfortable solitary environment"

Married Adulthood: Lost the living alone daydreams... Too happy living with my husband. Now they're all mundane stuff. :)

Hope this helps!

hmm daydreaming..I am good at this one.

Mine were always like a long fluid movie with subplots. I would be sitting looking at my work, and suddenly a name on my paper would remind me of something I wanted to do in the future. That thought lead me to thinking about other things & people, which in turn lead to other places, things & people. Sometimes abstract thoughts about life in general might pop into the plot. Eventually I would come back to my work and realize I wasted a good 15 minutes staring at the paper thinking about other stuff. 8)

day·dream    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (ddrm)
n. A dreamlike musing or fantasy while awake, especially of the fulfillment of wishes or hopes.
intr.v. day·dreamed, or day·dreamt (-drmt) day·dream·ing, day·dreams To have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake.

For me, daydreaming occurs whenever it wants to, and it's often about things only very loosely related to my task at hand. For example. I'm washing dishes.

The dish water is really cold. Soapy. In fancy salons they use dish soap for really oily hair. The girl in my literature class told me that. She has that huge mole. Huge and hairy. She should get that checked out. Pre-cancers don't necessarily have to look or feel different. Funny how it all has to do with DNA, free radicals, transcription errors. I need to keep transcribing the second draft of that short story I was writing. Want to be like James Joyce.

Sometimes I focus more consistently on one topic, but frequently I "wake up" at my physical location having completely lost awareness for a long block of time. This happens on a shorter scale when I'm in a fast-paced environment. Instead of a wild dog running crazy, my attention is a rebellious dog that needs an intermittent yank on its leash. The monitoring it needs still taxes my work or study performance much of the time.

Chow.

Mikeyboy I love the way your mind works! That was a pretty funny description.

Do you watch "Scrubs"? There's a scene where the surgeon tells Turk that the reason "The Todd" is a better surgeon than him (Turk) is because he doesnt THINK too hard about things whereas Turk's always trying to plan each move out.

They cut to The Todd in the OR holding up a scalpel and looking at it happilly... in a voiceover he's singing to the tune of the Lone Ranger theme: "Dum de de dum de de dum de de shiny scaaaalpel.... dum de de dum de de dum de de gonna cut people up...."

That scene makes me laugh out loud, until near tears everytime I see it. That's what your daydream from soap to moles to James Joyce made me think of too... Very funny... your brain. Frustrating too I'm sure, but with a great sense of humor!

My daydreams have always been either fantasizing about changing something I've done in the past - or trying to project what I think will happen about something in the future.

When I was sad and upset when I messed up - I would often take any free time and just do a little "rewrite" of the scenario - coming out where I am on top, get the grades, the girl and the glory! 

The future version though is usually self-defeating - where I mess up regardless of how easy the task I'm daydreaming about.  I go to a standard meeting with my boss - and daydream it into a yelling bout where boss sends me packing!

The only other daydreams I've had are the standard - fantasies about women I see.  Pretty much just standard guy daydreams about unattainable hotties! :)

 

what the heck? I was in the middle of typing, accidentally
touched a button and the whole damn thing disappeared!
Damn I gotta type this whole message all over again??!!
Sheesh!!
SIGH ok, a shorter version now b/c i don't have the patience.
I constantly daydream about either:
being in high school again and changing, well, everything like
the way I dressed, and joining more after school clubs instead
of going home, and not telling an unnecesary amount of people
who I had a crush on. Basically anything I regret.
I imagine myself as a figure skater or I fantastize of my f avorite
skaters winning the olympics, like Sasha Cohen.
Sometimes when I'm doing something my mind just wanders
and I think about anything and everything. The weirdest
memories come into my head, things that most people would
forget. But ask me something I am supposed to remember
and I'm like, uhhhhh.does anyone ever get confused on what was real or what they daydreamed about--for example, lipin, do you ever get confused about the reality of school because you've changed it so much in your daydreams? 

Mikeyboy

Seems we day dream somewhat alike.  I will snap back to the moment and think....how on earth did I get to thinking about that...(what ever that is)...But generally if I want I can follow my thoughts backward and there is some tiny thread that will connect one to an other.

hahahahaha. good to know i'm not alone