uncontrollable imagination or daydreaming / extreme or instense daydreaming

[troubledteenager]

Since 5th grade (I am in 11th grade now) I have had a very powerful imagination but the problem is it has become almost uncontrollable. Since the 10th grade i have been unconsciously falling into deep & powerful day dreams that my body would (unawaringly to me) twitch or suddenly move in response to the stimulation in my head. My imagination had me dreaming all types of different worlds & creating storylines. The pro of this was evident in my school work; i was able to come up with intelligent answers & construct captivating essays. Kids in my class have noticed the blank look on my face during lessons & the unusual body jerking. Resulting in me being watched by a number of wary kids during classes & others calling me a "freak" behind my back. Can some1 please tell me whats wrong with me? I'm left handed, good at drawing & love trance music as i find it euphoric. This fantasy world iv created is addictive. the jerks are casued by stimulation in my head. so like if i imgained someone throw a quick right my left arm wud sortof twitch cuz in my head id be imagining myself blocking it.
yea so im not nacroleptic, epileptic or got any sleeping disorders. i have done extensive research on this and havent found anything that matches, i do not have adhd or add. i have however found a few others that are facing this same predicament. all of us do not know what this is and want some answers.

[PaulMD]

Hi there.

Each person is really quite unique.  I believe that you have a very dominant right side of the brain, the part which is responsible for artistic and idealistic expressions.  There may be no anatomic abnormality with this situation, but the most important thing for you to hurdle will be the social implications.  Left-brain- dominant people (which comprises most of the population) may have a hard time understanding artists or the right-dominant person.  You may benefit from some counseling and social support among peers.  However, I suggest that you still consult with a neurologist first just to make sure that there is nothing structurally or anatomically wrong.

Regards and God bless.

[Dustyblankets]

What you are experiencing, my friend, is the sheer beauty of pure reality. Imagination is nothing but the universe expressing itself through thought. Let it happen. Be happy. Your mind is yours and your only. There is nothing wrong with you. Please ignore what other people think of you, they don´t have a clue what´s going on in there. I also listen to psy trance and a lot of atmospheric among much other deeply meditative music-these can put you in a state of transcendence from ´reality´. Trance music focuses on binaurial beats, which are meant to elevate your state of consciousness. I personally think you are on your way to understanding something beautiful. Be aware of your feelings at all times and you will be granted a great reward by your own self. x
PS. just realised this post is almost 10 years old!

[jblessed72]

I appriciate  the compassion for the indeviduals that you answer but mostly I am happy that you keep God in the reply. I've posted a concern and would greatly apreciate your advise.
Thank-You and God Bless

[bugbarb]

I don't like the term narcolepsy. That brings the image of one who flops asleep randomly.  However, I have watched programs on it. I have read about it.  'there are certain characteristics of narcolpesy that I have. I don't have most of them. Some I have ina mild form. I get vivid technicolor nightmares and wake up screaming.  I go to sleep and get scared awake screaming immedicately.  I could sleep 14 hours and still yawn all day and take a nap. It is all I can do to stay awake driving.  I so want to close my eyes and have done it the urge is so strong, while driving or stopped at an intersection.  I yawn so much, that as a counselor, I cant hear what the clients are saying.  My sleep studies looked fine, but I don't sleep well except a home. And witha gooey harness and a guy watching my every move, it was a wonder I ever slept a wink. I also have problems with speech...I can have the sentence in my brain and only get a couple of random words out, with great difficulty I pause in sentences because there gets to be sort of a log jam and I just cant get words out.

I have come to accept that the insurance company needs the diagnosis of narcolepsy to justify me taking my alertness medication.  I would say that on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being severe classic narcolepsy, I might be a 2 ot 3. Very very mild case.
But, medication helps me be function.  I can drive without fighting to stay awake. I don't nap at stop signs. I stay alert for my client sessions. My speech fluidity is much improved. I don't have, I don't have any of those weird nightmares and I don't get scared awake.
The medication has enabled me to function on a nearly normal level.
You say you like the episodes.  I am bipolar. Being manic can be great, like natural amphetamines for days, or weeks....I get things done, feel great   Taking medication I thought would cause that to go away. No. I simply have less intense manic episodes and through counsleing can see them coming on and adjust my schedule accordingly soe  I get use out of the excess energyh.
Medications may not completely eradicate your episodes, but they may enable you to drive and have a job. If yiou don't like the meiation, just ask the doctor if you can just stop i, or you ghave o taper oof idt.
You don't sound like you fit exactly into a diagnosis, like I don't either.  However, your symptoms are some I have learned about.  Since what you experince isn't voluntary, I would say it is fairly certain you have a sleep disorder.  (I have a sleep disorder even though it is in the daytime that I have problems.) Try doing your research again from a different perspective.  Look at all the sleep disorders.  Pick out your symptoms from the different disorders. And I think you will find them all, if you look at all the disorders.  Pair the symptom with the disorder aand what treatments are available for each one.  i bet that you will find that a certain treatment, therapy, or medication will help you.  Remember, medications are there to enable you to function better.  They probably won't completely eradicate the symptoms you like.  When you get out into the real world and have to work and oh my god drive....imaging zoning out driving~~~you will be dead or kill someone.  It is a miracle I never got into an accident.  

left brain right brain....I think I am mostly right brain, but would have to say I am mixed dominant.  In some sports, I am a left dominant.  I taught myself to write, to draw and to do just about anything with either hand.  

Post back so we know how you progress.

[troubledteenager]

bugbarb i appreciate ur lonnng response however i defiently do not have any typeof sleeping dosorder. i even find it hard trying to fall asleeep as sometimes i wud just lie lost in my captivating imagination going over different scenarios in my head.

im not dreaming as in when you dream when you sleep i mean day dreaming as in imagining things in your head.

i certainly do not feel tired all the time and do not find it difficult to drive without falling asleep!

i dont know why you think i have what you have after readign my post.

[Frankiegugs]

Hey man this is really weird because when I move my hand around, I start imagining things. Usually I have to have something like a ziptie in my hand and when I start twirling it around I pretty much create a movie in my head. I make everything up as I go. Sometimes I even have the urge to talk it out as I go. I know that you have done research. So do you have any ideas of what is going on?

[chibichocolate]

Hey, it's so weird because I'm like that too! I thought I was the only one like that. I'm 18 now and this has been happening since I was 10. I know this is more than a year late, but I do hope someone is still following this.

So, I was a very sheltered kid growing up, I wasnt allowed going for sleepovers, wasn't allowed going to other kids houses to play and I was only allowed to be friends with people my mom thought were good because she was friends with their parents, but I didn't like them because I didn't think they were cool. Haha.

So my parents divorced before I turned a year old, and he never visited me or anything. Now it's not dreaming when your asleep but imagining things in your head when your awake. It wasn't so bad at first, I was young so this was normal, I would pretend I was in some imaginary place and I could be whoever I wanted to be. I had a dad and lots of friends and I was really happy. I'd take characters out of books and tv shows and tweak them around alittle bit so they would somehow fit into my "life", and turn them into my friends, family members, or boyfriend.:P

Sorry this is getting long. It's just so hard to explain. But since, I wasn't allowed to really expand my friendships with kids I met at school because I couldn't do anything with them, I sort of just imagined we were really good friends but then in real life as we got older, we grew apart. They found their cliques and I was just following them around. I hated that, being like a sheep and not really being invited into conversations or parties. I felt like a total nobody. I'm not blaming my mom or anything, just so you know. She was just a paraniod mother. lol
I started to get depressed because I didn't have any friends and it was a small town so it was kinda hard to make new friends since everyone KNOWS everyone. I was self-concious and I still am, although I really have no reason to be.

So when I was 16, I moved to a slighty bigger place, and I did make friends, but it was still sort of the same. I wasn't truly clicking with any of them. I went to a doctor thinking, hmm, maybe I'm depressed. She said I just need to immerse myself in extra-curricular activities and do things I enjoy. It has helped. I wasn't sad anymore, I made lots of friends who didn't judge me. But I still find myself going back into my head, thinking things. I still dream of having a dad, my dream guy and best friends. It makes me sad that that still hasn't happened. This sounds soo crazy. I hope someone understands.

Last week I tried going "cold turkey" on my daydreaming - I was so addicted to it. It was like my safe haven. It worked for a little while but then I started doing it again, I couldn't help it.

okay, i have to go to work now haha, someone please respond or something. Sorry to bore you with my looong problem. but it would really help to know that I'm not just some crazy girl that's the only one with this addiction.

Thanks:)

[Alan808]

Its so good to know that I'm not the only one... Hell, I was day dreaming just 5 minutes ago (before I googled this) and borderline acting out the dream in my head until you realize what you're doing and quickly look up to see if anyones looking at you... Although I'm in my room with the door shut

I get this a decent amount... I think its just the minds way of making up for certain deficiencies in your life like lack of social interaction and loneliness. I wouldn't say its uncontrollable in my case but it is definitely intense. Being quite an introspective introvert doesn't help

Oh well?

[Dee28929]

I just coincedently dropped by this webside because I was googling imagination and neurology.

It sounds imo like you could be on your way at developing a schizotypal condition or something close to that. It's usually characterized as a execessive dreaming/strong imaginative version of schizophrenia but mostly with a high degree of reality checking (schizophrenics normally lack this ability).

Contact a authorized psychiatrist immediately, as this disorder often can result in full-blown schizophrenia or something in the proximity of those kind of disorders.

Hope it help
Dennis L.

[chibichocolate]

schizotypal?? that's sounds scary...
i tried telling my doctor and when i was in high school, my councellor about my daydreaming. then i went to a youth councellor once and told her about it and they ALL gave me the same look- they don't judge outwardly, but i could see it in their eyes-the wow, she's weird kind of look. i was too embarrassed to go back for another session. i tried going cold turkey again but it's so hard. i feel like i'm so close to these characters in my head. like my family and by cutting back on daydreaming would be like losing them. but it really helps me artisticly lol and if i have a problem, i would pretend "they" were there comforting me. but i notice that i can't feel anything. like real emotions. if i'm sad, i'd cry for a second but then i just stop. or something is funny and i laugh but i'm not really feeling it...

[farsights]

I think I day dream more than the average person.  Then again, my imagination is off the charts.  With ADD (self-diagnosed) and my extraordinary imagination, I day dream in the middle of doing EVERYTHING.

[ajacobi]

I thought that not many people have this problem but it seems like many do. I have daydreamed and had extreme fantasy problems since I can remember being conscious on this earth. So for 17 years basically, since I'm 17 years old. I have always daydreamed, sometimes stories of my success and others seeing me and accepting me and sometimes stories of other people, like dreaming the stories of people I idolize in my life, wondering where they came from, how they fell in love with their current husband or wife. And it really is a condition that can make you feel like a freak. I don't know what our condition is, but maybe it's going to be okay. Maybe it's our way of creating the things we never got. While other people go out there and take action to make up for defencies, we dream stories that create the emotions we want to feel and save our actions for when we feel it's neccessary. I'm not sure. I actually googed "extreme daydreaming" just now, because I feel so lost about the whole thing. But sometimes it's just nice to know you're not alone. So I'm here to tell you, I know how you feel, and you're not alone. Maybe there is nothing wrong with you physcologically, maybe you just handle your life and your issues in a different way than most. And maybe you can take the things about your daydreams that you like, and weave them into your life so there will come a day when you can look at your life and say, "Wow, my life is so good. I haven't even daydreamed in years." Even though I don't know you, I hope you find that happiness. From one daydreamer to another, good luck on dealing with the imagination thing. I hope what someone said helps you at least a little bit.

[pompeii1000]

I am a 31 yr old male. Suffered from Depression off and on most off my life and although I get by and have a lot of good friends now, I still day dream excessively: The day dreams are controllable, I seem to play out certain fantasies in my head regularly. I will twitch and jump around my room, when I was younger i used to make sounds too, but have stopped so as no one can hear me. Its a very strange thing too watch me I suppose like I'm having a fit. As a child I would often feel the compulsion to go somewhere and dream. Running around my room making sounds but being totally in my head. My mother knew about it but i suppose she thought it was just silly behaviour i would grow out of, so did i. And yet here i am. I've tried to research this and it seems to me that there has been very little done because no one really talks about it. Researchers have found it hard to find a pool of people large enough to to represent any condition. Although their is a consensus that something like this exists.

I can control and choose when to day dream, however I find that pretty much most of the time I'm in some state of day-dreamyness. My concentration is poor and even though I'm intelligent and thoughtful i find it hard to do simple mundane tasks, I mean very hard, it's embarrassing and I am often held back a little from my potential. This leads to disappointment and depression.

My farther was an alcoholic, my mother; anxious. They divorced when I was six and I remember being depressed then but I believe the dreaming  started much earlier. There was something about it that s exciting and fun, but also I think that I'm running away somehow. Some sort of denial, it bring's me peace and I feel at home and in control. I often play out scenarios that are to do with self esteem and sometimes being loved, although I know that I am by many friends. There's something I think that I missed from my childhood and will never get back that plagues me. I don't think iv'e ever really grown up, feel as though I'm an outsider to everyone else, to the world.

I have never been able to explain what I do. I know there's something unhealthy about it even though it has positives like, as you say, being able to dream up fantastical worlds and ideas (studied philosophy and film) It distracts me from living my life. I know i can achieve so much and yet I fail a lot and my dream world seems to always be there to save/tempt me away from the realities of life.

Please someone somewhere research this. We need answers.

[TaliaE]

I go through this too, though I am right handed, and thus left-brained. I find myself feeling things that are very extreme in my imagination and sometimes I wonder if it's too realistic. I'm not suffering from it or anything, I actually quite enoy this. It doens't have an effect on my school work, or any such thing, other than I am highly creative. It doesn't distract me in school, and is beneficial to my essays and answers. I'm in tenth grade, and so we have a lot of creative work to do. I find that I can feel things as if they were happening to me at that moment. Like, for instance, there's this boy I like, and if I want, I can feel his arm against mine, or hear his voice, no matter what I'm doing. In my dreams, I also find that they are very realistic, just like a real event. It's sort of depressing sometimes though, because I don't want ot wake up from the dreams. I don't have another world, per say, but I do go to other made up places in my head. I love it though, and I'm glad there's someone else out there like me.

[Sarahxx115678]

I do the same thing except when im daydreaming of something flying twards me or falling I jump up really fast like something is coming after me. I am 12 and in 6th grade. I have always been labeled daydreamer but my daydreams lately have been scary.

[caregiver222]

You need an HbA1c test. And to take blood sugar levels. Curiously, abnormal blood sugar levels often produce quite pleasureable halucinations amongst a portion of the population with a genetic predisposition. I like to call them "sugar people". It's sort of like being in the Matrix. This doesn't mean you have diabetes. If you note mystics often produce such "dreams" by fasting.

[kgirl25]

hello--
I'm a 25 year old female and your post reminded me much of myself.  I started imagining a different existense for myself when I was around 7 years old.  Usually while I was swinging or running around in circles in our up-stairs living room.  I didn't have very many friends  and children often rejected me.  So I created a world in my head where I had a lot of friends and I looked different and had different parents.  My story-line would often change.  I would always feel better after my "daydreaming" episode was over.  Maybe it releases some type of addictive endorphines.  Today I still do it.  I wish I could stop.  I feel like a moron and don't really understand why I still do it.  Usually, I will turn up the music really loud and run and jump around my room, Imaging something I wish I would have done or said or my life with a different occupation or different life-style.  If anyone knows what kind of disorder this is I would love to know.

[Eshelman]

wow, so glad I found this.  This wasn't an easy thing to find googling... I thought I was pretty much the only one who had extreme/excessive daydreams.  My mom always thought i would grow out of it, since i started around 5yrs old.  I daydream and move my hands while twitching my fingers.  If I'm really bored I can do it without moving, but its a lot easier to get a detailed daydream with movement.  I also have to have my face close to something for some reason.  Like the top of a tall dresser, where I can look down upon it.  I'm 25 now, and I still do it a lot.  Its very hard to explain to other so I don't.  I have a wife and 3 yr old daughter, which I don't do it around.  I have also lied to my parents and siblings, that I no longer do it.  I've also tried to stop cold turkey, but its just part of me.  I now embrace it, I find it a unique part of me, I just wish I could open up about it to my family.  Its like another world, I imagine things I wish I had, wish I could be... when I was young I thought about things important to a kid, like being the all-star quarterback and winning a super bowl.  Now I imagine being very successful in business and having a nice house and such... I don't look at it as any type of disease.  I've been seen by a neurologist for seizures I had when I was younger.  Everything checks out fine.  I also have trouble sleeping as well... if I have a desire to act out a fantasy.. or I concentrate on something too much.  I am so thankful to know other people do this, I am also interested by the fact in the many different ways we imagine.  

[Iceman966]

It is nice to know that I am not alone. I have the same thing, some call it a problem, some call it a blessing, I think of it as both. I have been like this since i was in 5th grade, these powerful daydreams are something I love to be lost in. It is peaceful, most of the time, and usually I will have control over them so I can use it as a sanctuary. I am in 9th grade now and I was so excited when i found these posts. It is good to know that there are people who are like me. I think the hardest part of being like this is not being able to explain it to your family or friends and to have them be understanding about it, and get it. I tried that...and my mother took me to a psychiatric hospital because my brother has had a troubled past, but he is not the topic lol, I returned from the hospital place unchanged and very upset with my mother, its been 5months since that happened, we barely speak anymore.   i ramble too much ><  msg me if ne1 jst wants to talk.

[Justmeandonlyme]

Well, im 34 now and feel that I will always do "this".  I always considered it my imagination lashing out.  I don't see real images but what I considered intense thoughts, usually something that is kind of like star wars.  Just ships flying and shooting which i emulate with my hands and blink a lot (to simulate explosions).  But there is an overwhelming urge to act out the scenarios.  When I was younger, actually even now, I will find spots that I know no one can see me and enact these thoughts.  One time I got busted by my mother and she didn't know what I was doing.  She said it was neat to watch me.  I was so embarrased.  Now that I am older, I find it strange that I still do "this".  But, I find that these 'episodes' are more intense than sex or drugs.  Interestingly, after the 'episodes' I feel better and relieved.  But doing 'this' makes me feel that I have some sort of mental disorder.  And I am much to embarrassed to tell anyone or ever admit that I do 'this'.  However, I work as a chemist and I believe that my intense imagination has help me through a many classes and perhaps understand people better--almost like cheating.  Then again, I still wish I didn't do 'this'.  Its something that I can never share with anyone else but me.  

[jman18]

I was just googling this because my friend caught me doing it the other day. I had no idea so many other people did this. I have never thought about it as anything negative or positive though it is embarrasing if someone is watching you. My hands usually get tense and move around and i blink and have a look on my face. Usually the daydreams are about action scenes/ being a rockstar/ Doing something i always wanted to do. Shooting and explosions are a big thing. I usually seem to drift into it when im bored or watching an intense movie or listening to music. When i snap out of it im worried someone saw me and I have no explanation for it.

[ikarus619x]

I have the same exact problem. I daydream constantly and my fingers will twitch around my face, giving me small cuts. I stopped doing when people are around so I just hold it in until I go to the bathroom. Most of my daydreams are conversations.

[toddito]

have you considered ADD by chance? the predominately inattentive type usually involves a lot of "daydreaminess" - my own experience when I was younger was that I'd be walking around then suddenly I'd start day dreaming about being a power ranger or something, sometimes making  movements and noises to go along with it imagining I was "battling" and stuff, but it was pretty chronic in that I had no control over it a good part of the time even after it was brought to my attention I'd suddenly fall right back into it. other symptoms include lethargy and generally low energy, sometimes drowsiness like seen in narcolepsy. here's some infos:

http://www.healing-arts.org/children/ADHD/#ADD
http://www.healing-arts.org/children/ADHD/#Additional

[toddito]

That was one example of my daydreaming, other examples I had were of imagining myself conversing with people and going over situations and work in my head, just getting involved in really deep thought...

[daydreamer81]

I think we should start a group on facebook, seriously.  I thought I was the only person too with this daydreaming.  I thought I was the most unique person in the world and I could never understand why I was doing it.  I started the daydreaming when I was 5 years old and I've been doing it since.  For me I have to grab a peace of string and start twitching it with my fingers.  When I was a kid I did it in m bedroom and many times I got caught by my siblings and my mother.  They would ask me about it but I was too embarrased to talk about it.  I lied to my family too and they thought I left that habit.  I only do it in privacy and normally that is in the bathroom.  I can spend like an hour in the bathroom daydreaming.

I am 29 years old and I am doing this on a regular basis because it is very addictive.  I even do it at work, I will go to the mens bathroom and do it there in privacy.  When I was child I would imagine being a super hero or being a singer or something like that.  Now I often think about being a professional soccer coach, helping Colombia win their first world cup.  I also love pollitics and I imagine being a politician and being someone like John F. Kennedy and just helping people.  

When I watch movies I often daydreaming being the character of the movie.  For example, if I watch Brave Heart I would imagine being Mil Gibson and fighting against the English with my sword.  If I watch Bourne identity I imagine being Matt Damon, it's crazy.  I mean I really feel like I am actually living it I zone out completely.  I normally stare at the floor when I am doing it.  Mainly because I am sitting on the toilet when I do it.

I am married with children and I have this hidden thing about myself that nobody knows about.  I tried googling it too and never could find information until now.  I feel a lot better knowing that I am not the only one.  I don't know how you guys feel but it makes me feel so good when I have these daydreams, it's almost like a drug.  If anyone has a medical explanation for this I would definately like to know myself.

[Shellder]

It's so weird, I do something similar too... I'm 16, and ever since I was little, I'd daydream and get lost into my imagination.  I'd run back and forth as a child, placing myself into a scenario, usually an actiony-cartoon when I was real little. My mom and grandma called it my "retarded act." but the thing is, I still have the same problem, except it's like... adapted.  
I don't run back and forth now, I jump up and down, sometimes tossing things until I'm brought back from these "phases" or I drop the tossed item - sometimes both. The main problem about the tossing is that it's whatever I see to toss, is what's tossed. I've had styrofoam fall in my eye, nearly jab my eye out with pencils on multiple occasions, and once I almost cut off my toe when I was tossing a knife in the kitchen and dropped it. I've misplaced combs, my mom's hair accessories, and so many chapsticks because of this. I don't even remember tossing half the time. It's so embarrassing when I turn around to see my mom staring at me.
I can control it to a degree in public.. I mean, I don't jump all over the place or toss a water bottle, but I usually fiddle with a pencil or twirl my hair to myself occupied.  Oh, and I also have a plethora of conversations between other people in my head.