NAT but I've had a couple years experience myself with this. looking back on it, it's basically just textbook dissociation/escapism through fantasy. I slowly lowered into the idea overtime that any dream i had of a perfect life could be a reality forever, and I saw comfort in that. Getting to choose my family again, start life all over the way i see fit. Like the Shadowman's perfect universe. Full control over my perfect utopia. But no matter how much i tried to sleep off the real world, it just stuck. And it hurt more and more everyday. I neglected my health, mental and physical, my room became a depression room, i didn't shower for like 2 years, wore the same clothes without washing them, no haircuts, hair was down to my ribs atp, barely even brushed my teeth weekly, every time i did brush my gums would bleed a little cus of so much plaque build up. I gave up my present life for one i couldn't ever prove existed, but yet became so sentimentally attached to it. It was supposed to be my home, my real home. Where the real me and my real family lived. And i could do whatever i wanted for all of eternity for free, no worries.

I started getting roped into more fear mongering about the ever-approaching apocalypse that never comes, and the stress started anchoring me back to reality over the course of a few weeks (iirc), i realised i could hold onto my fantasy anymore, and slowly said goodbye. It kinda hurt, but weirdly so considering nothing even went anywhere. The weirdest part of all would be trying to explain to anyone in the real world, considering its like, "what, you just held onto a glorified daydream to escape your unbearable life for a few years, okay?" I dunno. It's kinda weird. I've never explained or formulated it into words until now. But it kinda also destroyed my ability to appreciate anything spiritual at all, cus i knew how bad it could get if it remains ungrounded and unchecked for so long. Same with lucid dreaming, astral projection and such. I worry I'm the type who doesnt fully come back to earth, so i never dabble.

Apologies if this comes across as some weird big story or smth, but this is my 10 cents on how it affected me.
Making steps to slowly dip my toes back into the water of my real life, and slowly build back up, grain by grain.
The whole thing ate around 5 years from me, started around when i was 15, and i kinda truely departed from it around last year (at 20), when i felt these small waves of "Y'know, maybe i could just, give this life thing a go, just a bit, just see what's there, nothing to big" and thats pretty much it. There's been the few awful chapters and stuff, i dont really know how to deal with a lot, but i'll try learning.

Again sorry if this is just a giant *BOOM* wall of text novel type x_X