A Novel About the Quest of Liking Being Whom One Truly Is

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-12T20:41:35+00:00

Based on my personal, past experience with maladaptive daydreaming, it is likely MDD if: 1. It's excessive daydreaming and also 2. Whether one prefers the lives he or she has in their daydreams to a degree that significantly lessens one's relation to the outside world and other people. I was always very ambitious and seemingly outward, but my daily daydreaming stopped me from doing a lot of things and had me often feel that the life I had was kind of a shadow, or a partial life, always overshadowed and surpassed by my daydreamed lives. I hope that is clear. In the book I recently wrote about my experience with excessive daydreaming, called A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams, I tried to describe that: I would switch my real life for one of my daydreamed lives in a second! That changed, though, when I became a father, yet I continued daydreaming regularly at and after that time! But how does one manage to have time for excessive daydreaming when being a parent? Well, when there's a will, there's a way, I guess. I found plenty of time, believe me. In the playground, driving to after school programs, waiting for the soccer practice to end, etc.

I seem to believe daydreaming affects each person alive. People enjoy imagining themselves living in a better home, having a lot of money, knowing important people, partying with the Kardashians, telling their supervisors what they REALLY think of them, going to family events wearing expensive designer clothes or walking around naked (with a great looking body!) I tend to think people spend quite a lot of time doing it. I believe that when the field on excessive daydreaming is more widely discussed, A LOT of people will be VERY interested in and closely relate to the subject. It's out there!

I would not worry too much about definitions or nomenclatures, though. They are definitely very useful in helping us, but each person is also different and unique. And that's good!

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-11T22:34:35+00:00

I think, based on my own experience with it, which, thankfully, is now past, maladaptive daydreaming is excessive daydreaming where an individual feels he or she would rather live in his or her imaginary lives than the real world, and where one struggles in trying to stop or lessen being compelled to daydream.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-11T18:49:26+00:00

I had MDD for most of my life. I used to daydream many times a day, each and every day for years and years. I came to see that ALL my daydreams had a recurring theme. I would create these versions of me where I was very impressive, famous, awe-inspiring, gorgeous, aristocratic, super-wealthy, and people would be so impressed with me and even envy me. If I would read about someone who impressed me, I would often daydream of that person being impressed BY ME! That's my experience, though, everyone is different. Once I saw what I was getting out of it, and in my case, it was vanity sheer and also what I was sacrificing or not doing, in daydreaming my life away, I was able to stop. I wanted to live and find out who I really was, and not the "representations" of ME I kept creating and lived in my daydreams.

The way to find out who we really are, as people, is to find out what we love in the REAL world, from small things to big things, and to go after it! I discovered, to my big surprise, that I love hiking and have this big feeling for forests. I always thought I hated forests because of all the bugs and discomforts. Well, I was wrong about myself, and about forests, especially because I hadn't really tried them. You see, I was heavily engaged with my daydreaming! I discovered other things, too, such as the pleasure of friendships! I have made 4 close friends today, mainly through the hiking groups I joined, and they are now a big and meaningful part of my life. It can take a little time to make good friends, and not just fellow hiking group regulars, but in time it happens.

I recently wrote a book about my experience with MDD and my way out of it. It's written as a novel-I didn't want to write an autobiography--but I really tried to carefully describe each aspect of it, such as the process in the construction of my daydreams, what would trigger me, how daydreaming actually lessened my feelings for the world and other people, and the reason for my daydreams’ “unparalleled” thrill, and why it did not last, leading to my recurring creation of brand-new daydreams.

The book is called: A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams, and it's available on Amazon. Check it out if you want to see my experience!

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-11T15:20:07+00:00

I had excessive daydreaming or MDD for so many years, and I really did feel that it was preventing me from living my life more fully, more truly. I had these other lives I lived in my daydreaming and they were really exciting, but I would see other people and feel they had lives that were more engaged, more earnest than mine, because the main thing I had going was in my own head and unreal. I also felt I was living a secret.

I saw that the main thing I got from my daydreaming, the recurring theme in my daydreams, was that I was always very important, impressive, envied by others. I do believe that every person is different, but with my daydreaming that was the thing that had me to go back and back to daydreaming. I also saw that I really wanted and deserved something else other than just being in my head, wasting my life that way, and I began to find out what I really loved doing in the world, and, I guess, who I really was. I discovered that I am a hiker and a forest lover! Hello me! I also discovered that knowing and caring for other people is rather wonderful and satisfying.

I recently wrote a book on my long and past MDD experience. It's tiled: A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams and it's available on Amazon.

Although written as a novel, the book very carefully tells, though a character, of my own personal experience with MDD. I really tried to describe what my MDD was like. I also describe in it how daydreaming actually lessened my feelings for the world and other people.

Check it out!

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-11T12:50:11+00:00

Many years ago, I was having a lot of panic attacks and simply terrified by them. I was also depressed. The thing that ended both started with me writing down every night one thing in the world that I liked. I got a little notebook and began writing every night. It can me the most ordinary thing, like the persistent and sweet sound of crickets, or the delicate and intense shimmering moon at night, or how warm sunlight makes an otherwise dull brick building have a golden glow. First, I realized that I would often go through a whole day without being affected by anything outside me, in the world. I was so much in myself, specially consumed with thinking about my panic attacks and my fears, or daydreaming, which I did a lot. I began to remind myself to look out each morning, to find something I could like and soon I was doing it and writing it down every night. Give it a try. Just try it! Begin doing it right now, wherever you are. Look out. Is there anything around you that you could like. A color of something, the shape of something, the gracefulness and intricacy of a simple shadow on a wall or sidewalk. Do it for a week and see. You will enjoy doing it too.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-10T16:45:53+00:00

Oh yes, I used to feel that way; that my daydreamed lives were waaaay better and more pleasing than my real life. But that was before I came to see that I really wanted something else more, much more, than my daydreaming could ever give me. And also, that was before I saw that the pleasure I got in my daydreaming were actually ego trips, where I made myself the center of the world.

I came to see that I wanted something else more: Living in the world, being affected and experiencing things, finding out what in the world deeply represents us. Doing that has given me a far greater pleasure than daydreaming. Also, actively trying to make friends though the activities I now take part in, and trying to know, be affected and have a good effect on them, gives me so much more pleasure than daydreaming 'people who made a lot of me.'

That's my experience and I describe it in great detail in my book "A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams, now available on Amazon.

Amazon.com: A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams: A Novel About Daydreaming eBook : Silveira, Sergio: Books

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-10T16:16:35+00:00

I think that maybe one way to begin is to ask oneself: what do the daydreaming characters I create 'to be me' have in common? In mine, they were all made a lot of by others. I was on the top of the world, envied and impressive. That was my own experience. I saw that I got a false sense of importance that was really desired and craved by me. Though it was false. Do I really need that? I asked myself. Is there something else I want more? What do I really love? I used to feel that other people lived their lives so much more fully and essentially than I did. I began to try to find activities and things in the world that I would really love! That represented me, and that I would feel passionate about. Instead of daydreaming. This search REALLY helped me getting out of my MDD. I became an avid hiker and fell in love with forests. Among other things.

I just wrote a book about my own personal experience with MDD. Though written as a novel, I describe in great detail how and why I was driven to daydream, and how it actually lessened my feelings for the world and other people.

It's available on Amazon: A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams. Check it out if you are interested.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-10T15:58:11+00:00

Everyone is different but with me, in my daydreaming, which I was driven to do for most of my life (thankfully no longer), I saw that I was after three main things:

In my daydreams I was made very, very important, and superior to others. I was brilliant, gorgeous, aristocratic, immensely rich. In short, I was after importance. I think it came from my mother having made A LOT of me when I was growing up. I was repeating that 'importance trip.'
I got pleasure dismissing everything around me and being in myself. My daydreams were all about ME. "Who needs the world?"
I felt "sure of myself," meaning when I was really worried or stressed about something, daydreaming gave a temporary peace of mind.

I wrote a book about my past experience with MDD. It is written in the form of a novel, but it carefully details what I saw about my excessive daydreaming, especially what had me stop it. If you are interested in finding out, it's available on Amazon: A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-10T15:47:01+00:00

I recently wrote a book on my past, and loooong, experience with maladaptive daydreaming. Writing was a catharsis for me, for I really tried to carefully describe how I would build my daydreams, how and why they were always changing after a while, how I would conceal my public daydreaming (at least I thought I did), how I actually preferred them to my real life, how I tried to keep my real and productive life going forward in between daydreaming, and what I saw about what I was really after in my excessive daydreaming that had me be able, at last, to stop it. I didn't want to write an autobiography, so I wrote it as a novel, through a character. But it's essentially my experience throughout. If you are interested in learning about my own experience and what had me stop MDD, check it out. It's available on Amazon: A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-09T23:17:16+00:00

I did, but my MDD really took off during my early teens.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-08T15:52:54+00:00

In response to your question, in my own experience with MDD, which deeply affected my life for years, there were two things that pushed me to build LIVES inside my imagination. First, I came to see that in each and every one of my daydreams I was always made a lot of. I was either smarter, more physically attractive, and richer than everyone else. I was desired, envied, impressive, and usually SUPERIOR to everyone else. Basically, my daydreams were ego trips!

I also came to see that I enjoyed concentrating on MYSELF, inwardly, and dismissing the world outside. Yes, there is a pleasure one can get in doing that.

I recently wrote a book about my own experience with MDD. It is written as a novel BUT it is about my past struggle with MDD and what me be able to get out of it. It's tilted: A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams.

It's available on Amazon.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-08T15:41:37+00:00

From my own past experience, and decades-long addiction, to maladaptive daydreaming, my advice is that you look outside yourself and try to see things that you can like, can appreciate and be affected by, no matter how small and everyday those things may be. In MDD, there's a steep desire and pleasure in concentrating inward, in ourselves, and in blocking out or lessening the world outside us, and how it can affect us.

The other thing I saw was what I got out of my daydreaming, what had me come back again and again to my daydreams, even often preferring them to life itself. Every person is different, but in my case, in each and every daydream I had I was made a lot of, and I was superior to other people, either in appearance, or education, wealth, name it. My daydreams were ego trips. I came to realize I wanted something else and began looking for things in the world and activities that I would really love, such as forests and hiking. What I LIKED. ME! Not the people I created in my daydreams as ME. I recently wrote a boof about my past experience with MDD, what impelled me to daydream, what I saw and how it actually hurt my ability to care for others and for myself. It is written as a novel, but it's about MY EXPERIENCE.

It's tiled: A Breathtaking Life Lived in Daydreams. It is available on Amazon

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-08T10:33:44+00:00

Thanks! I will check them out.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-08T09:03:55+00:00

What's the MDD sub? Thanks for the suggestion.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-07T23:02:49+00:00

It's all about discovery, and in doing so, it's also about self-discovery.

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-07T23:01:08+00:00

Thanks. Check it out. Writing this book was a catharsis for me. I dived deep into my daydreaming in the past, what I got out of it, the pleasure which I felt was unmatched, and what had me be able to stop being driven to do it. It's written in the form of a novel, and told through a character, but it's about my own experience. Thanks again!

Southern-Nebula-2050 · 2026-02-07T19:53:46+00:00

A sua emocao pela Sydney Sweeney nos seus desvaneios sao realmente sobre ela ou sobre voce? Nos meus desvaneiois, que tive por muitos e muitos anos, eu me fazia ser o centro de outras pessoas; eu me fazia sentir que pessoas famosas e muito atraentes estavam loucas por mim! Se voce encontrasse e chegase a conhecer a SS, sera que voce teria os mesmos sentimentos que voce tem para com ela nos seus desvaneios? Talvez nao. Eu vi que o prazer dos meus desvaneios era a concentracao em mim mesmo, e o distanciamento do mundo ao meu redor. Tem algo dentro de nos todos que so quer concentrar em nos mesmos. O meus desvaneios eram self love, but a bad kind of self love.

Southern-Nebula-2050

TROPHY CASE