I daydream all the time. I’d say, out of every hour, I’m imagining a different scenario for 40 minutes.
For example: I’m driving home and I see myself catching Ardred cheating on me, a play in my head exactly what I’d say and do. (he’d never cheat and I know this, but imagining it is SO real, I even know what the girl looks like :))
example two: I’m looking for my cat and I automatically assume that she’s dead, picture what I’d do, where I’d bury her and then imagine the next cat I’d get, after an appropriate grieving period. (I find her alive and well and somewhere warm, of course.)
example three: I’m doing laundry and I picture my arm being ripped off in the spinning washer, blood spurting from the stump, etc. (this has yet to happen, of course)
I know all my examples are horrific and pessimistic. There are good ones too, like picturing getting that job or finding a million dollars in an old suitcase but they’re not so vivid. I never act on these fears (I never accuse A. of cheating just because my mind is overactive). I enjoy the more vivid ones because I know they’re not real but I can relax and have fun with what my mind is coming up with.
I’ve always been a practicer. I’m innately very shy, but I’ve found if I practice in my mind what I’m going to say or do in a particular situation I don’t get so nervous or upset when I do make a small mistake. I think things through in every direction before they happen. I’m very prepared in emergencies, because I’ve “done” it all before.
Part of the reason my “good” examples are fewer is that I get extremely disappointed when I don’t get that job or things don’t go the way I’d planned. I’m not so disappointed when my arm doesn’t get ripped off in the washer, however.
Does anyone else do this? Do you daydream about other things?
Oh my god! I’m so glad other people do this! I do this all the freaking time and thought I was psycho for it. I live all sorts of scenarios in my head all day long. Yay! I’m not alone!
Wow! Others like me! We need to start a support group or something.
I do this all the time as well. Mine are rarely as gruesome as yours, but likely just as vivid. I have whole conversations in my head before talking to someone in person. They never go that way in real life, but I would know exactly how to handle it if they did.
All the friggen time. Its the worst before I go to bed. I talk to myself and imagine myself in dozens of scenarios that may never happen. ITs a habit now.
It does drive me a bit insane sometimes.
Yes, i do this all the time, too, mostly about encounters I will or may have with people in RL. For me, I think it has something to do with social anxiety–if I can work through and “rehearse” all the possible permutations in my head, then I feel prepared for whatever someone might throw my way.
I’m just SO glad other people do this, too. I thought I was the only one.
ALL the time, and not just big, momentous life stuff. No, I’ll be driving home, thinking about what exactly I’m going to cook for dinner, including where the ingredients are in the house and what steps I’m going to take. It’s like I cook twice, once in my head and once for real.
And I rehash stuff that did actually happen over and over again, ad nauseum. Again, mostly on my commutes.
And yet when something does happen that might require a snappy response, half the time, I’m left standing there going, “duh.” You’d think with all this rehearsal, I’d have a better comeback prepared.
Yes and No. I’m constantly running scenarios, but usually they’re only tangentially related to my life. More than half the time the whole cast is folks I’ve made up. Some of the characters I run are grandchildren of characters I used to run. They cycle.
Yup, I do it too. Practice conversations in my head. Prepare things I’m going to say before phone calls… I hate making phone calls so I really have to get myself ready for them.
tend to try to keep these scenarios on happy subjects, but if I’m having problems with someone in real life, I’ll go through all the angry things I want to say to them in my head. None of which I actually end up saying. But it’s cathartic to think about chewing them out.
Hmmm, I don’t really consider your examples "daydreams’. To me that’s more just thinking and evaluating which I think everyone does constantly. I think of daydreaming as more like fantasizing. Which I do a lot but it’s mostly stories I’ve made up about my favorite characters (who’ve I’ve usually stolen from TV shows and books). Probably a lot like Yllaria does with long epic sagas…
I do it too, and most of my daydreams are very morbid. Death’s not gonna sneak up on me, baby!
A lot of times I catch myself muttering out loud phrases from my imaginary conversations. I need to hear how things will actually “play” out loud. I also repeat things from actual conversations to see how they did sound.
I’m glad you all do this weird stuff too, but still I have to wonder if you do it as much as I do!
I’m glad someone else does this as well as me. Whnever I find myself muttering imaginary lines, I worry that I’m gonna be that old bag lady standing in front of the supermarket who ceaselessly talks to herself…
I also do this frequently. Mostly rehearsing possible future conversations. Which almost never actually happen. Although sometimes I imagine something like
What a relief to know that there are more like me out there! I have these imaginary conversations to the point of getting fuming mad at the other person, even though I know it’s all in my head. I have to remind myself we’re not actually fighting in real life… :smack:
Thank god, I’m not insane after all! (or, at least, we’re all insane, but hey, I have company, I’m happy). I do it all the time; mostly when I’m trying to sleep. The fantasies range from the mundane (conversations grounded in realistic situations, with real or imagined people, rewrites of past situations, etc.) to the fantastic (just about exactly what tremorviolet mentions; these have long and continuing plots and can be very out there).
None of it is really rehearsing for anything. If it is, it’s unconsciously so. That’s just what my mind does when it’s on idle. That’s not to say I don’t rehearse for likely situations (such as practicing my explanation for my latest screw-up, should I be found out), but that’s different. The fantasies are more like hypothetical situations. They can happen, sometimes they might happen, but more often then not, there’s little to no chance. But my mind goes through it anyway.
You mean people don’t do that? I’ve done this all my life. It hasn’t always been non-harmful, though, as my daydreams have sometimes stopped me from doing things because the scenario I imagine doesn’t turn out well.
