Daydreams? Do those affect streaks of yours?

General Discussion
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Greetings people.

As the topic suggests, how often does daydream affects your relapses?

I wanted to know.

For me, I have a compulsion in daydreaming too, they call it maladaptive daydreaming, when I use ■■■■. Then I get guilt and shame. For relapsing right? Then I cope with that already coping mechanism with this thing.

It’s like two compulsions feeding each other.

So the cycle goes like me get stressed/bored/tired/(or a sudden click like a novel thought trigger)/and so on and so forth. ----> this ultimately leads to a ■■■■ relapse ----> then I get guilt and shame as we are humans ----> this is managed by maladaptive daydreaming(like me being a protoganist which I am but in the mind I get rich and stuff don’t wanna talk about that but it is self soothing) ----> then I get romantic maladaptive daydreams ----> now it pivots into novel categories ----> relapse in ■■■■ again.

The difference between daydreaming and maladaptive daydreams is simple. you get absorbed into maladaptive daydreams almost automatically, whenever you “wait” somewhere, free time this fills it up. You might catch yourself reacting the way your daydream character does..like Moana acting don’t worry this Is normal.

I just wanna know how much of you people get affected by daydream in your recovery negatively.

@Covertxomic @FaithfulWalker @debellator @Joyofthelord @Taher @AcolyteOfTheSacredFire @Awaken_one @Adioz @AbhishekVPai @siyaRam

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Inviting more people :sweat_smile:

@MARCINPOL @WalkWithoutFear @Wanderer @lahwf @Christ-is-king @Xard @Fazlury @Xam012 @mrxdul @basanaruga

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Yes, daydream is hell.

I use NaamJaap technique to get rid of it.

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any specifics you wanna tell about how daydream affects pornography recovery in particular?

NaamJap? whats that?

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Hmm yeah i know that it can contribute to relapse if your mind is wandering in lust. Sometimes it happens spontaneously but not always for me. I like to do something else if i start daydreaming like that. I would also stay away from any somewhat sensual content as it can be triggering maybe even if it is ASMR, atleast for me.

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Hello My friend,

I get what you’re saying, and yeah this actually hits pretty close to something I dealt with too.

For me, daydreaming was never something I picked up as a coping tool after relapsing. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, it was just a normal thing for me. Like zoning out, imagining scenarios, stories, all that. It was almost like a hobby.

But once I got affected by this curse, that’s when things started to change without me really noticing. The daydreams slowly started getting mixed with sexual stuff. It wasn’t even something I sat down and chose to do. It just kind of crept in. And by the time I became conscious of it, it was already too late and I wasn’t really in control anymore. I would catch it, but instead of stopping, I’d keep going. And that’s when it could turn into urges and eventually relapse.

So in my case, maladaptive daydreaming didn’t start as a way to deal with guilt or anything like that. It was already there, and the curse basically hijacked it and rewired it into something sexual.

About your question, I’m not really sure how much daydreaming itself affects recovery, I’m not knowledgeable enough to say that for sure. On its own, I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all.

But I do think it depends on what it turns into. If it stays just normal daydreaming, it’s harmless. The problem, at least for me, was when it started turning sexual and I kept feeding it.

From where I’m at now, the biggest difference is control. Thoughts still happen (yes that is normal even after 400+ days, but its the power to not let it in, that’s what it makes it different), that doesn’t go away. But I don’t follow them or build on them anymore. Back then I would just let it play out and get pulled in.

But heres a thing, honestly, in my opinion, if you don’t have control over stopping those sexual thoughts once they start, then it’s better to cut off maladaptive daydreaming at the root. Because at that point it’s not harmless anymore, it’s basically one of the main things leading you back into relapse. You describing it as a coping mechanism while it is one of the main reasons that you relapse, this kind of shows denial.

And my friend, the first step to be free from this curse, is to be get rid of denial. Be honest with yourself and call things what they actually are, not what they feel like in the moment.

I believe in you that you will make the right decisions on your journey and will stay strong even though it might get hard! I know you can!

I hope that helps.

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This is a major problem for me or was a major problem. I’m better these days but boy was it a trigger. Now that I think of it, I’m actually really better. Like I try to just create scenarios in my head and some how it feels like my brains instantly blocks it off. I know the trigger that could lead me down that road again so I’m trying my very best to avoid them. To answer your question straight forward, yes.

Now this is so off topic but yay! I feel part of a community and this is seriously helping me. I haven’t felt this positive in a long time

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Sounds like you pretty much described my former situation

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exactly in my case too it was there from the very beginning, of my childhood, mind you my daydreams are pretty vivid.. to the point i could taste an apple on a sunny day, wearing a blanket, yeh thats sweaty but i could feel the taste of the apple and the texture of the blanket touching my skin..inside my mind.

it was so vivid from the very beginning and then yes..things started to turn sexual for me too.. but on its own, its a gift i may say..but when ■■■■ addiction came into the equation it flipped the swich, but who says we cant flip the swtich back anyways isnt it?

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It means chanting name of your favourite god to cut the thoughts.

It works & provide peace of mind.

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ASMR well thats interesting, are you comfortable sharing more about that?

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That is new fetish for ear sensitive people to c u m

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WHAT?

no i am not coming off all saying i am better but thats very new to me.. i do have seen this community, where people gets sexually aroused to literal balloons.

but doesnt these make that, human sexual arousal is very complex system? damn it is. at the end of the day through repetition and novelty it could get aroused to literally anything isnt that true?

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When one abstain for too long, even a small glimpse of hand or face of women can make him c u m

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Hence, it is very necessary to keep daydreaming in check before the poison drowns us.

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but its not an easy feat..

unlike compulsions there are externally “something” atleast, but maladaptive daydream has nothing its all in our mind, and impossible to have no relapse, cause we might not even see it coming, but of course it could be reduced significantly to the point it feel non existent and here and there we get some daydreams but we aware enough to catch it and stop it, the important part is catching and stopping, not preveting cause that is simply not possible.

and thats something i am working on right now.

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so you sayin, you finally coped with it, good for you brother.

happy for you.

how exactly did you coped with this daydreaming thing, or was it even intentional? or when time went by, and you focused on other things and this faded type story??

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Tbh for me I have always day dream like yk imagining stuff like I play football alot and I imagine me going pro ans play some really great style I do that alot until I got addicted now most of the time its always girls and something leading to sexual stuff, I feel the next for me is to purify my mind ,think of what is good also but meditation helps alot and deep breathing

Buh I feel like yes daydream does affect my journey cos I get hard when thinking abt those stuff but at the same time it you doing it not you watching 2 different people do it ,but we are trying to lower our dopamine spike so no dopamine spike till we our brain is fully healed I hope I make sense with this thank you

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Not a brother. When I realized that it was one of my triggers I decided to say no in my mind when I noticed that I was drifting. I did it for about two months and now it doesn’t come second nature to me unlike in the past. Just a “nope!” Sometimes it could be blurted out because of the intensity.

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@Aliquis I do this all day in every aspects.
I dream big but can’t execute the output and this is the exact reason, I am overthinking so hard these days.
I am figuring out on how to handle it but even I don’t know the answer. So yeah, I do this dreaming.

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