Hello. My name is Erick. And I am a Daydreamer

It occurred to me recently that I might have Walter Mitty Syndrome.  Or, “Maladaptive Daydreaming,” which is what I found when I googled “Walter Mitty Syndrome.”  

It comes from the movie made back in 1947 with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo,  About a pulp magazine editor that lives in a fantasy life all day long, using the things he’s learned from the lurid stories he helps get ready for publishing.  

Like Walter Mitty, I spend a lot of time entertaining myself with daydreams.  An ex-girlfriend of mine once told me, “You love to daydream.  It’s your hobby.  It’s what you do.”  I tried to come up with an argument to prove to her that I wasn’t like that, but by the time I realized that she had me pegged, she’d fallen asleep.  

I’ve recently started wondering if my penchant for daydreaming was actually distracting me from living a better life, from achieving my goals.  Because, as I’ve wondered, if I can get positive emotional impact of success from daydreaming about fantastical successes and storybook achievements, then it might take the edge off the desire to actual do something real.  Right?  

I found the term Maladaptive Daydreaming when I wondered if someone had come up with a name for someone like that.  The term was first used when it was identified as a disorder in 2002.  The symptoms include: 

Vivid, richly detailed daydreams.

Abnormally long daydreaming sessions, up to 4 hours a day. 

Daydreams triggered by real life events.  

Daydreaming sessions that interrupt sleep.

Repetitive motions or whisperings while daydreaming.

Going through this list gave me some relief.  While my daydreams tend to be rich and detailed (I’ll even research the things I daydream about to make them more accurate, which is NOT listed as a symptom I will point out), and real life events trigger daydreams for me ALL the time (don’t they for everyone?  Is THAT rare?), I don’t go on for hours and hours at a time, and I don’t make repetitive motions or whisperings while I daydream, and it’s more likely for daydreaming to delay falling asleep as I entertain myself.  

Interesting Note: My Fitbit can analyze my sleep, showing the state I’m in (Deep Sleep, REM, Light Sleep, Awake) throughout the night.  I’ve noticed that it sometimes indicate I’m in REM sleep at a time when I’ve been awake and letting my mind play in some fascinating scenario.  Would be something like guided dreaming?  

Also some of the descriptions of the benefits of daydreaming I found good to hear.  Such as greater creativity, improved productivity, better problem solving skills, AND progress TOWARD goals.  Whew!  That unless daydream was interfering with daily tasks and routines (which it doesn’t for me) it is a virtue.  

Ok.  Good.  Glad to hear it.  But…  While I may not need psychological help (at least not for my daydreaming) I still had the feeling that I should do something about them.  

So, I started to catalogue them.  

Every Saturday, I use my writing session to write down all the things I’ve daydreamed about.  What prompted them, if I can recall that, how they changed and developed.  Their sequels (yes, my daydreams have sequels).  And spinoffs (Is THAT unusual?). Who I cast in them.  Everything.

Since doing this I’ve noticed that some of the daydreams have gone away.  After writing them out, they don’t seem so interesting to me.  But others have become more complicated.  They’ve been recast.  Produced more variants (reboots I guess is the term), with more spinoffs and sequels.  

And one has been tagged to turned into a short story to write after I get the Second Act of the novel I’m currently rewriting read and reviewed.  Another, a sequel to the novel I’m rewriting now.  And a third that would be a cool zombie series.  Maybe.  

And, I’ve decided to not call them “daydreams” any more.  I’ve started to call them “Imaginings.”  So I’m no longer a daydreamer.  I’m an Imagineer!

Crap!  Disney already uses that term.  I’ll have to dream up something else.