> My daydreaming isn't merely a passive pastime. It interrupts my daily tasks, making conspicuous appearances. Often, I find myself vocalizing thoughts, not as a narration of my actions, but broadcasting the intricate details of my daydreams. I often find myself taking spontaneous walks, even breaking into a run sometimes. Might seem like random movements, but it's my vivid daydreams pulling the strings. I can suddenly burst into laughter or find myself pacing in circles.

Well I feel seen today. At times in my youth I seriously questioned whether I had schizophrenia... but I never developed the symptoms.

What I do have seems to be a mixture of OCD-related intrusive thoughts and a serious problem with daydreaming/dissociation that severe ADHD thus far has seemed to acceptably explain. But ADHD doesn't explain the deep daydreaming and sudden talking out loud, entire days spent in a catatonic state, etc.

> For instance, remembering routes or even simple details like the layout of a frequently visited place demands active processing from me

People have definitely commented on my trouble remembering recently taken routes... always just hard to know how common this. A general sense of navigation seems to make up for it but it takes many, many trips for me to not get lost when I move to a new location.

> Even simple tasks, which involve a few steps (like taking medicine or changing clothes), can turn into a time-consuming endeavor due to the interruptions caused by daydreaming

Most definitely, and again the presence of ADHD makes this difficult to isolate and understand. I mean, all of these these are definitely potential symptoms of ADHD. It just seems to not be the usual case for people I meet with ADHD. It becomes extremely difficult making friends, even ones with ADHD, understand what I go through. Most write it off as me being dramatic about everyday experiences that everyone has, not understanding the acute or chronic nature of the symptoms.

A friend recently told me I paid too much attention to diagnoses, but I have had these diagnoses for my entire life and they affect me in such an extreme way that the only progress I have made has been with deep, thorough medical research about my conditions. Even past childhood therapists totally misunderstood these conditions and sometimes made things worse.

> Similarly, changing clothes can take more than an hour. Sometimes, I don't manage to complete the task at all.

Yeah, and for me at least there is often an element of PTSD from childhood and early adulthood trauma which guides these daydreams, and it honestly sounds like the case for the author here, if I had to wager a guess I'd assume most of these daydreams are rooted in either some kind of direct trauma, or a some desire which is propelled by a hidden underlying trauma.

> For clarity, it's important to underline that MD-affected individuals can clearly differentiate between reality and daydreams.

Unfortunately, my experience has been that trying to relate the experience of compulsive daydreaming or other extreme facets of ADHD only come across as unhinged to others, especially when you mention things like the radio in your brain you just cannot turn off which interrupts every other thought, or how you might randomly laugh or respond out loud to an imagined conversation in your head.

For my part, I am a lifelong lucid dreamer with the ability to modify my dreams, and also suffer from frequent sleep paralysis. In general I have had extreme insomnia my entire life, which leads to a false sort of narcolepsy throughout the day. Last night I got maybe an hour of sleep in total, 10 minute increments followed by an hour of tossing and turning in between. I would be surprised if these things are not all related.

Stress also definitely seems to affect this condition. This past week has been immensely stressful and I spent several hours today on my floor just totally in another world.