Today, I’ll be addressing the question of when daydreaming becomes unhealthy. Actually, this is a very simple question. Most of the time, even before explaining it, the fact that you are Googling ‘when does it become unhealthy’ indicates that there’s a gut feeling or an inner sense telling you that something is not normal with what you’re doing.

Something feels off with the 3 or 4 hours a day you spend daydreaming, or with the 8 hours a day. Sometimes, without even reading about it, the fact that you’re starting to inquire means that it has become a problem or is about to become a problem.

Recognizing that it is about to become a problem is very important because you might read somewhere that it’s still normal, as long as you can control it. But the curiosity to understand if it’s healthy suggests that there’s something there, a gut feeling telling you that something is going wrong.

Most people want to put themselves in the box of ‘Mine is still okay, mine is still controllable, and I enjoy it.’ But we often ignore the actual thing – that curiosity is like your gut feeling telling you to start looking. The best thing to do is to catch yourself when you’re starting to inquire about this and begin focusing on improving your real life.

Yes, it might still be healthy, but the fact that you are searching for it means that there’s something there that is about to happen. So, improve the quality of your real life, work on yourself, regardless of what you do – improve your career, improve your relationships. Ultimately, if you don’t work on yourself, you’ll experience more distress in your life.

Now, it becomes unhealthy when it becomes uncontrollable – when you cannot control it anymore, when it is taking away your life to the point where you feel you cannot live without it. When daydreaming is negatively impacting your life and you find yourself doing it for 3 or 2 hours a day uncontrollably, even unconsciously, it becomes unhealthy.

If you’re using it as an escape, especially when faced with stress, instead of dealing with the stress, that’s when it becomes unhealthy. Be honest with yourself – if it’s taking over your life or negatively impacting it, it has become unhealthy.

As I’ve said, the fact that you’re curious means that there’s something in your life you need to improve. It might not be the daydreaming itself; daydreaming has never been the problem.

But when we get curious and Google something, it means that there’s a part of us that has seen something we don’t like in our current situation. Be honest with yourself and focus on working on yourself. Don’t try to justify that it’s healthy when you deep inside know that something feels off.

Note from the Author

If you’re ready and you’d like my help with overcoming and managing maladaptive daydreaming without spending years in therapy, then you can book a FREE BREAKTHROUGH CALL with me HERE. Happy healing 💙💙. Feel free to share and comment! Use this information with caution, it comes from my own thoughts & biases, experiences, and research😊.