Please help! Terrified!! Possible trigger warning for people afraid of schizophrenia!

[Megan99]

I posted on here a while ago about how I suffer from an inferiority complex and have an elaborate daydreaming world that I live in to cope with my feelings of inadequacy. Today, I was reading this article from Stanford University and it said this "It is dangerous in the sense that it leads to divisions within one's personality. Psychologists tell us that the more individuals attempt to escape the realities of life through daydreaming and drunkenness, the thinner and thinner their personalities become ultimately they split. And they have a big word, they call it the schizophrenic personality. This is the split personality Individuals become so accustomed and absorbed in running away from the conditions of life, in trying to escape their actual selves, that their personalizes actually become so thin that they split and the real self recedes into the background" I am terrified!!!!!!!!! What if this is happening to me??? Will I wake up as Schizophrenic one day??? Will I ever be normal again?? Am I losing my mind??????? Oh goodness, I can't take this anymore!!! How do I stop???????

[snowghost57]

I never heard of schizophrenia being caused by split personalities. I would stop reading information on the internet. Are you seeing a therapist for anxiety? You are not losing your mind. I read on here in one post that people that do have schizophrenia don't know they have it. You will not suddenly wake up with a psychiatric disorder. Try to distract yourself with another happy topic and breathe!

[Dave1]

Hi Megan,

I have had inferiority complex plus daydreaming all my life too. What surprised me is if you read the details about 'avoidant personality disorder' it says daydreaming is a normal part of that personality type. Don't worry about it. :)

[Megan99]

I just read back my post and realized how freaked out I was at the time I wrote it. I feel a little better now. But i am at my wits end with this daydreaming. I don't talk to people and then get upset when they don't pay attention to me. Then I start the daydreaming of me being so great that everyone wants to talk to me and things. I have established the daydreaming patterns, but I can't stop it. I like to think of it as addiction. I just cannot stop. It makes me feel all the positive emotions I cannot feel in real life. And then I feel unproductive, guilty, and seldom pleased about my daydreams. They are forever evolving, changing and addicting. And I know I have to stop because it is really hindering my real life. I am unable to do a lot of things because i would rather daydream. I am taking CBT, but I don't know if it's helping. I know I need to be mindful and things, but my daydream life is so much more interesting than real life....That's why I am really confused and really disturbed. Thanks for the replies though! I feel a little better now.

[Brad10]

Hey I think everyone day dreams though, like I sometimes I think about winning the lottery and so do my friends, so I don't think day dreaming can cause schizophrenia

[MyNameIsTerry]

Do you mean Schizotypal Personality Disorder? Or Multiple Personality Disorder?

The latter is incredibly rare.

I think you have been reading sites talking about more complex mental health disorders and are worrying you could progress into these disorders. Anxiety Disorders don't leas to things like this.

Even so, Schizophrenia is different to these other two I mention. Are you sure the article wasn't actually about Schizophrenia itself?

There is a massive difference between natural escapism and experiencing psychosis or delusional episodes. These aren't things the sufferer has power over, they are being sucked into it and can't reason as they have lost that capability.

[Dave1]

Megan, I wouldn't worry about daydreaming, it's just something that's filling up the gaps in your life. If you work on a living a fuller life then I think it will diminish naturally.

[Bee84]

No my dear. My mother is schizophrenic and I daydream excessively too. When I was younger I was understandably afraid I had it. But even though she does maladaptive daydreaming anyone can do it. Just like anyone with a broken foot didn't necessarily break it whilst doing gymnastics.

[Bigboyuk]

Totally normal even f you haven't got any MH conditions :) And Dave1 is correct on what he says it will go way on it's own once your life is fuller :) Cheers

[AntsyVee]

You're not schizophrenic. Like a poster said, the people with schizophrenia rarely know they have it. To them, the hallucinations seem real.

There is a disorder called Maladaptive Daydreaming...but unless you are spending inordinate amounts of time daydreaming from where it takes away from your other activities, I doubt you have that either.

What you're describing sounds more indicative to OCD. A lot of people with OCD spend massive amounts of time worrying about conditions that they don't have--medical, mental or otherwise.

[Bigboyuk]

You're not schizophrenic. Like a poster said, the people with schizophrenia rarely know they have it. To them, the hallucinations seem real.

There is a disorder called Maladaptive Daydreaming...but unless you are spending inordinate amounts of time daydreaming from where it takes away from your other activities, I doubt you have that either.

What you're describing sounds more indicative to OCD. A lot of people with OCD spend massive amounts of time worrying about conditions that they don't have--medical, mental or otherwise. I would tend to agree with you on that as I have a very good friend who has been diagnoised as schizophrenic 15 years ago who many times has told me their life story that doesn't match anything the OP has said. I suffer from OCD but wouldn't put it down to what you say as such but would say it's excessive behaviour like in my case hoarding clutter etc or in some people's cases where they have to clean say the kitchen floor 20 times a day just to make sure it's clean that's OCD in my book :)