Excessive daydreaming/wandering thoughts

Put some personal structures in place.

I am the exact same person as you describe. I'm a practicing artist, and I do freelance work as well, that takes industry defined structures as you say. So when I'm not on those jobs I have my own process in place to remain semi on track.

It doesn't have to be restrictive, just progressive.

I use Airtable (it's Free) to log my To Do list, DIY jobs, things I want to apply for, and anniversaries I am likely to forget. Different lists for different reasons.

I have daily random ideas which I keep in notes on Evernote (I pay an annual subscription for) so these 'daydreams' are kept somewhere and I can use them in my art making.

I bet, if you started to log these daydreams in journal entries, you'd find your unconscious mind is repeatedly telling you something? Stearing you on a path you may be better suited for perhaps?

I'm fascinated by that journey tbh. A journey to authenticity

Sure mate - I’ll fit that in between tasks in my day, so it will be progressive, not all at once. I’ll drop them as a reply to your inquiry so you get notifications ok

You are not wasting time on daydreaming at all. 

We are now programmed to want to keep up with technology and phones and having to keep busy. 

you need your down time and your daydreams, but try to daydream about things that are happy. 

Daydreaming is good for you, it is the brain relaxing. 

If you are upset at what pops into your mind, then try to control the daydreaming into a happy story. 

Daydreaming is so important, so is being bored sometimes. 

Please can you post some links to any useful resources or information regarding the points you addressed? Just because I would like more information thanks

What makes you think you don’t have ADHD? Have you been assessed against the diagnostic criteria by a skilled practitioner?

What you describe sounds exactly like cognitive hyperactivity, impulsiveness and salience-based focus to me - all of which are clinical pillars of ADHD. In fact, your description sounds like ‘common-all-garden’ ADHD. Straight up. ADHD is rarely dramatic, which is part of its insidious nature - it’s a chameleon.

You mention ‘repetitive thoughts’, which sounds like ‘repeated, intrusive thoughts regarding tangible things (real or forecast/predicted’ - in which case, yeah, impulsive, hyper-active mental activity. Very little hyperactivity is visible, and in fact the most disabling hyperactivity occurs between our ears. Never underestimate how much activity our brain conducts compared to our physical activity. It runs marathons everyday, so it’s the best organ for exerting dysfunctional levels of effort to drum up the dopamine concentration that is profoundly diminished in ADHD synaptic clefts.

You also state ‘once that structure is not in place, I have a very hard time being productive’, which sounds exactly like an ‘interest-based neurology’ to me - things of interest are prioritised upwards, in this case ‘daydreams’ (ie intrusive thoughts of things of interest, which takes us back to cognitive hyperactivity) and things of less interest (ie. work) are prioritised downwards. This is classic ADHD behaviour, absolutely endemic amongst our cohort. This is why we are the champions of the ‘last minute effort’ and are most motivated under pressure, or even duress - all of which absolutely is unified with the notion of ‘interest-based neurology’, ie as deadlines approach, mitigating the risk of receiving the impact arising from not completing the task bubbles up and eclipses our interest in other things. Our interest in not getting our arses kicked eclipses everything else and our focus on that interest motivates the effort to get it done. It’s interest, just not a healthy form of interest or most optimal for achieving quality outcomes.

I would recommend that you reassess yourself against DSM-5 diagnostic criteria. There is an extraordinarily effective self-report questionnaire that operationalises those criteria exquisitely - the Adult ADHD Self-Report Score ASRS-V1.1

That will nail it for you - do it and then get someone that you have lived with to review it with you. Be brutally honest whilst filling in answers. Take your time.

If you do come out of that with an indication that you do have ADHD, please don’t hesitate to submit for assessment, and if you do have ADHD do not hesitate to accept medical treatment for it. ADHD is a seriously impairing, literally dis-abling medical condition, and proper, fulsome medical treatment of it (ie with medication!) is utterly and wonderfully transformative - and that regulation of dopamine neurotransmitter circuitry can only be achieved reproducibly, day after day with the correct ADHD medication for the individual. ADHD medications are safe, they do work and no, ADHD is not a superpower. You only realise how much it sucks when you emerge from it, one of two positives to be found in it - it’s a gloriously dignifying experience to come out of it… and the gift that keeps on giving. When the individual is fulsomely dosed to match clinical need and dosing is complied with every day, the wonderful impact is not just realised in the short term - it develops in leaps and surges over many months. It’s literally the gift that keeps on giving.

Us Autists possess extraordinary abilities and talents, and ADHD smothers our ability to leave a superb trail of evidence of that. I hold it entirely separate from being Autistic - I love being Autistic, I am proudly Autistic… but you can take the ADHD, put it in a bin, burn it and keep repeating that cycle on its ashes.

Hi , I too drift into the bubble, when driving and sunny i mellow out, during the day if im not focused I relax into my being on a beach and the warm sun session listening to the waves. It relaxes me.

I need a nap every 4hrs I feel exhausted as Im always on the go doing multiple things.

Everytime I get up I pick up maybe 3 things to put back in place or if i move from one room to another.

Every time im in a room with my kids I start tidying up never get totally finished then when we move to another area in the house start doing the same tidying up and sorting.

My wife says i switch off and im not present, I feel it the fatigue and tirdness I work hard to be switch on listening and engaging with the family.

Its tiring.

I've trained myself in life to be full on then totally switch off and recharge.

This doesnt work being married or having kids.

So its a focused discipline and constantly remind myself to stay present.

I hope this helps, keep talking

While lacking structure may be part of it, its also a response to boredom.  I spent maybe 4 years daydreaming about living the life of a person in an anime series I watch.  I would do it whenever I was alone (and sometimes it would happen when I wasnt) and had a boring or simplistic task to do.  I could hyperfocus my way out of it if I wanted or needed to.  it began to affect my work sometimes so I stopped doing it, but replaced it with pacing.  Sometimes I would re-organise things at work, alphabetically, numerically, height, width, weight.  That got me in a lot of trouble (since I worked in warehouses).

I think its almost our way of disassociating from things we have no interest in.  you can bypass it to a point by maybe hyperfocusing on something, but you will eventually fall back into doing it.

I dont stop myself doing it anymore.  Sometimes my brain just needs to daydream, or maybe contemplate all scenarios that could affect a specific situation.  As long as im not hurting anyone else while doing it, I have no issues with it.

Hello NAS67092,

I’ve been doing the same thing. I’m not so bad when I’m at work. But I’m one of the many people that have been furloughed, so I’ve been off for five weeks now. I find that I hardly do anything of a day/night other than sit or lay around thinking all day. Usually the same repetitive thoughts that I probably wouldn’t be doing if I was occupied. I go for my daily walk, but that’s about it. The weird thing is though, I’m not actually bored. I guess it’s because I’m used to overthinking about things, plus I’m not a sociable person anyway, so apart from me not working, my life hasn’t changed much. Sorry I cannot offer you any advice like you’ve asked for. But I just wanted to say that I am in the same boat. Take care 

As Anthony has said structure doesn't have to be a job, maybe create a regular schedule for yourself so wake up/go to bed at certain times, eat at certain times. Then the time in between fill with things that you enjoy and/or keep your brain active, I've been doing a lot of free educational courses online to keep my mind busy. The open uni has a lot of free courses - www.open.edu/.../full-catalogue I can highly recommend the forensic psychology one (if your interested in that sort of thing). Try not to be so hard on yourself, daydreaming isn't harming anyone and it sounds like it is a coping mechanism for you to get through these uncertain times.

Structure doesn’t have to be a job - I don’t work but I include things like a daily walk, studying etc - it just makes the day a little more productive 

It might depend on the job as to whether that would help.  I can relate to all you say. I'm working from home at the moment and am still finding it difficult to focus on work, and not allow myself to drift off either into thoughts, (repetitive or reflective), or even other tasks of no real importance thet just distract me and get me through another not very productive day.

I think the virus may be affecting my thought processes more than I realise, and that might be the real distraction that is causing a lack of structure which then allows the unproductive daydreaming to start.

Hope you can sort something out.

My job cannot be done remotely. I've been staying home for several weeks. I don't know if being jobless or having repetitive daydreaming thoughts throughout the whole day are worse. I think those 2 are related. When I had a lot of things to do, I had focus but right now everything is so uncertain. I know other people feel the same way. It has affected everyone and everything. I just think it is somewhat more difficult for people who already have repetitive thought patterns. I do agree that I need to figure something out like looking for a work from home job.

I got into a swirl of this last night, and couldn't initially sleep. It revolved around how utterly useless I have always been, both to myself and others. So I got up and went to inspect a project that I had done earlier in the day and found that it was still working well overnight as intended. That saw off the useless thoughts and allowed me to sleep. I note that you are fully aware of the need for structure. Is there any huge rush in your work? can you spread that structure out over a longer time-frame and so enable yourself to productively daydream - by which I mean as a form of self-entrancement, meditation, self hypnosis or careful and carefree concentration. And at other times, you can also engross yourself in thoughtful entertainment. Mind you, I think perhaps we all need a bit of aimless daydreaming in our lives, so we can contrast it with our more focussed/structured activities

If you say it tends to be when you’re lacking structure, you could try planning your days a bit more - you do however risk things becoming a bit rigid so it’s not failsafe but it may help