"People with obsessive-compulsive tendencies tend to struggle immensely with decision-making. Outsiders looking in wonder why common choices, like where to work or whom to marry, are so challenging for them. Worsening the problem is the proclivity toward maladaptive daydreaming, spending hours on end fantasizing about ideal scenarios. Often, these imagined scenarios don't even entail the full scope of what would be expected were they to exist."
"For those with vivid imaginations and convictions about what's possible, maladaptive daydreaming serves not only as a place of respite; it's also a reminder of what's to come. The fantasies are as powerful as they are because the individual engaged in them sincerely believes them to be harbingers, merely necessitating patience. It's a misconception that people who engage in maladaptive daydreaming do so because they prefer fantasy to reality-in reality, they prefer it momentarily, and only if it represents what's to come."
Maladaptive daydreaming arises from the conviction that fantasies forecast the future, producing false certainty and reducing engagement with real choices. Fantasies commonly omit negative realities such as fatigue, criticism, deadlines, performance anxiety, and physical consequences, creating distorted expectations about desired lives. Individuals with obsessive-compulsive tendencies often struggle with decisions, and prolonged fantasizing compounds indecision by offering emotional payoff and imagined certainty. The fantasies are fuelled by naivety, grandiosity, low distress tolerance, resentment, greed, and wishful thinking, and sometimes rest on a belief that one will be an exception to ordinary rules. Treatment is difficult because daydreaming functions as a primary self-soothing mechanism.
Read at Psychology Today
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