Hello. I have never been to the DID part of the forums.... I have a question. I have been having weird things happen to me for about the past 10 months and I thought perhaps it was Depersonalization or Derealization related...

For the longest time, I have been living vicariously through my daydreams. I find myself lost in daydreams for several hours a day. Fantasies and alternate realities of myself. I am a completely different person in them, or I have done something extraordinary. They are my escape... Sometimes they just pop up into my mind and I will just sit there, staring off into space, forgetting about the real world and focusing on this fantasy. It is like a story, a movie, or a fantastic novel I write in my mind. They last for a long time, weeks even, usually continuing until I feel satisfied enough with the story to begin a new one. I become attached to the people I make up, which are more like characters. Each with their own back stories and appearances.

I believe this may be a problem because sometimes I will slip into a daydream without actually meaning to. I will forget what I am doing and just "zone out". This hasn't really effected my life... because I rarely leave the house, or interact with real people.

Lately I have been having problems.... sometimes I forget which world is real and which is fake. The fantasy world and my memories from it sometimes fade into the real world. Sometimes I will have memories of an experience that didn't happen, and I will feel like it had. Sometimes I feel as if the characters are real, and I become very confused. A family member may mention something, such as, "You could use a haircut". But I will be confused, because in my fantasy I have short hair, or perhaps no hair... It will take me a while to remember... And sometimes I even let it slip out, by asking what they mean, or asking if they remember an event that took place between us, only it had been in my mind.

I have been scared to mention this to anyone. I am worried. Is this a real problem? Or... am I just overreacting?