Hi yellow_fleurs! The short answers are bulleted:

* Recognizing that the daydreaming was a problem/maladaptive
* A conscious decision to stop. Cutting down on it (sort of like sweets or other similar addictive things)
* Grounding techniques
* Success in finding a passion or other major activity that I really wanted to focus on
* Time for my brain to heal
* Good therapists that helped me get past it

My maladaptive daydreaming was not something that I stopped abruptly. It decreased over time. Perhaps with the above help it started to become less satisfying. The pleasure (or whatever positive) I derived from it decreased. Reality showed itself more. The stories ran their course.

At its worst, I was daydreaming for literally 12 hours in a day. I daydreamed when my husband was home, when visiting others, when driving, when shopping...all of the time. Mostly, I spend several hours per day in bed binge daydreaming. I neglected a lot. I often "didn't hear" people talking to me, for the most part. It became an obsessive/compulsive type activity, but I don't have OCD. I would often rework similar daydreams multiple times with slightly different versions.

I think my past maladaptive daydreaming was a means of coping. An unhealthy way of protecting myself from the trauma I had experienced in the past. That is similar with dissociation. I guess I can understand why I sometimes experienced dissociative symptoms during that period. When that period ended, so did my symptoms of dissociation.