I like to sit quietly and wander in my thoughts, day-dreaming. It's very pleasant. Sometimes it gets more intense and i have fantasies. One theme i have noticed is where i am with a group i'm in and some new person arrives who knows me and we have a fantastic conversation that shows all the others that i am NOT "Boring Jane" like they thought, i am "Interesting Jane."

For example, i imagine that at Scrabble someone from my past shows up and asks me how long i have been clean and sober, as if i have recovered from a storied past of being a heroin addict and everyone would have respect for me and be newly interested in me for kicking drugs and having lived thru such a wild experience.

Sometimes the fantasies are about my past and things i wish i had said. For example, my first boyfriend used me to advance himself socially. I could detect on our first date that that was his intention. I fantasize that i had called him on it that very night and not have let the relationship to progress and fester into it's painful conclusion.

I also fantasize that i had sat my ex-husband down when it was clear things had gone bad and just said, "We're at the end of the line. I know you can feel it. Let's get divorced."

The fantasies can get quite intense and i get a lot of satisfaction from them. I replay them over and over and imagine the exact dialogue. I've read that our brains respond with happy chemicals when we imagine happy things and i think this is true for me.

I so desire the fantasies that sometimes i try and induce them. I'll tell myself, "Let's have a fantasy now!" But i don't have much success inducing them. They have to be spontaneous.

I don't see it as maladaptive at all. Where is the harm? The question is always if the behavior impacts your functionality. My day-dreaming is very positive. It would only be maladaptive if you did it so much you were neglecting life functions, for example if you were not taking care of your hygiene because you were day-dreaming so much. I see it as a way of coping and giving myself a harmless hit of pleasure.

A charming Canadian movie about a schizophrenic's elaborate day-dreams of overthrowing the Newfoundland provincial government is "The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood," available online for free.

I love to day-dream!