Unfortunately, I spend much of my time thinking of an adventurous ideal self in a romanticized world and no worries to speak of. This happens so often that I can become preoccupied with this world for a couple of minutes to hours. This is a constant and irritating disruption to my life. I was wondering how I would define this occurrence, and two words came to mind: fantasy and delusion. How do you know which it is? Thanks in advance.

Re: Where Is the Line between Fantasy and Delusion?

Re: Where Is the Line between Fantasy and Delusion?

For it to be a delusion, it must be a fixed belief and must be believed to be reality by the person sufferer.

I am not a proffesional, so don't pay too much attention to this, but, does the following describe your situation...?
"Periods of detachment from self or surrounding which may be experienced as "unreal" (lacking in control of or "outside of" self) while retaining awareness that this is only a feeling and not a reality"
If so It could be Depersonalization Disorder, a feeling much like a sudden detachment from one's body, an 'out of body experience'. But that doesn't sound like what you're describing.

If it's more like daydreaming, the chances are it's nothing, just fantasies.
In the 1950's many psychologists said daydreaming was a indicator of psychosis, so that's around on the internet but it's not true.

"Israeli high school students who scored high on the Daydreaming Scale of the IPI had more empathy than students who scored low".
Day-dreaming is good!
:-)

And, have you sent a email to Dr.Robert?
Dr.Robert.Saltzman "at" gmail.com

Website: www.dr-robert.com

Toby--

I appreciate your contributions to the Forum, including informing people that this is not the place to direct questions to "ask dr. robert." However, I ask that you please do not post my email address in the clear where it will be harvested by a web crawling "bot," subsequently filling my mailbox with unwanted spam. That is why I corrected your previous three uses of it.

Here is my email address for posting purposes:

dr.robert.saltzman "at" gmail.com

Thanks and be well.

Website: w

Sorry, I didn't realise.