#neuronarrator

[foleys-help-blog]

Tips for handling a daydream block

It happens to all of us at some point, and it sucks. here are some tips on how to deal with it from my experience.

There can be different or causes to it. First, you have too many thoughts. Whether it's because you have a lot on your mind, because you're stressed, or whatever other reason, if your brain is too full, it can be hard to daydream. Second possibility: your brain feels exhausted, empty. You're tired and it's hard to think, period. Third, you're just out of ideas!

✦ If you can and like to meditate, meditation is one of the best ways to calm down your thoughts and give your brain some respite.

✦ Napping can help rest too! Depending on the person, this might not help if you're in the first case though - I know it doesn't for me for example.

✦ If you lack ideas, look up some prompts, or maybe get into a new series or book! You need to feed your creativity, along with letting it rest.

✦ Do something else! Go for a walk, do some coloring, try a new art form, change up your habits! This can both help you get inspired and rest your creative muscles.

✦ Chat with other daydreamers! Whether it's gushing or venting, not feeling alone is a great help in feeling better

Now, while those are great to help getting out of a slump, sometimes only time will truly get rid of the block. In the meantime, there are ways you can stay connected to your paras and paracosms!

✦Make playlists your paras would listen to ✦Make moodboards ✦If you've written or drawn things related to your daydreamns, look at those ✦Make your paras a list of books they've read, would like to read, would dislike, etc! This can work with hobbies, movies, cartoons, food,… ✦Create a timetable of a typical work/school day of your para if it applies ✦Make jewelry for your paras; you can wear it to feel like they are with you or to think of them. ✦Make collages or art inspired by your paras, paracosms and daydreams! It can be super abstract! ✦Create outfit boards for your paras ✦Make memes about your paracosm ✦Try a meal or snack your paras would like! ✦Fill in personality quizzes as if you were your paras

Rest well, and happy daydreaming friends! 🪁🌟🫧

[alyssasmaddworld]

that sickly sweet feeling you get when daydreaming a love scenario and it almost makes you a bit nauseated at how sweet it is >>>>>>>>

[dolleriumfluffle]

Daydreams, Ghosts, and Plurality - Experiences of a Dreamway System

I think, in writing this, our goal is just to give a glimpse into our personal experience with identifying as dreamway, and how deep of an impact being neuronarrative has on our plurality. We saw a post about someone wanting more plurals to just write about experiences - so, here's some of ours, to share about ourselves, to ramble, and in hopes that someone might connect.

Our first ever signs of plurality as a child were through daydreams.

For as long as we can possibly remember, we've been traveling. Even as a very young child we lived a constant life of daydreams, of worlds we could disappear into in our head - and, more importantly, the people we met in them. Some of them were fictional; the fairies of the Pixie Hollow movies and the cures from the existing Pretty Cure seasons, both things we grew up with and deeply loved. These were perhaps our first experiences of walk-ins, as they would appear in and leave our daydream worlds as they pleased. Others were self-made, and would continue to appear with us until we had our first syscovery - a grey kitsune and an angel, who would protect and care for us on our journeys.

Our daydreams have always had a spiritual component, one that we would never really understand until we became an adult and learned about astral travel. We continually had spiritual beings appear to us in our daydreams, such as yokai like the kitsune and fae-like beings - and, most concerningly to others, dead relatives of ours and friends. We once told a schoolmate in elementary school that we had seen her grandma who passed away a few years prior. Her deeply superstitious mother proceeded to tell our poor aunt that she believed we were cursed.

We used to journal to each other as a child, writing to each other by name and creating journal entries in the form of letters. People, including us, dismissed it as an overactive imagination. However, it felt so fulfilling to us to write about our day and know that somehow, the people in our daydreams would see it, and sometimes even write back.

As we got into our teenage years, we began to be aware of these daydream characters as more than just daydreams - they were alive, they existed separately and had their own thoughts and feelings. We confessed to an online friend at the time that we had "people in my head" that lived in "my own world", which would eventually lead to our first syscovery. This initial group is who we sometimes call "the original 12" - a series of 12 system members who have been around since we were very young, appearing as daydreams until we realized who we really were.

We were very confused about our origins at first. We hung out in tulpamancy groups for a brief time, wondering if this was maybe how we had come about. However, we soon realized it just didn't resonate, so we moved on to some general endogenic groups and forums. We really appreciate the people we met during this time, who were kind to us in a period where we really had no idea what was happening with us.

Having a headspace always came very naturally to us. We never really understood how to describe creating and interacting with one, because to us we had always been daydreaming about ours. It was an incredibly in depth other world with its own rules, its own people, its own life. Even before we knew the extent of it, daydreaming had a huge impact on how we interacted with each other and how we navigated our own plurality.

After some very stressful life events, the coming awareness of our amnesia, and a while with a good therapist, we were diagnosed with HC-DID.

This led to a long period of self hatred and fear, where we were less sure than before about our life and each other. Thankfully, with the help of therapy and finally having a good support system, we were able to recover from this part of our journey. However, even after this we still had a strong sense that there was more to our origins.

This was when we discovered the term dreamway and the origin paragenic, which hadn't yet been coined when we had our first syscovery. Suddenly, everything made sense! There were people like us! Our daydreams, paracosms, and paras were an essential part of our system, and this was a known experience.

We're extremely grateful for that discovery. Our paracosms are an inherent part of our headspace - many of our introjects used to be para versions of fictional characters. We are able to travel freely between them, continually encountering new people, new worlds, new lives. There is a strange spiritual component to them; we've often heard people say that "paras usually know they're in a daydream," and this isn't true for us. They exist autonomously of our daydreams about them, almost as if they really are in another world, unless they get pulled into the main system and gain awareness of it. Similarly, we can use our headspace for spiritual means, using daydreams and astral travel to encounter entities of all kinds.

We feel greatly at peace with ourselves having discovered daydreams and connected spirituality as an essential part of our system and its origins. There is a lot of joy to us in being mixed origin - in knowing that even there our initial splits were due to programming, there is so much more to us, so much that has in fact helped us cope and stick together since that initial split.

At the end of the day, we want people to know that being mixed origin can be amazing, and can be an essential tool to a system's growth. We hope maybe other neuronarrator plurals or plurals with MaDD may see this and relate, and also we just want to spread more posts about joyful in depth system experiences. Thank you for reading!

[sophieinwonderland]

On the topic of long-term systems: I only really discovered enough about the plural community to understand I had a place in it in 2023. But I'm a median system with origins in neuronarration, and recently when I was going through my stuff I found a document I saved with information about maladaptive daydreaming - and the 'date modified' of the file said 2012.

In 2012, I was only familiar with the very shame-based term 'maladaptive daydreaming' - I don't think 'neuronarration' had been coined yet - and I wasn't aware of the connection between neuronarration and plurality. But I was already using a LOT of mental health strategies based on making use of my headspace and my median systemhood, enough to know that the neuronarrative cognitive behaviours were really not something to just get rid of, they were a strength. The plural community has an understanding of how headspace tools can be used for mental health, so having the terminology to find this community has felt like coming home. But clearly I've been living in this way for at least 12 years.

Thanks for the addition! Glad you've been able to find language and a community suited to you! 😁

[running-on-daydreams-and-spite]

Me when a character canonically has a decently okay mental health instead of being on the verge of collapsing every two seconds like they do in my paracosm:

[blankmogai]

neuronarrator symbol we designed! plain black and (tinted) rainbow to match other neurodivergence symbols

[augustdreams]

(/lh)

[jacks-manidiary]

Daydreaming and alterhumanity, and how they intersect

(As a disclaimer, this essay assumes familiarity with both subjects and relating terminology. If you find a word you don't know, feel free to look it up on your own.)

On the surface, it may seem like neuronarration and alterhumanity are two quite different experiences. In one, you fully realize that you are merely an author watching events play out in your head - it's a world you tend to just visit, voluntarily or not. And alterhumanity is the trait of being nonhuman/an alternative identity consistently in your waking, non-dissociated state. But some of you may already be catching the parallels.

Most people perceive their daydreams from the point of view of their parame. In that moment, when you are immersed in the world around you, emotionally (and perhaps even spiritually) you are that parame. You feel it on every level, and many even report a feeling similar to dysphoria when that feeling is interrupted. So of course, it's no wonder that sometimes this connection will persist into the daily life outside of daydreams.

It's quite a common experience to use alterhumanity as a method of escapism, too. And even shifting just rhymes too well with the daydreaming immersion. For many alterhumans, trying to recall their other life can involve vividly perceiving the occasionally quite narratively dramatic events that happened. The two experiences are quite different, but it's easy to see how the line would blur for some.

Both daydreaming and alterhumanity come in a variety of shapes and forms, both involuntary and by choice.

In particular is of interest the veritbonding part of daydreaming that quite a few people experience - it's a case where neuronarration and soulbonding mix together, and I& think it demonstrates the way that daydreaming influences the life of the neuronarrator outside of the fantasy.

All this is to say that neuronarration can very easily become an integral part of your identity. I wouldn't be surprised if perhaps the other way around was possible too, alterhumanity turning into neuronarration, although I& myself& have not heard of such cases.

Now as for my& own experiences with this, I& have felt for quite a long time like my& parames were more than just parames - they were me& directly, on a deeper level.

When you experience the life of someone through their eyes and feel every bit of what's happening to them, when you don't just observe but also act and make decisions as that character, at some point you get attached. At some point, for me&, I& started feeling like the words I& had were insufficient.

And after looking around and seeing that nothing really fit, I& turned to the alterhuman community and, although still not relating entirely in every way, I& think I& found the path for me& to take with my& approach to my& parames.

I& hope this resonates with others who feel that these two subjects intersect, and would love to hear your stories or thoughts on this!

[parative-culture]

Fictoparative culture is being your source and wanting to be treated like your source while also being so much more than your source, being more expansive and multifaceted with all the maladaptive daydreaming we did before I formed.

~Dabi 🦋 from @seraphim-collective

SO valid and sooo relatable. fictparative struggles frfr

:P (required sign off)

[ceps-pers]

💭 Daydreaming Questions 💭

⏳How long have you been daydreaming for? What was your first scenario/paracosm? I've daydreamed for as long as i can remember. I dreamt of balls with characters i loved, i dreamt of going to magical schools (not Hogwarts, i hadn't yet discovered it), i dreamt of adventures fighting the shadows of the world and of being a lost boy. The In-Between though, dates back to the begining of me writing. In primary school, we had a personal notebook for when we were bored, and i started making my own world in it. That's the very beginning of the paracosm i still hold onto.

❓Would you rather: have your daydreams projected onto a screen attached to your head at all times or be entirely unable to daydream ever again for the rest of your life? The screen! It's not maladaptive anymore, so it wouldn't pop up anywhere anytime. Plus, it's be nice providing free movies for people i love and trust! And maybe i could use the screen like a movie director, and record it to make my own little movies! It's certainly be easier than trying to write it all down!

🪞 What para of your is most like you? Paraselves/self-inserts don't count! Probably a mix of Viaris and Lilly! I'm very artistic and jittery and flamboyant like Vi but also when I was younger I was literally a younger version of Lilly (didn't notice at the time-)

🏷️ How do you come up with names? Do they come to you or do you spend hours on websites? Sometimes they come to me, but it's quite rare! Most often I look at generators or websites until one rings right! For the main cast for example, Viaris came to me, the others i had to look.

🗺️ Do you do extensive worldbuilding for your paracosm? If so, what are some of your favorite elements? I do! I'm currently trying to sort that information and write it down actually! I coudn't really choose favorites right now though to be honest

🪽 If your paras found out you were their creator, how would they react? Viaris: Step 1: existential crisis. Step 2: dang that's cool, someone made me, so I have to be wanted! (yes he needs therapy) Nikolas: That boy would never be the same. His entire view on reality and purpose would be shattered. Lilly: Freaked out. As in, why the fuck would the equivalent of a god be so close to its creation, this feels parasocial Brue: Probably would find me a bit lame/weird for having that as a solution, but would do her best for me to feel supported Harvel: Would feel like he just got out of the cave from Plato's allegory. Would think they're taking it well, they're not, they're having an existential crisis.

🦦 If you have a self insert/paraself, how similar are they to you? Pretty similar! Braver, more reckless. And, well..; not stuck in a static human body-

🕐 Is there any time of the day where you can't/don't daydream? The morning! It can't be the first thing I do after making my coffee- however I can write about it first thing in the morning, just not daydream in itself for some reason. I think it's because I love calm chill mornings so much and even if my daydreams are chill/slice of life sometimes, I move a lot when I daydream, so it doesn't really fit the vibe X)

📜 Are your daydreams linear and structured, or do you jump all over the place? Pretty structured! The jumps are more of a "in the meantime, with X character(s)" kind of thing, but even if there's flashbacks and all it's pretty linear and organised despite me improvising the whole time

🎶 What's a song you've been daydreaming to lately, and what's your favorite moment in said daydream? I've been daydreaming to "Labour - the cacophony" by Paris Paloma. Always for revolts of opressed people, often queer (or queer coded) or feminine people (like the fae or shapeshifters) That song and the feminine rage I feel while listening make me shiver everytime, it's such a powerful song

🐣 Do your paras age with you, or are their ages static? They age with me! And we have a whole history together, we grew up together pretty much! When I include fictionnal characters that I got to know younger, they aged with me too. I don't really think about it much, but if I met them for example 3 years ago, they're aged too since then.

🚀If you had the opportunity to leave this world and live in your paracosm forever, would you? Why or why not? I'm very torn, because this world and these people have been with me for around 10 years, b ut I've found great people in this verse and I'd feel bad abandoning them… I'd rather just float in between them, since the in-between is linked to all worlds theoretically.

🏃 Do you move a lot when daydreaming, and if so, in what ways? I walk (unless I'm in a moving vehicule, as the world already moves around me) and gesticulate a lot, as well as make faces and mouth things.

🎬 Have you ever wanted to make a piece of media of your paracosm (comic, animation, visual novel, novel, tv show, etc.)? I'd love for an animated series and a book series to be made!! But also I could never look at any criticism, not matter how constructive and kind, because it's too much of my baby

💫 When you actively want to start daydreaming, what is your mind's process? I'll look at fanarts and tropes and stuff I like on Tumblr or Youtube, put on some music, and usually it comes easy like this!

👻 Do you ever daydream about yourself (not a self insert, just you)? Yes, but mot in the usual way I daydream. It's more when I'm bored waiting, or even lost in my thoughts, where I'll daydream about what I'll do the next day, or when/if I get my dream cottage, what would my day be like, stuff like that. I don't move, I just sit back, and music isn't necessary for those.

🧱 When you experience a daydream block or crash, what are things you do to try and fix it (or ways you cope)? Consume series, books, movies, animatics, etc, anything that I love and inspire me! I don't usually look at prompts or tropes like usual though. And if it's still blocking, I'll try to discover a new thing I'll love, and that usually gets me out of it. Otherwise, now that it isn't maladaptive anymore, I just do other things (even if I miss my paras, they'll be there when I'm unblocked ❣️)

📖 For fictparacosms, do your daydreams affect how you perceive the media and/or the fandom? The In-Between being in between worlds, I sometimes mix it with some characters and worlds from things I like, so while it's not quite a fictparacosm, I'm still answering this ^^ Yes it does. I'll usually seperate my version and the canon one, as like, an alternate timeline yk? That's the best way I've found, as that way I can enjoy both my daydreams and the source, no matter how different or what happens!

💅 If you have tried to make your paras in character makers (picrew, meiker, etc), what is an aspect of your para that these makers never/rarely have? The colorful glowing tattoos the Bitweenians get when they get "adopted" by the in-between!! There's sometimes tattoos, but they're always in back ink TwT Still looks good, but not quite my vision

👁️ Are your daydreams clear in your mind's eye? Yes! Like a movie/series! Sometimes animated, sometimes live-action!

[ur-fave-daydreams]

Sup welcome to my blog thingy

How to submit and whatnot under cut

Basically just send a character, their source, and say which they have (MaDD (Maladaptive daydreaming disorder) or Neuronarration)

ALWAYS SEND SOURCE idc if they're popular just do it

And don't do an acronym (unless you also include the non-acronym)

No dni and I don't block people (our host does block anti endos but idrc if you're anti endo or pro endo)

Links to what MaDD and neuronarration is:

[alyssasmaddworld]

im not sure how to talk about my para's! i have (what seems to me) an extremely elaborate blanket paracosm that is constantly being re-written and adapted-- both present and future. it's hard to even begin explaining the plot especially when i've got multiple subparacosms happening that are so similar just slightly different deviations or alteration to the main plot line.

theres SO much going on in my head.

[moved-to-darkplanets]

I wish immersive daydreaming was a more widely used label rather than everything getting lumped under MADD because I'm gonna be real, most days I don't give a shit that I don't live in the consensus reality and now that I'm out of school it doesn't impede me in any meaningful way

[sowhatifimmadd]

Heyo, writing to you because I’m terrified and you’re the first person who came up when I went into the maladaptive daydream tag who has their asks open..

I think my two fav paracosms just merged together? I never heard of anything like that happening so I was wondering if that’s normal, also, it feels like someone removed a ladder from underneath me. Like I said, they’re my fav paracosms and an important part of the stability I have created in my life and I just played around with my playlist and all of a sudden I realized that the person I am in one of them is the same one as in the other but at a different point in time.. it’s scary I’m scared.. has this ever happened to you?

Hello, my friend. First off, I’m sorry you’re going through something that upsetting, and you can be assured I’ll be keeping you in my thoughts.

I can’t say I know what you’re going through. When I was young and had a couple of paracosms, I’d sometimes think about how it would be if all my parames met, but it was something I controlled and not scary at all, so I won’t even pretend to know what you’re feeling. For some years now, I only really focus on one paracosm tbh.

That being said, I can see why this would be scary and unsettling. I can’t speak from personal experience, so anyone who can is more than encouraged to add in their suggestions. With that in mind, though, maybe I could suggest you try to “separate” this blending? Try to think about it in a way that the merged paracosm is a third, separate one, which allows it to exist while still giving you control over your two favorites? As I said, my lack of experience makes it so I can’t know if that’s effective or even feasible, but maybe it’s something you could try :/

I’m sorry I can’t be of more help, I truly hope things get easier for you soon and that someone who has been through a similar experience can share how they coped with it. Take care, let me know if there’s something I can do to help <3

[luigra]

In a mushy mood thinking about how much my verit has changed and just the way she's aging with me... She's everything that I needed from my daydreaming I hope I never lose her

[imstilldaydreaming]

ParaMay Day 6: Best friends

aaaa I can't believe I forgot to post this. anyway, I went ahead and did a moodboard with the Warriors of Halcyon, because being best friends is their whole thing.

picrew credits | paramay prompt list