Setbacks, I think some of you should read this.

I think.. I have a problem. LDs are not going well lately for me, and I believe its because i'm trying to become an escapist. For instance, instead of letting things bother me, I visualize them as being better (while awake). I think that because I do this, I've begun to lose touch with reality, and the real and unreal in dreams becomes blurred.

I'm really not sure on how to overcome the fact, that I try to see things optimistically, and this is ruining my sense of realism. Dreams, no matter how unreal, seem real, because I accept it now.

I wanna know if anyone has/had this problem, and if they overcame it.. how? Its really hard to induce LDs through WILD, and even harder now with this problem... but it has made it near-impossible to have random LDs, or regular dream induced LDs.

Help is appreciated.

omg this is happening to me too. evrything in dreams jus feels so normal to me. i think its because wen weird things happen 2 me in real lyf i jus kind of accept it and nevr question it so i do the same things in my dreams too. err.....ur doomed. hmm maybe i shud stop being so lazy w/my dream journal.

I honestly don't think having a dream journal will make a difference in this sort of case. I guess the only way is to look at EVERYTHING as being unreal, and not accepting it, too hard to do though. Whatever, i'm out for the night, maybe someone will reply to this.

I'm an escapist with my computer, and to be fully truthful to myself and not lie sometimes my beloved shrooms and acid :( Losing touch with reality is a wonderful thing, an LD after a long time without it really refreshed me, the same thing with drugs, I only do them rarely, every few months, and after every time I feel that a big load has been lifted off my shoulders because I could lose touch with what was real for 7 or 8 hours on shrooms, or 11 or 12 with acid, this is why I limit myself to once every few months, don't want to become dependent on it. Being an escapist is a bad thing though, for the last 4 years or so it has been my computer, started with internet games, I don't really play games to much anymore, but I can't stand days without my computer, I need to look around the web and talk to my friends, some people do it with TV, computers, drugs, day dreaming (worked well when I was fat and couldn't get any girls to go out with me ;) ). I don't want to give up my computer, I am addicted, if I ever lost it because my grades went down or something I would probbably start to freak out, everytime something comes close to that I really do freak out, I think I did it before on these forums, well this seems to have been a little release of my feelings, I hope something in there could have helped you somehow, and I try not to be selfish or hijack threads ;)

It's completely normal to have difficulty in questioning your reality, when in a dream
The reality of the dream surely makes it harder to pick out discrepancies (when you remember to)

So, as you said, whenever doing a reality check - assume its a dream until you prove otherwise. And make sure you do a few checks, not just one.

As for the blurring of reality/dreams, that happens to some people for a while. Another side effect is not being sure when a memory was just a dream, or a real memory. You get used to it after a bit of time, and its not a permanent problem IMO

It is true, your sense of reality becomes shaken the further you get into lucid dreaming. You must balance that out by questioning EVERYTHING.

This includes even simple events like walking down the hallway. Also, spend more time developing your logical thought processes, when you walk through a doorway, don't just accept it. Ponder how the door works, how the knob works, the structures in the wall that hold the door frame in place.

This is just going back to the first post in this topic. I'm sort of curious what you meant. You're trying to become an escapist, ok I think I understand that much. But you say that when things bother you, you close your eyes (for example) and pretend that they are the opposite? And that they are "better"?

I'm pretty sure I understand what you mean, but if for some reason I don't, the following might not apply to it. Anyway, here's just an idea I've been thinking about lately. Maybe instead of trying to imagine it getting "better", maybe you should just question the situation itself. Just stop for a minute and say, "hold on a sec.... why am i getting irritated like this? what makes this annoying? something can't physically be ANNOYING, it's not a trait that something can hold, the annoyance is fabricated entirely by ME". When you realize that, is it really the best way to continue to ignore the "problem" and try to imagine it being better? Just imagining an alternative to the situation as being "better" itself, will make the actual situation worse, and more likely worse as well if you were to encounter it again. Because you're only further labeling that issue as a "problem". I don't think it's wise to keep running away from problems, actually I don't even think they should be even considered, or looked upon AS problems... They just are what they are.. Observe them, and watch how you react to them and ask yourself "why is this bothering me?".

Those are just some ideas. Take them or leave them.

Take it easy,
Dylan

Dylan, that last post was the most helpful post I have seen. Yeah, that makes sence to question the situation.. and why, instead of trying to imagine that it is not happening, or that things are better then they usually are. I suppose the opposite could affect others too, becoming too negative distorts your perspective on everything.

But yeah.. it bothers me that, i always had LDing, now i do not. And even though it was a form of escapism.. it worked, and I never was addicted to it.. but now i feel it would help me to have it back.

I guess you never really know how much you like something till you lose it.