14. Daydreaming

I have always been a daydreamer. When I was five years old my school sent a letter to my Mum to say they would no longer have me at school dinners, because I’d still be sat chewing my food, at the end of the second sitting, when I’d gone in with the children on the first sitting. So I had to go home for lunch.

I got quicker at eating my food, but never stopped daydreaming. I used to hate myself because of it, but one of my ambitions is to write a successful screenplay, and I’ve discovered that all writers need to daydream, or how else would they think of things to write? I’m in the process of trying to allocate periods to be creative, but as yet have been unsuccessful in stopping myself from ‘drifting off’ at inappropriate times, such as when getting ready to go out – hence why I am always late.

Whilst online researching, I’ve found that learning a second language later on in life is widely believed to keep Alzheimer's at bay. Part of this research says that when you are daydreaming, your brain is in its most relaxed state, and doesn’t have enough stimulation, ie; the failure to tax the brain can be the culprit of deterioration; the old ‘If you don’t use it, you lose it’ theory.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=362218&in_page_id=1774 Keep learning to keep your brain young.

So I need to listen up! OK, so I reckon I’m still allowed to daydream as long as it’s not time wasted. For example, whenever I have an idea for a film plot or dialogue, I write it down in my infamous ‘Screenplay’ book. One day, I hope I’ll put them all together and actually write a complete screenplay. But for now they are separate little bite sized chunks of waffle filling three A5 lined notebooks.

Since adulthood I always believed my daydreaming was as a result of the mental abuse I had every day from my mother. I thought it was my way of escaping the psychological trauma of my constant battles with her, and my futile efforts to get her to love me. But could it have been due to ADHD? If concentration is so difficult, then it would make sense that I felt I needed to ‘switch off’.

Or was it because I was always creative? After all, Robert Frost and Frank Lloyd Wright both got into trouble at school for daydreaming. See http://borntoexplore.org/cramond.htm

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