I’ve lost control over my imagination

[u/zjshhh_]

Like the title says I woke up three days ago and suddenly I can’t control anything in my head. Granted, I often have moments where I have bad intrusive thoughts. But those usually go away and aren’t constant so I don’t worry too much about them.

However, since I was little I’ve had a very overactive and vivid imagination. I can create entire movies in my head if I wanted to and I don’t have to think to hard to do it and I’m almost always in control of what’s playing out in my head. When I’m reading books I can imagine the scene perfectly in my head along with accurate character descriptions. I (could) imagine people faces and anatomy perfectly.

However I woke up three days ago and suddenly lost that ability. Now whenever I try to read a book I have no control of what I’m imagining and it’s a bit less vivid than usual like I have to think extra hard to put a picture together in my head. Or I forget human anatomy in my head and their bodies start looking weird and warping and I can’t control it. Or when im trying to daydream it’s like my mind is distracted and will start- I can’t explain it- like animating. It’s literally like animation in my head that’s non stop and I cannot control it when I used to be able to.

I don’t know what’s the sudden shift but it’s ruining my experience in reading because my imagination has gone to shit and it’s really frustrating me. Daydreaming is my only escape because I work full time and I’m in college, I’m stressed all the time but now I can’t even have this. Will this go away?

[u/RainyLark]

It sounds like a survival or adrenaline trigger was flipped on perhaps? Either from something you're worried about that is coming up, or the time of day that you are trying to read and participate in decompression time. If you can find a tiny 'on' trigger in your routine like a cup of tea, or hot cocoa, or a warm bath directly before the decompression montage then it might be easier? It's a place to start.