I'm having this fad since i was a little child. since the first time I watched cartoons, I made up cartoons with my favorite characters in my head. while doing that, I was running around like a maniac. This running wasn't really something that I chose to do, it was kind of a compulsion, I just had to do it. Everytime my mind drifted into my imaginary world of cartoons, i just couldn't help myself than running around in cricles impusively. The speed of my running depended on how exciting the story in my head if a very exciting scenario occured in my head, I would also jump around without control. It's almost like my body wants to escape reality through motion. the more intense the storys in my head got, the more i felt the urge to run around aimlessly. When my partens asked what i was doing, I told them that I am "story-running". They weren't worried, because they thought this would be temporary phase. unfortunatly they were wrong. When I got into school I often spent the breaks with running ourung in school-ground, rather than socializing with the other kids. i can't remember most of the cartoons that i made in my head, but remeber that very often characters from different series were put into one scenario (like road-runner being chased by tom from "tom+jerry" etc.). one time, I made up a story so sad, that i cryed for hours afterwards. (it's strange that the main character of this story, which was cat that i made up myself, faced a similar destiny like I'M facing now, like i knew how my life will end up)
After i got into puperty, the scenarios in my head mostly weren't cartoons anymore. I mostly imagined myself being successful with various things. There often were scenarios im my head of me getting good grates, being the center of attention at a party, me successfully asking a girl out, me leading an excebition with my own art, me changing somebodys life with my help etc. including the running and jumping around without control. those scenarios loop in my head, while I adapt the happy feelings that that I associate with those things in my head with movements. that's the best way can describe this reaction. Now I'm 20 years old and nothing has changed about this habit. Sometimes I still make up movie-plots, that would realize if i had the money and the know-how of making movies. Ialso like to listen to music with my mp3-player while doing that.I always say to myself that tomorrow i will quit doing that thing because iT#s far from normal, it's very time-consuming (i spend about 30 minutes up to ~4hours a day doing this) and it doesn't help me achieving those goals. but i can't, there's a switch in my head that i can't control. I only do this when I'm alone, so it's not like I have no control at all about this, but I'm alone most of time since my mother died and my father being away all the time and being drunk every third evening. The nieghbours often ring at out apatment and tell that they can't take the noise of my jumping. I tried finding a valve through working-out and jogging, but that didn't help. Those scenarios in my head are unrealistic as well, since I'm incapable of social interaction and I rarely can concentrate on one thing. so many things i want to do with my life and i can't even start one of those things because the boundries that my mind is throwing in my way. my mind never rests, i can't make descisions, I'm a failure both socially and school-wise. I guess my mind tries to suppress those things with turning this switch, but i will never be able to get anywhere in my life, if this goes on forever.

If im 30 years old and still can't get out of this habit, what will my life be like? I've been visiting a psychologists when I was 15-16 yrs old, because of school-refusal, depression etc. but I didnt mentoin this habit. I've never really been diagnosed or something, so I don't know in witch category of disorder this habit would be classified as. I also don't think that its a thing that can be cured through medication or therapy. it just happens. should i go and see someone again? but therapy didn't get me anywhere the first why should it now be different. what is the difference of being diagnosed and not? is anybody else here have the same habit? Is there anything i can do? Any hobby-psychologists here wanna let their freud out? go ahead.
I spent about one hour writing this post, so i hope someone will say something.

How about you wait for a fantasy which requires a physically fit body, that way your fantasy can double as your reality. Furthermore it might help you to hang on to that one fantasy rather than letting it slip away and be replaced by other thoughts.

Looking at this another way it sounds like you've got an engine and the fuel to run it, however you're lacking a spark to get it started. Finding your motivating catalyst should allow you to combine the plausible elements of your fantasy with reality, in other words there should be a common theme with all of your fantasy's. Something that is present in every one of them on some level.

The next time your mind takes you on a tangent like that, try to collect your thoughts and ascertain where the motivation for them is coming from.

If you want i can try and work through them with you, talking to a complete stranger can be beneficial you know.

I don't know. the common theme of those fanatys is basicly achieving something that i created on my own. that's the motivation for them as well, I suppose. It's process that is hard to explain. there's a part of brain saying that i really want to do certain things and another part saying that im not able to achieve those things anyway, so I end up running around.

but sure, you can add me in msn if you want:
filzbaum@hotmail.co.uk

I do the same thing, and have done it for as long as I can remember. It's not such a problem for me though, I don't get enough exercise anyway and I have plenty of free time in which to do it. I like to pace while thinking, and if my imagination takes me somewhere I like I'll break into a run. If my mind wanders a bit while I'm sitting infront of my computer and I have a particularly juicy thought I'll compulsively jump out of my chair and start jumping or jogging on the spot. I've honestly never really thought about it for some reason, I suppose it doesn't happen to me often enough or for long enough to become a nuisance, and I like it when it does happen. It seems to make my imagination more vivid.

Like drathalon i also pace when thinking, i used to do it A LOT as a kid, my mom would notice that i could spend atleast 20 minutes walking around the counter or going back and forth about 10 feet. I never jumped or ran around like vsnare. I rarely ever pace anymore, it's kind of like i forgot about it as an outlet. Nowadays, i just walk from my room to the porch, sit outside for maybe 5 minutes and walk back to my room... I've really tamed it down.
I suppose with controlling myself from using drugs and other substances, my control over some of my [mental] compulsions have grown so pacing is just not an issue for me like it is with you.

That's all i have to say on the matter, except that i think it has some association with manic behavior. I read your whole post, vsnare, and thought it was interesting, i hope you update us on what's going on.