Maladaptive Daydreaming- Fantasy Stories in Your Head

[Ricia]

Maladaptive daydreaming is basically when you day dream in a fashion that is like a book or movie for several hours a day, completely ignoring everything and anything else in life.

Excessive daydreaming may begin as an outlet for creativity or as a method of escaping trauma or abuse. The daydreamer experiences very vivid and intricate fantasies and may become emotionally attached to the characters in their fantasies or express emotions they are feeling through vocal utterances or changing facial expressions, although most keep such behavior hidden from others. Maladaptive daydreamers know the difference between reality and fantasy; they realize that everything they are dreaming about is a fantasy. Some also exhibit symptoms similar to Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD or OCD. Social anxiety and depression are often suffered by maladaptive daydreamers. A large number also find their social lives are negatively impacted by this disorder. Seventy-nine percent of those self-identified as having excessive daydreams had a kinesthetic repetitive movement accompany their daydreaming, such as pacing, rocking, tapping, or shaking an object. Many others also move their hands around and make facial expressions: laughing, crying, whispering, and gesturing. Listening to music while daydreaming is common and hearing music may trigger a desire to daydream. A repetitive movement may be articulated to music while daydreaming. Watching a movie or reading a book can also trigger a these desires.


Many people have novel or movie type fantasies. They create their own world, with characters, settings, plots, heroes, villains, and friends. They may also imagine storylines using the characters or settings from already existing works of fiction.


(Sorce: Wikipedia)

It’s important to note at this point that people with this problem are not psychotic; we DO NOT confuse fantasy and reality. We are quite aware (sometimes painfully aware) of the difference between the two. We know what is real and what is not. This illness is instead like a cross between a compulsive habit and a severe addiction.


I have posted this information as a way to reach out to others, to let them know that they are not the only one with this issue. Be aware that there are many of us out there, and that this problem has a name and is a real malady that appears to have it's own distinct symptoms.


(Sorce: Official research site)

Daydreaming excessively in a way that is often compared to an addiction.


This excessive daydreaming often begins in childhood.


Books, movies, music, video games, and other media may be a daydreaming trigger.


The daydreaming itself is often detailed and elaborate, sometimes compared to a movie or novel.


Repetitive movements while daydreaming are common (but not always present in sufferers) - pacing, rocking, spinning, shaking something in their hand, etc.


They may sometimes talk, laugh, cry, gesture, or make facial expressions as they daydream. People suffering from this know the difference between daydreaming and reality, and do not confuse the two; this makes them distinctly different from psychotics or schizophrenics.


Some people will lie in bed for hours daydreaming, and may either have difficulty going to sleep because of this, or have difficulty getting out of bed once awake. They may also neglect basic functions such as regular meals, etc. because of excessive daydreaming.


In my opinion, excessive daydreaming is unhealthy ONLY when it cause real difficulties or problems in your life, interferes with the way you function in your real life, or acts as a genuine and consistent replacement for real life. In my opinion, that would be the main criteria for deciding if it is a problem.


(Sorce: Official research site)

So my thoughts on this...


I am pretty sure I day dream to almost unhealthy degrees, however I am capable of getting things done daily. I love to do it. it is like a wonderful escape and what not. I enjoy it very much so.


Thoughts? Comments? Speculations?

 

[Hatchet]

Wow, that looks like such a hoax.

 

[Ricia]

Thank you for your opinion. xD

 

[Hatchet]

Well in addition to that, your 'official research site' is a blog collection of anecdotes. .webs.com is a buy-your-own-site provider. Healthguidance.org--another contribution-based collection, supported by yet another buy-this-name business called DHM Solutions--at least insists it is not a RECOGNIZED condition by medical health professionals.


Contributing to the reason I find this so ludicrous is the language used, in the site cited and the quotes included, is exactly like what you'd hear on a commercial for certain brands of medication for certain conditions, followed with 'ask your doctor about...' It's selling a type of crazy.

 

[Cross]

I daydream about books I want to write and so do with creative writing. Even sometimes when I think of a cool rp I want to do. It's a good distraction.

 

[Bagel]

I'm pretty much always distracted in class thinking about ideas and stuff; this affects my grades negatively, though. Like, I space out at random times and think of fantasy-like thoughts, and often I have "too many tabs open" in my brain, if you know what I'm trying to say. If I come up with an idea/story I really like, I try to remember it in my head, and write it down on a piece of paper. It's really making me disorganized, unfortunately, and most would probably find my ideas "weird".

 

[Cross]

If there is such a thing as too much imagination, we probably have it.

 

[Bagel]

You've got that right.

 

[The J]

I myself daydream, although it's often not creative, only thinking about something like a series I'm watching, or focusing on something really random like trying to work out how my pen balances.


I do occasionally daydream creatively, though, when I am in a bus with nothing to do, for example. I don't sleep, but it feels like a proper dream, going on through my.mind's eye, abiut something random.

 

[Nizrindane]

I also daydream, from books I read, animes and movies I watch and even my own world. It's been some time I've allowed myself to wander in my mind but there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[LynxAmelia]

To be completely honest, a few years ago I was exactly the same as quoted in this.


I used to refuse to study or eat or talk to people. It felt nicer to be immersed in a fantasy world where you are the center of attraction ALL the time when your real life didn't offer you that and made you feel inferior. It was painful to pull myself away from that world where I was the hero and the villain. I was the beginning and the end.


That said, it has been a long time since that. I have only suffered a lot because of the momentary peace of mind I got.


Well, just thought I should put that out there to people to let them know that it DOES exist and it is NOT normal, not by a mile.

 

[Lore]

Eli Somer


BA, Psychology, Sociology & Anthropology, University of Haifa, 1975.


MA, Clinical Psychology, University of Haifa,. 1979.


PhD, Counseling Psychology, University of Florida, 1984


His areas of research lay primarily in effects of severe trauma, personality disorders and sexual abuse. He presented an article entitled Maladaptive Daydreaming: A Qualitative Inquiry to the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy in 2002. His title alone says it all. It is as much a question as it is a proclamation of any sort of new disease. I would even dare say that it could hardly be called a theory despite the way Somer presents the idea in his article but he covers an obvious bias.


Since the article's publication in September of 2002, nothing further has been published on it other than by public sites such as Wikipedia and a few other refutable sources.


-begin rant-


These are the qualms of the Internet, however. An idea is presented and then eventually it is circulated through enough ignorant sources that it becomes watered down and presented as something that is so unintelligible that intelligent people then refute it as being asinine. As asinine as the source site was, the original idea was considered proposing enough to make it in to the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy and it was proposed by a man who has earned his degrees through legitimate sources.


The biggest problem I have with most of these sites are that they are only mentioning the most vague sort of symptoms in order to convey a proposed disease that is not backed by anything more than a single credible source 12 years ago and has not been brought up since. These vague symptoms that I saw presented on the webs.com blog and on Wikipedia (which the blog obviously got their information from) is that they are symptoms that fit hundreds of other disorders so that now the countless naive people who have access to the Internet are going to read it and then self-diagnose without ever going to see a doctor or even just sitting back and analyzing their life if they are so unhappy with it.


-end rant-





So considering all of the information, I have to say that I highly doubt the validity of this so-called disorder for reasons already stated above and because of its overall vagueness when compared to other, similar personality disorders. Despite being watered down by uninformed or uncaring filters, it at least began as something considered legitimate enough to look in to.


It does have a nice ring to it, though. I could see working maladaptive daydreaming in to a psychological horror story. Or then, maybe that's just my MD talking.


[ http://www.academia.edu/3342105/Maladaptive_Daydreaming_A_Qualitative_Inquiry ]

 

[LauraWA]

I understand all of this so much. I have this switch in my brain i turn on when I'm bored, whether it's in class or just watching a really bad movie and I start thinking about situations with characters and situations I make up and if we could write just by thinking about the words and seeing the moments, I would have several novels published by now. I have literally spent more time throughout life daydreaming than on the internet, and that's saying something.

 

[Girouette]

A bit late. But would that be somewhat like a thoughtform? You know, the imaginary conscious living entity some people apparently make?