Pure creation: thoughts and dreamscapes
Maladaptive daydreaming is a state of mind in which vivid daydreaming distracts a person from living their real life. Events in one’s actual life, or true reality, may elicit these dreams such as conversations, sensory stimuli, or physical experiences. Those who engage in maladaptive dreaming dissociate from reality and are consumed by their fantasy world of creation, down to specific details. Symptoms entail graphic daydreams with characters, locations, plots like a story, trouble completing daily/typical tasks, difficulty sleeping at night, an irrefutable urge to continue the daydream, whispering while daydreaming, and the duration of the “dream state” being lengthy such as hours. All of these points reiterate the complexity and emotional intensity that maladaptive daydreamers experience. During the COVID 19 pandemic and lockdown, people with MDD found themselves engaging in daydreaming more as they were less able to control the urge to do so.
Concerns
It is said that MDD is a psychiatric condition, yet it is not recognized/ mentioned in the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which is the American Psychiatric Association’s approved handbook as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders. This is an issue as experts claim that MDD can have effects, perhaps detrimental on a person’s daily life.
MDD is a harmful influence on a person’s relationships, work, school, sleep and daily life.
The neglect of reality and the responsibilities it entails may cause emotional turbulence, and after maladaptive daydreaming, people tend to feel worse.
What is MDD linked to
Anxiety
Depression
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Obsessive compulsive disorder
the actual or definitive correlation is unknown
themes of violence, power, rescue and escape scenarios
Correlative stimulants
Trauma response (not necessarily)
Inner worlds may feel safer, more grasp over control compared to the outside, the abyss of unknown
Active imaginations as children
History
Identified in 2002, by professor Eliezer Somer of the University of Haifa in Israel. Somer created the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale to help determine if a person is experiencing MDD. This is a 14 part scale rating the 5 key components of MDD
the content and details of dreams
ability to control the dream and compulsion to dream
distress linked to daydream
how much the person thinks they have benefitted from the dream
how much it interferes with their ability to carry out “reality” or trypical activities
sometimes diagnosed as schizophrenia , a form of psychosis,bc those living with schizophrenia can’t sepeatye fantasy from reality, BUT Somer states that MDD should not be mistaken for schizophrenia bc people with MDD recognize that their dream is not real (awareness is a key difference)
Treatments?
Nothing official but one study reveals that fluvoxamine or Luvox was effective in helping the maladaptive dreamer control their daydreams (this is used to treat OCD)
Treatment hones in on reducing the probability of experiencing MDD through a better quality of sleep and symptom management
support forums-daydream in blue, Wild minds network
Also may be called daydreaming disorder
Characters in film who remind me of MDD
Inception-Cobb and his wife. Begs the question of whether dreaming is a choice, regardless of being self aware, and avoidance is a matter of free will, despite lines being blurred constantly.
Alice in Wonderland-Her “falling down the rabbit hole” is a representation of the beginning of the dream. Its landscape is defined by fragments of her imagination, curiosity, and experiences.
Wanda Vision-She literally created an ideal world, to cope with the deal of Vision. In this world, fragments of her deluded reality were representative of her desires that could not be fulfilled within the real world. Thus, she was suffering under the guise of happiness, and each episode revealed “clues” as to how those around her were being impacted.
Links and Sources
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/mental-health/maladaptive-daydreaming
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/maladaptive-daydreaming#outlook
