Maladaptive Daydreaming - Anybody heard of this?

June 21, 2011

So I think this is kind of a long shot, but I thought I'd ask anyway...

I've recently discovered the existence of a unofficial-disorder called

Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD). In a nutshell, MD is daydreaming taken to the

extreme, to a point where it begins to interfere with normal life. A lot of

people do something while daydreaming, such as waving strings, pacing, rolling

their fingers, but just as many don't do anything special. There is no confusion

between fiction and reality. People with this problem can tell what's part of

their fantasy and what isn't just like anyone else. After reading up on this

(what little is available) I'm pretty sure I have some measure of this.

My daydreaming is not really interfering with my life very much (yet), but there

are some times when I have neglected tasks or put them aside in order to have

time to daydream (and I mean like, 3 hours of just daydreaming). It really is

like an addiction, crazy as that sounds. Sometimes I don't even notice when I do

it because it's become so habitual.

So my point: I've only recently learned about BPD too and have just begun to

make some sense out of Nada's behavior (such a relief to know I wasn't the one

who was nuts!). But I think all of the bs she dumped on everyone when I was

growing up has caused this MD. It's so much easier to escape to my other world

than deal with Her and her crap (I'm 22 and still stuck at home while I job

search, so no chance of escape for at least a couple months more [thanks,

economy!] >_<).

I was just wondering if anybody else knows about or relates to this.

Here's a link to an article written by Dr. Schupak who is leading the study on

MD for those interested:

ssion-of-mind-wandering-and-high-fantasy-proneness

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