You are on an empty train on a dull, gray day. The sky is pouring and the journey is dreary. But everything isn’t so drab because you aren’t completely alone.
A host of colorful characters glide through your mind, enchanting you with their vivacity. You swirl in the sensations your mind creates - in every silken touch and every luscious taste. It all seems exhilarating, living a double life of reality and fantasy. Suddenly, the train stops at your station, but you can’t leave. You can’t escape the fantasy you have woven. You know it isn't real, but it's hard to break free.
Scary as it may sound, you are not alone. Many people around the world face similar situations; they get addicted to their fantasies and get stuck in a web of maladaptive daydreams! This is a piece on the addictive power of daydreams and how to create reality from them.
What is Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD)?
Daydreaming is the wakeful absorption of thoughts or fantasies that are unrelated to the immediate surroundings. People spend roughly 47% of their waking hours daydreaming. So when does a daydream become maladaptive? Maladaptive daydreaming occurs when one becomes absorbed in vivid mental imagery at the cost of social, occupational, or academic functioning.
These daydreams are highly structured, immersive, and replete with kinesthetic sensations. Maladaptive daydreamers can feel every single detail and sometimes even voice out characters. The process is so addictive that it's often difficult to disengage. Although maladaptive daydreaming was identified in 2002 by Eli Somer, a professor of clinical psychology, it has yet to gain acceptance in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 5. Researchers are waiting for wider acceptance by healthcare providers before it can be treated as a formal diagnosis.
Why Do Daydreams Become Maladaptive?
Although research on maladaptive daydreaming is still at a nascent stage, certain causal explanations have been proposed:
When the Coping Style Becomes the Problem
It is generally believed that maladaptive daydreaming develops as a coping mechanism for trauma. People facing highly traumatic circumstances create elaborate fantasies to escape distress. Eli Somer conducted a study on survivors of sexual assault and found that maladaptive daydreamers created a fantasy world with empowering plotlines, so that they could compensate for their painful realities.
The Addictive Power of a Daydream
Maladaptive daydreaming starts off as a pleasing escapist fantasy, but it soon becomes addictive in its own right. It takes over the lives of people. Certain researchers claim that maladaptive daydreamers share features with those suffering from behavioral addictions like gambling.
Serotonin
Some studies suggest a common underlying mechanism in maladaptive daydreaming and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Those with comorbid OCD experience an exacerbation of symptoms before an episode of intense maladaptive daydreaming. Furthermore, much like compulsions in OCD, maladaptive daydreamers are compulsively drawn to daydreaming. Therefore, researchers have implicated the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is also involved in OCD. However, further research is required for clarification.
The Ill-effects of Absorption
Trait absorption allows individuals to disconnect from immediate circumstances and get completely immersed in something else. It predisposes a person to hallucinatory experiences like those involved in vivid daydreams. Some researchers believe that this trait may distinguish maladaptive daydreamers from non-maladaptive daydreamers.
Stereotypic Movement Disorder
Stereotypic movement disorder may be the precursor of maladaptive daydreaming. Children with this disorder engage in repetitive rhythmic movements like hand flapping. These movements occur in response to voluntary imagery created by children. Children engage in stereotypic behaviors for cognitive stimulation. Similar repetitive movements are involved in maladaptive daydreaming. Researchers speculate that daydreaming may occur in response to the need for cognitive stimulation, and the stereotypic movements may enhance concentration and focus.
Signs that Your Daydreaming is Maladaptive
Vivid daydreams with independent characters, plotlines, etc.
Real-life events act as triggers for daydreams
Intense desire to continue daydreaming and inability to disengage
Stereotypical actions, facial expressions, and whispering accompany the daydreaming
Daydreaming occurs for very long intervals of time and interferes with other activities
Insomnia
Significant distress related to daydreaming
Difficulties with concentration or redirection of attention away from daydreams
Withdrawal symptoms like irritability when unable to daydream
Enhancing daydreams with music, porn, or fanfiction
Being unaware of the difference between fantasy and reality
Daydreams become more important than real-life activities and relationships
Why Is It Harmful?
Maladaptive daydreaming is as debilitating as other addictions. It affects concentration, productivity, and relationships. It also causes anxiety and affects well-being. Although there is no evidence that maladaptive daydreaming causes other conditions, it is often comorbid with other psychiatric disorders. These include depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, dissociative disorder, suicidal tendencies, etc.
How to Make a Reality Out of a Daydream?
Take a Closer Look at Those Symptoms
Any treatment begins with the identification of the problem. Observe your symptoms and your triggers. Journaling can help you identify these issues and manage or avoid your triggers.
Be Honest with Loved Ones
You need not deal with the problem alone. Get support from your loved ones. Explaining the problem prevents relationships from getting strained. Being honest about symptoms and triggers can allow loved ones to intervene when you fleet away into a daydream.
Choose Sleep over Dreams
Improving sleep quality can ameliorate symptoms. Develop better sleep habits like a regular sleep schedule, calming bedtime rituals, a proper diet, and exercise.
Combat Fatigue
Improved sleep quality can also help combat fatigue. Similarly, caffeine and sunlight increase alertness and concentration during the day.
Be Mindful
Practicing mindfulness helps one stay in the present moment. Practices like breath awareness or guided meditation can combat maladaptive daydreaming.
Find Healthier Outlets
Maladaptive daydreaming is an unhealthy means of coping with trauma. Finding healthier coping strategies can reduce this tendency. Channel your stressful emotions into productive outlets like exercise and art.
Focus on What Is Real
Certain maladaptive daydreamers acquire a degree of symptom control in emergencies or social situations. Consciously engaging with real-life situations can be helpful. Cut down on time spent with music, fanfiction, etc. that enhances daydreaming. Attend social events or meet new people. Focus on real-life interactions and devote time to building real relationships.
Seek Help
Consulting a therapist can improve your understanding of the disorder and provide you with coping strategies. Cognitive-behavioral therapy reduces the compulsions that lead to daydreaming.
Since maladaptive daydreaming can be an outcome of trauma, a trauma therapist may be consulted. Trauma therapists can help unearth root causes and process unresolved issues.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy encourages people to live in the moment, regulate their emotions, and develop healthy ways of coping with stress. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy emphasizes acceptance and healthy constructive activities to deal with negative events, feelings, etc. Both of these therapies use mindfulness to encourage people to be in the present and avoid being distracted by thoughts. Thus, they can be effective in curbing maladaptive daydreaming. Various online communities of maladaptive daydreamers can serve as support groups. They dissipate the loneliness and provide resources or information about coping.
Conclusion
Although daydreams seem pleasant, they can quickly become addictive. Living in a daydream only lets one see the world from a hazy, self-imposed illusion.
Frightening though realities are, they are an opportunity for realizing dreams and potential. Solutions and growth are not found within the white-washed walls of ideals, but in the expansive darkness of reality. Remember, it takes rain and sunshine to make a rainbow. Wake up to the sunshine, accept the rain and let your power and potential make a reality of that daydream!
References
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319400#treatment-and-management
https://theswaddle.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-maladaptive-daydreaming/
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/maladaptive-daydreaming#outlook
https://www.verywellhealth.com/maladaptive-daydreaming-5194802
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810016300460
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15299732.2016.1160463