On Sunday 22nd of March, 2020 I wan on a website which mentioned something called 'maladaptive daydream disorder'. Since I had no idea what that meant, I searched it up.
What I found changed my whole perspective on myself. Before that, I had never told a single person about what went through my head (which is saying something, coz everyone knows everything about me, I'm a natural spiller of my own tea). I hadn't said a word about this stuff coz part of me thought that it was one of those things every does but doesn't talk about, and another part just though I was full-on crazy.
Finding this, however, just took a massive weight off my shoulders, coz now I know I'm not crazy, there are quite a few people with it (and I found someone on Wattpad with it, woo! Hiiiiii ExistenceIsPainMyMan, I'm probs gonna badger you about MADD lmao, and please tell me if anything in here needs to be fixed up <3).
If the stuff I say doesn't make sense, I do recommend going to their book 'My Maladaptive Daydreaming', and I'll suggest some websites too.
Before we go into what exactly it is, I do wanna say that I've seen 'maladaptive daydream disorder' abbreviated as 'MDD', 'MD' and 'MADD'. I'm pretty sure the correct one is 'MDD', but I like 'MADD', soooooooo, suck it :P
💥 what is it? 💥
It was officially identified by Professor Eliezer Somer of the University of Haifa in Israel, and he coined the term to mean "extensive fantasy that replaces human interaction and/or interferes with academic, interpersonal or vocational functioning". Source: Daily Hawker, link commented inline →
Okay, that sounds really confusing X_X.
Basically, it's excessive daydreaming. The daydreaming is so excessive, in fact, that it "replaces human interaction", and "interferes" with your daily life ↓
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It doesn't have any treatments, and very few doctors, psychologists or psychiatrists know about it, but there are a lot of online forums for it.
I was directed to two forums ('Daydream In Blue' and 'Wild Minds Network') by Healthline, and all link will be commented inline.
💥 diagnostic criteria 💥
Professor Somer published an official diagnostic criterion, and if you wanna look at that, it's commented inline → (All quotes in this section are straight from there.)
But basically (with examples from my own MADD, that may be similar to someone else's, but not always):
• You are intensely absorbed in you daydreams, which include "visual, auditory or effective properties"; affective meaning 'relating to moods, feelings and attitudes'. ⟶ In my daydreams, I know exactly what my characters are seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, feeling (touch and emotions). I'm so busy experiencing the feelings of all my characters, that my real-life feelings sort of get pushed to the side.
