Maladaptive Daydreaming is:
I’ve seen a few time of people saying how they go into daydreams so specific that it often affects their concentration etc
Maladaptive Daydreamers often:
-Can daydream for hours at a time. Some can daydream an entire class period or event period.
-Find concentration very difficult. Their attention get turned away from the subject even if they want to listen and sometimes don’t realize they do it right away.
-Lose amounts of sleep through daydreaming. When you say you’re going to bed it somehow turns into making a new novel in your head.
-Puts most of their day into daydreaming. Daydreaming is commonly used as a fun thing to do-to go into your own little world. But with MD, it becomes almost addicting as if you feel the need to daydream.
-Don’t seem to care if being ignored or being alone. MDers like to be alone most of the time and put that time to more daydreaming.
-Forget what they are doing or where they place things. You tend to doze off for a long enough time that you can’t remember what you’re doing or didn’t know what you were doing in the first place. You could place something down and forget as you weren’t fully aware of what you were doing.
-Stops things they are doing like watching a video or reading a book as they will fall into a daydream, usually triggered by something that was watched or read, such as an event you created in your fantasy or storyline that related to the thing you watched or read.
-Things such as something you read or watched may influence future day dreams. For example: “this scene would go great with my story”.
-Sometimes even research things to make the story more realistic. Someone might research something like historical events, names, designs of houses etc.
-Storylines that include characters, plot, setting, and more. These people often get attached to their characters and find more story inspiration to put with them. Some people may also draw their characters.
-Acting out while daydreaming. Los of people including myself will find themselves in situations where they would laugh at something they would have their character do or even talk or use movement like moving their hands or whispering.
-Sometimes experience “deja vu”. Where something will seem familiar even if it’s something new.
-Very good at visualizing things. A good thing that comes with MD is that you can easily get a visual of something, like if someone told you to imagine the ocean, MDers would be able to imagine a perfect scenery and may even hear things like the waves crashing.
-Even though daydreaming comes as a fun activity, people with MD have a greater risk of safety hazards. Such as walking into a busy street or getting into a car accident.
-Procrastination at its finest. MD usually can cause procrastination, like waiting last minute to do an assignment or a task at work. Sometimes somethings as little as not wanting to do the dishes or the laundry. And often may have a messy room or apartment/house from procrastinating cleaning.
-“What are you thinking about?” Dreading the question that’s suppose to come off as innocent becomes a problem. When most people would say “oh just my after school activity” or “a funny video I watched today” MDers have to find a way to easily explain “My 50 chapter long novel that some how created in my mind in the last 10 minutes”
-Never seem to be bored. With an imagination and a daydream that MD has never seems to keep you bored as the main activity is the daydream and find enjoyment through the daydream.
-May get irritated when their dream is interrupted. Like being in a good spot in a tv show, you don’t don’t want the scene to be interrupted and may ignore or get frustrated with someone/something that interrupted you.
-Can’t seem to turn it off. As some people find it easy to revert their attention back to what they were originally focused on, people with MD can’t seem to turn the daydream off and can’t control it.
There can be many more things that comes with Maladaptive Daydreaming, but hopefully this helped anyone who was curious about why they were doing these things and couldn’t understand why.
Also MD is usually caused for a reason and uncovering that reason can result on how to stop MD. Seeking help from a professional would be advised.
Also if you experience this and just want someone who can relate feel free to message me :).
(I’m also putting this under multiple tags to get the attention of more people)
origamiaround
pixelskylines
turnnoffyourmind
janainaart
jbbartram-illu
