Here is something that is so hard to achieve in just maladaptive daydreaming but really easy with a dissociative disorder (in my own experience):
When two alters in a system are dating or are otherwise really close, the feeling you get when you're both in the front, either hugging or snuggling or kissing or whatever, is unimaginable. You feel so completely...well, complete. I personally feel like warmth just envelopes me and I can sense my partner in every way: the way his lips feel on mine and how they taste, the feeling of his slightly coarse hair in my hands, the burning in my cheeks when I can see him staring at me.
Another giveaway is how sometimes, even when you're both really enjoying each other, one of us fades out of the front and you're suddenly left all alone again. I didn't decide for him to leave, I was really enjoying myself! But unlike daydreaming, it's not up to me; the dissociative barriers decide for me. That's a very important distinction.
Yet another glaring sign that I'm in fact actually a system and am definitely not "just daydreaming".
-🎸
