Wild Minds network

Maladaptive Daydreaming: where wild minds come to rest

Anne with a E.

Loving the new "Anne of Green Gables" on Netflix. It is darker than all the other versions of Anne. Anne is a dreamer and imagines herself as Cordelia. These dreams have persisted since Anne was a child. As you know she was an orphan and treated very badly by some families.

To escape from her terrible circumstances Anne escaped into daydreams. It was a coping mechanism. A coping mechanism to make her life more bearable. When at last she is adopted by the Cuthberts she cannot just turn off these thoughts. It is a form of PTSD. People think she is strange and even deranged as she comes to class humming with flowers in her hair. It will be a long time if ever she will give up this habit. She cannot.

so my opinion is that Maladaptive Daydreaming is a form of PTSD. It is how we react to stress. Some people fight or fight . Some Freeze and others like ourselves Fantasize.

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Permalink Reply by Laura on August 8, 2017 at 10:41am

Now I want to watch this show! Phoebe in Wonderland is a movie where the girl daydreams as well. That one changed my life.

I'm someone who really has never had a traumatic experience. Especially when I started daydreaming, which was when I was 6 or 7. I have clinical depression which I found out in middle school and that was a rough period where I lost all my friends and that's really when the daydreaming escalated, so I agree it's a coping mechanism. I don't think I'd go as far as to say it is PTSD though.