Is it incorrect to recognize Maladaptive Daydreaming as a psychological disorder?

by Yukia

Sep 27, 2024

To those of you who believe in what the title says or similar, I want to hear your arguments in the comments.

The activity on this forum is slow and I understand this is a long shot. Plus the majority of my target audience doesn't even have an account here, but I want to try anyway.

None of it means that those who support the idea (edit: that recognizing MD as a disorder is correct) cannot comment. My personal opinion is that MD is closer to being a syndrome rather than a disorder, for example, but it still must be recognized to stop others from confusing it with schizophrenia or just a creative personality.

Thoughts?

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    John Alves

    I believe that excessive daydreaming is just a habit and should not be recognized as a disorder in itself, perhaps an addiction? Just as cigarettes and alcohol are also used to escape reality and daily stress, both being very harmful when uncontrolled, I believe that excessive daydreaming is an addiction that has the effect of causing various psychological disorders, perhaps itself ( excessive daydreaming) be caused by a previous disorder, let me explain, we became dependent on it, as it gave us a good escape from a real problem, perhaps in childhood? The fear of rejection, for example, some of us have had this fear since childhood, and so excessive daydreaming offered us comfort, perhaps if in childhood I had been introduced to some other substance, which allowed me to escape it, like alcohol, would result in the same effect on my life (personal harm), but for all intents and purposes, excessive daydreaming remains even more difficult to give up than any other addiction (I believe), after all, I can throw all the drinks and cigarettes in the trash , but with excessive daydreaming this will not be possible, after all it is in the mind, subtly linked to something totally inherent to the human being, the imagination, resulting in an excessive accumulation of disorders as we grow, in short, the damage caused by alcohol is for the liver, cigarettes are harmful to the lungs and daydreams are harmful to our personal abilities.
    5

    Oct 23, 2024

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      alona

      i think on the most basic level, to be recognized as a disorder, the condition must cause significant disruption of multiple areas of functioning (social, academic, occupational etc). in my experience, and from what i've read about others on this site, that disruption is the reason a lot of us ended up on this site to begin with. like other disorders, MDD can be co-morbid with other disorders, or occur due to the presence of another disorder, or it may exist on its own. i think there's def certain aspects of maladaptive daydreaming that would qualify it as a disorder -- although i don't think research has caught up yet, so that might not happen any time soon. 

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      Nov 18, 2024

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        Hazel Russman

        I think it's more like alcohol or marijuana than like heroin. Most drugs are addictive for everyone who takes them. You can't use them moderately. But alcohol is not like that. Most people who use alcohol aren't addicted to it; they just like a drink sometimes. Alcoholics are a subset of the drinking population and we still don't know why some people progress from social drinking to addiction.

        It's the same with marijuana. Most people who smoke it aren't badly affected, so it's generally considered a harmless drug, but I had a friend who got addicted to it and it made her psychotic.

        So there are people who are addicts and whose lives are ruined by their addiction. But there is a wider tranche who just indulge in the drug because they can afford it and enjoy its effects, but aren't hooked by it. Maybe a hypervivid imagination is like that.

        Browsing around this site, I've seen lots of posts by people whose lives have been completely ruined by MD and I feel desperately sorry for them, but that hasn't been my experience. I've always been able to give priority to the things I needed to do to survive. It was the rest of my time that I spent on my internal narratives, time that "normal" people would have been spending on social life or romantic engagements, or raising children, which were all things which didn't much interest me and still don't.

        I see myself as the MD equivalent of a social drinker. But maybe I'm just bloody selfish...;-)

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        Feb 13