Correlation between drugs and Maladaptive Daydraming

[LostSoul99]

As you've all noticed, I haven't come on this site in a long time. Well during the summer, I told my bestfriend about my MD and about this site. She was supportive towards my MD and she didn't think I was crazy. But she wasn't too fond of me coming on this site. She says that I should focus on reality and interacting with real people more. She thinks that I come on this site for comfort knowing that there are people like me. She argues that if she looks up her insecurities as well, she probably could find some "condition or disorder". She doesn't really believe that I have a disorder/condition but she compares my daydreaming to an addiction and she thinks it relaxes me. She told me that she fantasizes too but obviously it's completely different from how an MDer fantasizes.

As for my daydreaming, it had gotten worse. With school starting, I think I'm more stressed due to work and more of my tv shows started. So I'm daydreaming much more and I have more urges to daydream as well. I often find myself going to bed at 3 am on a school day and then going to school late. I want to talk to the social worker of my school and get some help. However, my life is falling into place. I really like grade 11 and all of my classes and I have made bew friends. :) It's just sometimes the school days could get overwhelming as I struggle to balance work with spending time with friends, daydreaming, and watching my tv shows which I am commited to and then there are other things that is needed to be done through out the day as well. 

Anyways, I'm here on this site for one last time because I wanted to share some information that I found out. So in psychology class, we were watching a video about drugs and the chemistry of the brain. So I wanted to share what I learnt and the connection with it to maladaptive daydreaming, anxiety, and dissociation something I'm sure many can relate to. So two chemicals called dopamine and serotine are chemicals that give us pleasure and prevent us from feeling depressed. When people consume alcohol or drugs, the levels of dopamine and serotine get higher and the next day the levels of dopamine or serotine either goes back to normal or goes lower and lower depending on how many times you've had that particular drug/alcohol. As the levels of dopamine or serotine decrease, the more depressed/stressed/tensed we feel. That's why people are addicted to drugs/alcohol because they need it to make them feel good or get a high out of it. So in this report in this site actually, it was talking about how we have a surplus of dopamine. 

"logical to think that Maladaptive Daydreamers could possibly have a surplus of dopamine in their brains that allow them to create so easily a world of in own minds."

Now I would like to talk about some of the similarities between drug/alcohol consuming and maladaptive daydreaming. As you all know that, daydreaming is a form of disociation and so is numbing out your feelings as I've heard so many of you also do. So I'm guessing that in order to numb out your feelings during bad times, you need higher levels of dopamine. In another article, I read that people in dissociative spectrum(doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have a dissociative disorder) are smart because they have found a way to dissociate and not feel as much pain. But that doesn't mean that many of us don't have depression or don't feel stressed or any sort of negative feelings. I think many of us here have mentioned that they have anxiety and they feel awkward around people. Well, in that video, as I said before, after drinking or taking drugs, they feel anxious, depressed, tensed etc. Many of us also claim that after we dded for a long time, we tend to have headaches or feel depressed just like alcoholics or drug users. Drug users also have hallucinations which brings me to my next point. I think most of us don't have a fantasy personality trait, not all of us fit into that category but since we dd, I think we all are fantasy prone to a certain extent though. So just like the drug users, fantasy prone personalities have hallucinations. I've mentioned before that drug/alcohol users have high levels of dopamine and the report also says that mladaptive daydreamers have a "surplus of dopamine" in our brains. Which brings us to my final question, do you think we actually have more dipomine in our brains than other people and do you think that we have found a way to feel the way that some drugs may make other people feel? Do you think when when we have our dd binges, do you think it is similar to that of what alcohol or drug binges feel like? I've personally haven't done anything but smoke shisha so I just wanted your opinion. 

I'm no psychologist or any expert on this topic but I just wanted to share what I was thinking so please don't judge. :)

And by the way, greyartist, I listen to your radio shows often and I love them. I was actually the one that called last time. I'm sorry, I did sound really awkward. I had so much more to say but I was really nervous. That was my first time being in a radio show. But I really like what you're doling and keep it up. :)

For everyone of you that don't know what fantasy prone personality is :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_prone_personality

And this is the report that says that we have a surplus of dopamine in our brains. 

https://wildminds.ning.com/profiles/blogs/official-maladaptive?xg_s...

I might not come to this site often anymore because I made a promise to my bestfriend that I'm not going to and also because I need to focus on school and my life at the moment. But it was great meeting all of you and thank you Cordiella for creating this site. It was great talking to all of you and relating to you all. I'll miss everyone on here. :( Good bye. 

[Way Too Internal]

I used to take drugs and I DDd now I don't and I DD. What makes my DD worse is not having structure to my week. I need a practical job to ground me. Even if I had lots of friends I still would DD when in conversation.Coming here is a little break,of course everything is addictive.

[Marla Singer]

This is really interesting, I take drugs quite often and I have noticed that for a day or so afterwards I cannot MD. During the depressed 'comedown' stage that happens once I have stopped taking drugs, like everyone else I feel depressed and tearful, I seem to find it a lot harder than my friends to deal with this stage and this I assume is because I am not used to feeling strong feelings (because MD numbs my feelings) usually if I was feeling at all down I would MD about better things which would temporarily make me happy, and then afterwards leave me feeling numb and slightly sad. After I have taken uppers (ecstacy etc) I cannot MD for a couple of days and this may well be because I have used up my serotonin and serotonin is released during md and is therefore required? (i don't  know the difference between serotonin and dopamine)

[Eretaia]

Can someone explain to me the whole dopamine thing?

I always thought we had low dopamine so our mind searches for new ways to increase it which results in addiction: daydreaming.

I'm confused.

[greyartist]

thanks Sara!!! I'll check out those articles, maybe some info I can use on the show. Loved talking to you, sorry I was nervous too, you were my first call!