If Maladaptive Daydreaming a parasympathetic response, then...

[spencer feldman]

There are 4 autonomic responses to stress.  Fight and flight which are sympathetic and freeze and disassociate which are parasympathetic.  I believe that MD is an out of control parasympathetic dis-associative response.  If anyone in interested in pursuing this further, respond to this post and I will give you some tools to begin unwinding the response.

[spencer feldman]

You will need a small compact (mirror) and a diving watch with a bezel for your quest...  you can find an inexpensive casio diving watch on amazon...

[Fallen Messenger]

This sounds like a fun little quest to try. Thanks!

[spencer feldman]

Hmmm, where to begin.  We are all caught in a 6 dimensional fractal recursion.   You could call it Karma if you like.  I have given you one Mudra to balance water.  Another is the Ling Mudra (you can see it online) to raise fire.  Try both of these for a few days.   Tell me what happens and I'll give you the next piece of the puzzle...

[Fallen Messenger]

I'm totally interested in this. I've never seen an approach like this before. Please explain more.

[spencer feldman]

First the deer runs from the lion. Flight response.
Then the lion catches the deer and the deer kicks at the lion. Fight response.
Then the deer freezes up, but it is too late. Freeze response.
Now the deer starts fantasizing about how nice it is to eat tender grass by the lake while the lion is disemboweling it. Fantasy response. Finally the deer goes completely numb before it dies. This last response would be a true dissociative response. So, to be more precise, MD would be the fantasy response, not a true dissociative response from my way of defining it. Fantasy is useful here. The deer truly has no escape other than into fantasy and the narcotic of the dissociative state keeps the deer from the pain of it's terrible death. Fantasy is not a problem in fair measure. In fact this is the basis of all creative works. Without it, we would have no art and the world would be much less beautiful, but it needs to be in balance with the other elements. I will name these responses air, fire, earth, water and space for now and explain more if there is enough interest. MD will thus be an excess of water. We will need to decrease water and increase it's opposite, fire. Fire being the discriminative function of the mind. That which says "Stop daydreaming and make real change." More fire would mean more courage, more focus etc. Let's start with a simple energetic hack. To balance water, join the fleshy tips of the thumbs to the pinky fingers and hold it for 10-45 minutes. This will create a particular circuit in your energy body/meridians that will begin to normalize the imbalance... There is a more powerful way to do this, but this is a good start. If you want more, let me know and I will explain brain hemispheric dominance.

[Fallen Messenger]

This is very interesting, MD is most likely a survival coping mechanism gone wrong in my opinion, which corresponds very closely with what you are saying, I would love to hear more about your theory! 

[spencer feldman]

If someone wanted to lessen it, then it would require rewiring the stress response. The parasympathetic response is greater when the left nostril is more open than the right. This activates the right brain vs. the left. It seems that many people on this site are looking to lessen this response. This is why I am offering this information.

[alona]

I agree. MDD is in fact (or so it would seem) a dissociative response. But it's not out of control. Not really. It shouldn't be, anyway.