post cathartic self-diagnosis analysis

[naardvarian]

So today has been a whirlwind for me. I went from being super depressed for sending an awkwardly worded email to a deep MD trance to immersing from the trace feeling unproductive to googling "overdaydreaming" and finding out about maladaptive daydreaming to confidently self-diagnosing myself with this affliction and am now frankly ecstatic to now that I am not alone in this affliction.

Rather than give my entire "coming out" story, I just want to point out the three most surprising things from today's internet adventure:

1) Wikipedia says MD is usually caused by childhood trauma. I have no childhood trauma. My mother and father loved me and I always knew that. My friends and family may have been eccentric and confusing, but they were never cruel or cold. I just got bored easily and had trouble socializing. So I think there may be public confusion about the cause of MD? Because it seems most bloggers and more detailed articles agree, MD is not solely a product of trauma (though it seems to help cope with traumatic events.)

2) I am not schizophrenic. Seriously, I was really concerned up until today that my MD was an early symptom of hearing voices and seriously believing that my fake world was my real world. But I have never actually found myself confused and neither, does it seem, do many of you, so that's a HUGE RELIEF. MD may actually be harmless in this sense.

3) there are so many of us! Awesome! Reading your blog posts and articles are like free therapy sessions for me! Please keep sharing your stories! (real world therapists frighten me.)

-- naard

[taffle]

Welcome to WildMinds!

I don't suffer from childhood trauma, but I had some adult trauma.

[Wish Upon A Wish]

Welcome!

Wikipedia isn't always reliable - Iif I remember Cynthia Schupak's survey correctly, about 27% of MDers have suffered childhood trauma - this is about the same percentage as the whole population.