Wild Minds network

Maladaptive Daydreaming: where wild minds come to rest

Traveling and MD

Has anyone backpacked in a different country then their home country or traveled for a period of time? And if so, did it effect the amount of your MD?

The daily humdrum puts your mind at ease and you are, most likely, in a comfort zone because you are in familiar surroundings. I am curious if DDing would lower because your mind would need to be more aware of your surroundings (because your brain would automatically be more survival instinct oriented which would trump the MDing). Also I could see how traveling out of the country might provide an opportunity for certian triggers to be temporarily removed/ lessened for a person.

Thoughts?

The reason I ask is I want to travel to Scotland/Irealnd for a few monthes and maybe some other places and I don't want to go if MD might be a problem.

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Permalink Reply by Wakethenight on April 1, 2013 at 9:14pm

hmm, that's interesting. I have had something similar happen when I was on vacation. But I wonder if the same thing would happen if kept my mind busy doing something like teach abroad or volunteering for an extended time? I think the brain would be to busy soaking everything in and being alert; especially, if , instead of going to Scotland, I were to go to a "third" world country instead.

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Permalink Reply by Wish Upon A Wish on April 1, 2013 at 9:43pm

When I went on a school tramp, it was pretty good, but quite tiring (it was winter and so some of the trails were wet and muddy and many were compacted and slippery ice) so sometimes I could DD, but mostly I did the whole talk-to-a-character-in-my-head thing, and so that (and the hard work of tramping) tired me a fair bit. So yeah, I found it did lower DDing for me, as not only were the surroundings unfamiliar, but the path was slippery so I had to concentrate on walking too.

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Permalink Reply by Aquarius on April 7, 2013 at 4:08am

my MDD disappears when I travel , and I love traveling. New locations, new people, new experiences- there is nothing that is putting me in a comfort zone. I know this so I use this strategy when I MDD at home. I force myself to get out. The more new information my brain has to process the less capacity to MDD. Plus you are more alert when you travel especially alone.