Maladaptive Daydreaming: where wild minds come to rest
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Thank you to everyone for your feedback. It is really helpful.
Through my first discussion with a therapist, I've also come to realize that I struggle with being a highly sensitive person (HSP). Some things I was aware of previously — like how sensitive I am to scents, or loud conversations in the background — but other things I'm realizing are more about how I process things. Take stress, for instance. I find myself wanting to withdraw if things get too overwhelming. I've also discovered that people who are HSPs tend to have a rich, inner world. So now I am wondering if MD is also associated with being a HSP, or vice versa.
Also, I have also come to realize that there are some MDs I have that are about me, but more like I imagine an imaginary conversation with someone when trying to resolve issues I don't know how else to deal with, sometimes way back in the past, other times when someone gets on my nerves at work during the day. It certainly doesn't happen nearly as often as my main DD about the superheroes I previously mentioned, but it does happen on occasion.
Anyone sensitive and prone to bottling things up probably has a bigger chance to resort to behaviors like MD. On the other side, I'd say that having rich inner world has nothing to do with MD. Imagination is healthy but MD isn't imagination. MD is addictive attachment to it. I'd also bet that inappropriate stress response on a physiological level probably has a lot to do with MD because MD is basically a fix to deal with too much inner tension, both psychological and physiological.
It's totally normal to have all kinds of fantasies going on at the same time, be it first or third-person. Each type of fantasy deals with a different aspect of yourself that got repressed and there's no universal law what one or the other means. If, for example, you're daydreaming about imaginary conversation between you and someone else arguing where you're telling them in their face things you'd never say in real life, it immediately signals you're insecure about voicing out your opinion. But the point is, this insecurity in particular is not as complicated and deep like, for example, fear of intimacy coupled with feeling inadequate in your own body which theoretically has higher chance of triggering third-person daydreams instead of first-person, precisely in order to avoid that self which one tries to run away from. So, yeah, each type of fantasy and story behind it is a unique story.
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