Is it incorrect to recognize Maladaptive Daydreaming as a psychological disorder?

[Yukia]

To those of you who believe in what the title says or similar, I want to hear your arguments in the comments.

The activity on this forum is slow and I understand this is a long shot. Plus the majority of my target audience doesn't even have an account here, but I want to try anyway.

None of it means that those who support the idea (edit: that recognizing MD as a disorder is correct) cannot comment. My personal opinion is that MD is closer to being a syndrome rather than a disorder, for example, but it still must be recognized to stop others from confusing it with schizophrenia or just a creative personality.

Thoughts?

[Yukia]

> although i don't think research has caught up yet, so that might not happen any time soon. 

Yeah. Maybe the undefined timeline for Maladaptive Daydreaming to be officially recognized should be a bigger concern than the type of dysfunction it represents, I would assume. The best we've got right now is that it's a "mental health issue."

[Hazel Russman]

I think it's more like alcohol or marijuana than like heroin. Most drugs are addictive for everyone who takes them. You can't use them moderately. But alcohol is not like that. Most people who use alcohol aren't addicted to it; they just like a drink sometimes. Alcoholics are a subset of the drinking population and we still don't know why some people progress from social drinking to addiction.

It's the same with marijuana. Most people who smoke it aren't badly affected, so it's generally considered a harmless drug, but I had a friend who got addicted to it and it made her psychotic.

So there are people who are addicts and whose lives are ruined by their addiction. But there is a wider tranche who just indulge in the drug because they can afford it and enjoy its effects, but aren't hooked by it. Maybe a hypervivid imagination is like that.

Browsing around this site, I've seen lots of posts by people whose lives have been completely ruined by MD and I feel desperately sorry for them, but that hasn't been my experience. I've always been able to give priority to the things I needed to do to survive. It was the rest of my time that I spent on my internal narratives, time that "normal" people would have been spending on social life or romantic engagements, or raising children, which were all things which didn't much interest me and still don't.

I see myself as the MD equivalent of a social drinker. But maybe I'm just bloody selfish...;-)

[alona]

love that analogy!

[SA]

MD is very deep. But I don't think it's a disorder. I think it is more of an addiction because you aren't comfortable with being who you are. 
MD is everything that you couldn't process with your ego. It's sign of an underdeveloped ego. It's a sign that something shook you so hard in life that you chose to shut your self off and be in the head all the time. It's not a disorder I believe. It's like smoking addiction but it's covering something far deeper than just stress. 

[Blake Ismail]

Definitely...it's abnormal to begin with...whether it's a learned behavior or not is pretty tricky too...whatever the cause, it definitely impedes ones ability to live their life....not saying u can't live but the reality is living in a functional and progressive way will be a little harder for someone with md..I wonder if MD existed before media did😅

[Yukia]

Hey Blake, thanks for replying to my topic. It’s quite old, but thanks to your notification I had a chance to read my own post again. Definitely could’ve worded my question better.

Today I’d start off by saying that some people (including MDers, sadly) believe that MD is an extreme form of laziness. But so has been considered to be depression for a long time. It still is by many people. We can’t remove the stigma, but being taken seriously by medical professionals and counselors is a must. So I 100% agree with you on that it makes life a lot harder, especially as an adult. Impossible without therapy even.

I wouldn’t say it’s totally abnormal, though I understand where you’re coming from. If you do it in a way that helps, what’s the harm? You get to watch the best movies for free and maybe write a book about it one day. Or not. Who cares? It’s only harmful if you literally are unable to resist AND start MDing when, say, you must be performing an important task at work, then end up daydreaming daily when you, again, are supposed to work. Occasional or even regular procrastination that brings genuine relief doesn’t count. A system that impedes on your life does, basically what you have already said. It’s all about Triggers and Timing. And it’s very important not to confuse the former (literally constant stress) with something neutral, like a music piece or a Tumblr post about your favorite show.

MD definitely existed for as long as humans, way before any media (though if you define cave drawing as news report about hunting then maybe…). We’re creative by nature. I’m convinced that that a big lump of the greatest writers, composers, and movie directors were/are MDers. Mental health wasn’t a science on its own until recently, but it doesn’t mean we “invented” it at some point. We simply gave it a name. Similarly, even though we didn’t have a concept of daydreaming, especially maladaptive, there surely were humans who chose to live a fantasy world when life became unbearable, or just because they found reality boring. I have no doubts about that.

[Hazel Russman]

MD probably goes back for centuries. The classic 19th century case was the four surviving Bronte sibs. Branwell Bronte had a malignant version of MD which completely ruined his life. In his dreams, he was the Duke of Northangerland in a kingdom called Angria which he shared with Charlotte. But she grew out of it whereas he became more and more enmeshed. He also became addicted to alcohol (and I think opium too) so he obviously had an addictive personality.

Emily also MD'd all her life but managed to find a productive niche as her sisters' housekeeper. Domestic work allows the mind to roam freely while the hands are kept busy elsewhere. That, after all, is the basis of a nun's life. She could take this road because of her sex; it was not open to a man like Branwell.

Charlotte and Anne seem to have broken free in adulthood, at least partially.