Perceived or real PTSD

[Enuu]

Dear all,

I'm new here, and I joined because I have a question. I just recently discovered that a lot of nervous system damage I'm experiencing (I don't know a better word, I mean: flight/fight/freeze/fawn responses, and being chronicly overstimulated, high cortisol) might have it's source in daydreaming. 

Some years ago, my daydreaming was wild; a lot happened. :) During these episodes, I experienced, shock, terror, mourning, loss. I felt my heart racing, I was exhausted. As you might know, the same scenario repeated many times, from different angles, little tweaks to the story, to the ending, to the dialogue.

And now, I am wondering, whether or not I screwed myself up with this. In fact, I have 'experienced' many trauma's in the parallel world. How big can the impact be?

Basically, my question is: can we, maladaptive daydreamers, experience PTSD from daydreaming?

Warm regards, Enuu

[Mina]

that's a very intersting question 

i think at leasst in my case it's because i am trying to control the outcome of the situation in event of trauma happened that i do what i do 

[Enuu]

Thank you Mina. I'm not sure that I understand what you mean, sorry. Can you rephrase please?

[Mina]

sorry i was trying to say that because i am trying to control the outcome that i keep daydreaming about it in different scenario and different situation so i can prepare myself for this situation 

it's the fear and the desire to control that drive this thoughts 

of course that leave a toll on the mind we need to learn how to let go 

it took me around 7 - 10 years just to learn this simple truth 

[Sapphire Marie]

That is fascinating. I have experienced trauma and used daydreaming to cope to make the situation more easy to deal with, but it seems you are talking about having trauma created from daydreaming if I’m correct? I will say people have told me perhaps I daydream to make the idea of trauma more tolerable. In a way it did, my daydreams can sometimes have kinda dark themes and then when I had something traumatic happen to me in real life I kinda dissociated and daydreamed the pain away.

[Mina]

the drive here not to ease the pain. it's the fear of what we need to do when we have trauma it's a defence mechanism.

that's not something good daydreaming doesn't make trauma more tolerable because live won't nesserly happen as the scenario in our head 

that mitigation is 

- we need to face the trauma in out life past and present 

- we need to make peace with it and move on 

- believe in our self that when something happen we will take care of it and no need to this defence mechanism. it takes a lot of training though 

[Enuu]

Thank you, Sapphire Marie. Yes, more specifically PTSD from daydreaming. Or at least: symptoms of a disregulated nervous system. And this is additional (of course, I would almost say) to trauma in real life. Maybe daydreaming about traumatic events, and living it through, enhances these symptoms?

I'm sorry for your real life trauma x