Common misconceptions?

[V.J Broughton]

I have read a lot on the internet over the last year about MD.  I find it rather interesting that a lot of articles suggest that MDers have been abused or traumatised when they were children though I haven't seen many people say that they have been.  I haven't been.  That is also odd because a lot of people claim that MD started for them around the age of 4 -7 years old.  And the other one is music, I love music and I will sometimes play one song over and over again for hours on end but I don't believe this is a major trigger for me.  Obsession/addiction to music yes but not a major trigger for me.

What do you guys think?  Do you think that articles on the internet about the symptoms of MDers are correct?

[Drake]

I can't say I was abused as a kid but I was bullied a lot. My MD has been around for all 18 years of my life. And yes! I listen to the same songs over and over x3

[nelson]

Yes, I do think the symptoms of MDers listed are correct. I read of these symptoms and many of them do indeed describe me and the symptoms accurately. And yes, I was an abused child. My parents split up when I was around 5-6 years old. I wound up living with my mother and her abuse began right after the split. She was a complete, mean, abusive psychotic.

[Rashomon Effect]

I would have to see the specific articles you are referencing to give an opinion on them. There is a lot of disagreement among psychiatrist and on this board too about what MD is. Keep in mind that MD is nothing more than a label. One report used the label MD out of convenience and only because so many people interested in the "condition" identify themselves as MDers. The doctor writing the report felt compulsive fantasy was a more accurate description for the study they were doing.

Most psychiatrist would call what people describe as MD a dissociative disorder. A non-specific and mild one even.  

But because psychiatrist believe that dissociative disorders are caused by childhood trauma, it doesn't surprise me that many would say the same of people labeled as having MD.

[Alexsis Hart]

I was never abused or traumatised as a kid and my parents just had their 25th anniversary. MD didn't start for me until I was 14 and music isn't a trigger for me at all. A lot of the common symptoms that I've seen about MD, I don't have. Sometimes I wonder if I have it at all or it's something else. The major thing for me is the compulsion to act out a fantasy, to be someone I'm not. 

[Wish Upon A Wish]

According to Cynthia's study, about 27% of people with MD have suffered neglect or abuse, so you can still have MD when you've had a perfectly good life like I had. I was just a bit shy, mostly.

[rainydaydreams]

I wasn't abused as a child but I did have trauma, music can be a trigger but more likely music will be something I seek out to feed my mind mid fantasy, of all the most common symptoms

I haven't read much into phyciatric assessments of MD yet more like just glossed over a variety of site and recognized myself instantly more clearly than I have ever seen myself before. The most likely way I will delve deeper like most knowledge I have is if my created characters become interested almost like a processing tool.

[Paris]

I wasn't abused either. But my MD did start around 7 years old and music is a big trigger for me.

[Ellen]

I did a Google Book search for "maladaptive daydreaming" and most of the results are from books involving trauma or abuse.  This actually makes since because the word "maladaptive" usually refers to a dysfunctional behavior that someone does in an attempt to adapt to a stressful situation (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_behavior, second paragraph).

Cynthia Schupak and Jayne Bigelsen actually called it "compulsive fantasy" in the article that they published, which is probably a better name scientifically.  (If you haven't read the article, check it out here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/71763571/Compulsive-Fantasy-proposed-evid....  It's great.)