Immersive Daydreaming

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Immersive Daydreaming is fantasizing in a state of dissociative absorption, which is not inherently disordered. It is the underlying mechanism of Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder, and is often described as an innate trait.

This can be understood as making a sandbox reality inside of the mind, where structures and concepts can be forged that might not be possible in real life, where all the senses can be engaged in a realistic yet virtual experience.

History
Immerisve daydreaming was coined by Dr. Eli Somer, the same doctor who first described and named Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder. He considers it a neutral-to-positive phenomena that is the basis of MaDD, but without the dysfunction element. It is not correlated to any specific neurodivergencies, but it is associated with fantasy proneness & dissociation.

Related Terms
Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder represents a subset of immersive daydreaming, which is disruptive or dysfunctional.

Functionally, neuronarration is a synonym to immersive daydreaming, but has some semantic differences. Neuronarration is specifically positive and associated with neurodivergenices like autism, while immersive daydreaming is not correlated with any specific conditions and can be neutral.