Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder

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Maladaptive Daydream(ing) Disorder (MaDD) is activity marked by excessive and persistent daydreaming which interferes with academic or personal functioning.

Daydreaming, especially immersive daydreaming, may be described as a normal dissociative experience. Daydreamers may construct whole paracosms they dream in. Daydreaming is considered maladaptive when it interferes with regular non-dreaming activities, and some maladaptive daydreamers may be unable to control when or how long they dream.

History
Eli Somer described several mechanisms, themes, and possible reasons (such as serving as a coping mechanism) for maladaptive daydreaming and developed a Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale to measure experiences. The initial publication contains a very small sample size (n=6), the scale was later re-evaluated with a bigger sample (n=447).

MaDD is not a disorder or condition with a recognised diagnosis in the DSM or ICD. Proposed diagnostic criteria and a proposed structured clinical interview for assessment and diagnosis can he found on the website of the ICMDR, an informal network of researches (including Somer) with focus on daydreaming.

Related Terms
See Category:Daydreaming-Related Terms for a full list of daydreaming-related terms on the wiki.

Characters in a paracosm or daydream, paras, are typically non-sentient and distinct from headmates, though they may become part of the system over time.

Some systems may access their somvisum headspace via daydreaming, or may have separate paracosms and headspaces. Paracosms may be located in a specific layer (parastrata). Both headspaces and paracosms may or may not feel real or tangible to varying degrees.

Dreamway systems may have walk-ins join through their daydreams, and may consider their paracosms to be parallel dimensions or otherwise exist in a spiritual context.

MaDDbased systems are heavily influenced by their maladaptive daydreaming.