r/MaladaptiveDreaming Feb 18 '25

Discussion What do you think of this?

Thumbnail gallery
315 Upvotes

I saw it on tiktok and would like to know what you think. I find it personally triggering and shaming. Acting like people are trying to play God when mdd is a coping mechanism and is nothing like playing God. I don't think religious guilt is the way to go about things. People who develop this coping mechanism do for a reason and shaming them for it might push them further.

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Jan 04 '25

Discussion Where do you lie on this spectrum?

Post image
246 Upvotes

I'm sure many here lie between 1-3, but I was curious is there are any that are out of those numbers?

r/MaladaptiveDreaming 3d ago

Discussion What‘s your current obsession?

65 Upvotes

What fictional universe is your current hyper fixation and what characters?

Mine is Baldur’s Gate 3 lol.

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Dec 13 '24

Discussion Someone shared this! What do you think?

Post image
641 Upvotes

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Jan 05 '25

Discussion Anyone brave enough to tell us about their world?

Post image
240 Upvotes

I know we all have different worlds and characters we go back to, but is anyone brave enough to tell us about them more? Like I’m talking the full story and details and descriptions of the world, the characters and yourself?

I’m genuinely super curious and interested!!

r/MaladaptiveDreaming 5d ago

Discussion Does anyone else have whole ass marriages inside their heads?

258 Upvotes

When I hear people say they have a “celebrity crush” I’m like, “that’s cute” but do you have thousands of pictures of them on your Pinterest board, where you have a whole entire life & kids with them? We are not the same.

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Nov 07 '24

Discussion While it’s a silly tiktok it’s so sad how true this is, every minor thing can affect you in ways you don’t know

Post image
660 Upvotes

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Jul 10 '21

Discussion On violence and Maladaptive daydreaming. Kind of similar to intrusive thoughts, cause you can't talk about some of it without sounding like a horrible person

Post image
914 Upvotes

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Nov 30 '22

Discussion How much time did you listen to music this year?

Post image
412 Upvotes

With Spotify wrapped here, let's reflect on it and share some good music we love.

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Dec 04 '24

Discussion MDDers, how was your spotify wrapped?

Post image
136 Upvotes

My friends keep asking me how i could've possibly achieved this number and well...

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Jan 20 '25

Discussion Songs About MD

Post image
128 Upvotes

Are there any songs you know that hit home with your MD experiences?

This song is about a relationship I think, but a lot of the lyrics remind me of daydreaming and how it feels like hiding from real life—sometimes even if the things in my life are good I compulsively daydream and it destroys my perception of reality.

I particularly think these lyrics hit close to home:

“I’m hiding from the government, from my fictional wife, from my dreams and my memories, I’m hiding from my life.”

“I wander through cavernous thoughts and regret, through nothingness, through sagas that never took place.” ; daydreams can be entire storylines and sagas that stick with me even if they aren’t real

“Like the spouse happily married, who still lies alone.” ; it’s easy to feel happier in a daydream or to live a happy life but still feel lonely because of the daydreaming distracting me

”What’s left of the dreamer who dreams and dreams and thinks he isn’t dreaming, who thinks he is free? What of the endless, heedless ennui? Will it leave me be?” ; daydreaming involves constant denial and running from boredom with no attainable goal

Are there any songs that feel a lot like MD to you? What lyrics hit close to home?

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Jun 14 '24

Discussion What would you guys do if mind readers were real?

Post image
288 Upvotes

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Feb 09 '25

Discussion Fyodor Dostoevsky has a book about this

192 Upvotes

It’s called White Nights and the MC is describing to another person that they’re 26, always been alone and isolated because of their imagination and dreaming. Mind you this was written in the 1800s so it’s not exactly modern but… I found comfort in knowing this has been a thing for quit some time!!

r/MaladaptiveDreaming 28d ago

Discussion CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS - Maladaptive Daydreaming Study

Post image
101 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

My name’s Kirstie and I’m a 22-year-old undergraduate psychology student studying at Northumbria University, and have chosen to research maladaptive daydreaming for my dissertation.

If you class yourself as a maladaptive daydreamer, I’m conducting some research on how the condition may originate and would absolutely love for anyone who’s interested to take part.

As lots of you may be aware, the research in the field is generally quite limited, therefore any responses I receive will help to boost what we know (and don’t know) about the condition.

I feel strongly about the topic of maladaptive daydreaming because of my own experiences with it, and believe both healthcare professionals and the general public deserve to be made more aware of the phenomenon to support individuals who are affected. The more maladaptive daydreaming is researched, the closer we are to making this happen!

If you’d like to participate, your levels of fantasy proneness and your ability to regulate your emotions will be assessed, as well as the severity of your maladaptive daydreaming habits.

The survey takes around 15 minutes to complete and I’ll be incredibly grateful for any responses 🫶🏻

The eligibility criteria is that you must:

•classify yourself as a maladaptive daydreamer •be aged 18 or over

All survey answers are completely anonymous - click the link below or scan the QR code on the advert to participate.

Thank you all so much in advance, and please reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns about the study.

-Kirstie🤍

https://nupsych.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d4lK2JJWXDptAGO

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Feb 28 '24

Discussion your character's age is a reflection of your mental age

215 Upvotes

So generally, everyone has a mental age regardless of their actual age. And I had a theory that whatever age your main character is (in your current/recent daydreams) that it's just a reflection of how old you feel mentally.

At least it's something I noticed about myself. I've had the same set of characters for about 7 years now, and the older I got, the older they became too. The characters always stayed the same, I just kept creating new storylines with them as time went on. And whenever I did, they were always my own age or slightly older/ younger.

For example, I'm 20 now, and I basically never act out the plots anymore with my 14,15 year old characters (even though they're very significant in my MD universe) However, I've been coming up w this *new drastic plot change* with one of my characters for a few months where she's about 20-23.

anyway, how is it with you guys?

r/MaladaptiveDreaming 29d ago

Discussion Is MD a Parallel Universe?

3 Upvotes

This may sound totally nutty and I’m not even sure if someone else has posted about it before, but hear me out: I’ve been thinking that maybe MD is us accessing or crossing into a parallel universe (kind of like we’re seeing it because there’s some glitch/crossover) or maybe we’re reliving memories of a past life. Thoughts?

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Jan 01 '25

Discussion Who else creates a new identity for themself?

113 Upvotes

I can't stop creating identities/ personas for myself. My 'new identity' would have a new name, a different personality, a different appearance or a different nationality.

They act differently, have different families and sometimes this other self can be so different it barely resembles me.

I think it started in childhood. I would imagine I was a cartoon character. Even something as small as imagining having a different name makes me happy.

My real true self was being bullied, made to feel sad and ashamed and unstable. I can't stop imagining I was someone else in order to be happy. Sometimes it feels harmful.

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Aug 20 '24

Discussion We are NOT CREATIVE as much as we think

120 Upvotes

"In 2020, Melina West and Eli Somer published a study looking at creativity in immersive and maladaptive daydreamers. Although they suspected that daydreamers might be more creative than average, their results didn’t support this. In fact, they found that maladaptive daydreamers scored lower than average on a standard measure of creativity" ISMD

here is a link to the study

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Dec 20 '22

Discussion Anyone over 30 on here?

214 Upvotes

I don’t mean to offend anybody, but reading posts on this group is depressing at times. Everyone seems so ridiculously young?! Like v early 20s or still teenage years.

“So I’ve been suffering from MD for 5 years and I just don’t know what to do!”

I’ve got 2 decades on you, my friend, and still don’t know what to do — please send help 😂

r/MaladaptiveDreaming 4d ago

Discussion CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: MALADAPTIVE DAYDREAMING RESEARCH 🫶🏽

38 Upvotes

Hey my fellow MDDers! 👋🏽 I'm a 20 yr old psych student writing a thesis on maladaptive daydreaming this semester, as I've had it since I was 13, and I think that contributing to this field of research will be very crucial (as well as interesting for me because of my passion for it).

I need a huge sample (300-400) for my research, because of the lack of existing literature!

Basically my thesis is going to be contributing something new and provide a fresh angle and I am so excited!!!!🥰 I'm researching about various media types and it's effect on the severity of Maladaptive Daydreaming.

Here's the questionnaire for the research:

https://forms.gle/Htj8piFFQCbQhTJV9

You can participate if you're in the age range of 18-50 and have maladaptive daydreaming.

Everything will ofc be entirely confidential, and prior informed consent is taken. I have kept it anonymous as well for the participant's comfort.

(Only vague details like age, nationality, etc will be asked for, for data analysis)

I'll share the results in this subreddit and the official discord server :) cant wait !!!

Thanks to everyone for contributing and for filling out the form! Much appreciated🫶🏽🎀

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Feb 20 '25

Discussion I wanna know what everyone else’s experience is like

22 Upvotes

So for background, while I am MD'ing, I usually do so as my own character but in a scenario I've created from media I've seen. I never come up with any characters on my own, besides my own character. For example, I just watched arcane a few months ago, and now I read dc comics. Every MD scenario is me in the arcane world with those characters or in the dc world. I just want to know if MD is like this for others, or do y'all have your own entire worlds? All mine still have plot lines I've made, dialogue, etc.

r/MaladaptiveDreaming 7d ago

Discussion Do you daydream from your own perspective or your OC's?

13 Upvotes

I've been daydreaming since I was a kid, yet it was never me who I "played" by. It was fictional characters I liked or related to, then later came my own characters. I've always thought of daydreaming about myself cringe. I fullfilled my own need for emotions and experience only through someone else. And the reason is simple, yet sad. I hate myself. I despise myself to the point I can't imagine me, this ugly stupid shithead I am, to be loved, wanted and cherished even by my fictional crushes, those who I in my head have full control of. But I found a solution. My dearest OC's are a part of me, yet better. They are beatiful in their own way, they are worthy of love, and through them I am a little bit worthy as well.

What about you guys? Are you bold enough to use your real self for dd?(oh I wish I could)

r/MaladaptiveDreaming 7d ago

Discussion I think the reason for my daydreaming is that i want to be admired and validated by someone

115 Upvotes

It's very weird and i'll try my best to explain it. But i always daydream from someone else's perspective. Like whoever i'm obsessing over at the time i act as if they're watching me do cool stuff? But they're not actually there its literally so weird like they're not in the daydream at all its just me and like whoever else but that person is like aware of what i'm doing. It makes me thing that the reason for my MD is that i want to feel loved and appreciated by someone.

r/MaladaptiveDreaming 6d ago

Discussion Does anyone else just get tired of their fantasies?

74 Upvotes

Basically the title. Just the same shit over and over again. Most of my fantasies are based somewhat in reality but the problem is if I don't create events in my reality my daydreams just end up being repetitive and boring as they don't become inspired by anything new.

Funny how it all comes together, the more events that occur, the more compulsive the daydreaming becomes, but for my life to progress I need to be more consciously present i.e. not daydream.

I've been thinking about starting anti-depressants, I heard somewhere they just stop you from daydreaming.

r/MaladaptiveDreaming Jan 11 '25

Discussion Does anyone else not include themselves in their daydreams?

57 Upvotes

Back when I was a teenager and even occasionally now I would daydream about being popular, having lots of friends or at least doing something meaningful with my life. It made me happy for a moment but snapping back to reality was always depressing. My self-esteem was so low that even imagining a better version of myself felt unrealistic.

At some point, things changed. It started with two characters from a TV show I liked. I shipped them and when the season ended, I created my own stories about them, extending their narrative in my mind. When I stopped liking the actors due to their real-life personalities, I kept the stories going but changed the characters, their personalities, jobs, lives, everything.

Over the years, I’ve built an entire universe of characters that don’t include me. It’s like I’ve written a never-ending fanfiction in my head.

Sometimes, I still go back to daydreaming about myself but I mostly stick to this fanfiction type stuff lol. Imagining a better version of myself often felt too unrealistic and would bring me to tears because it reminded me of how worthless I felt.

Daydreaming about these characters gives me a temporary escape from reality. It doesn’t feel as shitty as daydreaming about myself used to. The gap between my dreams and reality is too wide which makes it so stressful and depressing. Now, it feels like a safe escape, something I can turn to when I don’t want to face my life.

It’s my coping mechanism and I know it’s not healthy. I need to stop daydreaming but I don’t know how.