oh this is dr. Grande today's question
is what is maladaptive daydreaming now I
actually have received quite a few
requests for this topic and had to dig a
little to find information on this
construct because maladaptive
daydreaming is not at this point anyway
a mental health disorder rather it's
just a concept that we see in the
literature the term was originally
coined by a professor named Eli summer
in a 2002 paper and this was a
qualitative paper it was only looking at
six participants however since that time
the term has kind of caught on and there
have been other articles that have
looked at this construct so this term
maladaptive daydreaming refers to
extensive fantasies that replace human
interaction or interfere with
relationships school or work or other
activities like that so we know that
daydreaming is relatively common over
95% of people daydream on a daily basis
but not all day dreaming is maladaptive
the common type of daydreaming we see
deals with reviewing interactions so
people were reviewing discussions that
they've had with people that they have
relationships with and planning planning
out career choices career activities
daily tasks all kinds of different
aspects can be planned
now maladaptive daydreaming is quite
different we see certain characteristics
that have been associated with that term
that deviate quite a bit from what we
think of as normal daydreaming for
example vivid daydreams difficulty
sleeping a strong desire to daydream an
extended duration of the daydream these
can be long daydreams up to several
hours which would again not be what we'd
expect for the average daydream we also
see these daydreams can be triggered by
activities so these extended duration
maladaptive daydreamers can come
because of stressors or just other
stimuli also during these maladaptive
daydreamers there are various facial
expressions talking and sometimes
repetitive movement this concept has
been described as addictive and
eliciting really strong feelings
emotions so somebody can go into this
day dream and come out of it happy sad
or any number of emotions a lot of
different possible responses often times
though these daydreams are described as
rewarding so that's really consistent
with the addictive property that's been
observed so individuals that have
maladaptive daydreaming may be
deliberately entering into these
daydreams to get some sort of reward or
in some cases they might not have as
much control so the daydreams come about
without somebody necessarily moving
themselves into a daydream now this gets
into a difficult area because these
daydreams have been associated with
dissociation which is a symptom we
oftentimes see when people have
experienced early childhood trauma so
the question becomes our maladaptive
daydreamers
really a type of dissociation or type of
psychosis
now with psychosis somebody can't tell
the difference between fantasy and
reality so it seems clear that this term
really doesn't refer to psychosis
however with dissociation the
distinction is not as clear now another
interesting point in relation to trauma
and maladaptive daydreaming in this
original 2002 study that I mentioned
there are only six participants and
trauma was linked to maladaptive
daydreaming later studies however have
found that there doesn't seem to be a
particularly strong link between trauma
and maladaptive daydreaming so really
this just emphasizes the importance of
continued research whenever a new
construct like this has been identified
or potential
identified now even though maladaptive
daydreaming is not a male health
disorder there has been research that's
shown that it may be comorbid with
several mental health disorders
including ADHD anxiety disorders
depressive disorders and
obsessive-compulsive disorder
so one of the questions I've heard
around maladaptive daydreaming is
because it's not a mental health
disorder can it be the focus of
treatment and the answer is yes there
are a number of areas number of topics
that are addressed in mental health
counseling that wouldn't necessarily
qualify as part of a mental health
disorder so if somebody has what they
believe is maladaptive daydreaming or
any number of symptoms similar to that
they could certainly seek out treatment
for those symptoms that's really not
unusual another question I get is will
maladaptive daydreaming be an official
mental health disorder someday well this
is really difficult to answer there's no
way to know at this point we know there
are a lot of constructs out there that
seem to be distinct but they're not
prevalent enough or distinct enough to
be classified as a mental health
disorder for example unipolar mania I
did a video about that some time ago we
know that unipolar mania occurs but it
doesn't occur enough and the pattern of
symptoms isn't distinct enough to be
classified as a separate disorder at
this time maladaptive daydreaming really
falls into a similar category it does
appear evident that it exists there is
evidence that it exists but it may not
rise to the level of mental health
disorder now and it may not rise the
level ever again that doesn't mean it
can't be the focus of treatment however
what it does indicate is that continued
research is necessary and I think with
maladaptive daydreaming its warranted
this is how we discover new aspects of
mental health disorders or new mental
health disorders in general by looking
at a small number of participants seeing
a theme and then expanding it to
quantitative research so the path for
maladaptive daydreaming in turn
of the research progression is what I
would expect to see and I think it's a
productive way of expanding our
knowledge about this construct wherever
the construct goes whether the construct
becomes a mental health disorder or not
learning more information about it will
help in mental health treatment I hope
you found this description of
maladaptive daydreaming to be
interesting thanks for watching