Post by piphirho on Dec 16, 2018 2:14:50 GMT
HELLO! My name is Paul, and I am a Maladaptive Daydreamer.
I have only recently discovered that this thing that I have been doing for most of my life has a name. When I first learned about MD from another web forum it sounded like me, and so I looked it up. My experience matched the description very well, from the long story arcs, characters, and triggers based on books, movies, TV and music, to the associated physical motions.
My most "maladaptive" period was in my earlier years, peaking from maybe third grade to early high school. In my later teens and into adulthood I integrated it better into my life and adapted it better to reality, but I have never entirely stopped doing it. Today I am 62 years old and still often escape into fantasy, but I try to control it better and don't let it dominate my life. Even the physical manifestations are still there to some degree and I often need to consciously suppress them. They involve body twitching, finger motions, hand shaking and pacing. People who have seen me do it usually think I am nervous or
. Only a few people in my life know about my MD. As a child I had high IQ scores but poor grades. I was diagnosed as "emotionally disturbed" and hyperactive. I think that those are blanket terms that psychologists of the day used when they didn't have an actual mental illness or neurological condition to label uncommon childhood behavior. I have never been officially diagnosed with MD, but then I am 
that anybody has as it is not a recognized "condition". While it may have held me back some in my early years, I have to say I have very much enjoyed my flights of fancy over the years.
I came here from Wild Minds where I still have a presence. I use a different screen name there. In fact, I used my own real name there. My screen name here is one that I originally used on Yahoo and have used elsewhere. It is the three Greek letters that correspond to my initials (P=Pi, F=Phi, R=Rho), but it creates a unique username most places. I was also on the other forum that existed briefly and then merged with this one.
I have only recently discovered that this thing that I have been doing for most of my life has a name. When I first learned about MD from another web forum it sounded like me, and so I looked it up. My experience matched the description very well, from the long story arcs, characters, and triggers based on books, movies, TV and music, to the associated physical motions.
My most "maladaptive" period was in my earlier years, peaking from maybe third grade to early high school. In my later teens and into adulthood I integrated it better into my life and adapted it better to reality, but I have never entirely stopped doing it. Today I am 62 years old and still often escape into fantasy, but I try to control it better and don't let it dominate my life. Even the physical manifestations are still there to some degree and I often need to consciously suppress them. They involve body twitching, finger motions, hand shaking and pacing. People who have seen me do it usually think I am nervous or
. Only a few people in my life know about my MD. As a child I had high IQ scores but poor grades. I was diagnosed as "emotionally disturbed" and hyperactive. I think that those are blanket terms that psychologists of the day used when they didn't have an actual mental illness or neurological condition to label uncommon childhood behavior. I have never been officially diagnosed with MD, but then I am 
that anybody has as it is not a recognized "condition". While it may have held me back some in my early years, I have to say I have very much enjoyed my flights of fancy over the years.I came here from Wild Minds where I still have a presence. I use a different screen name there. In fact, I used my own real name there. My screen name here is one that I originally used on Yahoo and have used elsewhere. It is the three Greek letters that correspond to my initials (P=Pi, F=Phi, R=Rho), but it creates a unique username most places. I was also on the other forum that existed briefly and then merged with this one.
