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Post by cryptographicice on Jul 27, 2021 1:29:29 GMT
I can't help but wonder if MDing might be a form of "Dopamine farming". I'm a binge eater, a binge watcher and a binge everything. Am I just a binge dreamer too? one of the hallmarks of MD is that DD are rich and vivid. Are they so vivid they are able to activate the reward systems in our brain? Thus like a binge eater am I just "hardcore daydreaming" for the dopamine?
In the book the pleasure trap they give a typical "boy meets girl" example. Some guy spots a new lady around town. He runs into her at the grocery store and talks to her. He invites her to a some dance or party and she accepts. His brain then produces a reward to tell him he has done well. I'm saying dopamine but I know there are many brain chemicals and reward systems I'm just using it as an example.
When I day dream of an attractive women accepting my advances, is that enough to trigger that reward? When I DD of something intense is that enough to get the adrenaline pumping? I have absolutely no issues telling day dreams from reality. So if I know that women isn't real does that change anything?
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Post by spidergang on Jul 30, 2021 7:28:01 GMT
Yes, I think mal daydreamers being dopamine junkies is a really good description for what's going on, at least for me. This is exactly how I've been  of it ever since I found out that this was a thing for me a year ago. I can just feel that there is a very strong mechanism that I have reinforced so many times that just runs like clockwork in my brain, everytime it is used a great bunch of dopamine is released, and im sure other "happy" neurotransmitters as well. I am addicted to about myself in a very positive way, and I have a small group of people in my head that react to me in a positive way every time I do something I think is cool or smart in these dreams. I have built up such a good mechanism, that it is extremely hard for my mind not to wander to dreams that give me a good dopamine rush and make me feel so good and energized in the short term. I very much want to reduce the amount I am daydreaming because I think it is an easy quick fix to get some dopamine but without any real life rewards that will serve my future self, being addicted to daydreaming gets in the way of me doing more beneficial things that would also give me dopamine and make me feel more confident in my abilities. Instead of using my creativity to actually connect ideas in real conversations with people or writing about something that genuinely interests me, I will often spend my time falling into a daydreaming loop that ends up making me feel guilty in the long term. At this point I mostly view my maladaptive daydreaming tendencies as a horrible distraction that is hard for me to avoid. I do think many daydreams people have can be beneficial and maybe lead them to creative projects or help them think, but specifically in my case, the daydreams I am caught up in for the most part are maladaptive and make me view myself in a false way and it makes it harder for me to be myself around people. It is interesting how mdd is a bit different from other disorders that make a person believe in a false reality entirely, like every part of them believes in something unrealistic at the time. It seems that for me, there is always at least a part of me that has one foot on the ground realistically and can at any time logically say that what I am imagining is not really happening. I do think in order for me to get a good dopamine rush though a part of me needs to leave the confines of my more logical mind so it can wander off into fantasy. I get so enriched in these daydreams that this part of me forgets that it isn't real for a little while, if I couldn't do this my daydreams probably wouldn't evoke so much emotion out of me. I think all of us daydreamers are very good at simulating experiences as if we were really there doing those things and we get the same dopamine reward we would get if it was actually happening. It’s kinda like playing a video game, you decide to put yourself in a new kind of reality with certain goals and constraints and you sorta zone out of the real world for a bit and act as if your video game is the reality, but if you were interrupted and questioned about your life you would be able to differentiate the video game from your real life entirely. Thank you for these questions! They really got me to come to some new realizations |
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Post by Bluejay on Aug 3, 2021 5:16:48 GMT
I think Dopamine junkies would actually be the most accurate way to describe MD. It's quick, over time you need to spend more time to get the satisfaction, sometimes if you're in a position that you can't MD for a long time you feel irritated etc. Everything adds up.
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Post by Sam on Aug 8, 2021 22:32:51 GMT
Part of it is definitely being a "dopamine junkie," but it would be more accurately described as a behavioral addiction. That dopamine reward cycle is what fuels behavioral addictions. There isn't much information about MD and the reward cycle out there, but you could also learn more about that process by looking up other behavioral addictions like shopping and gambling.
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of it ever since I found out that this was a thing for me a year ago. I can just feel that there is a very strong mechanism that I have reinforced so many times that just runs like clockwork in my brain, everytime it is used a great bunch of dopamine is released, and im sure other "happy" neurotransmitters as well. I am addicted to 
