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Maladaptive daydreaming. This is something new to me, and I would be interested in hearing from my neurodivergent friends if this is something that they experience or are aware of. @KatyElphinstone

https://www.psypost.org/these-four-factors-predict-maladaptive-daydreaming-in-neurodivergent-individuals/

#neurodivergent #DayDreaming

These four factors predict maladaptive daydreaming in neurodivergent individuals

Maladaptive daydreaming in neurodivergent individuals is linked to emotional struggles, internalized stigma, self-esteem, and escapism, with unique patterns in autism, ADHD, and combined diagnoses, highlighting its role as a coping mechanism for dist…
Eric W. Dolan (PsyPost)
#neurodivergent #Daydreaming @Katy Elphinstone
Gremlin Child
I'm struggling to understand maladaptive daydreaming, probably because I do best with concrete examples rather than abstract concepts. Can anyone provide me with some examples of this?
Bob Jamieson
I don`t know if this can help, but it is a response posted earlier. I would add that everyone`s experience is different in degree and content:

https://mastodon.social/@riggbeck/113714924748082919

Fardels Bear (@riggbeck@mastodon.social)

@bobjmsn@mastodon.scot @KatyElphinstone@mas.to I keep finding that the things I do have a technical name and are related to autism. My maladaptive daydream is a city I've been working on for 45 years, the essentials of which I've written down.
Mastodon
Gremlin Child
Thanks but I don't understand why that's maladaptive. Is it simply the scope of the daydream, such that it takes over time that could be applied to other activities?
Bob Jamieson
Lots of people are questioning the term maladaptive, and that certainly would not apply to this example, but some people are saying they experience an uncomfortable or hyperfocussed dream, and some saying that such a prolonged daydream state could be seen as unproductive by capitalism.
Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷
If an AuDHDer uses a sort of daydream to make it easier to cope with over-socialisation, and doesn't find it uncomfortable, what would they call that?@gremlinchild @KatyElphinstone
@Katy Elphinstone @Gremlin Child
Jan (DL1JPH)
That would qualify as a positive adaptive strategy... The point being that anything that makes it easier to cope with external factors is an adaptive strategy. However, an adaptive strategy that ultimately causes further, possibly more serious issues is called maladaptive. Social factors certainly play into that, but they aren't the only determining factor.
@bobjmsn @gremlinchild @KatyElphinstone
@Katy Elphinstone @Gremlin Child @Bob Jamieson
Hannu Ikonen
I would generally drop the "mal" part. For me.

When im daydreaming like this its a sign of exhaustion, burnout, & generally being fed up w the demands of capitalism or neurotypical norms demands.

It's only maladaptive in that capitalist neurotypical 'be productive, be social, respond like the majority' framework.

In other words, (**figuratively, violent 1960s TV trope warning ahead**) Its the first post-shooting witness on the scene who picks up the gun next to the body and has the shooting pinned on them.
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Douglas Edwards
@actuallyautistic What a sewer torrent of neurotypical moral judgment gushes through that one word "maladaptive"! "Monotropic", hell — I'm KALEIDOTROPIC and proud of it! If we're the ones with "narrow" and "restricted" interests, why are THEY the ones who are trying to police daydreaming? Maybe create a world where daydreaming for hours on end isn't usually a problem!
@actuallyautistic
Douglas Edwards
@actuallyautistic WHENEVER any activity characteristic of a stigmatized minority is framed as "maladaptive" because it supposedly causes distress and negative consequences, the first question MUST be: are the distress and negative consequences really caused by the activity itself, or by mainstream society's reactions to it? And almost always the answer is: solely or primarily by the reactions to the activity. So aim that sewage firehose of moral judgment at the real culprit.
@actuallyautistic
Jan (DL1JPH)
I'm not so sure... There's "thoughts all over the place and imagination following along" daydreaming and there's "getting a massive adrenaline dump from vividly imagining a semi-fictional chain of events" daydreaming. The latter is completely unhelpful and I'm not averse to calling it maladaptive. It's also something I experience fairly regularly.
@bobjmsn
@Bob Jamieson
Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷
Imagining 'disaster' scenarios? I've done that...usually in response to some idiot thing a normal has done without considering consequences. @neurovagrant @bobjmsn
@Ian Campbell @Bob Jamieson
josh susser
For every one of these studies that crap all over neurodivergent folk as being innately broken and failed humans, I want them to put "neurotypical" people in an autistic social group for a few years and make them mask and conform for a change, then see how many of these so-called maladaptive behaviors they start to show. (Except that there's no way to do that research ethically, so we can't.)
Katy Elphinstone
No..indeed. It would not be ethical.

It would cause untold suffering to do that to people.

Oh. 🤔

@bobjmsn
@Bob Jamieson
Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷
😏 I like the mental picture, but I doubt it would have the desired effect.😳 @joshsusser @bobjmsn
@josh susser @Bob Jamieson
Niamh Garvey
It is also a chicken and egg situation... Autistic kids I know who spent a larger than typical amounts of time day-dreaming do it as a coping mechanism- they do it to protect themselves and regulate during the stressors of life, and often spend less time day-dreaming when in a sensory safe and neuro-affirming environment. Certainly was the case in my childhood.
Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷
That would be my supposition, too, and it fits how I coped with High School. @KatyElphinstone @joshsusser @bobjmsn
@Katy Elphinstone @josh susser @Bob Jamieson
Katy Elphinstone
This is exactly true for me. At school, where I found the environment utterly unbearable, I daydreamed so much I was quite unreachable. I was tested numerous times for deafness.
Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷
It's such a culture shock. To go from 1 teacher/1 classroom, to 6 or 7 teachers, and at least 5 other rooms aside from your home room😱 @niamhgarvey @joshsusser @bobjmsn
@Niamh Garvey @josh susser @Bob Jamieson
Bob Jamieson
Schools are horrible places where pressure from those in authority to conform are backed up by pressure from peers. My autistic granddaughter hated physical education, and was ridiculed when she couldn`t grasp the rules in games that did not interest her.
Dave Carroll
Interesting. I had thought looking back when diagnosed ADD/ASD that the tuning out at school/college was 'daydreaming'/multichannel adhd/ boredom, but since I & 1 son were diagnosed cAPD.
Despite perfect hearing, processing sound for us is exhausting & additionally difficult with background noise/low fan type noises. Also can have different speeds of processing for each ear & have to 'wait' for the brain to assemble & decode./more
Oscii
I rather love the idea that they thought you couldn't hear them, when, in fact, they just weren't worth listening to...
Estarriol, Cat owned Dragon
I was partially deaf, so teachers always made me sit at the front of the class, fine until they started wandering around behind me, where I could not hear them. Explaining that I lip read did not help.

My exam scores were mostly despite the teachers, not because of them.
Niamh Garvey
so silly of the teachers
Estarriol, Cat owned Dragon
era of precisely zero accommodations, I missed about a third of senior school with ill health (operations, infections recovery periods etc) and was given zero help to catch up of cover what I missed.

And then sat tests literally covering things I didn't know.
Bob Jamieson
Thank you. I am interested to learn how people with autism cope with excessive sensory input. I knew about things like stimming, but this was new to me.
Katy Elphinstone
I'm watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo at the moment.

The way she daydreams about whales is very much how it's been for me, when intensively daydreaming in situations I find difficult.

The scene where she sits on the subway train. You can tell she's going to have a meltdown.... until she puts on her headphones (which I think have whale song on them) and closes her eyes. And she's in a parallel universe. 💙 🐳

@niamhgarvey @Tooden @joshsusser
@Niamh Garvey @Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷 @josh susser
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Bob Jamieson
I absolutely love this.
Katy Elphinstone
Now here's something fun... just on the theme of hyper focus and lack of focus 😊
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DECmaChNGCR/?igsh=cmcyMWJ1OGM4Ynpp

I thought it was a trick (if I'm honest, I'm still not sure). As soon as I look at the green, everything else disappears and stays that way.

I'd be very curious to see what other people experience!

And whether ADHD and/or autism makes a difference.

#AskingAutistics #AskingADHD #ADHD

@niamhgarvey @Tooden @joshsusser
#adhd #askingautistics #askingadhd @Niamh Garvey @Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷 @josh susser
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (2 Wochen her)
squifish
Huh, I wonder if taking a lot of peripheral vision tests that basically test your ability to do this impacts the results? Cuz I can kinda turn it on and off?
@bobjmsn @niamhgarvey @Tooden @joshsusser
@Niamh Garvey @Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷 @josh susser @Bob Jamieson
squifish
There's a big machine that does this test and gives me a migraine and I have done it between 1x & 20x times a year for 30+ years. I don't think it makes me more or less responsive to things in my peripheral vision, but I can take the test well! @KatyElphinstone @bobjmsn @Tooden @joshsusser
@Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷 @Katy Elphinstone @josh susser @Bob Jamieson
Niamh Garvey
do you mind me asking what the purpose of this repeated testing is? Does it has s medical value, for example?
squifish
No problem - I think it tests eyes pressure/peripheral vision (they're related somehow). The little lights on the periphery move around and if you can't see a certain distance or region that shows them something has gone wrong. I think the staring at the center part also changes pupil dilation, but it's just one of a bunch of eye tests. Most people don't have to do it as often but I've got weird eye problems.
@KatyElphinstone @bobjmsn @Tooden @joshsusser
@Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷 @Katy Elphinstone @josh susser @Bob Jamieson
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (2 Wochen her)
Niamh Garvey
oh I see, and now that you explain it so well, I think I've had that test also with my last eye check up.
Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷
Older people have it as a matter of course. Macular degeneration, and cataracts, glaucoma, dry eyes, and retinal detachment. Growing old is the pits. @thesquirrelfish @KatyElphinstone @bobjmsn @joshsusser
@Katy Elphinstone @squifish @josh susser @Bob Jamieson
Niamh Garvey
my body has gone steadily down hill since the ripe old age (joking) of 32.... Autoimmune arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel etc etc.

Not looking forward to all the normal aging stuff like macular degeneration and wear and tear. I may only be 38 but I regularly feel at least 70 ... Scrap that my 88 year old granny is fitter than me when my arthritis flares.
Jan (DL1JPH)
Yup. It doesn't have to be anything real, though - sometimes there are parts of memories, stories I've read and current events thrown in, but sometimes it's more or less fictional.
@neurovagrant @bobjmsn
@Ian Campbell @Bob Jamieson
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