Excessive Daydreaming: What It Is, Symptoms, Causes And Treatment
Recently, the term “excessive daydreaming” (originally “maladaptive daydreaming”) has been proposed to refer to persistent absorption in one’s fantasies, significantly affecting functionality and daily activities.
We will see in this article what is excessive daydreaming what are some of its possible causes and the effectiveness of its treatment.
“Excessive daydreaming” is a construct recently generated to describe the tendency to recurrently become distracted by one’s own fantasies, which ultimately generates a significant experience of stress, as well as difficulty in completing daily tasks.
It is defined as: “extensive fantasy activity that replaces human interaction and/or interferes with interpersonal, academic or vocational functionality” (Sommer, 2015). In this sense, excessive daydreaming is characterized by psychological dependence manifested in the compulsion to compulsively engage in fantasies As such it is difficult to control. Sometimes it can last for hours and sometimes even days, which ultimately affects the person’s daily responsibilities.
The description of excessive daydreaming has gained popularity among frequent Internet users around the world, who have reached out to talk about their daydreaming experiences. In fact, this experience is related to a high time of daily exposure to the Internet
The latter have especially reported the following characteristics of excessive daydreaming:
Some studies on this type of dreaming
Dreaming and the world of fantasies have been extensively studied by psychology since its beginnings. These experiences have gone through approaches specific to different approaches. They range from psychoanalytic postulates that relate excessive daydreaming to deprivation and latent psychic conflicts, to cognitive behavioral theories, which differ between constructive daydreaming related to creativity, and a compulsive disorder related to attention deficits or avoidant behaviors
The above has generated different studies on the nature of daydreaming and excessive daydreaming. A difference has been found between one and the other in quantitative terms, in terms of content, in terms of the experience of stress and feeling of control, as well as in terms of interference in the person’s functionality.
This could indicate that excessive daydreaming shares several of the characteristics of addiction to certain behaviors However, studies have concluded that more research is needed to determine if it is a specific disorder or clinical condition, or if it is one of the characteristics associated with different types of addiction.
It is also necessary to determine whether it is a specific syndrome or one of the characteristics of other clinical conditions such as dissociative disorders or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In any case, There is already a standardized instrument to analyze whether a dreaming experience is being normal or excessive.
This is the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale, which is a self-report instrument validated in the Anglo-Saxon population from 45 different countries. The same scale relates excessive daydreaming scores to obsessive-compulsive behaviors and thinking, dissociation, attention deficit, as well as the feeling of presence during daydreaming and the possibility of psychotic manifestations.
Causes
The content of fantasies, according to the reports of those known as excessive dreamers, is frequently characterized by issues involving emotional support, competence and social recognition
In this sense, daydreaming is comforting and gratifying, since is a relief from daily stressors related, for example, with the promotion of excessive individualism and high demands for social recognition. It is also related to the coping schemes for these stressors and the compensation alternatives available.
Regarding treatment, much of the scientific literature agrees that more research is necessary to obtain conclusive results. Nevertheless, empirical studies have begun to be carried out on the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic treatment in these cases. Specifically, Eli Somer (2018) from the University of Haifa in Israel, has reported the course of psychotherapy in 25 men who presented excessive daydreaming. The therapeutic plan included cognitive behavioral interventions as well as mindfulness-style meditation.
It lasted 6 months and its results were evaluated periodically. In conclusion, people reduced their overall daydreaming time by more than 50% as well as the amount of time they spent on the Internet by 70%. The latter translated into an improvement in social and work functionality. However, maladaptive daydreaming improved to a lesser extent, as did self-reports of the pleasure or gratification associated with daydreaming.
