Dimmer – Maladaptive Daydreaming Center

1Oct

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Arts, Community, Event

MaDDtober 2022

MD themed Inktober prompt list Maddtober is a Maladaptive Daydreaming prompt list put out as an alternate list to the popular Inktober challenge. The challenge is a fun month-long event for artists of all skill levels. To participate one draws their interpretation of that day's word and posts it to social media with the associated hashtag. In this case #maddtober.MaDDtober 2022 prompt list: InwardCreativeIdealFuturePaceAdventureLoveHereAlternateTogetherIsolationDeepCraveShadowFeelFindControlGoalWorldStoryFreezeComfortEmptyWorkEssentialStayCareBecauseClosePossibleAway

20Sep

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Community, Event, Media

MD Discord Watch Party

The Daydreamers mini doc, Sept 23/24 7pm EST The Maladaptive Daydreaming Discord server will be showing The Daydreamer mini doc, by Thomas Renckens, this Friday and Saturday (the 23rd and 24th of September 2022). The film will start at 7pm EST and is 33 minutes long. What if you’re addicted to your own fantasy? The Daydreamers takes a closer look at the phenomenon of ‘Maladaptive Daydreaming’ – a psychological term coined by Prof. Dr. Eli Somer, which is characterised by extensive fantasy activity, so much so that it replaces human interaction and impairs real-life functioning.This is the first ever documentary to touch upon this largely unknown condition, which affects hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide. Protagonists Agatha and Jessica meet Eli Somer for the first ti...

Dreaming or Daydreaming During COVID-19 Lockdown: A Comparison Between Maladaptive and Nonmaladaptive Daydreamers

2Sep

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Announcement, Research

Dreaming or Daydreaming During COVID-19 Lockdown: A Comparison Between Maladaptive and Nonmaladaptive Daydreamers

Italian Team Publishes Study in APA Journal Psychology of Consciousness Abstract: Starting from the idea that dreaming could be considered an index of the psychological health of individuals regarding the COVID-19 outbreak, a major risk of psychological maladjustment has been registered for maladaptive daydreamers. Nevertheless, there is a gap in literature about dreaming in MDers in general and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in dreaming and dream content between probable MDers and non-MDers during the COVID 19 lockdown in Italy. A total of 3,857 Italian adults (664 probable MDers), completed the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS-16) and the Mannheim Dream Questionnaire (MADRE). Among them, 1,095 participants (222 pro...

Maladaptive daydreaming, gender myths and me

1Sep

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Arts, Uncategorized

Maladaptive daydreaming, gender myths and me

Maladaptive Daydreaming and the Wellcome Collection Wellcome Collection is a museum and library in London, they are "a free museum and library exploring health and human experience". Their online presence includes a page on 'stories', "We tell stories about health and human experience. Our words and pictures make connections, provoke new thinking and share lived experiences," and recently featured a story, by Laura Grace Simpkins, on Maladaptive Daydreaming and the feminization of daydreaming. Ever since Odysseus’s men partook of the lotus, daydreaming has been negatively feminised. When the crew members join in with the tribe’s lotus lunch, they take themselves out of the sphere of male labour and reduce themselves to female domesticity and ‘unmindfulness’. In another mythological...

28Aug

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Announcement

MD Gets $300,000 Grant

Dr. Nirit Soffer-Dudek to launch 5 year study of MD The Israeli study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology on the MD path to ADHD continues to garner attention. ADDitude, a publication of a vast American-based ADHD organization, recently featured a report on the findings, with an interview with Dr. Nirit Soffer-Dudek.The MD field has been recognized by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF). Nirit received a 300,000$ grant for a proposed 5-year study titled: "Maladaptive Daydreaming: Exploring Dissociation-Related Mechanisms ."Congratulations, Nirit, for this impressive achievement, and thank you for getting such recognition for our new field.https://daydreamresearch.wixsite.com/md-research/post/maladaptive-daydreaming-recognized-with-grants?postId=9dc654e7-362b-4b46-8135-72ebe...

‘I just go into my head and enjoy it’: the people who can’t stop daydreaming

28Aug

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Media

‘I just go into my head and enjoy it’: the people who can’t stop daydreaming

The Guardian Publishes MD Article. Such reports are of increasing interest to psychologists, who have started to identify a subset of the population marked for their unusually immersive daydreams. At their best, these vivid and compulsive fantasies can be a source of pleasure and comfort, but they can also be a serious cause of procrastination and distraction, and can prevent people from maintaining their social connections, looking after their health or even eating regular meals.With research revealing that as many as one in 40 people may experience these problems, it seems increasingly likely that “maladaptive daydreaming” will soon be formally recognised as a psychiatric disorder. So what is it? And how can it be treated?https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/aug/28/i-just-go-into...

Understanding Maladaptive Daydreaming: Reining in a Wild Mind

15Aug

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Informative, Media

Understanding Maladaptive Daydreaming: Reining in a Wild Mind

OptimisticLearner publishes article on MD Amanda Eagleson, writer for OptimisticLearner.com, recently covered MD in an article for the publication. Optimistic Learner is a site dedicated to bringing you "research-based content... [relaying] psychological, sociological, physiological, and philosophical information in ways that are easy to understand."An excerpt from the article: As this disorder is relatively uncommon and still being studied it may seem an unnecessary subject of study for those who don’t suffer from it. But understanding maladaptive daydreaming and other lesser-known disorders helps in our collective efforts to produce more cooperative and positive societies. Comprehension is often the key to compassion. Below is an extensive list of sources and resources on this top...

15Aug

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Community

MD Advocates Join Instagram

Jayne Rachael and Lainey_Laine join forced to raise awareness for MD Elaine (Lainey_Laine) and MD advocate Jayne Rachael recently announced a new joint venture to raise awareness for MD on Instagram. The following if from an announcement posted by Elaine on Discord. hyello again friends! I’m working with researcher and author Jayne [Rachael] Bigelsen, who’s trying to get MD in the DSM as a diagnosable disorder. She’s done research with Dr. Eli Somer (the psychologist who first studied and coined the term “maladaptive daydreaming”). Jayne is trying to raise awareness in hopes that she can publish a book and get widespread awareness. It would be awesome if you could follow us on Instagram and look out for future projects on other social media platforms. ty!Daydreamers Hideaway Serve...

10Aug

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Arts, Media

Long-Form Documentary Needs MDers

Call for participation; filmmaker researching MD for documentary. Filmmaker, Thomas Renckens, is back, calling on the community for aid in the production of a feature length documentary on MD. Over the past few years he has posted similar calls for participation to interview MDers for a short-form film and a book. You can watch the trailer for the short film HERE. The following is his call for participants in researching his latest project: My name is Thomas Renckens and I'm a Dutch documentary filmmaker based in Amsterdam. In 2020 I made a short documentary film about MD - my graduation film from the National Film and Television School called "The Daydreamers".Since then I've been working hard to secure funding to make a long documentary about MD, and I was recently given d...

Daydreaming Has a Dark Side- New Article by New Scientist

1Aug

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Media

Daydreaming Has a Dark Side- New Article by New Scientist

New Scientist Magazine covers MD New Scientist is an English language publication, both print and online, that covers articles on science and technology. Recently Canadian science writer, Eric Taipale, wrote a piece on MD for the magazine titled Daydreaming Has a Dark Side - Is your fantasising holding you back? Reading the full article will require a subscription to New Scientist, but you can read the first couple paragraphs HERE.