Five hours she runs up and to say without it. In her mind she plays a Film whose characters they know well. You created this world. A world that gives her a sense of security, peace, and perfect control over what is Happening. Eventually, she returns to reality. The day you passed, and your legs ache from the long, Round – ing and fro-ing.
Lena Anderl 28 years old, and shows this behavior was since she was a little girl. “I can’t remember a time that it was there,” says the native of Vienna to FOCUS Online.
“It” is a phenomenon that Eli Somer investigated for 17 years. He is a retired Professor of clinical psychology at the University of Haifa in Israel and a former President of the European society for Trauma and dissociation. In his research, he speaks of the “maladaptive daydreaming”.
Between the dream and the reality
“Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) describes how to minimize excessive and animated Fanta, which interferes with the functioning of the individual and lead to a serious burden can be,” writes Somer in one of his reports.
Lena Anderl came across this phenomenon via an Internet search. She runs a Youtube channel that is focused, actually, on the topic of eating disorders. One and a half years, the Youtuberin your Community wanted to tell, however, from other symptoms, which also has a strong influence on your life.
“It started quite harmless, and in a minute then,” she says in this post, “man falls into it throughout the day in daydreams, and finds only more difficult in reality.”
“I don’t want to fight constantly about, to be attentive”
Specifically, this means: Anderl used many hours a day on different scenarios to imagine. Often recurring persons acting in their fantasy series that takes place in part over the years. All the while gesturing uncontrollably the young wife, sometimes starts to cry, or run around aimlessly.
So you are not alone. “Motor restlessness” called the psychologist Cynthia Schupak, this epiphenomenon in a study with 90 participants. Eight out of ten subjects showed during the Tagträumens similar behaviors such as Lena Anderl.
The young woman, by the excessive Fantasizing problems to cope with everyday life. In the train runs frequently, much too far, in the work, you can focus on the bad. Sometimes Anderl awake all night long because of a daydream don’t want to end. Problems to be solved remain. It’s the small things that fall hard are often, how to respond in a simple conversation appropriate to the Opposite. “I don’t want to fight constantly to be alert. It escapes you so much,“ complains Anderl.
This issue also Christina Jochim, Berlin is a psychotherapist and member of the Executive Committee of Berlin of the German psychotherapists Association recognized. A few years ago, a Patient with depression came to her in the outpatient Department of the Vivantes Auguste-Viktoria-hospital.
to spend, he described how Lena Anderl, five to six hours a day with Dreams. This is a huge time investment is under maladaptiven Tagträumern often. Affected spend sieren average of 57 percent of their time with Fanta, showed a study with 340 self-diagnosed dreamer.
escape from emotions
The difficulties that go with it, cause according to psychotherapist Christina Jochim a suffering: “It keeps you from the life you actually want to live.” Among German experts, the term maladaptive daydreaming is so far hardly known. Jochim came only with the phenomenon of in contact, as you could classify the descriptions of your former patients in no different patterns, and so on the results of the research of Israeli psychologist Eli Somer came across.
in 2002, published a study in which six subjects reported in a questionnaire about their daydreams.
All participants were, as children, victims of sexual or mental abuse, and developed later in life have a dissociative disorder or a narcissistic personality disorder. Somers first small study indicated thereupon: The daydreams were for the participants as a means to dissolve stressful emotions with more pleasant fantasy scenarios.
This realization was, however, due to the small number of Subjects only a little informative and not to generalize. What followed, however, on the publication of this study, surprised, Eli Somer. His E-Mail Inbox was filled with Reports of people who knew each other in the described phenomenon of the maladaptiven Tagträumens and help sought.
this way, he learned of a growing number of online forums in which self-diagnosed Sufferers from all over the world to exchange. “Wild Minds Network” is one of these forums and today has around 13,000 members.
The attention
back win As the subjects in Somers only study, took refuge also Lena sections Anderl in severe life in their daydreams: “The daydreaming has given me hope and for me there is also a piece of far-out help”. For the Youtuberin the head cinema is not per se something Bad, but also a help, if depressing feelings threaten to overpower to her. To avoid the confrontation with one’s own emotions constantly, but it is not a long-term solution. The cause for Suffering has to be worked up, find a psychotherapist Christina Jochim.
she showed the affected patients to a variety of techniques from research to dissoziativem behavior, with which he perceive his daydreams are conscious and them could. Then they discussed together the underlying emotions. As soon as a daydream manifested itself, he should stimulate his senses to shift attention from the inside to the outside.
Also Anderl familiar with such strategies to your therapist. The Wienerin is threatening to mind in a daydream, to wander, to eat, for example, a sour chewy candy. In order to excites your taste buds and will take place again in reality. The Youtuberin was able to reduce the fantasize a lot: “I now have more grip, as it has me in its grip”.
research is not yet sufficiently
backed up to recognise these techniques as a successful therapy in maladaptiven daydreaming, lack of to date research results. To find professional help is so difficult. Eli Somer is committed to experiencing maladaptive daydreaming as a disorder in the diagnostic manual of the American psychiatric Association. In professional circles it is controversial, however, whether maladaptive daydreaming is to be recognized as an independent disease or as a Symptom of other mental disorders should be considered.
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