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Daydreaming: Maladaptive VS Immersive

Note: I am not a health/psychology professional by any means; this is simply a list I've put together from my own understanding and experiences on the topic, based upon various readings/research I found online. I hope it may be helpful/informative to read regardless, feel free to add on or correct this!

Maladaptive Daydreaming:

Excessive daydreaming; becoming absorbed in and fixated on daydream events, scenes, characters, or worlds.

Used as a form of escapism, often to avoid dealing with real-life situations (traumatic, unpleasant, or otherwise).

More interested and/or focused on the daydream/inner world than the real world, or on daydream relationships rather than real-life ones.

Difficulty or inability to stop daydreaming, even when real-life tasks need to be done.

An excessive/large amount of time is spent daydreaming, instead of being fully present in real-life events.

A desire to be like the idealized, daydream version of themself or their characters (/feeling inadequate with self in reality).

May feel a loss of control over daydreams, or when/where daydreaming occurs.

Some describe maladaptive daydreaming as an "addiction to daydreaming".

Many feel embarrassed or ashamed of (the extent of) their daydreaming.

Some individuals experience maladaptive daydreaming as a form of dissociation.

Often occurs in individuals with ADHD, depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, and those who have experienced significant stress, abuse, and/or trauma.

Though the daydreams themselves may be enjoyable/pleasant/comforting, the lack of control and difficulty focusing on reality causes distress to the daydreamer.

If this daydreaming causes significant impairment in daily life and regular distress to the individual, they may have Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder (MaDD).

Immersive Daydreaming:

Simillar to maladaptive daydreaming, but instead, is a more positive way of coping.

The individual is present in real-life relationships, and in their own plans for the future.

Able to stop daydreaming when real-life tasks need to be attended to. Has a solid sense of control over their daydreaming.

Uses daydreaming as a healthy coping mechanism for dealing with stress/trauma/illness/conflict etc, rather than using it to avoid these situations.

BOTH Maladaptive and Immersive Daydreamers (May) Experience:

Very vivid, often extensively detailed daydreams. (Can be visual, auditory, or a mixture of sensory events.)

Feeling the emotions or sensations that are happening in the daydream through the body, as if they were really happening.

Strong attachments or connections to daydream characters (often called "paras").

Presence of an inner world(s)/universe(s), where daydream events take place ("paracosm", "dreamverse").

A sense of "autonomy" regarding character interaction, and/or being "influenced" by their characters.

Repetitive physical activity while daydreaming (pacing, tapping, rocking, etc.)

Speaking daydream dialogue aloud, and/or physically emoting facial expressions while daydreaming.

Real life events triggering daydreams (music, and other media are common daydream triggers.)

"You're so creative!", "You've got an overactive imagination."

* Someone can experience both Maladaptive and Immersive Daydreaming within their lifetime/during different times in their lives!

Immersive daydreaming may become maladaptive if it starts getting out of hand (perhaps after a stressful/traumatic event, or the onset of another disorder). Maladaptive daydreaming can be turned into immersive daydreaming (to cope, or to de-stress), with the help of therapy.

(Thank you for reading! 💌)

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Trick or treat!!!!

Here's a motivational poster of Jake the Dog for you to hang on your wall

Pop culture reduces It's a Wonderful Life to that last half hour, and thinks the whole thing is about this guy traveling to an alternate universe where he doesn't exist and a little girl saying, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings." A hokey, sugary fantasy. A light and fluffy story fit for Hallmark movies.

But this reading completely glosses over the fact that George Bailey is actively suicidal. He's not just standing there moping about, "My friends don't like me," like some characters do in shows that try to adapt this conceit to other settings. George's life has been destroyed. He's bankrupt and facing prison. The lifetime of struggle we've been watching for the last two hours has accomplished nothing but this crushing defeat, and he honestly believes that the best thing he can do is kill himself because he's worth more dead than alive. He would have thrown himself from a bridge had an actual angel from heaven not intervened at the last possible moment.

That's dark. The banker villain that pop culture reduces to a cartoon purposely drove a man to the brink of suicide, which only a miracle pulled him back from. And then George Bailey goes even deeper into despair. He not only believes that his future's not worth living, but that his past wasn't worth living. He thinks that every suffering he endured, every piece of good that he tried to do was not only pointless, but actively harmful, and he and the world would be better off if he had never existed at all.

This is the context that leads to the famed alternate universe of a million pastiches, and it's absolutely vital to understanding the world that George finds. It's there to specifically show him that his despondent views about his effect on the universe are wrong. His bum ear kept him from serving his country in the war--but the act that gave him that injury was what allowed his brother to grow up to become a war hero. His fight against Potter's domination of the town felt like useless tiny battles in a war that could never be won--but it turns out that even the act of fighting was enough to save the town from falling into hopeless slavery. He thought that if it weren't for him, his wife would have married Sam Wainwright and had a life of ease and luxury as a millionaire's wife, instead of suffering a painful life of penny-pinching with him. Finding out that she'd have been a spinster isn't, "Ha ha, she'd have been pathetic without you." It's showing him that she never loved Wainwright enough to marry him, and that George's existence didn't stop her from having a happier life, but saved her from having a sadder one. Everywhere he turns, he finds out that his existence wasn't a mistake, that his struggles and sufferings did accomplish something, that his painful existence wasn't a tragedy but a gift to the people around him.

Only when he realizes this does he get to come back home in wild joy over the gift of his existence. The scenes of hope and joy and love only exist because of the two hours of struggle and despair that came before. Even Zuzu's saccharine line about bells and angel wings exists, not as a sugary proverb, but as a climax to Clarence's story--showing that even George's despair had good effect, and that his newfound thankfulness for life causes not only earthly, but heavenly joy.

If this movie has light and hope, it's not because it exists in some fantasy world where everything is sunshine and rainbows, but because it fights tooth and nail to scrape every bit of hope it can from our all too dark and painful world. The light here exists, not because it ignores the dark, but because the dark makes light more precious and meaningful. The light exists in defiance of the dark, the hope in defiance of despair, and there is nothing saccharine about that. It's just about as realistic as it gets.

Who’s your Pokémon partner? [250 possibilities]

Welcome, young trainer, to the Pokémon laboratory! I’m Professor Bayberry and here the Pokémon partner selection process works a little differently — instead of the trainer picking the Pokémon, the Pokémon picks the trainer. Why don’t you sit down and answer a few questions while we wait to see which of our many Pokémon chooses you?

— [ it’s finally done! head’s up, this is a long quiz, 35 questions! art credit here ]

hi are you still doing mcd requests. you’d never guess who i’m gonna ask you to draw (laurance <3)

hes my pal hes my homeboy my rotten solider my sweet cheese (mcd requests are still open!!}

Hello hi here’s my Trigger Happy Havoc redesigns

(through gritted teeth) fuck it we ball