Childhood Trauma, Social Anxiety, Absorption and Fantasy Dependence: Two Potential Mediated Pathways to Maladaptive Daydreaming

The concept of maladaptive daydreaming (MD) was first introduced in a study on six patients with severe impairment of daily functioning who preferred to avoid hardships associated with abusive childhoods by developing inner worlds of fantasy. The current study aims to shed further light on potential developmental pathways to MD, defined as a pathological form of fantasy that can cause distress and “replaces human interaction and/or interferes with academic, interpersonal or vocational functioning”.