The COVID pandemic continues to disrupt normal life with “Omicron” a new, variant classed 'of concern' by the World Health Organization. In coincidence with this development,
ICMDR researchers have published a third paper from data they collected at the peak of the first global lockdown. This Turkish-Italian-Israeli cooperation was led by Prof. Barış Metin and Buse Göçmen of Üsküdar Üniversitesi in Istanbul. The study provided evidence that under the strain of the pandemic fears and social isolation, perceived stress exacerbated MD and other indices of mental distress, showing once more, that MD is not a variant of adaptive daydreaming, but rather a psychopathological construct. Here is the paper’s current reference:
Metin, B., Somer, E., Abu-Rayya, H.M., Schimmenti, A., & Göçmen, B. (2021). Perceived Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic Mediates the Association Between Self-quarantine Factors and Psychological Characteristics and Elevated Maladaptive Daydreaming. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00678-w
In another academic activity, Dr. Oren Hersco presented his doctoral research findings on a randomized clinical trial with MD.
The event was part of the monthly colloquium at the University of Haifa School of Social Work. The writing of the scientific paper describing this clinical trial is at the final stages of preparation.
A Google search of the exact term “maladaptive daydreaming” currently yields close to 240,000 mentions that include popular, newspaper, and scientific articles, activities of online MD communities, personal blogs, as well as YouTube testimonies. A recent addition to the wealth of information about MD on the web is personal video testimony by Brina Ryce titled: Let's Talk About Maladaptive Daydreaming: opening up about my personal experiences where she talks about her MD experience and responds on camera to the MDS-16.
Prof. Eli Somer’s video channel currently has close to 4,400 subscribers and features mostly lengthy informational videos on MD. Recently, at the request of very young members of online MD communities, Dr. Somer started uploading brief 1-3 minutes videos on TikTok.
See an example, here, where he addresses the newly discovered phenomenon of “Reality Shifting (RS), recently reported by a team of ICMDR researchers. This paper on RS was broadly reported on Hakaleidoscope, an Israeli website dedicated to the responsible and therapeutic use of psychedelic substances. Talk about TikTok: the new newsletter, The Daydreamer, is also now present on TikTok. To subscribe, go to Rachel Jayne’s website. She is The Daydreamer co-editor.
This paper on RS was also broadly reported on Hakaleidoscope, an Israeli website dedicated to the responsible and therapeutic use of psychedelic substances. Talking about TikTok: the new newsletter, The Daydreamer, is also now present on TikTok. To subscribe, go to Rachel Jayne’s website. She is The Daydreamer's co-editor.
The Daydreamers by Thomas Renckens continues to feature successfully in the world’s best documentary film festivals. The documentary has been selected for Festival Internacional De Cine Documental de Buenos Aires (FIDBA). FIDBA is the biggest documentary film festival in South America, where it will compete in the ‘Best Short Documentary category. It will also be playing in cinemas in Buenos Aires in December (COVID permitting), and available online on the festival website. More details will be announced by FIDBA soon.
Finally, The theatre festival of the Théâtre National de Bretagne (TNB, Britany National Theatre) in France, features “Wild Minds”, a 40-minute play by the Swedish playwriter Marcus Lindeen on MD.
For information on the performances in France, click here. The information on the Wild Minds French version says:
“During the TNB Festival, tperformance directed by Marcus Lindeen on maladaptive daydreaming invites us to the heart of reality, questioning our ways of seeing the world…The five actors relate the testimony of "maladaptive daydreamers", putting themselves in the shoes of those who create an interior universe for themselves to escape reality…Daydreamers sometimes spend more than half of their waking time in parallel universes where they can embody or imagine characters very different from themselves, at unique times. The actors carry the voice of those affected by this disorder by words, each more surprising than the next, which provoke laughter and amazement. This piece takes the form of a documentary recording the voices of those Marcus Lindeen met to create this performance. The music and the sounds played allow viewers to immerse themselves even more in the minds of daydreamers. Moreover, the play is not only poetic, but it also sometimes exposes suffering and disillusionment.”
We at the ICMDR wish our American subscribers a very happy, safe and healthy Thanksgiving holiday.
