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4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door

The Little-Known Condition That Traps People in Their Own Imaginations

People who experience it describe it as an addiction, a compulsion that they can’t help but continuously dive back into.

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As a lifelong daydreamer, I find staring at a wall or at the floor for a bit while the gears are turning in my head to be a nice little reprieve from the daily drudgery. I don’t want to permanently move into my daydreams, though. Real life still has its perks. But for some, daydreaming is an inescapable trap. As the BBC recently covered in a report about people who spend a majority of their days locked in an extended daydream, imagination can turn into an all-consuming nightmare.

A condition known as maladaptive daydreaming, or MD, affects an estimated 2 to 4 percent of adults. In the most extreme cases, these perpetual daydreamers spend up to 12 hours a day locked in........

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