Is Maladaptive Daydreaming Genetic? Looking Past Isolation & Trauma

A very common topic of conversation for any mental health disorder revolves around its origin: is it primarily influenced by our genetic predispositions (“nature”) or by our upbringing and life experiences (“nurture”)?

For individuals grappling with a condition like maladaptive daydreaming (MD), it’s natural to wonder whether your daily challenges stem from inherent, unalterable aspects of your biology or from the environment you inhabit and the decisions you’ve made.

Does maladaptive daydreaming have a genetic basis?

Despite some anecdotal evidence that maladaptive daydreaming appears to run in families, there’s currently no evidence to suggest a genetic component in its development.

As we continue to learn more about the condition and its root causes, we may be able to pinpoint certain genes that play a part in its development, but for now this will have to wait.

However, this isn’t quite the same as saying that genes definitely play no part in maladaptive daydreaming.

Based on the current understanding of MD, researchers believe it to be caused by a mix of our experiences and several important personality traits, including:

• Capacity for immersion: The ability to engage in complex imaginary narratives.
• Addiction: How easily one becomes addicted.
• Fantasy proneness: Desire to engage in imagination and fantasy.
• Dissociation: Tendency to disconnect from one or more aspects of your sensory input.

Each of these traits could have a genetic component, which would then increase one’s risk of developing MD if the other traits were also present. Let’s briefly examine the case for each:

Immersion

Research into MD has often found that those with the condition discovered an innate capacity for deep, vivid imagination as a child. This then went on to develop into maladaptive daydreaming later in life.

The fact that immersion seems to appear early in life could indicate it has some hereditary aspect, but this is by no means conclusive.

Absorption, or our capacity to enter a state of intense concentration on one aspect of our experience at the expense of others, is at least partially a hereditary trait. This suggests that the capacity for daydreaming could be partially based on genetics.

Addiction

Genetics are known to play a part in the development of other addictions. For example, genetics are thought to account for over half of a person’s predisposition towards drug addiction.

It is therefore conceivable, although currently unproven, that addiction to fantasy daydreaming also contains some genetic component.

Fantasy proneness

Fantasy prone personality is a comparatively under-researched trait, and to date, no studies exist examining how genetics may affect its development.

Dissociation

Mental health conditions in which dissociation is a core experience, such as PTSD, are known to have a strong hereditary component that is then activated by stressful life experiences as outlined in the diathesis stress model.

It therefore seems likely that the tendency for one’s grasp on reality to temporarily slip is at least partially genetic.

Why genetics aren’t the answer

Let’s put aside all these ‘maybes’ and ‘might suggest thats’ for a moment and focus on what we know.

Research has clearly identified a link between maladaptive daydreaming and two aspects of our life experience:

• A history of childhood trauma
• Current social isolation and anxiety

While the study of genetics can be fascinating and sheds some important light on the development of mental health concerns, it’s arguably more important to focus on environmental factors such as these.

Why? Because we can actually do something about them.

Let’s say a few years from now we discover a single gene that is responsible for the development of MD.

What can we do with this information?

You can’t alter someone’s genetic makeup, so knowing that they possess the genes for a mental health condition is of no use in helping them manage or treat maladaptive daydreaming and could arguably create unnecessary stress.

Stick to what we know

Social Isolation

Knowing that maladaptive daydreaming is linked to social isolation, on the other hand, gives us a clear path to helping at-risk individuals avoid the development of this debilitating disease by helping them integrate into society.

Trauma

Understanding the link between MD and trauma allows us to treat MD using the same principles and methods as we’d use for other trauma-related conditions.

In Summary

We can’t change how we’re wired or what our family tree looks like.

And while we can’t always change our environment either, especially when we’re young, we have a much better chance of making smart choices and creating a mentally beneficial environment than we do of altering our genetic code.

So the take-home message here is that even if there is a genetic component to maladaptive daydreaming, the choices we make in life still play a crucial part in whether we develop the condition or not.