i've heard most children who go through stressful situations find their own little coping mechanism to walk through them. since undiscovered transgendered children are in a similar position, do we as kids come up with some mechanism or other?
i thought of this because it turns out that i probably have this condition called maladaptive daydreaming disorder.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maladaptive_daydreaming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maladaptive_daydreaming) i have all the symptoms they say, but it says children who undergo trauma or abuse are more likely to fall into this. but i haven't had such experience, well none that i can remember, so it lead me into thinking, did the stress of being treated as the wrong gender push me into this? i should say i didn't show any obvious signs of being transgender before puberty (that too as far as i can remember) so was i suppressing all those feelings and turn to maladaptive daydreaming to escape the horrible reality? i started daydreaming way before puberty, in fact i don't know when it started or what triggered it. so it just leaves me thinking, was daydreaming my coping mechanism?
i still daydream, A LOT! anybody with similar experience? or am i being too quick to self diagnose like that?
I actually still do this to be honest. No one really knows about it, because I keep silent about it. For me it's very complicated, or more compounded. The first is because I act out my male role, the second is because I've never have a girlfriend in the natural world I always create one to play with or pretend I'm with someone I really wish I could be with. I live my daily life like this. When I'm done interacting with others and really to take off my mask I have time with myself. It's usually sexual, maybe I'm pretending I'm saving someone, or I act out what I see other couples go through with arguments and what not. I'm aware it isn't real. I can't really touch these people or items, but the mind is a powerful tool and it can sometimes feel very real.
I've had to become more conscious of where I do this as I've injured myself before. Pretending you're fighting isn't a smart move with you've got a lot of concrete edges near you lol. It's also triggered by the abuse I've had to suffer. It's an activity I can control, and like my dreams I like to just enjoy it. No one can take that from me. I'm thankful for that.
Is it healthy? I couldn't give you a set answer for that. All I know is if everything went wrong in my life, I never got a girlfriend ever, or just wanted to live alone, I would more than likely continue it. I can got back to "normal" for the rest of the world, but behind closed doors I control the rest.
I don't know if it's maladaptive, but I certainly spend a lot of time daydreaming, and have for years. Although it's certainly a creative outlet, I think it probably doubled as a coping mechanism for years.
I'd never heard of this until now, but it sounds pretty interesting actually. Does this happen when the person is busy, or only when they have downtime? Do people "out-grow" this, or will it still be present when one is 80 years old?
It sounds like creativity just focused in the wrong direction, but what do I know.
I can relate to this. My daydreaming is more like wandering vivid thoughts and then i catch myself spacing, but the idea of creating something fictional to cope is something i do. See i roleplay a lot with many different people and i always use the same sort of persona. He is male and shares so many likenesses with me that i didnt even intend. And as i rp with him im not thinking about my dysphoria, im living the moment as him writing in first person and i get this feeling of escape from having to be female.
When i go even a couple hours without rping though i get the thoughts back, how badly i wish to have a male body like i did hours ago in rp.