I've just come across two words, or phrases, that pretty much sum me up: Maladaptive Daydreaming and Hikikomori. I don't know if there's any kind of link between these two things or if it's just me.
I do know that I've spent most of my life daydreaming. When reality bothers me, I tune it out and go to my room and just immerse myself in fantasy. When I don't want to be me, I just decide to become someone else. And when I stumbled across the term "Maladaptive Daydreaming", I totally identified with it. I'd been doing it most of my life. I thought it was just me being weird as usual.
I've also been pretty much a hermit, again, for most of my life. I recently came across the word "Hikikomori" amd it too resonates very much with me. No, I'm not a young Japanese man (far from it actually!) but the description of the withdrawal etc is something that sounds exactly like me.
I guess I'm just wondering if the two things are in any way conncected. It's weird, they're both totally new words to me and it's strange because I majored in psychology and have read extensively in the field, yet somehow I missed all that. I am now wondering what else I missed?!
Any insights/ideas gratefully accepted!