Maladaptive daydreaming describes excessive fantasy activity that interferes with an individual's life. Surprisingly, the precursors of maladaptive daydreaming and its role in excessive involvement in virtual worlds have been scarcely investigated. In the current study, we examined the relationships among attachment styles, maladaptive daydreaming, and problematic social media use (PSMU) in a sample of community-dwelling adults. Eight hundred seventy-seven participants between 18 and 68 years old were recruited via an online survey and asked to fill out self-reported measures on attachment styles, maladaptive daydreaming, and PSMU. Mediation analyses showed that maladaptive daydreaming is a significant mediator in the relationships between preoccupied and fearful attachment styles and PSMU, suggesting that maladaptive daydreaming partly explains the established link between insecure attachment styles and excessive use of social media. Individuals with PSMU fostered by maladaptive daydreaming may benefit from clinical interventions that promote the use of adaptive regulatory strategies to develop feelings of security and self-confidence that may serve to reduce the excessive involvement in social media.

Models based on substance use criteria have been employed to classify maladaptive engagement in various everyday activities as genuine addictions. However, symptom-based models have potential limitations, which includes in some cases reduced clinical utility and an increased risk of diagnostic inflation. The current article presents an alternative psychodynamic theoretical framework to elucidate the psychological processes underlying the development of putative behavioral addictions. According to this framework, behavioral addictions are conceptualized as strategies for regulating overwhelming feelings rooted in childhood trauma. Exposure to childhood trauma may lead to the segregation of unbearable trauma-related mental states from awareness through persistent dissociative processes. Thus, behavioral addictions may provide individuals with an illusory sense of control over unbearable feelings while simultaneously reinforcing the segregation of trauma-related mental states. The compulsive engagement in such activities can be seen as an attempt at self-medication, though it ultimately exacerbates discontinuities in self-experience. This theoretical framework is further illustrated through a clinical vignette, highlighting its implications for both assessment and treatment.

Research shows that insecure attachment styles and failures in mentalizing are associated with increased problematic social media use (PSMU). This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of failures in mentalizing in the relationships between attachment styles and PSMU within a large sample of individuals from the community. The study involved the participation of 3600 adult volunteers (2312 females, 64.2%) aged between 18 and 60 years old (M = 29.92; SD = 10.68). Participants completed measures to assess socio-demographics, adult attachment styles, mentalization, and PSMU. Findings showed that secure and dismissing attachment styles predicted reduced levels of PSMU, and that preoccupied and fearful attachment styles predicted increased levels of PSMU. The relationships between adult attachment styles and PSMU were mediated by failures in mentalizing. Thus, individuals with preoccupied and fearful attachment styles may excessively resort to social media as a means of coping with unprocessed mental states. Clinical interventions that focus on improving mentalizing abilities and promoting the adoption of appropriate self-regulation strategies might reduce maladaptive engagement in social media.

This article examines the interconnections among attachment trauma, dissociation, and addictive behaviors from a psychodynamic perspective. Drawing on contemporary theoretical and empirical developments, we contend that early adverse experiences - such as neglect, abuse, and inconsistent caregiving - disrupt the formation of secure internal working models of attachment and impair affect regulation. This disruption prompts a dissociative reorganization of the self, emerging as a defensive process that compartmentalizes traumatic memories and mitigates overwhelming emotional distress. Although initially adaptive, dissociation may become entrenched, resulting in fragile self-cohesion and a maladaptive reliance on external regulatory strategies. Within this framework, addictive behaviors are conceptualized not merely as compulsive or reward-driven phenomena but as compensatory mechanisms that externally manage dysregulated affect while simultaneously maintaining the segregation of traumatized mental states. The clinical implications of this model underscore the need for integrative interventions for individuals who display addictive behaviors that address their underlying attachment trauma, thereby fostering self-cohesion, emotional integration, and more adaptive self-regulation strategies.