Maladaptive daydreaming is not a sign of autism on its own, but the two overlap more than you might expect. In a study of adults with confirmed autism diagnoses, 42% scored above the threshold for probable maladaptive daydreaming. That’s a striking number, and it helps explain why so many people notice both patterns in themselves. Still, maladaptive daydreaming occurs frequently in people without autism, and autism occurs without any excessive daydreaming at all. They are separate experiences that happen to share some surface-level features.
How Often They Overlap
The 42% figure comes from a study that screened autistic adults using the MDS-16, a validated questionnaire designed to measure maladaptive daydreaming symptoms. Among people in online daydreaming communities (who weren’t necessarily autistic), researchers found the reverse relationship held too: stronger autistic traits predicted higher levels of maladaptive daydreaming. In other words, the connection runs in both directions. People with more pronounced autistic characteristics tend to daydream more intensely, and people who daydream excessively tend to score higher on measures of autistic traits.
That said, correlation is not causation. Many people with maladaptive daydreaming have no autistic traits at all, and most autistic people do not meet the threshold for maladaptive daydreaming. The overlap is real but partial.
Why They Look Alike From the Outside
One reason people confuse the two is that both can involve repetitive physical movements. Someone with maladaptive daydreaming might pace back and forth for hours, toss an object between their hands, or flap their hands while deep in a fantasy. To an observer, this looks a lot like the stimming (self-stimulatory behavior) associated with autism. Both conditions can also involve intense absorption in an inner world and a tendency to withdraw from social situations.
These similarities have real consequences. A published case report describes a person who was diagnosed with autism based partly on their repetitive movements and social withdrawal, only for clinicians to later recognize that maladaptive daydreaming better explained the full picture. The movements weren’t stimming. They were part of an elaborate internal fantasy life.
Key Differences Between the Two
Despite the surface similarities, the underlying experiences are quite different. Autism is defined by two core features: difficulty with social communication and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. Maladaptive daydreaming is defined by excessive, immersive fantasy that feels compulsive and interferes with daily life. Those are fundamentally different experiences, even when they produce behaviors that look the same.
The repetitive movements illustrate this well. People with maladaptive daydreaming consciously use movements to trigger or sustain their daydreams. They pace to keep a fantasy going, or toss something in their hand to stay in the scene. They often describe the urge as “an itch that needs to be scratched.” One person reported needing to pace while daydreaming even when their feet ached or it was two in the morning and they were already in bed. Crucially, people with maladaptive daydreaming tend to hide these movements, performing them only when alone so they can daydream at full intensity.
Autistic stimming works differently. People with autism typically describe their repetitive movements as involuntary, things that “happen by themselves” when they aren’t paying attention to their bodies. One autistic person explained that if he notices the movements, they actually stop. The movements aren’t serving a fantasy. They’re an unconscious output of internal processing.
Social difficulties also look different under the surface. When someone with maladaptive daydreaming avoids socializing, it’s usually because they prefer their fantasy world. They have the social skills but choose the daydream. Autism involves a core difficulty with social understanding itself, not just a preference for something else.
Can You Have Both?
Yes. Having autism doesn’t protect you from developing maladaptive daydreaming, and the 42% overlap rate suggests autistic people may actually be more prone to it. There are plausible reasons for this. Autism often comes with sensory overwhelm, social exhaustion, and a need for predictability. An immersive inner world offers control, comfort, and escape from demands that feel relentless. For some autistic people, daydreaming may start as a helpful coping tool and gradually become compulsive.
If you recognize both patterns in yourself, that’s not unusual, and it doesn’t mean one explains away the other. They can genuinely coexist. The important thing is understanding which symptoms come from which source, because that changes what kind of support is most helpful.
Neither Has a Formal Diagnosis Code
Maladaptive daydreaming is not listed as a distinct diagnosis in either the DSM-5-TR or the ICD-11. The concept was first described by researcher Eli Somer in 2002, and while the MDS-16 screening tool exists and has been used across multiple studies, clinicians don’t yet have an official diagnostic category for it. This means a therapist or psychiatrist can recognize and treat maladaptive daydreaming, but it won’t appear on paperwork the way autism or ADHD would.
Autism, by contrast, is a well-established diagnosis with clear criteria. If you’re wondering whether your daydreaming points to autism, the answer depends on whether you also experience the core features of autism: persistent difficulty reading social cues or navigating social interactions, along with restricted interests or repetitive behaviors beyond the daydreaming itself. The daydreaming alone, no matter how intense, doesn’t indicate autism.
Sorting Out What’s Happening
If you’re trying to figure out which label fits your experience, focus on a few key questions. Do you struggle to understand social dynamics even when you’re fully present and engaged, or do social situations only feel hard because you’d rather be daydreaming? Are your repetitive movements something you consciously do to fuel a fantasy, or do they happen on their own without you choosing them? Do you have restricted interests and sensory sensitivities that go beyond your daydream content?
Someone who answers yes to the first option in each pair is more likely dealing with autism. Someone who answers yes to the second is more likely dealing with maladaptive daydreaming. Someone who honestly sees both patterns may have both, and a clinician familiar with neurodevelopmental conditions can help tease them apart. The distinction matters because the experiences feel different from the inside, even when they look the same from the outside.