In defense of escapism

Post Reply New Topic

Write something. Oh, there's plenty to write both in defense of escapism and against it. In defense, you know those stories in the news where life gets to be too much for someone, and they "snap", and do something complete horrible and insane, as a way of releasing that pent-up stress all at once? Well, escapism prior to that "snapping" would have probably prevented it, and so there definitely can be a benefit to shutting out reality for a while when under extreme stress.

Worrying is caring too much. So, for those of us who struggle with depression-inducing worrying, it's actually healthy to take a small page from the books of those people we all know who don't give a rat's ass about anything. It would be utterly foolish to be like them, but some people have a natural knack for not stressing themselves. We Aspies tend to be overly fastidious, and that can and does work us into tizzies, simply because we're paying too much attention to reality for our brains' own good. We can take a page from those opposite from the way we are: those who spend most of their lives in a relaxed state of mind.

So, when stressed, a dose of escapism is quite healthy. For me, I follow the news regularly. Too much, in fact. It is therefore a great blessing to, once in a while, go a day or two without listening to anything "serious minded" on TV or radio. The fast pace of modern life is quite simply something we must take breaks from in order not to go crazy. Like many, I live in a huge, impatient city, so you can see where I'm coming from on stress-inducing environments. I think it's good to take life seriously. But not full-time.

I tend to agree, though my means of escapism are a little different than yours...but I certainly see your point. As for the news I hardly watch t.v but it was on the other day when I was at my friend's relatives house and the news was on while I was eating and kind of killed my appetite. I think every story was about someone dying or other horrible things other then that my response was sort of like this

The best escapism is sleeping in.

I never have understood that, I personally hate sleeping in too long....but I have due to boredom before it just makes me feel more lethargic and useless though so yeah I try to get up in the morning no later than 10 every morning even if I don't end up doing anything other than sitting around doing nothing anyways I still feel better having at least gotten up.

Sleeping in only feels good when I'm sleep-deprived from getting up too early for several days in a row, but even then I don't always feel refreshed. If I sleep too long my back starts hurting. That or I end up having crappy nightmares when I drift in and out of really light sleep. Morning dreams often leave me feeling icky and drained and it takes hours to shake it off. Especially those god-awful anxiety dreams where my teeth are falling out or my fingers/limbs are dying and having to be amputated. I freaking hate those.

Last edited by marshall on 14 Mar 2012, 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

Weird thing with me is if I'm sleep deprived it's even worse....I'll still wake up rather early then just lay there trying to get a bit more sleep then I give up and get up and drink some tea or coffee. Last time I went all night without sleep I ended up going to bed at 12am the next day and still getting up at like 10:00am.

I forgot about the back pain thing that is another reason I sometimes get up as early as I do, even if I sleep on a good mattress I still have back pain in the morning that makes continuing to lay there uncomfortable no matter what position I try and lay in.

I have trouble sometimes as well. I hate it when I wake up at 5:30 AM and can't get back to sleep on days where I have to get up at 6:30 AM. At that point I'm afraid to go back to sleep because it I know it will be really hard to get up if I do. So I end up getting up and ready an hour early and feeling like utter crap the whole day until I finally have a chance to take a nap.

Yea. I think morning back pain is a sign of being tense while sleeping. I also have bruxism where I grind my teeth in my sleep. I know because my dentist noticed some of my fillings got ground down and had to be replaced.

Oh god. Sorry for the derail.

Me too. My back is my alarm clock on the weekends. It just gets more and more inflexible until I decide to start my day which loosens it up.

Escapism is how I cope. It's become almost a full-time thing for me.

What I wonder is: do we really owe the world something, other than simply being a decent person and finding happiness for ourselves? Deep down, my conscience struggles with the fact that I usually just escape into my own little world inside my head, rather than try to make a difference in the world.

In the past I did try, and my efforts always failed miserably and completely broke me, so... Other times I think maybe keeping quiet and staying out of trouble is my contribution to the world

That's a very, very good question. I deal with it too. The key is to discover, and then to accept, our limitations in what we can do for others, in light of our own personal burdens in life. There's no place for guilt in not exceeding your limits. Will we know our exact limits? No, so we do have to make some assumptions, some guesses. And once we've done our best at guessing how much we can help people, then comes often the hardest part: accepting and living with that. And otherwise, live as happily as you can. "A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God." (Ecclesiastes 2:24)

I guess the hard part is I don't feel like I can afford to "relax and take things as they come" without creating even worse problems. Sadly anxiety over the consequences of not doing things is the only thing that really motivates me to do certain things. I really don't know how to function without facing unpleasantness and stress. It stinks having to live in a perpetual state of mental tension, but the world seems to force that on people. Functioning = effort = a lot of stress. I don't really know how to set my dial half-way, so to speak. I'm either perpetually worried or I'm in a state where I've just let things go and back off / retreat. The later usually results when I've reached a point where I'm completely overwhelmed and exasperated and feel like I might just snap and explode if I continue any longer.

I used to read a whole lot as a means for escapism, but my roommate declared that reading so much fiction was rotting my brain (and in a way it was affecting me). I had become very fantasy-minded to the point that she ended up moving all the fiction books into storage =/ well i sort of agreed because walking around role playing all day just isn't healthy. It made life easy, but not for everyone else?

Now I have started sketching again and singing (when it doesn't get on people nerves). Or I just sit down and think about whatever I want in silence, problem with that is that my stimming acts up quite a bit then.

Escapism can be healthy. Most people need to ocasionally take their mind off the hook for a while. I use reading as a form of escapism, though it can get out of control when I am depressed. However it is still a lot cheaper and healthier than resorting to chemical assistance.