Emotional Escapism: Helpful or Harmful?
Photo by Dom Aguiar via Unsplash
escapism
noun
the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy.
Have you ever tried to evade, avoid or ignore your current reality? When a traumatic event occurs its natural to want to escape so you can avoid further distress and harm. Equally known as fight or flight.
Lets take travel for example, for some people travel can be a form of escapism. When emotional pain arises, many of us struggle to sit with the pain. We struggle to sit with what we are truly feeling. I know that I certainly like to browse for flights when I want to escape from my thoughts and feelings.
Escapism can be one’s way of coping. Wanting to run from ‘yourself’ may increase your anxiety about your reality. Escapism is essentially a temporary coping strategy, sooner or later this strategy may potentially breakdown. Some of us spend a lot of time scrolling through social media, which is another form of escapism, because before you know it, you’ve spent hours on end scrolling through your twitter timeline. And according to research, loneliness has often been linked to the overuse of the internet.
Sitting with uncomfortable feelings can feel distressing and difficult and whilst escapism seems like a decent coping strategy, it may be harming us in the long run - dependent on the form of escapism. Travel for example can be a form of escapism but it can also be a form of rest.
So we need to think about what or who we are trying to escape from and whether there is a particular mood/thought or feeling that triggers it. We can also reflect on which situations make us want to escape and notice our feelings when we return from fantasy lala land.
If you ever find yourself wanting to engage in escapism, reflect on why you need to escape.