3 Reasons Why Writing Is a Healthy Form of Escape

by Colleen M. Story, @colleen_m_story

One of the reasons many writers enjoy their craft is because it provides an absorbing method of escape.

If you’re one of those, it’s time to celebrate! For unlike other forms of escape, which can be bad for your health and well-being, writing is one of the best options you could choose when you just need to get away from real life for a while.

We All Need to Escape Now and Then

It’s easy to see how financial hardships, family strife, illness, and other issues can make the daily grind too much to take. Add to that the near-constant stream of negative news or a worldwide pandemic and you can see why anyone would want to get away for a while.

According to a 2017 survey of around 2,000 people, respondents spent an average of nearly 13 hours each week escaping their reality. Writers will be happy to know that about one-and-a-half of those weekly hours were spent reading books, with about two-and-a-half hours spent watching movies and about 45 minutes dreaming of vacation. Other popular forms of escape included exploring new places and listening to music.

Finding a way to escape from real life helps us avoid further distress and psychological harm. Escape is a coping mechanism, a method of gaining calm and tranquility so we can rally the inner strength we need to face our daily challenges.

Unfortunately, most popular forms of escape can be destructive.

Escape Can Be Destructive

If you’ve ever had teenagers in the house, you know escapism isn’t always a good thing. Hours spent in front of the screen can lead to unhealthy eating, a lack of exercise, overweight and obesity, and social isolation.

In a 2019 study, Bányai and colleagues found that individuals using video games as a form of escapism—whether they were amateur or professional—were more likely to develop internet gaming disorder, a mental illness characterized by significantly impaired personal, family, social, educational, and occupational functioning. They were more likely to be depressed and anxious, as well.

It’s not just gaming that can lead to unhealthy consequences. Any type of escape used to avoid oneself or one’s problems can be destructive. Psychologists have long linked this type of escapism to negative effects, including anxiety, eating disorders, alcoholism, addiction, and even suicide.

These unhealthy forms of escapism are types of emotional avoidance—ways of sidestepping our issues to avoid dealing with them. There’s another form, however, that can be good for us—the type of escapism that not only provides us a brief respite but helps us to expand rather than suppress ourselves—to grow and become more than we were before.

This is the type of escapism that writing can provide.

3 Reasons Why Writing is a Healthy Form of Escape

Writing is a healthy escape because it helps us to hone our skills, enjoy a healthy form of distraction, and improve our quality of life.

Writing Helps Us Hone Our Skills

To write a publishable novel, you have to learn a lot about writing, editing, publishing, and marketing. Through the process of trial and error, writing and rewriting, working with mentors, publishing books, and attending conferences, you gradually become schooled in the ways of publishing and along the way, develop into a more accomplished writer.

Few other forms of escape provide such powerful developmental effects.

On top of that, writing is a beneficial skill to have. Developing the ability to write well—even if you never become a bestseller—helps you master communication skills that can be applied to other areas of your life, particularly on the job.

A survey of employers conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that the majority of employers looked for candidates with “the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing.”

As long as you focus on improving your writing skills while you’re escaping into your stories, the benefits you gain will show up outside of your writing life, seeping into your professional and personal life as what you’ve learned in your isolated writing nook improves your communication with others.

Writing Is a Healthy form of Distraction

Though expressing your emotions can be healing, ruminating over your problems is not always the best way to deal with them. A moment’s distraction can be a better alternative.

One study that allowed participants to use a punching bag to blow off steam found they actually experienced greater levels of anger afterward than those who did nothing at all. A distraction—particularly, writing—would have worked better to diffuse a volatile situation or manage difficult emotions.

As long as you’re not using writing to avoid your regular life (for too long), you can gain distance from your problems and allow yourself some respite—and perhaps an adventure with a dragon along the way.

I know I’m not alone in emerging from a writing session feeling a lot better than when I started. I have difficult writing days too, but most of the time, if I succeed in diving deep into the underwater world that is my imagination, I surface with more energy and a brighter outlook.

The wonderful thing about writing is that it’s so constructive. Writers build and create something that one day is of value to another. What better coping mechanism could we ask for?

Writing Improves Our Quality of Life

To be engaged in any activity you enjoy is a healthy way to distract yourself as long as the activity contributes rather than subtracts from your quality of life.

Escaping in a healthy way, though, is not always easy in today’s world. There are so many forms of entertainment available that make it much too easy to flee problems than to face them.

One can’t examine the dangers of unhealthy technological escapism without considering the smartphone. Studies abound about its addictive tendencies and how distracting it can be even when it’s merely sitting nearby because we’re always thinking about the messages, texts, likes, and other satisfying goodies it may hold for us. Unfortunately, research shows that the more time we spend on gadgets the more anxious and depressed we’re likely to be.

On the contrary, writing often helps writers to better understand themselves. Unlike other activities that we think help us avoid ourselves, writing often does the opposite—it holds up a metaphorical sort of mirror, allowing us to see ourselves more clearly.

Is Writing a Form of Escape for You?

There are several healthy ways to escape from the world for a while, but it’s plain that writing is one of the most creative, productive, and healthy options. So next time you need to check out, sink yourself into your story. It’s good for you!

For English novelist Graham Greene, “Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.”

Note: For more on overcoming self-doubt and deciding to be a writer no matter what, see Colleen’s new book, Your Writing Matters: How to Banish Self-Doubt, Trust Yourself, and Go the Distance. Get your free chapter here!

In her new release, Your Writing Matters, Colleen M. Story helps writers determine whether writing is part of their life’s purpose. Her book on author platforms, Writer Get Noticed!, was a gold-medal winner in the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards, and Overwhelmed Writer Rescue was named Book by Book Publicity’s Best Writing/Publishing Book in 2018. Her novel, Loreena’s Gift, was a Foreword Reviews’ INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner, among others.

Colleen frequently serves as a workshop leader and motivational speaker, where she helps attendees remove mental and emotional blocks and tap into their unique creative powers. Find more at her author website and Writing and Wellness, and connect with her on Twitter and YouTube.

References

“Americans Spend 4 Years of Their Lives ‘Escaping Reality’.” New York Post. Last modified July 3, 2017. https://nypost.com/2017/07/03/americans-spend-4-years-of-their-lives-escaping-reality/.

Bányai, Fanni, Mark D. Griffiths, Zsolt Demetrovics, and Orsolya Király. “The mediating effect of motivations between psychiatric distress and gaming disorder among esport gamers and recreational gamers.” Comprehensive Psychiatry 94 (2019), 152117. doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2019.152117.

Bushman, Brad J. “Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28, no. 6 (2002), 724-731. doi:10.1177/0146167202289002.

Greene, Graham. Ways Of Escape. New York: Random House, 2011.

Hart Research Associates. Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views On College Learning In The Wake Of The Economic Downturn. 2010. https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/2009_EmployerSurvey.pdf.

Ohno, Shiroh. “Internet escapism and addiction among Japanese senior high school students.” International Journal of Culture and Mental Health 9, no. 4 (2016), 399-406. doi:10.1080/17542863.2016.1226911.

Schouten, Werner. “The Overlooked Consequence of Phone Use: Self-Escapism.” LinkedIn. Last modified July 16, 2018. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/overlooked-consequence-phone-use-self-escapism-werner-schouten/.

“Writing: A Ticket to Work . . . Or a Ticket Out.” National Writing Project. Accessed November 26, 2020. https://archive.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2540.

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