Maybe I like my life more than most people, but I think escapism is a sad way to live. I do things for fun and leisure, but they're not escapes; they're just my life. For example, I am fortunate to have two life passions, science and hockey. One is my livelihood, and the other is my favorite pastime. Both are part of my being, and I wouldn't be the same person without them. Yes, I drink beer and whiskey and watch TV and movies, too. These are things I do for fun, and they make life interesting. They aren't there to escape from reality; they are there to add to it. When I was young, I did a ton of drugs. That is escapism. It's escapism not specifically because it was drugs and not some other substitute. It was escapism, because I did it because I hated myself and saw no great and viable alternative. Wanting to unwind is normal. Wanting to escape (at least, wanting to do it often; obviously, we all have bad days from time to time) is a sign that something is wrong, IMHO. Life can be good if you let it.
I think this is an awesome new perspective. But, how do you differentiate between having to escape and having to unwind? It seems like youre saying that your life when you were young made escape appealing because you hated yourself. Do you love yourself (or hate yourself less) because youve survived long enough by escaping? Or were you able to 'quit' escapism because your life got better? I think, people making fun and happiness a part of their lives balanced to the work and pain are often the happiest strongest in character. However, those who simply arent happy, should they avoid escaping as well?
Escaping is the act of giving up on daily life for a short period of time. Eventually, one has to return, and probably dreads that fact. Unwinding is just stress relief. For example, I love my job, but at times it requires me to concentrate for many hours at a stretch. I can give me a giant headache. So, when I get home on those types of days the first thing I want to do is turn on some music and crack open a beer. It's not because I need to get away. I just want my headache to subside and my blood pressure to drop; have to relax before I get back to it the next day. But even though I need a break, I want to get back to it; I don't fear it. Not sure I can explain it any better than that. One learns to live with one's own faults with age, I think. I suspect you're a lot younger than me. I'm 31 currently. Teen angst was a powerful force in my life, as it is for a lot of people. It's easy to sour on the world in general, because there's a lot of really fucked up things out there, and it even feels fucked up on the inside at times. One starts to think, "What's the point?" But, then, if you're lucky, you figure out what the point is. The point is to find something that you love and throw yourself behind it. When you realize this (realize it for yourself and not because an older, wiser person told you so), you will be all the happier for it. This is all not to say that life doesn't totally suck at times. Tragedies happen. Bad luck happens. But if you're happy in your underlying fundamentals, you'll find a way to heal.But, how do you differentiate between having to escape and having to unwind?
Do you love yourself (or hate yourself less) because youve survived long enough by escaping? Or were you able to 'quit' escapism because your life got better?
I very much liked your first explanation, well said :) this post regarding love in life, and that I elaborated on a little bit on this thread is what I keep in mind whenever my teenage angst (im 15) gets the better of me. I don't know if there's one thing that I love yet. It may be that I don't know love yet, though I could swear that I have felt it. Anyway, I'm just sticking around in life until it turns up.