Escapism Is a Part of the Human Journey
Even our ancestors were looking for the right distractions.
Twenty-five thousand years ago, a young girl crept along a rocky outcrop and into a cave. The sky was darkening outside, a storm whipping up over the horizon. She sighed in relief and pulled the furs tight around her shoulders. The air was getting colder. She huddled against the wall of the cave and scratched her head where the seashells were braided tight into one of her knotted locks.
The sky cracked open outside. Wind and rain lashed against the rock outside and splashed into shallow puddles that pooled beneath the cave’s narrow opening.
There was no getting back to her settlement, not to tonight, and the girl had lost the rest of her companions on the way back from the hunt. They had strayed further than usual this time, too far, and still, there had been no bison anywhere. The girl struggled with the pack on her shoulders and produced a small torch. After striking her flint over it a few times, it caught flame and burst into a ball of warm orange light.
The storm raged for hours so the girl explored deeper into the cave. Around one corner, she entered a high wide room with walls smooth and untouched. The girl could hear the storm outside, so she encamped to a small corner of the room and dropped her pack and her torch. Shadows played on the wall as she produced a few small pieces of coal from her pocket and began to sketch…
Even our ancestors used art to escape their circumstances.
The scene above could describe one of a hundred potential scenarios that I uncovered while doing some research for an upcoming project. What unfolded in the caves of Southern France, Spain, parts of South America, and even parts of Africa around 10,000–30,000 years ago was fascinating. In these parts of the world, some of the most incredible discoveries of cave art have been made. Detailed drawings of everything from migrating beasts to human celebrations.
They leave a lot of questions and they point to a lot of clues about our humanity. As I was digging more and more into Palaeolithic history, I came across these drawings and the questions they posed. While many asked why or how I wondered at the drive that pushed for such art in the first place.
You see, while some of these cave portraitures undoubtedly stand as a means of communication (ie the bison migrated this way or that way, we achieved a great hunt, etc.) it’s been discovered that some do not.
Ice Age cave paintings discovered in Southern France were shown to move as though animated when exposed to flickering firelight.
Our ancestors were crawling into the bowels of caves for self-preservation, seeking protection from the extremes in weather, as well as the giant fauna like cave lions and hyenas. There, they weren’t content to exist alone. They took their time, painting scenes that represented their lives and the complex gods they worshipped, and the religious ceremonies they observed.
While our ancestors hunkered in the darkness, listening for the sounds of beasts and the cracks of thunder they weren’t cowering in terror. They escaped the hardships of their reality through the creation of art. It made me realize, maybe that escapism is the most human thing about us. Maybe that need to escape the hardships of this world is exactly what gives us the potential to thrive.
The benefits of escapism in dealing with hardships.
When I look a the cave paintings in France and Spain, I see the same human emotions that I see when I make a new sculpture or paint a new picture. I see people facing a big world they don’t quite comprehend, doing what they can to transmute it and communicate it on a more meaningful level.
Our ancestors were escaping their realities by painting their fantasies on the walls of their ancestors. What does that escapism look like for us today? Does it hold the same benefits? The same significance that it did for them?
According to VeryWell Health, some of the most common types of escapism include:
Shopping: Ever heard the term “retail therapy”? There’s a reason. It’s a very real approach some people take to managing their stress and avoiding their emotions. They overbuy things that aren’t needed to avoid their negative emotions (by creating superficially positive ones).
Physical Activity: One of the healthier means of escapism. A lot of people engage in exercise like running, walking, or working out when they want to manage their negative emotions. Individual and team sports also make a positive way to create distance and a healthy habit.
Media Use: We are people who love our digital media, and we especially like using it to escape reality. Social media, video games, movies, and doom scrolling are some common ways people use media to distract themselves.
Eating: Eating habits can also provide effective (and unhealthy) distractions against the negative realities of life. Overeating is the most common way this is used to numb or quell emotions. However, habits like orthorexia and other eating disorders can provide the same hurdles.
Substance Use: It comes as no surprise that the use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs is one of the most common ways that people try to mitigate the negative circumstances of their lives. Substances appear to provide numbing or escaping properties, but they don’t. They compound the problem.
Work: Teetering on the edge of both positive and negative escapism, work can be an avenue for dodging tough emotions or circumstances. People who work too much, however, don’t just outrun their emotions. They burn themselves out and cause more hardship in the long run.
Addictives: There are a lot of addictive things out there in the world that can tempt people in before sucking them under. Those looking to escape can be caught in their trap. Things like gambling, sex, and even pornography can provide the perfect numbing agents.
Some of these behaviors are incredibly harmful. Like the use of substances or engaging in addictive experiences. They create a slippery slope that is hard to overcome if you don’t already have a solid base of emotional health and stability to work from. They can create more negativity in your life and even more brutal challenges to overcome.
However, some of these behaviors can be healthy and even beneficial when used consciously and in moderation.
For example, say you started a running habit because you’re having a hard time sitting in the house after the death of your partner or spouse. You get up every day, get out of bed, and run for a mile before the neighbors come to life. It’s quiet, it focuses your mind, improves your cardiac health, and keeps you from wallowing and crying all day.
That’s a good form of escapism. And, whether you know it or not, it’s helping you to process the big emotions physically while you move.
However, if you get up and take a shot of whisky instead of going for a run? That’s unhealthy. Not only will that create problems in your physical health, but that kind of escapism can damage other relationships and even the outlook of your future opportunities.
Escapism, and the effect it has on your life, is all in how you use it. It comes down to whether or not you have the willpower to find the balance in your life.
How to use escapism without getting lost in the distance.
Our distant ancestors painted their pictures to escape the beasts in the night, the encroaching oceans, and the shrinking coastlines. We use escapism now to deal with things like anger, trauma, job loss, and the scariness of the world at large. Like that girl in the cave, painting animals to ward off the night, we use escapism to ward off our darkness — but it has limits.
Dive too deep into the cave, you become lost. The darkness presses in around you and the terror increases. Find the middle ground, use escapism in balance, and you find the sweet spot. But how? How does one use escapism without getting lost in the distance?
Target your motivation
It’s easy to think that we use escapism because we don’t want to feel sad or angry. That’s not the only way we seek to outrun the negative elements of our lives. Sometimes, we escape the reality of situations by changing the focus. We might do that by blaming ourselves and then seeking punishment as a form of self-corrective abuse.
That’s not a positive way to transmute the challenges in your life. Even if you play a part in the chaos, punishment (as a form of motivation or self-correction) won’t work. You have to work toward positive motivation.
What is your motivation for escaping? Are you trying to make life harder on yourself? Are you trying to punish yourself by running when you should be eating? That’s the wrong angle to use the tool from. You need to have a healthy motivation like creating art to communicate tough emotions you can’t speak or journal about.
Figure out positive benefits
When you look at the list of escapism behaviors above, some patterns become clear. While all of the behaviors can feel good in the short term, many of them offer negative consequences in the long term. Like using substances. While it may allow you to feel good while bad things happen to you, you eventually feel worse when you have health issues and no money or close relationships left.
The big picture always has to be considered before engaging in any escapist behaviors. Look at the overall effects of that thing. What happens if you do too much of it? What happens when it’s done over an extended period?
It’s fine to engage in a behavior that has a net positive behavior, like exercise, art, or writing. One has to remember, however, that anything done outside of moderation has the potential to disrupt your life in negative ways. Escapism should always be done consciously and moderately enough not to interfere with day-to-day life.
Figure out your balance
You can’t always use escapism, just like you can’t wallow in the negativity of living 24/7. Both paths will swallow you up and destroy your life. Engage in too much escapism and you’ll get numb, and miss out on healing and growing. Wallow and you’ll become the shadow you’re trying to embrace.
You’ve got to figure out where the effective balance is for you. How do you create pockets of healthy distractions without turning away from the issues that have to be addressed? How do you keep moving forward without burning out?
Everyone has a different balance. Some may need to engage in healthy distractions once a week. Others may only do it once a month. It’s not unusual for some to seek small distractions they can use intermittently daily. Spend time asking yourself honest questions and being present in your body and your mind. Keep track with a journal if you can.
In the world of self-help and psychology, we talk down escapism. We act as though doomscrolling is some original act of the 21st century. The truth, however, is that we as humans have been seeking to escape our reality for as long as we have existed. Through the creation of art, mythology, and even our own god stories, we have escaped our humanity. Maybe that’s the most human thing about us.
In any event, we have used these forms of escapism as a means of survival. And we still can…
The secret is finding balance. In seeking the things that help us to transmute from a distance, rather than outrunning as a whole. In that place, we can find peace. We can find rest and the comfort and strength needed to face the challenges that still bear down on the door.
Find your healthy avenues to this distant transmutation and thrive. Embrace what is in your nature and use it to your advantage so you can create a life that is peaceful and fulfilling.
© E.B. Johnson 2024
I am a writer, artist, NLPMP, and podcaster who helps people build creative lives after trauma. In my free time, I have a passion for fresh bread, history, and all things watercolor. Learn more about me here. Join my mailing list. Or, support my writing by subscribing below.