Have you noticed in yourself or those around you such a reaction to stress as an escape from reality? Be it marathons on sleep, fantasies, books and TV series, or, in extreme cases, a marathon on an altered state of consciousness from psychoactive drugs substances. This reaction of the psyche is essentially an automatic response of the body, fixed by us from childhood: as a child we “fought” stress with sleep. Sleep was our first form of escapism. Growing up, our self-defense changed depending on our examples, environment and opportunities. We needed something that distracted us from the painful, traumatic factor and enveloped us in its anesthetic blanket, leading us away from the wounding reality. If reality was extremely harsh in relation to a person, he had to defend himself and spend most of his time in his fantasy world, strengthening his chitinous cover and focusing on himself, his inner world. So we can assume that now this is a schizoid personality (not to be confused with schizophrenia). We need any mental protection. Be it primitive detachment, which I am writing about now, or idealization with devaluation. At the right time and at the right hour, these are helpers. But will we now wear as adults what we had when we were 5 years old? In general, even now, at first, a healthy form of avoidance really helps us with stress: sleep, reading, jogging with no thoughts, etc. Distraction means giving yourself specific time to rest, switch your attention, and take a breath. It's more about "getting away" than "running away." The other question is how detrimental does defense become to our well-being and active living? Is this a defense now? By the way, getting stuck in memories like “it was better before...” is also about escapism. By cutting off contact with the real state of affairs and, as a consequence, with the real self, primitive detachment can lead to a number of negative consequences: problems with physical health, social isolation, chemical dependency, hallucinations, etc. It will be useful to explore for yourself how often do you resort to this form of mental self-defense? How addictive are you? What damage? Or do you know how to turn this process to your advantage? Thank you for reading the article and taking your time! Sincerely, Yaroslava Karpina - consulting psychologist