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How COVID-19 Brought Back Reading As A Form Of Escapism

Caitlyn Tansey

English Composition, University of Central Florida

Dr. Steffen Guenzel

April 5, 2021
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Abstract

Escapism in the most basic terms if taking a break from reality. There are people who break from

reality by playing video games, there are people who maladaptive daydream, and there are

people who read. These are only a few of the many ways to enjoy escapism. When COVID-19

was declared a pandemic and isolation was enforced everyone across the globe found different

ways to occupy themselves. If you checked social media you would see a rise in coffee making,

bread baking, and reading. The rise in book sales during the pandemic was something to be seen,

paper books made a comeback. The reason for this is one that has been being studied for a while,

reading is an escapist method that not only helps one take a break from reality, but also is a way

to cope with anxiety, depression, and just overall stress. As well as the time for reading increased

as lockdown got more strict. We have used reading as a coping mechanism since childhood, a lot

of children use it to occupy their minds when night comes and the time to watch shows comes to

an end. However, how does reading help cope with anxiety, what is escapism, and what effect

did the pandemic have on overall mental health in our society?

Mental Health and The Pandemic

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in America alone over 100,000 people had

already died. This would only be a drop in the bucket of deaths by the time the COVID-19

vaccines were released. The human body has a reaction when faced with a situation like this,

stress. Due to the circumstances of the pandemic as a whole with isolation, restricted visitation to

loved ones, and everything that once brought joy closed, stress levels were astronomically high

across the globe. Stress is a good thing in small doses, it helps us deal with traumatic events and

overall is what helps us survive our everyday lives. According to a study conducted by Hamman

people who experience high amounts of stress are 2.5 times more likely to experience a major
Reading, Escapism, and COVID-19 3

depressive episode afterwards (2005). All this to say with the pandemic causes long lasting

stress, the psychological effects are already being seen. In China where the virus originated from

a cross-sectional study showed that the Chinese population went from seven percent to fifty three

percent experiencing psychological disorders. Another major group experiencing a spike in

psychological stress is healthcare workers, showing that depression rates in doctors went up fifty

percent (Maggio-Giugno 2020). The effects on university students is also something to be seen.

According to a recent study conducted by medical students in Texas, seventy one percent of the

students they tested with increased stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms, eighty one percent

of those students had disruptions to their sleeping patterns and eighty six percent said they had

no motivation to interact with their peers anymore (J Med 2020). Across the globe people are

dealing with increased anxiety, depression and stress. Not to mention the effect of isolation on

people. A study conducted by the CDC showed that people over the age of fifty that are isolated

socially have an increased risk of premature death. The same study showed that people apart of

minority social groups are also at a higher risk for complete isolation which also increases their

risk of suicide and major depressive episodes. Those who came into this pandemic with mental

health problems left with those problems being worse, and some who came into the pandemic

without any mental health issues left with new issues. According to an article by the Psychiatric

times, the CDC found that forty percent of people said they “were experiencing advenrse mental

or behavioral health conditions which include symptoms of anxiety disorder or depressive

disorder, trauma-related symptoms, new or increased substance use, or thoughts of suicide”

(CDC, 2020). However according to the DSM-5 which is the book with every psychology

diagnosis says that in order to be diagnosed with general anxiety disorder you have to have

presenting symptoms for over six months which means that we are going to start seeing the
Reading, Escapism, and COVID-19 4

overall effects of the pandemic soon with an increase in diagnoses over the next few years. The

overall mental health of people after the pandemic is worse than it’s ever been and we are on the

precipice of a mental health crisis. A mental health crisis that will affect us for generations to

come.

Escapism and Book Sales

Escapism according to Marriam Webster dictionary is “habitual diversion of the mind to

purely imaginative activity or entertainment as an escape from reality or routine.” (Marriam-

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2021). In simpler words escapism is a break from reality. Most

people when they think of escapism think of video games, television, and reading. Things that

allow you to turn your brain off even for a little bit, mind numbing sitcoms, fast paced trendy

videogames, or cheesy romance novels. The possibilities for escapist methods are endless,

anything that allows you to escape from everyday life is technically escapism. Escapism is used

by everyone, but the first form of escapism that a lot of us were taught as children was reading.

Dr. David Lewis says, “It really doesn’t matter what book you read, by losing yourself in a

thoroughly engrossing book you can escape from the worries and stresses of the everyday world

and spend a while exploring the domain of the author’s imagination.”Back in early spring of

2020 when the lockdown first began publishdrive a publishing firm saw online book sales

increase by twenty percent from February to March of 2020. This same site reported that action

and adventure book sales had increased by one hundred and forty percent in that same time.

Subscription services that deliver books to people’s homes also saw a spike in sales, reporting

that sales increased over fifty five percent. People were buying books, looking for something to

fill up the time. This then leads to the question which genres make the best escapist reading? The

literary community states that the best genres for escapist literature is science-fiction, fantasy,
Reading, Escapism, and COVID-19 5

and romance. Literary fans see escapist literature as “pop-culture entertainment” (Lombardi

2019) the counter argument to this is all literature is escapist literature and even the most reality

bending mind numbing book touches on topics that are deeper than most classical literature.

Hassain writes “Ask any reader of escapist fiction and they will tell you that these works are, at

times, more representative of reality than works of literary fiction.” (Hassain, 2017). Escapist

literature helps us cope with life because it touches on topics that we are uncomfortable with in

ways that are easier to think about. Fairytales are a great example of this, they talk about love,

death, and growth in ways that are presented to children. We use escapism to not only take a

break from reality but to also cope with reality. A study conducted in 2018 found that fantasy

novels provide “a window through which individuals may view historical and instinctual lessons.

Fantasy and escape is rooted in reality and universal truths” (Mazour, 2018). By using escapist

fiction as a way to cope with difficult topics we are able to process reality better. Which explains

the spike in adventure/fantasy novels back in the beginning of the pandemic. People decided to

take a break from the impending sense of doom coming from the pandemic and instead turn to

literature to try and cope with these “unprecedented times”. But why did book sales increase so

much during these times? The answer really is simple, people had the time again to read. An

article published by The Conversation said that people reported they had more free time than

usual, this having to do with a minimized commute time and having little to no social

obligations. Goodereader found that many major publishing firms were trying to fill the demand

for filling free time.

Literacy and Overall Health

Why do we turn to reading and writing when we are feeling anxious and sad? Why do a

lot of therapists have people who suffer from extreme anxiety disorders journal their feelings and
Reading, Escapism, and COVID-19 6

read? This is all because there is a direct correlation between reading and writing and calming

nerves. A study conducted by the University of Sussex says that people who read for even just a

few minutes can decrease blood pressure, another study showed the long term effects of

journaling which showed that people who journaled consistently for three months had improved

mental health and better control over physical ailments. Dr. David Lewis says that “reading

worked best, reducing stress levels by 68 percent.” Dr David Lewis being a cognitive

neuropsychologist at the University of Sussex who has built a career around studying the mental

and physical connections, our minds and bodies. Harvard University also has studied the effects

of reading and writing on symptoms of PTSD. The study conducted by Dr. James Pennebaker

who is the chair of the psychology department of the University of Texas showed that students

who wrote about traumatic events in their lives visited health centers less, and used less pain

killers. According to Pennebaker’s theory “people who had suppressed a traumatic memory

might learn to move beyond the experience but once they expressed their emotions about it”

(Pennebaker 2004). Reading can also reduce your chances of dementia according to a study

conducted at the Hong Kong Elderly Health Center back in 2018. Reading all around is good for

the brain, reading helps with stimulating brain function which benefits will follow you for the

rest of your life. It is no shock that the link between stress reduction and reading is so strong, as

when the brain is stimulated the brain is able to process stressful things in a way that allows you

to process in a healthy way. Harvard University also studied the health effects of reading,

showing that people who read books regularly had a 20 percent lower risk of dying then their

counterparts who don’t read regularly (Harvard, 2016).

Conclusion
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In conclusion the pandemic has caused a mental health crisis, one that will have lasting

effects on all generations for years to come. It is difficult to pinpoint the ways that we can fix this

crisis on our hands but one thing is certain, the answer is going to lie within literacy. The spike in

book sales during the pandemic shows that when things get difficult people turn to books to calm

their nerves and to escape from reality. The pandemic gave people time to read again, our busy

pre pandemic lives not giving us the time to sit down with a book and truly get lost. Without our

normal social obligations and our lengthy commutes people had the time to start that series they

were pushing off, or finish that book that has been sitting on the bedside table. The good thing

about people picking up their books again is that reading is one of the best things you can do for

your physical and mental health. Research upon research has found that reading not only reduces

stress but also allows you to keep your brain active. Depending on the genre that you chose to

read can also have an effect on your overall being. Escapist fiction allows us to cope with

difficult topics that we try to avoid avidly in our everyday lives. Escapist fiction gives us a way

to cope with traumatic events and it allows us to keep our minds sharp. The next few years are

going to be very telling when it comes to the full extent of the psychological ramification that are

sure to follow this pandemic, however there is no doubt that these ramifications would be worse

without the help of literature, and the renaissance of reading brought upon by the pandemic.
Reading, Escapism, and COVID-19 8

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