Poll Reading And Ptsd

[Jen93]

I've been thinking about this for a long time, but I was wondering if PTSD was connected at all to the amount of reading people do. I'm a big reader, I'm an English major so I have to read stuff for school obviously, but I also use it as an escape. It's an addiction I think. More like a healthy drug, if I can say that. I'll read anything and everything, because when I'm reading I don't have to think about anything other than the book and the words on the page. I can't think of anything except the book, words on the page, and the characters. It's almost like I can't think of trauma as long as I'm reading a book, and I suppose that's why I do it so often and have so many books on the go at one time. (Currently reading 18 books now) I was also interested because of the book club section of the forum- does anyone else consider reading an escape from PTSD or traumatic memories? And do you read a lot? (Three books a month or more?)

 

[BigBear]

I won't cast a vote as I don't have it (PTSD). But in a small way I am a big reader and it is definitely an escape from my tiny traumas. Nothing near like you all have!

Bear

 

[ClairBear226]

Not only can I definitely say I've used reading as an escape, but I think it molded who I am for the positive. I didn't have much in the way of good parenting to learn my values from. Yet, I'm a person with a pretty strong moral compass. You would think, growing up with people who set such a poor example, that I would have followed their path. But reading everything I could get my hands on opened up paths I wouldn't have considered otherwise. I think it had a more positive effect on who I am now than what my upbringing did.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I didn't vote.... I'm not a big reader but I wouldn't say I only pick up a book when forced to and I don't use it to escape.

 

[ashdawn8287]

I LOVE to read. I have found through reading a way to heal rather than escape though. I started researching and digging up stuff about the effects of trauma this past year. I think reading is a healthy outlet.

If I start a book I won't put it down until I finish it.

 

[roaminggnome]

I have a B.A. in English and agree with you. I read so many books as an undergraduate and it was my escape. I had undiagnosed PTSD then. Faulkner was the worst and Chaucer the best for escaping. I needed a road map for Faulkner. Chaucer was in Middle English (I believe) and I had to tune everything else out in order to read it. Nowadays I don't read nearly as much but it still is an escape when I do. Even as a child reading was my escape from trauma.

 

[quic]

Reading must put us into a different part of our brain, because it is a great way to escape. I have found dozens of ways to escape or distract my mind. Television, gardening, painting, spending money, sex, eating, even running can be an escape. Reading seems to do more than just suppress the memories & flashbacks, it almost disconnects them by activating other areas of the brain.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Added... I think your poll needs more options. Some of us aren't avid readers but its not like we're idiots who only read when a gun is to our head, and we don't use it to escape.

 

[Jen93]

"I'm not a big reader and I don't use it to escape."

 

[franciemarnie]

I love to read. I always did even before the trauma years. It is primarily love of reading behind my love of books, but when it's been bad - my experience of life - the subject matter changes to help me. Then I read about how people get thru terrible things.

When I was burned out and going thru phases when I didn't sleep for months at a time and my mind was mush, I couldn't focus enough to read and then the greatest and easiest distraction was TV.

TV is what I turn to when I can't bear to think and be alone with my mind. I don't want the silence that goes with reading then.

 

[Abstract]

Even though I no longer use it to escape I still voted for the first option as it was such a huge part of my life.

I barely spoke to people and in many senses did not live in the world. I lived in books. It's just a shame I didn't read better quality books - that was partly just accidental and partly because I was trying not to feel as much as was possible.

I have been thinking about this recently and think it has left me with quite a bizarre mix of influences in speech etc.

These days my concentration problems stop me reading recreationally and I read but rather to connect rather than avoid and almost only non fiction and about psychology. I can't seem to do anything else. It may also be a way of feeling more in control in a sense.

 

[anthony]

I was #2... love to read, but I don't use it to escape anything, I read to either learn or enjoy a good story. I find it relaxing, calming, enlightening even at times, depending on the book being read, but it doesn't take me anywhere to escape from anything.