Exercise or escapism?

International research has shown that using running to escape everyday stresses may lead to exercise dependence instead of improved mental wellbeing.


The study, published 25 January 2023 in Frontiers in Psychology, found that while various kinds of escapism can motivate people to take part in running, using running to escape from negative experiences, rather than using it to escape to positive ones, may lead to exercise dependence.

Specifically, the findings showed that people whose approach to escapism was about seeking positive experiences generally had better wellbeing, while those who were trying to get away from adverse experiences and feelings had more negative wellbeing.

Lead author, Dr Frode Stenseng, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology explained that recreational running offers many physical and mental health benefits – but some people can develop exercise dependence, a form of addiction to physical activity which can cause health issues, and signs of exercise dependence are common even in recreational runners.

“Escapism is often defined as ‘an activity, a form of entertainment, that helps you avoid or forget unpleasant or boring things,’ and many of our everyday activities may be interpreted as escapism,” Dr Stenseng said.

“The immediate psychological reward from escapism is reduced self-awareness, less rumination, and a relief from one’s most pressing, or stressing, thoughts and emotions, but little is known regarding its motivational underpinnings, how it affects experiences and the [longer-term] psychological outcomes.

“Accordingly, escapism may entail many adaptive and maladaptive psychological antecedents, covariates, and outcomes. However, few studies have been conducted on escapism as a motivational mindset in running.”

Escapism that is adaptive, seeking out positive experiences, is referred to as self-expansion and can help restore people’s perspective, whereas maladaptive escapism, by avoiding negative experiences, is called self-suppression and can act as a distraction from problems that need to be tackled.

“These two forms of escapism are stemming from two different mindsets, to promote a positive mood, or prevent a negative mood,” Dr Stenseng said.

“Escapist activities used for self-expansion have more positive effects but also more long-term benefits. Self-suppression, by contrast, tends to suppress positive feelings as well as negative ones and lead to avoidance.”

To investigate whether the concept of escapism could help explain the relationship between running, wellbeing, and exercise dependence, the team recruited 227 recreational runners from both sexes with widely varying running practices.

Participants were asked to fill out questionnaires which investigated three distinct aspects of escapism and exercise dependence: an escapism scale which measured preference for self-expansion or self-suppression, an exercise dependence scale, and a satisfaction with life scale designed to measure their subjective wellbeing.

The researchers found that neither mode of escapism was linked to age, gender, or the amount of time a person spent running, but both affected the relationship between wellbeing and exercise dependence, with self-suppression exhibiting a much stronger, significant correlation with dependency.

There was very little overlap between runners who favoured self-expansion and runners who preferred self-suppression, and even if a person who ran for self-expansion exhibited dependence, they were still more likely to have a more positive sense of their own wellbeing,

These finding led the team to conclude that an individual’s self-perception of lower wellbeing may be both a cause and an outcome of exercise dependency: their dependency might be driven by lower wellbeing as well as promoting it; and similarly, experiencing positive self-expansion might be a psychological motive that promotes exercise dependence.

“More studies using longitudinal research designs are necessary to unravel more of the motivational dynamics and outcomes in escapism,” Dr Stenseng said.

“But these findings may enlighten people in understanding their own motivation and be used for therapeutical reasons for individuals striving with a maladaptive engagement in their activity.”