Learn More About Reading Addiction
Filed Under Beating Addiction |Reading Addiction is arguably a real phenomenon. A person can, in fact, be addicted to reading.
This is not so much like chemical addictions, however, in which the body becomes physically dependent on a particular drug or substance. Nor is it like gambling or food addiction, either, where chemical processes occur in the brain when people engage in the addictive behavior.
No, reading is an addiction when it is used as a mechanism to avoid reality. A person can avoid facing life by reading all day. A person can also avoid facing themselves by reading all day. This is the only time that reading really becomes a problem.
The idea of being addicted to books is tricky, because reading is generally considered to be a good thing. But we all know that too much of a good thing can be bad for you as well. Therefore, we should take a closer look at the concept of reading addiction.
When does Heavy Reading Become an Addiction?
It all boils down to a person’s motives. If you are reading for pleasure, that’s great. If you are reading for knowledge or learning, that’s great too. Both activities are healthy, even when practiced in abundance. But if your true motive for reading is to escape reality, then you might be using reading in an addictive manner.
There have been times in my own life when I was reading books for over 8 hours a day. Since then I have achieved a great deal more balance.
This leads to us to the ultimate solution for a reading addiction. The cure is not to quit reading. The solution is not to “cut down” on the time you spend reading, either. “Cutting down” has such a negative vibe to it, and will probably lead you to resent the fact that you have to “cut down” on your reading at all.
So instead of cutting down, the key is to broaden your horizons and bring balance into your life through other activities. If you just sit on the couch and stare at the wall and focus on how you wish you were reading, it’s going to be awfully hard not to be miserable.
How Can I Help Someone Who Won’t Stop Reading?
People who are comfortable with their reading addiction do not want to hear about it. It is an escape mechanism for them and they use heavy reading in order to deal with reality. Typically, a person who is addicted to books has also justified their reading to themselves. That means that they have talked it over in their own mind and decided that their heavy reading is not unhealthy.
This is called denial.
Helping someone to break through this kind of denial is not an easy task, regardless of what type of addiction you are dealing with. People tend to cling to what they are comfortable with and what they understand. Change of this kind never comes easy. In order to best help a person who is clearly using books as an escape from reality, here are some things you might try:
* Engage them in alternate activities. This is a simple enough strategy, but it can be very discouraging to keep trying and offering new things if a person simply doesn’t respond and take the bait. Get creative and use everything you know about the person’s potential interests.
* Plan a vacation with a demanding schedule. The idea here is that they won’t have time to lounge around and read. Think survival camping adventure or a trip to Disneyworld. Anything that is action-packed will be a powerful distraction from reading.
* Draw them out of themselves by enlisting their help with something. People like to feel needed. Get your bookworm to feel important by helping you to do something genuinely important and significant.
Remember that people with reading addiction don’t want to hear you say that they shouldn’t read so much. Keep focusing on the pro-active approach and try to restore balance to their life. If they start to enjoy other activities, then your efforts in helping them will be proven successful!
Photo by lorenz3474909367 and ckaroli
People who have successfully overcome an addiction to reading do not necessarily quit reading altogether. Instead, they achieve balance in their life and no longer use reading as a way to escape into a fantasy world and avoid dealing with their own life.
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17 Responses to “Learn More About Reading Addiction”
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Great post Pat. You don’t hear a lot about reading addiction but it can be a problem.
As a child I used to escape the real world by pretending I was a character in Alice in Wonderland, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, or whatever I was reading at the time.
At the time, I didn’t see it as a problem, but looking back, it was, as I spent far more of my time reading, or taking part in the adventures of these books than I did in the real world.
Thank you for this great article. I’ve been reading for almost 6 to 8 hours a day and I couldn’t explain what was happening.
I think you should post your article to wikipedia to let more people know about reading addiction.
I’m addicted to reading online stories or fanfictions that I sometimes spend 10 hours in front of the computer surfing the net for more. It’s actually disturbing and I can’t stop. Everytime, I try to cut down my computer usage and book reading but I just can’t seem to stop. It seems that I don’t have resolve enough to quit or to lessen it somewhat. Its disturbing.
This is an excellent post. I love reading, but I don’t think I ever used it as an escape from the real world. Occasionally I will take a day to read for example when the latest Harry Potter book came out. I read it in one day. That’s something I haven’t done in a long time. I rarely have that type of free time.
As much as I wanted to do that with Lord of the Rings I could not accomplish that in one sitting. That took e a few weeks. I read two hours nightly. Thankfully I’m a fast reader.
I definitely had this problem when as a child and adolescent. I would read through all my classes in middle school and high school. I was escaping from unpleasant emotions and depression. As an adult I struggle with heroin, alcohol and cocaine. When I quit alcohol about 50 days ago I noticed my reading skyrocketed.
No people, I’m talking about a real adiction,not an escape from reality. I don;t even like to read, for me it is not pleasureable, but I can’t stop myself. If it is there it must be read. It doesn’t matter if it is a phone book or dictionary or a piece of litature. A trip to the market to buy a carton of milk turns into a 2hr project because as I go down an asile something will catch my eye and the next thing I know I am reading everything, all the little signs and cans and boxes and magizine covers, Its so bad when i go to a friends house and am enjoying their company if there is anything to read I will start to read it and soon I will be trying to do both listen or playing a game and read and I don’t even like to read. I pick up discarded newspapers at mcdonalds and other places thinking I will read that and I can’t throw them away until I do. I have newsppapers that are 2weeks old I am still trying to read.This is not an escape. I don’t know what to do.
Both me and my son are addicted to reading. My son reads everything he can get his hand on. From coupon paper, my old magazines to a mail a flyer. If I got library books for him, he would like finish all of books in a very short days before doing anything else. He reads books during school resess when other kids play. I am addicted to online reading and read almost every night. Somtimes, I cut my own sleep to three and four hours in order to finish a story. I tried to cut my computer time and everything, but it didn’t work either. I tried new activities - drawing class, exercise, etc.. It helps a little, but not solve the whole problem. I just feel really happy and content when I read, it’s like I am living inside books and explore different words and experience differnt lifes.
I think it’s worth pointing out again the difference between “escape through fantasy” versus “obsession with consuming printed words.” There is a real difference there, and if you are escaping your life or your reality through reading, I think there is potential there for other addictions as well…such as drug, food, sex, or gambling addiction.
On the other hand, it sounds like there are some folks out there who are genuinely addicted to the process of reading itself…not for the sake of the story, not for the sake of fantasy and escape from reality, but just for the scanning of pages and the consumption of written words. If that addiction actually exists, I have no idea what classification of mental disorder it actually is, nor what a person should try to do to remedy the condition….
Any thoughts on that?
I need HELP! But not for myself, my 17 year old son who will not be graduating from high school as he should in a few weeks because he has spent most of his entire life engrossed in books. Mostly fantasy fiction. I truly woul appreciate any suggestion/help that anyone has to offer. It has been a strain on our family for years. I could go on for pages and pages here…
Thanks!
I can somewhat relate to your son, Jill, because I went through a brief period in late middle school and early high school when I read a TON of sci/fi and fantasy books. I was reading like one book each day almost, and it consumed my life for a while. This was enjoyable, obsessive, and quite comfortable. It was an escape. I don’t really know how or why I quit reading so much then, but I eventually later found drug addiction, so I guess this doesn’t really tell us much.
I think the key is to encourage balance with someone, and if they stay obsessed, the best you can do sometimes is get out of their way and let them screw up for a while. Like I said, reading addiction was but a phase for me, and it only lasted for about a year or so….
Anyway, good luck to you and your son, Jill.
I spend at least 5 to 8 hours a day reading on the computer reading blogs, news sites, newspapers, foreign newspapers, magazine archives, etc. I also love to watch newsworthy videos on youtube and read the comments and reply on the comments. It’s really hard to stop. It’s definately addictive. I don’t really read fantasy, mostly informational and geo-politics.
My husband reads upwards of 10-15 substantial books each week. Sometimes, on vacation weeks, he can devour over 3 a day. This does not include the 4 magazine, 3-4 newspapers, and countless online readings.
It so happens that I really liked that when we were dating… he is very smart and knowledgeable with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for more.I love a smart man! He has recently taken to downloading blogs for our iPod too. He will keep one ear piece in his ear while driving, cooking, or whatever he is doing - even having conversation with others. He seems to get very moody though and b/c we have FOUR children, I need him to put the G-D books down and do some work around the house or at least engage with us on a deeper level. I think his is a combination of a real need to read for knowledge and pleasure and a true escape. I think it makes him depressed when he has to join reality. Should he see someone… I have brought it up, and like your post says, he definitely sees his reading as a gift, not a thorn. He is fine with his level of reading - no, let me restate, he would love to be alone in a deserted library for an undetermined amount of days. HELP - before I start wanting to burn books and ban the library.
For those of you who like reading, here is a little addition:
In my dream last night, beside my bed, I encountered a funny species that look like a spider when it first crawled towards me, very thin body (abdomen, head) and extremely elongated limbs. I tried to kill it, but when I hit its body, it winded its limbs around the instrument I was using for killing (was I using stick or shoes?); I hit it many times, when finally the spider changed its shape and become a spring like creature and jumped in the air, like a compressed spring does when released; I was now scared, moved back a little and watched this unusual creature; the creature kept coming towards me, it touched my trousers and started moving up my legs, I tried to tear it away from my legs, worse, the creature could subdivide and kept on growing, these time like a fungus that grows on trees (the fungus that has tiny but long and intermingling stems, like algae), so these creature started to grow and expand on both my legs (my trousers); holy shit… I struggled to clean myself of this creature from my trousers, or tried to tear it away, and finally I peeled it from my left foot (I don’t remember what I did with the other part on my right foot, I presume I simply tore my trouser, the part that contains the creature’s body), lots of fungus that look like fluffy sponge, there it was on the ground with all its might, calm, like a fallen tree, I was scared that it would raise again, I was relieved to walk up.
Since people are going to avoid reality, I’d much prefer that they read books than smoke meth or play video games. I wish “reading addiction” was an epidemic. The world would be a better place for it.
I think I am a reading addict, and it’s starting to affect my studies. I usually read minimum 10 hours per day and it’s too hard for me to control myself.
Great post by the way. Thank you for the information
I have a younger sister who is definitely addicted to reading. Every day, for hours on end, she’ll either sit in front of a computer reading fan fiction or sit in her room reading a novel.
Books have become an absolutely unhealthy life line for her. Her addiction runs so deep that she’s stopped attending school, period. doesn’t see her friends, and doesn’t participate in any extra curricular activities.
She’s a fourteen year old who seems to be on shaky ground lately, and any help we try to get seems to be leading to walls. Passed on from counselor to counselor, even psychiatric help. Medications, all of it. Of course, as said, she wants none of it. No help, because to her, everything is just fine the way it is. She likes the fantasy outside of reality she’s created for herself.
I live two hours away from my sleepy home town, where my family lives, and it’s extremely difficult for me to influence the situation from the outside.
What I’m getting at is that these sort of addictions really do need to be taken seriously. It’s taken over her entire life, and I’m so relieved to finally find some answers for questions that have been consuming my family’s lives for about a year now. Maybe now I can pass down some of this information and get some real plans for getting her on the right track.
This article is greatly appreciated
I have been addicted over the last weeks too, but I noticed it happening. I could think of nothing else at work, I did nothing else then reading and I didn’t have contact with some of my friends anymore.
I now talked it over with some people, and this makes me feeling better, as like some pressure went of my shoulders.
I’m now starting to do other things too, drawing, sporting and this helped me to keep the reading time down.
If you feel that you are addicted, try to lay the book away and start doing something else, just to see if it interests you.
Thank you for this article