Stress and reading for pleasure? Do they go together?

[Nelleh]

I would be interested to hear your views on reading for pleasure. I'm researching the topic for a dissertation and have a theory that we tend not to read for pleasure at times of stress - even though we generally find reading relaxing.

From your own personal experience, if I were to say 'story' to you - what would be the first thing that would come into your mind?

My research project is focusing on the assumption that teenagers tend to reduce or stop reading for pleasure. I'm trying to find out whether digital media or exams are the cause.

Your comments may or may not support my theory but they will be most welcome!!

I love reading and find getting into a good book can be a real escape at the end of a difficult day. Sometimes, when I've got a good book on hte go, I anticipate it secretly and joyfully all day long. So I suppose I don't really agree with your thesis. For me, stories = escapism and the basic desire to know what happens next. However, I will also say that a couple of times in my life when I have been ill wiht anxiety and depression, I have found my concentration for new novels is lacking, so I tend to stick to non-fiction, magazines, genre fiction etc at such times.

When I am stressed I escape into a familiar and well-loved novel, leaving reality behind.

Story=escape.

The more stressed I am the less time I have for new material, I read new and interesting books when I am calm and unharried. I also am more likely to go for simpler and less complicated books like YA and romance etc when tired/stressed.

When I am stressed and overworked I am unable to concentrate on reading. Even though reading relaxes me.
I would put it down to the short concentration span.

When my relationship was struggling i couldn't read a word i just couldn't concentrate on the book. But reading is an escape from normal day to day stress for me

I read with even more passion than usual when stressed. In one quite challenging work/life situation, I used to bury my head in the Harry Potter books. Since I left that job, I haven't been reading the HP books at all.

I always make time to relax with a book - to read for pleasure. Earlier this year was one of the most stressful times in my life. I made a point of going to a coffee shop three times a week to relax and just have time to read. Weirdly by setting it in a schedule it meant I could really relax and devote my "me time" to the pleasure of reading and a latte! At stressful times I read comfort authors and historical fiction where I escape to another world.

As a teen I was very stressed from school work and bullying. My pleasure reading then was absolutely escapist - Lace, Scruples, Jilly Cooper books. An escape from my real world.

I am having a tough time in various spheres of my life at the moment, and am turning to very escapist reading to help me through... to the point where my husband has commented negatively on the quantity of trashy fiction I am reading.

Reading 'proper/literary' books is what I do when things are okay. In times of stress I seek escape through genre and romance books. And I read a lot more. It is more absorbing than watching TV when you want to forget about the real world.

Kindles and fanfic websites have really exacerbated this tendency in me, as nobody can see what I'm reading now. Ten years ago you had to hold the book in your hand and face the disapproving looks.

Thank you all!

I am interested by the 'escapism' aspect of reading. I was expecting a few nostalgic comments about having been read to as a child - pleasure and reward - I clearly have some work to do on my theories!

I read in times of stress, just change what I read. When stressed, I love chick-lit, books like Lee Child's series, and so on. When I am not stressed, I'm more likely to read a range of stuff, read more classics, and try new things. Some books I still recall fondly as being my escape in times of extreme stress as well - Grisham's Runaway Jury in a terrible stressful part of my life in 1997, or My Sister's Keeper during a breakup in my early 20s, or Marian Keyes during university exams.

others have said I turned to reading during a period of stress last year and have continued ever since. I do read for pleasure but I found the escapism really helped to rein my emotions in a bit.

oops *Like others that should read!

I read around 8 books a week on average - I don't change the amount I read when I'm stressed but like Penelope, what I read changes depending on how I'm feeling. If I'm really sad or upset I go back to my childhood favourites (Frances Hodgson Burnett and the like) or go for easy reads like Agatha Christie, but I tend to have fairly eclectic taste in books anyway - sometimes I'll read a lot of sci-fi, other times I'll be more into literary fiction or travel books. The only time I read less is if I'm literally too ill/nauseous to hold/look at a book and then I tend to listen to audiobooks instead.

For me story = escaping into other worlds

It's interesting that you bring up nostalgia I don't remember being read to as a child, but my parents were great readers and I could read before I went to school so I suppose they did read to and with me. I have always read to my DD, do still do now and she is 11, she uses it as a comfort blanket and likes to curl up with me and we take it in turns to read to each other. I'll be interested to see whether her reading tails off, there are so many distractions for children these days but I have rule, no electronic gizmos at bedtime and she still likes to read in bed before lights out.

For me if I'm slightly stressed, by that I mean just the everyday levels that we are all exposed to, then being able to lose myself in a book is something I look forward to. If I'm high stressed I find I can't concentrate and flit from one thing to another.

I have always read for pleasure and was a bookworm child and teenager, but when I am stressed I can't concentrate on a story. I just lie in bed and worry instead.

When I'm stressed or depressed I can't read at all, for pleasure or otherwise, because I can't concentrate.

This is a recognised symptom of depression, so you're probably on to something.

I think now I perhaps read less when I'm stressed - though since acquiring a Kindle what I do is flick through Amazon downloading samples and reading them,which needs minimal concentration/brainpower!
In the past I read more in times of stress as an escape mechanism,I've discussed this with my best friend,another bookworm,and she does the same.
The only tie in to nostalgia would be reading an old favourite rather than something new-if your concentration is impaired it helps if you already know what is going to happen.
I didn't get read to once I could read (age 6,I think), except occasionally when we were ill,so no tie in with that for me.

I am therefore I read. I read when I'm stressed. I read when I'm not stressed. I have two English degrees, I suspect because they enabled me to read. I read when I had clinical depression, and when I got better. I read during meals (that is, except during the meals I have decreed are Reading Free, at which point my daughters, aged 9 and 11, look cross beause they want to read). I read on the loo. I read while preparing to go to sleep, and when I wake up. Reading is a non-negotiable for me. I am a logocentric obsessive, who make her living slinging the written word on the page and spend the rest of her time either slinging more words onto the page or consuming the pages onto which other people have slung the written word.

Like many of the others I tend to read rubbishy books when stressed. I can become quite obsessive, and read the whole series by a particular author. Even if they are a bit formulaic and repetitive.

When I am more relaxed I tend to read "proper" books. And when really relaxed, and with plenty time, I like to read books I am looking forward to, and save up specially.

Thats an interesting Q OP and i dont think it has a straightforward answer. My attitudes to reading are complex.

I have anxiety issues and specifically health anxiety. I cannot read anything where something bad happens to children, or someone has a terminal illness. I am having financial problems so anything to do with financianl strife would be hard for me just now, saying that, in the midst of my debt problems i read "crime and punishment" and loved it.

Thinking about teenagers stopping reading - i went to university as a mature student and didn't read much fiction during this time because i felt i should be reading stuff to do with my course so would stress if i read fiction.

I do find that if i am very stressed i don't tend to read, but then mumsnet also interferes with my reading too.

Are teenagers reading less now though? Don't they all read that twighlight series or soemthing?

Oh yes and if im stressed i can't concentrate.

Thinking back i read an awful lot as a teenager, loads actually, but i wasn't good at school, but read lots of chic lit, maeve binchey and horror novels - i can't read any of that stuff now. now im 41

I read when I am stressed. I recently had the most stressful and depressing event of my life and I curled up in bed with my kindle for about 3 days. I don't know if it helped but I ignored everything else (other than the dcs) while I read about 10 books really quickly. I am still miserable and am reading a lot more than I normally would, while ignoring other things that I should be doing.

yeah but no but yeah - sorry, im distracted right now and it would seem i can't write either when im stressed!

When I'm stressed I read but different things- more of the newspaper, magazines, short items and current affairs. When not stressed I read fiction, and when I'm feeling extra calm and relaxed I read longer more challenging fiction, historic or classic things.

I was an atypical teenager perhaps as that was when I read most in my life, probably. I stopped other things I'd done as a child and enjoyed, like art and craft at that age, but I increased the reading. I wasn't a particularly stressed teenager though.

Not sure about the "story" question. Maybe a children's book with a simple story.

have been a huge reader all my life and will always escape into a book, stressed/busy/worried or not.

had a particularly difficult time 2 1/2 years ago as my little boy was born weighing 1lb 11oz at 28 weeks (abroad)

at the time i was in the middle of reading the second book of the girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy, i couldn't continue with it and have never been able to finish it, or the third book. i remember at the time thinking, wow, things must be really bad if i can't even read a book... only time in my life this has happened.

I read newspapers, magasines and factual books and autobiographys to help with my work and always feel guilty and it's a waste of time when reading fiction. It is VERY rare for me to enjoy a fictional story and I love the achievement when I get the time to do it...last good read...Birdsong (when just published).

I never got into books as a kid because we studied a lot of Dickens as a class reader and I yawned when he took what seemed like 5 pages to describe a bystander. I blame school!!

I have loads of half read fiction books at the side of my bed. Including the rubbish 50 Shades of Grey.

I'm a bit sad aren't I.