Escapism

 

Some people have gone as far as smoking scorpions. You wouldn’t believe me but please fact check it on google, what you find there should shock you into seriousness. Yet the real issue is not the strange substance of the day. It is the deeper disease of escapism that is quietly destroying many lives in Eswatini.

People turn to drugs, alcohol, endless scrolling, gambling, and other distractions because they cannot bear to face the truth about their situation. The truth may be poverty. It may be deep hurt. It may be the painful knowledge that one is hated, broke, or completely directionless. Instead of sitting with that reality, processing it, and allowing it to teach hard lessons, many choose to run. The easiest and most available exit is chemical or digital escape.

The push factors are clear: unemployment, broken families, unmet expectations, and a sense that life has no clear path forward. The pull factors are equally strong: the temporary numbness, the cheap thrill, the brief feeling that reality has been switched off. Yet every escape has a cost. The more one runs, the weaker the ability to face life becomes. Dreams die. Relationships collapse. Health deteriorates. Young people with talent end up in cycles of addiction or crime. Some simply fade away.

What we are witnessing is not merely a social problem. It is a refusal to let truth do its work. Truth, even when painful, is a teacher. It shows us where we are, what must change, and where we need help. When we reject that teacher, we remain stuck in the same pit, feeding whatever vice will keep the pain at a distance for a few more hours.

A generation is trading real purpose for cheap dopamine. They wake up emptier than before. The dirt of a life lived in constant flight from reality is emptiness and decay. No amount of distraction can permanently silence the inner voice that knows something is wrong.

There is another way. It begins with the courage to stop running. It requires honesty before God and before oneself. Many have discovered that in the moment of honest surrender, when the hand is finally lifted upward instead of reaching for the next escape, help arrives. Sometimes it comes as clarity. Sometimes as renewed strength. Sometimes as unexpected support. God still answers those who stop fleeing and choose to face the truth.

Escapism may feel like relief in the short term, but it is a slow death of potential. Facing reality is harder at first, yet it is the only path that leads to growth, healing, and genuine freedom.

The future of this nation depends on individuals who refuse to keep running. We must learn to process the truth rather than escape it. Only then can we rise and be wise. 

Thabiso PraiseGod Phakathi