by Victoria Jeffrey

Created on: April 09, 2008   Last Updated: October 05, 2011

Once you get into a habit of watching a lot of TV it's a difficult habit to break; like drugs or alcohol, TV can soothe the nerves, lull you into a calm state or help you escape whatever is going on in your life that you find unpleasant. In fact, I think the reason why so many people get caught up in watching a lot of television is because of the escapism it provides. I speak from personal experience.

Yet, the escapism that TV provides is different from the type provided by books. You see, with books require your thinking abilities and your imagination. You have to do some mental work. Studies have shown that television rarely requires this much thinking. This is why we have phrases like "zoning out in front of the TV" and "boob tube" because, well, people DO zone out in front of their TVs. TV allows the brain to go on auto-pilot because it both tells and shows everything; doesn't require as much thinking or use of imagination.

If you come home and you are tired, irritable or disheartened after a bad day at work and you have to get dinner ready, do extra work from the office and clean the house or perform other chores, when you are finally able to relax you might want to "turn off" mentally. TV lets you do this, for hours on end.

There was a time years ago when I found myself caught in this TV watching trap. I was depressed and unemployed and so I had fallen into a habit of watching TV all day long because I felt that I had nothing else to do. It was back when the old sensational talk shows were just getting popular: Jerry Springer, Rickie Lake, Montell Jordan, Jenny Jones, Sally Jesse Raphael and so on. I had gotten to the point where I was watching about 10 hours of TV a day. How?

I fell into a pattern, starting in the early afternoon of old detective shows like Matlock, soap operas and then the trashy talk shows. Soap operas and talk shows are extremely addictive, especially the salacious ones I used to watch. I could zone out and not think about the fact that I was laid off and broke. I had nearly given up hope of finding work and TV became my escape. I felt very depressed because my job search had been unfruitful for about four months and I was broke.

It was easer to gawk at the problems of others instead of facing my own. I secretly felt better about myself when I watched the endless parade of attention starved people on these shows; I didn't have to think about bill collectors, late fees, my repossessed car, being nearly broke and living at home. I could

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