Being disconnected from reality. It is easiest to run away from troubles and lie to your own self and say "This is not happening" or "I can't deal with this" when in reality you have to deal with life and all that it brings because it IS happening. Life happens to everyone but how you respond to it makes all the difference.
This is why so many folk can be blinded by slick speeches from dictators and follow off the cliff like the Pied Piper leading mice. Disassociating. They believe a lie and convince themsleves the lie is true and that makes it easy to dissacoiate from having to deal with life allowing others to do their thinking for them and this allows them not to live in the real world where their greatest fear (which is...real problems) exist.