I would like to say that I'm a fairly healthy person mentally.  I got into roleplaying as a result of a couple of random chance encounters with people who seemed to be acting through a video game that I played a lot.  I was probably 7 or 8 at the time and didn't really understand the idea yet, but it felt like they were creating a story as they were going, and that kinda just stuck with me as I grew up.

My personality has changed quite a bit in that time, though RPing took a back seat between second and tenth grade, which is when I kinda re-discovered it; more importantly a more refined version of it as opposed to impromptu scenarios played out through videogames and shit.  In that timespan, I tended to get fucked around with in school.  I wasn't without friends, but in classes where I didn't have any good friends I tended to get singled out.  That made me go from outgoing and friendly to reserved and cautious about anything even remotely social.  I also somewhat believe, though cannot confirm, that this may have also triggered some mild depression that stuck with me pretty much since eighth grade.  In my experience, it generally seems to be caused by the perception that tons of people I'm surrounded by seem to make new friends so easily, and I, as of yet, haven't made any more good friends since High School.

Sorry, ranting and getting off topic.  Anyways, writing started to become a thing with me in High School.  I enjoy, and really always have enjoyed, making stories.  I'm not sure if there's any correlation between my mental state and my writing, or RPing, with the possible exception that me getting burnt out on stories after so long tends to fuel a dissatisfaction with my own creativity, partially because I'm always wanting to change things, and then realize I'd have to rewrite so much shit that I'd just stop it completely for lack of wanting to put in the effort to completely change it.  Like, I can create these things in my head, but manifesting them in any physical medium takes so much goddamn time and effort and polishing and refining that I burn myself out and stop coming up with any more ideas for it; not because I don't want to, but it just becomes a mental block.  I just sit there and wonder "How the fuck do I want to press on from here."

It helps when there's other participants to keep pushing the story forward.  You may run into a block for a bit, but then the story may progress a bit and you'll find yourself reinspired.  I think for me, a large part to blame is a lack of focus and decisiveness.

God damn, that was way more long-winded and ranty than I had intended.  And I realized that I completely missed the point of this thread.

As far as escapism goes, I used to think of it that way, but now, at least from my perspective, I just see roleplaying as a pasttime.  I'm sure that's a completely subjective aspect about roleplaying that's more reflective of one's personality than anything that's causal of roleplaying.  Is it unhealthy?  That also depends on the person.  From what I've seen on the forums, most people don't seem to be allowing roleplaying to negatively affect their psyche.

Now that I think about it, for those who do have struggles in their lives, they may view RPG as a source of stability.  The stories can vary wildly in every sense, but the process is the same.  You come up with an idea, you get a few people onboard, and you start collaborating and contributing your own pieces to that idea.  You've committed to an ongoing process; something that could be a source of accomplishment.  You're improving your writing skills, and your ability to adapt to changing scenarios when someone throws a curveball into the story.

Really, I'm sure roleplaying serves a different purpose for everyone in their own ways, but I think that it's somewhat rare to see any legitimate cases where roleplaying has any adverse effects on one's psyche, or exacerbates any existing issues.  Possibly in my case, it's a social gathering; everyone is fairly like-minded enough, and generally welcoming.