Easy answer: Yes there's no denying it, but maybe, as an essay writer, there's a longer answer. Many people would start to stress if they were asked to write 2 essays, more than 3 pages long, during a week, however, others would accept their fate and trudge along. The one question to ask is this, is Essay writing really as bad as everyone thinks and says?

As a person who takes two A-Level essay subjects, yes, definitely. Nevertheless, there are factors that need to be considered. For example, once you learn the structure and basics of an essay, and you are able to get into the flow, which is sometimes hard! then it is quite straightforward. Moreover, after writing a thorough plan and focusing on the points needed, the essay is just the easy part. A lot of people think of essays and just go, nope. But if you stop and think about it, it's really not that bad because while it takes a long time, stress, resources, brain-power, willpower and pen-ink, its really just a few pages of writing. 

This might be denial, but at the end of the day, it could be argued that essay questions are easier to answer than direct maths or science questions. Obviously an essay could be 40 marks while maths could be 1 but if you don't know a maths question, there is really no way out, but an essay question, you could struggle your way through a decent answer. 

Overall, when thinking about writing an essay, the first step is dreading it, but once into the flow, you can even go over the word count. Therefore, the answer to the question is Essay writing as bad as they say? Yes but that doesn't mean that it isn't doable!