Word Therapy

Hi, how are you? I mean, how are you really?

I recently read a post claiming that writing can help people to deal with trauma. I started writing seriously during the Covid pandemic, not long after I re-found my love of reading. It’s amazing what we discover about ourselves when we suddenly have free time. I learned that the creative part of me had been swallowed by life – work, keeping a house running, parenting, all the stuff that seems to fill every minute of every day until we wonder where the years went. Running from one task to another, trying to tick off every item of that to-do list but never quite achieving it, we berate ourselves for failing. we forget who we are and why we tried so hard to give ourselves up when this passion is simmering within us, hidden under a fatigue that wont go away, no matter how much we try to sleep.

I found that what had been missing in my life was the ability to express myself. When I started writing, I felt lighter, relieved of some of the burden that I and others had put onto me. I believe wholeheartedly that writing is a form of therapy. To put your thoughts and feelings into words, to see them in black and white- it’s freeing, it’s healing – it helps us to order our ideas, to name our emotions, to seek out solutions and basically just to get it off our chest. We are told that ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’, but this doesn’t mean we have to talk about it. Lots of people, for lots of reasons, prefer not to talk about their problems; maybe they perceive them as trivial when compared to others, or maybe they feel that no-one would understand. Maybe they don’t want someone to ‘fix’ the problem, or they’re worried about how they will be perceived.

Writing is the perfect answer. And the best of it is, anything goes. You can let the savage loose, write whatever you like, whatever makes you feel better. I like to funnel my emotions into creative writing – every one of my stories has at least an underlying current of experience, of history, of anger or sadness or fear. You can write a journal, explain your feelings, describe your activities, regurgitate your conversations. Write lists, write what your future plans are, or make amends with a person from your past. Write a mess of swear words, make them bold and large font. Delete it. Print it. Tear it up. Whatever you do, don’t post it online – writing itself will quash your anger and every writer knows the importance of proofreading and of letting something sit. No, this writing therapy is for you and you alone.

I dare you to try it – to make your feelings make sense, get them out of your mind, your soul, because only then can you begin to heal, to regenerate, to live at a level of mental tranquillity that will protect you from losing your mind in an insane world.

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