The idea that writing can health whatever ails us certainly sounds absurd. “If it were that easy wouldn’t the world be a healthier, happy place.” You’d think. Something as easy as writing to heal doesn’t get millions of dollars behind it like the latest pharmaceuticals, expensive medical treatments and procedures.
The truth of the matter is that writing is a viable and important source for personal well-being regardless of what troubles you – both mentally and medically. This isn’t just a come-on or the latest craze to get healthier.
For more than 50 years, scientists have repeatedly shown through various studies that writing can have positive effects on both our mental and physical health. It is proven scientific fact that personal writing can help make you better with a wide-range of conditions and problems. Studies have been conducted all over the world on those with serious medical diagnoses like:
- Cancer
- HIV/AIDs
- PTSD
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Serious mental health diagnosis like schizophrenia
- Sexual abuse/rape victims
- Communication skills issues
- Uncontrollable grief
- Depression and/or self-esteem issues
- Students and children
Time and time again, studies have shown that expressing oneself through writing has great positive effects on both the mental and physical parts of a person.
Expressive writing has been proven to:
- Improve immune function
- Lower blood pressure
- Improve liver function
- Reduce anxiety and stress
- Reduce depression symptoms
- Improve memory function
- Reduce chronic illness symptoms
- Aid in substance abuse & addiction issues
- Improve relationship issues.
All while lowering a person’s need for medical doctor’s visits, missed days of work, and improve student grades.
SELF-HELP OR UNDER THE CARE OF A DOCTOR? IT DOESN’T MATTER
Writing as “therapy” can be managed as either a self-help aid or under the supervision of a mental health professional. In fact, medical doctors and general practitioners in England are being trained to encourage writing as therapy to their patients who are adverse to traditional therapy or aren’t likely to pursue professional help for psychological issues.
The British Journal of General Practice (Dec 2012) emphasized it as a new tool for general practitioners and doctors in their own practice. The study by Mugerwa & Holden (2012) found that if a patient was willing to disclose a psychological problem to their doctor, the chances of them repeating the problem to a professional stranger like a therapist was greatly diminish. Instead, writing was offered as an accessible and economical alternative that medical doctors would recommend to their patients with mental health issues. The study found the effects of doctor recommending writing would benefit both the patients’ mental and physical health.
Whether taking up writing for mental health is done individually, under the care of a doctor or mental health specialist, or being conducted in a group setting, the benefits of taking up writing is an easy way to improve your over all health.
Whatever you are struggling with right now, there is a solid chance that picking up a pen and piece of paper can lead to positive results. There really is nothing easier that expressing how you are feeling and what you are going through with pen and paper.
The truth is it may sound easy but we tend to ignore subjects that are hard to talk about in public or in the mirror with ourselves. I’m not talking about cancer or sex & sexuality. Those things seem to be much easier for us to talk about. The biggest subject we often ignore talking about is our own emotions.
Sure, you’ll hear someone say, “I was so mad I could scream” or “I was so happy I could cry.” Yet, you don’t often hear people say, “I’m depressed,” “I haven’t got over the heartbreak,” “I cry about how bad things are at night,” or “I have so much shame over this that I can’t look at myself in the mirror.”
Instead, our society teaches us to put on a mask of happiness and look like you have it all together. What would social media be without the false attitude of everything in my life is peachy, keen, jelly-bean living under the rainbow sun of everything’s alright.
After all, is that what late night binges of our favorite vice all about? Emotions about our mental or physical ailments are to taboo but drinking a twelve-pack, hooking up, smoking out, gambling away rent money all night is what we do to fix what ails us.
We’re all going through something and one of the easiest and well-documented ways to deal with whatever ails us – whether physical or mental is as simple as pulling out a piece of paper and a pen and writing about how we feel. Be skeptical all you want, the proof is in the science. We reference study after study below for you doubters to look up yourself.
If you are interested in exploring writing for your overall health or for a specific reason or no reason at all, explore these articles for ways to get started:
(LINKS)
If you remain skeptical that the simple act of writing can have such a profound effect on medical and psychological needs, don’t take my word for it. Click (LINK) for a list of sciencetific studies that demonstrate the claims here about the positive effects writing can have on an individual.
WRITE NOW THERAPY! 