Writing as Therapy

“I was an empty shell walking around the street, and writing made me feel like I had a soul.”

When I began taking writing classes earlier this year I felt exactly like this auther of this quote, John Mulligan. My father had died only a few months earlier. On top of it, I had lost my job as a writer, and was told that I wasn’t very good. I felt like I had been taken out behind the woodshed and beaten till I could hardly breathe.

Immediately after my dad passed away, I did a number of things to try to deal with my grief. I went to a grief support group, which turned out to be not so supportive. I tried counseling, but after a few weeks, the counselor kept trying to move me into talking about things that had nothing to do with what was so acutely painful for me: the loss of my dad.

In an attempt to distract myself from the pain, I took a writing class online. Suddenly, all the trauma that had seized me for four months came pouring out on paper. Emotions that I couldn’t find language to describe, finally had words that I could write down. I couldn’t speak them, but I could write them.

I remember seeing a story about a severely autistic man on PBS. He could hardly communicate verbally, but when he sat down at a piano, he played the most beautiful music. I felt like that man when I wrote. The traumatic scenes that had overwhelmed my mind started to make sense when I made stories about them.

For some, writing may be a powerful form of therapy. But for others, it can be a lifesaver.

Note: this entry was based on a CNN article, “Writing for Therapy Helps Erase Effects of Trauma.”