Writing as self-help

(Nimue)

I’ve said, in semi-jest on many occasions that blogging is cheaper than therapy, so here I am. With therapy you can in theory benefit from someone else’s insight and guidance. What little experience I had wasn’t that great, but talking can help, and writing works in much the same way.

Trying to explain something involves making sense of it yourself. The process of writing slows down thoughts and requires getting some order and coherence to them. That in itself produces insights and helps a person work through their experiences. I find that making sense of things is a significant coping mechanism of itself. Understanding can be an antidote to loss of power.

Being able to tell the story of what happened is empowering. Being able to share your version of events, and to apply your own meanings to an experience can give a lot back in face of something shitty. When the story is yours, it’s easier to feel less like a victim and more like a survivor. We all need to be the central character in our own tale, so simply expressing the experience can restore that if something has happened that makes you feel powerless.

Emotional processing can be difficult. Poetry can be a helpful form because it allows us to come at things from different angles. Writing poetry invites us to say what something was like, and to set logic aside for a while and get to grips with the way an experience landed. It’s a way of thinking that allows a person to make a different kind of sense of things.

For me there’s usually an extra stage. Some of the things I write to vent I just ditch. Usually what I’m trying to do is turn experiences into something that someone else can make use of. I find this helpful too – if sharing what I’ve been though can make life a bit easier for someone else in some way, that gives me something meaningful. It’s another good antidote to feeling powerless, as well.

Silence enables suffering. Silence hides the truth and lets injustice continue unchecked. When we share our stories, we start to create social change. We raise awareness and mutual understanding. We start to find that we are not alone with our issues, and that others care and want things to be better.

Writing invites inspiration. It creates a space where ideas and solutions might present themselves. Processing experience is necessary, but life is better when you can find a way forward. In the work of making sense of things, new ideas can emerge, and answers can be found. That can be magical and transformative.