Therapeutic Value of Writing
Writing is both very healing and very therapeutic.
Writing – or journaling – is an important part of processing difficult emotions, complicated situations, and complex layers of life’s experiences.
Writing is a way to process trauma, and can be another way to tell without telling. It is a way to explore your experiences, a way to figure out what you think, a time to process how you feel, and a time to gain greater insight.
Writing is a means for putting the “poisons outside of yourself and onto the paper” thus freeing up your mind, body, and spirit for more positive or peaceful activities.
For the dissociative person, journaling also becomes an excellent way to increase internal communication, encourage co-consciousness, and develop system cohesiveness. Many internal conflicts can be addressed through the use of journaling. Writing helps the parts to bond and become friends with one another. As each part gets to know and understand the thoughts and behavior of the other parts, the need for blatant separateness decreases.
The ability or “permission” to write to the other parts (or not!) is a very clear metaphor for how much communication is allowed to take place in the system, and can be used as a means of measuring progress. The more everybody is allowed to write to each other, the greater the proof that genuine healing, growth, and progress have taken place.
In addition to personal work, there are many benefits to doing clinical treatment and therapeutic work in a written format. Writing is good for you!
Furthermore, Dr. James Pennebaker, a psychologist at the University of Texas, has extensively researched the therapeutic value of writing. He has found that writing about life’s traumatic or stressful events for 20 minutes per day for a minimum of three consecutive days leads to noticeable health improvements, such as lifting depression, decreasing physical pain, improving the immune system, etc.
This means that, not only is writing a good thing for you to do on an emotional level, it also literally helps on a physical level as well.
Writing IS good for you!
So, let’s get started. Because when you:
- write in your own personal journal,
- or write on a blog,
- or write letters about your stressful situations to a friend,
- or send emails to your therapist
- or write your own songs,
- or write poetry,
- or write short stories,
- or write to your other insiders about your thoughts and feelings of today, or your memories of yesterday
- or write creative comforting stories for your little ones
Your writing will benefit you and your health.
Write, write, write!
WRITING IS GOOD FOR YOU!
I wish you the best in your healing journey.
Warmly,
Kathy
Copyright © 2008 – 2018 Kathy Broady MSW and Discussing Dissociation
I thought I would bring this topic to the top, because I feel it is such an important thing that we can do, to write to write down our feelings to be able to espresso selves when we feel like we have no one to express them to.
Take care all…
My/selves+Me
10-05-22
A great reminder My/Selves+Me. Thanks for bringing this article back to the top. I was inspired to write my T a long message about some things that were coming together or rather starting to make sense to me in a connecting the dots kind of way. I will have these kinds of insights, usually shortly after my therapy session and then … poof … they will be gone. I don’t know if it is because I am just forgetful or insiders bury the information again or I just do not want to remember but I will get into session the next week and will not know what it was that I found out. So, this time I was determined not to loose the information so I wrote it all out. Then I emailed it to my T because I was afraid that it might get deleted by an insider or put somewhere where I could not find it. So she has it … it is out there … it cannot be lost.
So ya … going to get into the practice of writing down my thoughts and encouraging my insiders to do the same.
ME+WE
11-14-22
11-23-20
Today I’d like to write about something that happened last night. A few weeks ago, I had bought a wooden hand drum (called a Cahon drum)… it came. I love music. So I have bought several musical items to enjoy.
Well, my “inside family” also enjoys music. Hooray!!!
But of course, money is a factor I have to consider. So last night I was thinking of returning the wooden drum. But for some reason (?LOL?) I got it out and was quietly playing it while my husband was watching tv.
After playing with it for a little while, I felt the importance of writing in my journal. I write in shorthand so nobody can read it. … keeping it very private. (When in high school, many years ago, I took shorthand… and loved it…. and I was very happy when one of my inside family wanted to continue with the shorthand and she is helping me so much!!!… she is the same age as when I took shorthand in school.)
So while writing in my journal, it was made absolutely clear to me that the drum was important, and that it was mostly for my inside little ones, and older ones too, for them to be able to express themselves through music.
I came SO close to returning that drum, and I would have if I had not listened to what was going on inside, and let them speak through writing in the journal.!!!
Wow… what a relief!!!
Thank you to all for sharing your experiences, and thank you so much to Kathy for writing these wonderful and instructive articles, and for letting us make comments, where it is safe, and we do not feel so alone!
Sincerely, Rosepetal+
Shorthand!! Awesome! I never learned it – but my mother did and I would be fascinated by all those squiggle marks that she would call “words”…..What an ingenious way to keep your journal private! A lot better than trying to find a “super-good” hiding spot…..
And SO glad you “listened” to your writing and kept the drum….It can be such simple things sometimes that will make an Insider – especially a “little” – very happy…. 🙂 I have one little who is absolutely thrilled with ice cream – but I have to just let it be a special treat for him because hubby is amazed at how much ice cream I can eat….I can out eat him in ice cream in heartbeat… 🙂
Steps like yours indeed make our situation more “real” to us…and it makes Insiders happier, too!!…..
MissyMing
11/25/20
MissyMing,
I’m kind of quiet right now.
Thank you so much for all your support.
It means so much to me / us.
…
11-30-20
No problem Rosepetals+! We’ve been there…. 🙂 Just wanted you to know we all are here for you ….. whenever…..
MissyMing
Read all of ya’ll’s comments here….interesting! Tried to do a “self-history” one time but it threw me when I saw the gaps on the time line…..I seem to mainly get a “flash” picture of something rather than a “flow of memory”……it is disconcerting to see your life in “snapshots” of…. my ducks coming across the creek….my dog eating out of his bowl, a “flash” of crude pottery I made out of clay dug from the creek sand…a “snapshot” of me sitting at a desk in school…….where is the “rest of my life”???…..The snapshots that have any sense of ‘feeling” or “story” to them are about my critters ….. others are just “pictures”……with the “awareness” that there is a “detached emotion off to the side”…….feels weird….
I also understand the fear of someone reading stuff I wrote…..it is finally OK for T to read yuck stuff….and ya’ll to read basic processing…….I used to do my own journaling at home….can’t do it anymore…..I don’t ever feel like I have a good enough “hiding place” for it……If I write it and tear it up – then there is “panic” that I “made up” whatever it was I wrote and now I can’t remember what it was…..
The greatest fear is it being read by someone who doesn’t “understand” and thinks I am imagining stuff….. someone who would tell me that there is something “wrong” with me……I ALREADY, more than they can imagine, feel like “something is wrong” with me…..I don’t need an Outsider AGREEING with me ….I know it would be the same phrase used by BOTH of us…but I also know that what THEY meant by it would be WAY different from what “I” meant by it….and I wouldn’t know how to “defend” myself and would be left overwhelmed by confusion…….
I haven’t stepped into trying to ‘interview parts”…..sounds interesting…..but I think it would require more of an actual “awareness” of a part’s existence than what I have right now…..I am still mostly in the “Land of Repercussions” that let me know a part must be there – the triggers are too intense…..I have seen “one-time” flashes of “something” happening to an Insider – but now I don’t know if I “dreamed” it or not…….
So – onward in my journey of Internal Communication…..learning more to “see” them and “hear” them……this journey seems to be SO, SO long…….
Hi MissyMing,
I appreciate your posts so much. Thank you.
I learn from you. This morning I was thinking how this forum (comments etc) seems like a group therapy session. I like it. It is helping me to learn not to be so afraid of communication. To be able to listen and to be able to talk with my inside family.
I can feel my mouth right now is clamped tight shut! I wonder why? Ummm?
Anyway thank you for welcoming me.
11-25-20 Rp+ 🌺
Hi RP+!
Writing is always MUCH easier for me than talking it Outside….when my Outside ears “hear” what I am saying – I feel like I am supposed to shut up because I am wrong, wrong, wrong…making everything up….
Somehow writing it seems to greatly lessen the struggle and I can get much more processing done – which is important for Insiders….And having a place to write where there are others who understand what I say makes the processing SO much easier….
Glad you are here! Keep checking out what you are sensing and feeling – like your mouth “clamped tight shut” – Insiders have unique ways of letting us know their needs and fears….we just need to learn to recognize that it is them!
MissyMing
11/27/20
WOW, DK, having to write a self history would be the worst thing for me to do. Hope it helps you somehow.
I used to write every day, kind of stuff to do with my Christian faith and stuff like that but recently the internal noise has become so loud and disturbing I’m just trying to keep myself together. I don’t really like journaling and then finding different hand writing that makes me realise I’ve zoned out. I’m really tired of this journey and wonder if it will every cease. I’m 53, male and don’t know any other men who journal the sort of stuff I do or who have DID. I guess today, I’m tired, incredibly sad and overwhelmed, I want someone to take control and stop all the inner chaos. Anyway this is the first time I’ve ever written on a blog and it’s about journaling anyway so I’ll sign off. Not sure if this will get posted anyway. Sorry if it’s not ok to write what I have. I’m new to this.
Hi, SR. Nice to meet you. I’m T.Clark, a male in your age range. I used to journal tons. Like fill a journal every 4-6 weeks when I was just getting to know my parts and then I went like 3 months without filling a journal. Now I journal a paragraph to about 3 pages per day.
A prompt has really helped me. Every night I have my phone remind me to (1) list 3 good things that happened today and (2) why they happened. It builds gratitude (sometimes I really have to reach: like, I ate food) and the “why” probably helps my parts see how much influence they have in goodnesses.
The field of Positive Psychology has some really motivational stuff.
I’ve been reading about meditation and taking notes, which gets me writing and thinking. I write some poetry, I write mantras and color them. I blog. I have been absent from here for a while but have found the community here amazing.
Welcome! 11/26/18
Hi SR,
I just wanted to say welcome and glad that your chimed in. You’re right, it is difficult to journal at times. Others it’s like the floodwaters come flooding down. At least for me. This reminds me I need to write more, so thanks for saying something. Keep at it, if you want.
MultipleMe
11/27/18
Hello MultipleMe,
Over the years I’ve filled so many journals. And I stopped for a while. Now I’m journaling again.. but not as much as I should. I know it helps.
When I read your words, it was a gentle reminder to me.
Thank you.
Rosepetals+ 🌹
I love the idea of journaling and it has helped in my healing. My new intensive psychiatric rehabilitation program has assigned me the task to write a self history. It feels daunting and some blockers don’t want to do it. We tried to write about ages/types of trauma and caused system shut down into crying for days on end. We are finally doing a bit better but we are not sure how long this will take. I also try to do journaling on a regular basis and it has helped. Also an old therapist encouraged me to write and then burn a letter if needed to get some anger feelings out.
Dear T. Clark,
I feel for you. There’s writer’s block for important writing (work related) and there’s writer’s block for journaling. I know both. I’m a writer too. It is so hard to be where you are when you posted in August. It sounds like vacation was detrimental to your healing. Can your family vacation without you? I wonder if your wife knows how much it set you back??
I have tried to get my parts to write. Some laugh and scoff. I have interviewed one without her knowing it. That was good because I got to know more about her. Everyone wants to talk about themselves! I wonder if you could try this with your parts who are putting up barriers?
Hoping this finds you in lighter spirits,
Lolly
Wow, Lolly, it was so nice to read your words. I have had luck with one part interviewing protectors, so great suggestion. I wound up going in-patient for 20 days to get back on track, and I’ve been doing better. Been home a month and I really have trouble with empathic boundaries.
I don’t think I’ve self-advocated enough about the toll of vacations. I will have to. You are right. Thanks for suggesting it. Since in-patient, my journaling is unblocked, I got a new trauma therapist, and I feel like I have some positive structure. Having to think about it big-picture helps me see all the good things I accomplish, whereas I feel critiqued in real-time. Another possible benefit of writing. I think it was Wordsworth who described poetry as “emotion recollected in tranquility.” Maybe journaling when I’m calm can help with seeing my progress, while journaling during tougher times can help vent and apply coping strategies.
Hope to talk to you again and hear more about your writing. 10/24/18
Hi,
Wow Pilgrim. That is awful that your T dumped you and you find it hard to journal now. And yes it can be scary the idea that someone can see what you have written. I hide my writings on my computer. The DD website is a safe place to write too.
T.Clark, you said, “We haven’t been writing here because we are so low on resilience that we can’t help others. Trying to preserve energy to stay afloat.” I just wanted to tell you that we are here for you. You do not have to help others. You can just write for yourself and let us help support you. There have been many, many times that you have written such lovely supportive postings to others. You do not have to do this all of the time. We can help you just survive if that is what you need to talk about right now. Sometimes just talking here lifts my spirits – just getting the garbage out of my head to make space for some of the good healing stuff to enter in. And oh wow … you know writing on a professional level. I teach as well (at a university level) and understand research and writing from that perspective (and with my father’s hypercritical, perfectionist voice in my head). So I think that I understand a little about the difficulties that writing can offer. When I learned about my dyslexia six years ago, I let go of my obsession with perfection … I had too … my brain was working against me and it was driving me crazy. Maybe it is time for you to try and take off your teacher/copywriter/academic/perfectionist hat T.Clark and just let your words flow without editing, overthinking, fussing, worrying about being embarrassed, etc. Just let yourself be. I, for one, always welcome hearing your voice here.
ME+WE
08/06/18
Writing has slowed to a trickle. Used to fill a journal in 4 weeks. It’s been 3 months with current journal. Definitely sign of less internal communication.
AJ doesn’t write much because he’s our angry part and writing is too slow for his thoughts. (Hey, AJ, you could type. We type fast.)(Yah, maybe.) He’s little and not really into chronicling his thoughts. He’s concerned with being tricked or embarrassed and recording your thoughts could humiliate you later.
Punisher is also little and not much of a writer. He seems to be pre-verbal a lot. Very young.
OCD (part name and a diagnosis) likes writing. Journaling challenges him so many ways: form each letter nicely. He corrects “e” sooo often, tries to write small and edge to edge to save/hoard/maximize space. We challenge these compulsions (Punisher gets rewarded whether we give in and perform a ritual or not, so he lets us journal).
We try to write fiction. These protector parts pose barriers in addition to those mentioned already: perfectionism, fiction writing can lead to down-the-rabbit-hole dissociation, which is often detrimental emotionally.
We haven’t been writing here because we are so low on resilience that we can’t help others. Trying to preserve energy to stay afloat.
Vacation is our devil. We take weeks or months to recover. Not worth going and still we go to experience nature, change of scenery, make outside family happy (wife and kids). Been back for 6 weeks and have lost almost a year’s worth of progress. Can’t find the healing info inside. Should read old journals or look at old art. Protectors preventing it. They rule the system. T asked for adult awareness. We can’t grasp “adult.” Have we ever been that? How to get one back when little protectors won’t allow?
We were a writing teacher as our job. We were a copywriter before that. We went to school to teach composition. We value writing and this is taking so much energy and courage. AJ tried to delete all this. OCD says that would be a waste. It’s fighting over HOW to hurt yourself (erase plea for help or post embarrassing information?).
We cannot function in life these days. Maybe some future day. Writing. Writing is thinking, processing, trying. Write long enough and your parts may want to get their say. Bubble letters are fun! We color them in with marker sometimes when they let us. Yay. 8/4/18
We still don’t be able to write in a journal. Because of people who looked in them. And also we used to journal lots for our old therapist. And then she dumped us. So journaling still makes us think of doing therapy with her. And we don’t want to be reminded of her. So we still can’t write stuff in a journal. And because someone might find it.
We have old journals though. Like from high school. We sound crazy in them. Lots of inside people writing and talking to each other and yelling and lots of different hand writing. We be afraid of anyone ever seeing them. It would be too embarrassing.
We used to write in journals.then he found them in their hiding place and read them and we got in big trouble. Huge trouble. After that we couldnt really write stuff down. We dont like words on paper. Most of anything we had left, we tore up burned last year. Its not safe to have stuff written down even now.
Pilgrim..
I agree I’m not writing anything….anyways they all think I’m nuts anyway.
And why is everyone so happy happy…. write, draw.. blah blah… I will draw mb with a crayon but I write over and over the same words so you can’t make anything then I scratch it all with black crayons.. then throw it away…
10/22/18
we still dont write anything down on paper.
anything we write in an email gets deleted from our sent/ trash immediately.
we cant leave evidence of anything, anywhere
Writing is so valuable, agreed. One of the little ones internally still mirror writes in her own secret language, because of the fear of anyone else knowing her innermost thoughts and the experiences she wants no other person to know of.
Reading is equally of value, though…it can offer some validation to see “oh, it’s not just us who feel/think that way”.
Strangely, within the therapy room, there is a huge fear of writing (our T has a big white-board that sometimes she encourages us to write/draw what’s going on internally, the fear felt by so many of me prevents the pen from being touched.
The blogging world is something we really value, since other than our T, it is our only connection with safe people; many who understand how it is to live with D.I.D and traumatic experiences.
Thank you for this article, Kathy.
Some write, some draw, some do nothing but cause trouble. There is sound theory in the task but to get everyone to participate, well that’s another story.