Nov 10, 20235 min read

Writing is therapeutic: myth or reality?

Countless people record their thoughts and emotions in a personal diary or journal. The practice has spanned centuries and civilizations, often providing our only historical sources for various events.

But why do people do this?

Those of us who keep personal journals or diaries can likely agree writing about life makes us feel better. But has "writing therapy" been proven beneficial for mental or physical health? Let's find out.

What Is Writing Therapy?

Writing therapy comes in many forms, but all involve expressive writing to explore feelings or emotions. Writing therapy can be led by a mental health professional or undertaken by anyone with a pen and paper.

How Do Mental Health Professionals Use Writing Therapy?

Mental health professionals often encourage writing therapy, especially for patients who struggle to express themselves verbally. These exercises might be narrative, in which the patient writes about an event, or based on a prompt that jumpstarts the patient's ideas.

Some mental health professionals offer worksheets containing specific exercises to help their clients identify, process, and heal from their complicated emotions or past. Still others combine writing therapy with other creative outlets, such as music or art therapy.

How Does Self-Guided Writing Therapy Work?

You do not necessarily need a mental health professional to guide you through writing therapy. Individuals can simply start writing about their feelings and experiences, letting their words guide them to clarity and understanding.

If you'd prefer more guidance than free-form journaling, there are plenty of available tools to help. Gratitude and "One Line a Day" journals have grown in popularity in recent years, and some psychology websites and blogs offer downloadable prompts to guide your writing. I've linked a few of these in the conclusion of this article.

A note of caution for those jumping in on their own: Psycom recommends consulting a professional before using writing therapy if you're suffering from severe depression or PTSD. Writing therapy can unlock severe emotions that can exacerbate these issues if you are not ready or able to face them as they come.

Step Up For Mental Health, an advocacy group, also warns that writing therapy can re-traumatize you or actually prevent you from healing if undertaken without professional guidance. They recommend utilizing mindfulness to ensure your therapeutic writing is actually helping and to reflect on what you've written to get the most from your self-guided experience.

Writing Therapy As Storytelling

This New York Times (2021) article details Dr. James Pennebaker's decades of groundbreaking research on how expressive writing benefits our mental and physical health.

Generally, Dr. Pennebaker found that we all tell stories about our lives, including traumatic events. Expressive writing can help us frame these stories and our place within them in beneficial ways.

Check out the full article for more information about this - Pretty interesting stuff.

What Are The Mental Health Benefits of Writing Therapy?

Countless studies have documented the extensive mental health benefits of writing therapy, many of them rooted in Dr. Pennebaker's work mentioned above.

Writing Therapy Helps You Heal From Trauma

Glass, et. al. (2019) found that writing therapy helps trauma victims become more resilient and reduces depression and stress deriving from a traumatic event.

Other studies (Payne et. al (2004) and DiMenichi, et. al (2019)) have attempted to explain this further, essentially finding that writing about trauma can change the way our brains process information about the event.

Whatever the scientific explanation, the research is clear that writing about traumatic events helps us heal from them.

Writing Therapy Reduces Anxiety

Writing therapy helps you feel better about life and work, even when overwhelmed.

Round, et. al. (2020) studied the impact of writing about positive feelings and good aspects of your life on teachers and other full-time workers. They found that writing about positive experiences reduced anxiety and increased their job satisfaction, although it did not reduce their likelihood of burnout.

This relatively new research is the first to suggest the benefits of writing about positive as well as negative feelings and emotions.

What Are The Physical Health Benefits of Writing Therapy?

Writing therapy also has research-supported benefits for your physical health.

Writing Therapy Reduces Symptoms of Chronic Illness

This 1999 study found that writing therapy actually reduces the symptoms associated with asthma and rheumatoid arthritis over time, and much research has been undertaken since then on the subject.

But...

Not everyone agrees that writing therapy definitively reduces chronic symptoms.

This 2016 review analyzed the research conducted since the late 90s on writing therapy's impact on chronic conditions.

It concluded that more research is necessary to confirm that therapeutic writing is the true root of reduced symptoms of these chronic illnesses, as there has been a lack of focus on external factors and adverse impacts of such therapies.

Most of the sources agree that writing therapy reduces symptoms of chronic illness, but this extensive review is also out there, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Writing Therapy Has Positive Long Term Health Benefits

Baikie & Wilhelm (2005) found expressive writing had the following long-term health benefits:

Fewer stress-related doctor visits
Improved immune systems
Reduced blood pressure
Better lung function
Better liver function
Fewer days spent in the hospital
Better mood
Better feelings of well-being
Reduced symptoms of depression
Improved working memory
Better performance in sports

This study also found better outcomes in participants' personal lives, such as higher GPAs and quicker re-employment after job loss.

How To Start Writing Therapy?

You can start writing therapy on your own or with the guidance of a professional.

Start Writing Therapy on Your Own

If you want to start independently, set yourself a writing goal (typically length of time or number of words) and decide which type of therapeutic writing you will use. Narrative? Free write? With a prompt?

Start writing. Try not to worry about what you say or self-edit as you go. Let yourself get your thoughts on the page without second-guessing. Try to be authentic and genuine, as this is for your eyes only.

Positive Psychology offers this page of tips for getting started, writing ideas, and writing prompts to get you moving.

Here are my personal favorites of the prompts they shared:

Write a letter to yourself or others
Free write (anything and everything that comes to mind)
Sentence stems (finish the sentence)
- The thing I am most worried about it...
- My happiest memory is...
- The words I'd like to live by are...

You can also find more ideas on this PsychCentral page.

Start Writing Therapy with a Professional

Alternatively, you can seek a mental help professional to guide your writing therapy. Check with your health insurance to see which professionals might be covered in your plan and how to access them. Or try an online platform, such as Better Help.

Suggestions for Further Reading

Interested in more info? Check out the links to my research for this article:

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