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Writing As A Form Of Therapy

SilenusSenior Contributor12 Apr 2016, 3:14 pm AEST

Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Hi all,

I have found throughout the course of my life that writing has been a constant companion to me. It has provided me with a way to vent my frustrations, to grapple with the eternal verities of life that confound and delight me, to explore ideas and concepts, and to try to put into words the often chaotic moods and thoughts that result from having a mind that's a little bit odd...

I have written lots of poems, especially in the last 3 or 4 years, dealing with depression and bipolar. They help me to process and understand some of the things that are happening in this twisted little noodle of mine. As such, writing has become one of my main forms of therapy.

One of the best things that I find about writing is that it can act as a kind of mood diary. I can read things that I had previously written, and it will quite often map out where I was at during the time of writing. The words I spread across the page act as signposts of my progress, too. As my self knowledge increases and my life journey progresses, I find that it affects how I write and what I write...

Often, we do not see the thousands of tiny little changes to our selves that our life experiences cause over the years. It can be very helpful to re-read old writings, in order to see how far we have come, what we have improved, where we have fallen back into old harmful habits, and the things that we have learned.

The language that we use in our writings and in our thoughts and in our speech is very important. It can reveal a lot about our selves, our states of mind, and our moods...

That language, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I believe that we attract certain kinds of people around us, and create (or at least influence) life situations based on our choice of language. It helps define who we are as a person.

Negative thinking, self-deprecation, self-hatred, these sorts of dangerous life traps are often revealed in our choice of words. So too are the positive things. It all starts with a glass. How we describe the glass and the quantity and quality of its contents, that's where language comes into it, and it can shape our very lives and the lives of those around us.

Writing... it is my solace and my main tool of self-analysis. It is my favourite form of therapy...

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In response to: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Unknown userMember20 June 2016, 6:02 pm AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

I wanted to thank you for your response to my last question @Silenus Your answers are so considered and so far have covered what I needed which is fabulous. I also have the need to steal the phrase Really real. I love this and think it might sneak into my vocabulary. I hope you are well and travel plans all in place. Take care😊💜

In response to: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Unknown userMember20 June 2016, 8:52 pm AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Counting the dead in my head
Counting the destruction

Fleeting moments of happy memories
Long long time ago in a different world

The person outside has changed
The world outside has changed
But the little girl will never stop crying

Alone, alone in my pain.

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

AppleblossomSenior Contributor20 June 2016, 8:57 pm AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Evocative poem @Former-Member

6 months after my brothers death and I was at uni in the caf ... a young woman started going off her head about dealing with 16 deaths in a couple of years .. she did drop out .. I didnt know her well ...

but I believe there is always a reason ..sometimes life is choatic or seem absurd .. but deep down we are coherent and feel the way we feel .. for reasons

and coming through after bereavement takes time to adjust .. inside and to re connect in the outer world.

In response to: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Unknown userMember20 June 2016, 9:07 pm AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

@Appleblossom,

I am sorry about you losing your brother. Every death is tragic.

I'm feeling raw tonight. My major traumatic life changing losses were from age 16-27. I do not want to say a number, this is no contest, it was a lot more.

I wrote a lot of poems back then, unfortunately in another language. I wrote a lot back then. I think some disconnections are irreversible. Trusting people and letting people in your life is difficult. Loving people makes me vulnerable for another loss.

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

AppleblossomSenior Contributor20 June 2016, 11:25 pm AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

@Former-Member I can sense your wisdom, Thanks for mentioning my brother.

I mentioned her griefs, not mine, because socially, so often and for many people everything is a contest. How much money they make, how many grandchildren, how sick they are etc etc .. that woman was overwhelmed, and maybe she had suffered from the excess comptetitiveness too. it just is so silly.

I did not finish that degree but it gave me a harmonious way to mingle and be with others .. which was singing in choirs ..

The point I wanted to make is that there is actually a lot of dying that goes on, and people struggling to deal with it, even in prosperous, peacetime Australia.

I have sat and watched a young couple receive knews of a death by phone on a train. Could only smile at the man hugging the woman as she was too distressed.

Glad that poetry helped.

I dont know what can help the raw feeling apart from being in the company of sensitive people. That is a lot of people you have lost during a very vulnerable period in your life. It does not have to define you. I am trying not to lett my losses define me. But it does feel nice when people acknowledge them.

In response to: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Unknown userMember21 June 2016, 2:45 am AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Oops, lost another post, sorry, don't mean to offend 😞

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

MazaritaSenior Contributor21 June 2016, 6:47 am AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

5.55am. Awake for a couple of hours. No one else on the Night Shift. Hungry blank page in body and mind. What is this restlessness, this longing? A question that has never had an answer over long years of asking. At one time I might have grabbed keys and driven off, heedless, without compass, to anywhere that wasn't here. These days I no longer drive. The most difficult marriage of all: living with myself. At another time I sought freedom from hunger in concepts. Structures erected brick by brick around the tender flesh that is a person. Prisons of thought, creating guilt about being alive, with the needs and wants that go with being of this earth. In the tall grass of ideas lie the perfections, snakelike with hypnotic phrases. And my words, what are they? Just things to feed a hunger on one of many mid-night vigils. Dawn now and I will surrender. Come now dreams. Gently or harshly sweep away lies.

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

GonePirateSenior Contributor21 June 2016, 1:21 pm AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

ive been rather quiet lately cause well im doing great

i tend to only be able to write poetry when im in the shit

my artform is an expression of my pain frustration and overwhelming thoughts

without them i cant write

so yeh im ok peeps

heres a poem i found the other day

lancers are red

subi's are blue

but yellow VL's

make the best stututu

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

BlueBaySenior Contributor21 June 2016, 7:31 pm AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Today at outpatient program I did art therapy for thevery first time. Feeling very anxious about the whole session, I have decided to write a poem on today:

The Art Room

As I walked in the room

I wish I could fly on a broom

and get away from art therapy

oh it's now all a memory

The therapist hands me some paper

a pencil and a leaf

I had to draw this picture

how dumb it looked to me

And then the tears came

how stupid I looked again

I looked at my drawing

it looked so boring

I was judging myself so harshly

And then the inner voices were saying

you're so dumb, look at that,

everyone's looking at it

The therapist came to sit near me

and we talked about how this could be

a drawing of my leaf

turned into grief

I told her I felt sad, anger and stupid

She said don't worry let's do another

And so it began again

to draw my dear friend

I left after it ended

I needed a drink to be blended

I sat and looked back at today

and thought gee it was okay

In response to: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Faith-and-HopeSenior Contributor21 June 2016, 7:49 pm AEST

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Hi @BlueBay

I love this poem.
It's like a whole journey across your time with art therapy today -
You captured your anxiety, and the voice of your inner critic being a bit too hard on you, and grief stepping up there as well, but by the end of it all you were feeling relief and so e release .....
Well done !! You did it !

I think you will find yourself as an artist the same way you are finding yourself as a writer, but just take those baby steps to get there ...... every artist has their first day, and their second day, and their third day ..... and even if you don't like something you have drawn or painted, you have actually learned something just by drawing or painting it anyway ...... it is a journey as much as it is an arrival.

❤

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