Ground Report

According to WHO, around 350 million of people of all ages suffer from depression in the world. Aware of its importance, medical doctors, psychologists, scholars, and specialists from several fields have been exhaustively focused in trying to find effective treatments for depression.

And one of the methods that have been considered as a valuable resource is the use of writing to combat and relief the symptoms of depression. There are several proven studies showing how people have been benefiting from journaling, blogging, or just draughting lines of poetry, and here is how it happens.

Writing improves your problem-solving skills

When you write something on the paper, you are more able to see it in a logical way. It makes possible for you to look at your life from a different point of view and to analyse it more carefully.

This way, you become more able to find solutions to your problems, a skill that seems to be blurred in the minds of people suffering from depression. Also, writing can help you to see a positive outcome to your current situation and not only setbacks.

As a consequence, you will have access to the information and the motivation that you need so to stop only writing about your problems and take action in order to solve them.

Writing connects you with deeper parts of your mind

Writing can give you a chance to connect with several parts of your brain at the same time. It brings up memories, feelings, ideas, dreams, and logical thinking altogether. You became capable of getting out of recurrent ideas and replacing them with new ones.

Also, it will help you to get to know yourself better, what makes you happy, and what don’t. This way you put your hands on a toolkit that will help you to set boundaries and understand what is causing depression and what to do so to overcome it.

And if you are afraid that it will just open the Pandora box, don’t worry too much. Always count on the psychological support when dealing with depression so to make sure that you will be prepared to deal with any thought that will come to you.

Plus, you will learn how to replace negative thoughts with positive talking by catching them before they take over your mind. This is a long journey that can become hard sometimes but that will pay off very quickly.

Writing is stress-free

As you do it for yourself, with no need to show your texts to anybody else’s, writing become a stress-free activity. And stress is one of the major causes of depression, as the feeling of being in the middle of a constant war make many people feel hopeless.

For this reason, many people enjoy journalling while feeling depressed, as they know that this is something that they can do without causing any anxiety to them or requiring an amount of energy that they don’t feel like having at their disposal.

Writing release emotions

The same way as talking is used in therapy, writing can also be a perfect resource to release emotions. It gives you the opportunity to write down everything that comes to your mind without any censorship. You don’t even have to care if your sentences are written in a correct way, as grammar is the least thing you should be worrying about.

Writing can also help you to start making sense of your feelings and to give them an order and a meaning. When you explain your emotions with words, you can have a better understanding of what you are experiencing without feeling overwhelmed by tonnes of uncontrolled thoughts.

Writing is a form of self-expression

Like many poets, songwriters, and novelists have proven, writing is a form of self-expression. And as depression usually comes with an impression that the person doesn’t exist in the world or that they are worthless, writing can create this opportunity to satisfy this instinctive need.

Actually, many famous artists have been reported as having battled depression, such as Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jon Hamm, Halley Berry and Russel Brand. So it is no surprise if what is one of the most common causes of suicide can end up turning itself into beautiful art, just by channelling its symptoms to the right direction.

In Conclusion

If you are suffering from depression or know someone who is facing this challenge, you should try (or ask them to try) doing some writing. It won’t substitute medical and psychological support, but it can be an extra hand so to make the process easier.

And if this isn’t reason enough for you, maybe you should know that writing your feelings and thoughts down is also a proven way to combat high blood pressure and to boost your immune system.

So, if you are doing therapy, you should certainly ask your counsellor about it, so you can get a personalised advice regarding how writing can help you with depression.