Expressive writing and PTSD – the health benefits of expressive writing

Writing about stressful experiences or emotionally charged issues you have experienced can be good for your mental health, writes Stacey Colino in U.S. News and World Report.

Pouring thoughts and emotions onto paper has helped people with conditions as varied as Parkinson’s disease, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and trauma recovery. Even wounds heal faster when the wounded person writes expressively.

A new book, Opening Up by Writing it Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain by James W. Pennebaker and Joshua M. Smyth, discusses this phenomenon.

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