Writing for therapeutic purposes

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Yes, some of us have reasons for writing stories, but one thing it can do: Be cathartic.

For me, I do this when writing bittersweet love stories, or the loss of a loved one. It can make me, to a degree, feel better about myself, and in the case of the former, knowing that the woman of my dreams is within reach of me (and NOT in a perverted way).

I think on some level, ALL writing is therapeutic.
I recently posted an article from the Telegraph that talks about a book which analyzes famous writers. Most writers had some sort of problem which drove them to write. One of the surprising ones was Herman Melville.

A therapist once advised me to keep a dairy and write down all my troubles and feelings. It sounded like a good idea, but it didn't work. I have as much trouble directly expressing my emotions on paper as I have in real life.

Then suddenly I got obsessed with a 17th century painter, mostly because I felt a great deal of indignation about what art historians had written about him (not such good things). At first, I intended to write an article about him, but that couldn't explain or show what I thought. So I decided to write a historical/documentary novel with him as the protagonist. During the writing proces, I began to realize that I was writing about myself. For some reason I need a 'mask' to write down my innermost world.

Yes, all writing is therapeutic. The type of writing that works for an individual may vary; a journal, poetry, fiction, whatever. That may even vary depending on the situation. And there are people who just don't get much out of it, as there are for almost any technique that exists. But if you can get something out of it, writing is a good way to come to terms with your thoughts and feelings.

On an emotional dial, I am either at minimum or turned up to eleven. First poetry, and now journal keeping helps me turn down the noise.

I consider all of my fiction writing to be a form of therapy; many of the characters and events are gleamed from my psyche and experiences, even the villains. It helps that I focus very heavily on the psychological dimensions of the characters.

I also do it to make myself laugh too; what with my game show fics and whatnot.

Well there is the theory that when an artist paints a portrait of a person, it says more about the artist than it does about the subject. Writing is much the same I suspect. There's also the old adage 'write what you know'...

Can definitely relate to this- got more out of writing than I did from 7 years of therapy/social skills etc. For me, it needs to be fairy tales though, something about the archetypal characters and linear structure as well as the 'distancing' from reality, and for some reason that seems a lot more 'real' and safe than writing about 'real world' situations. Also means you can get away with only one or two characters who don't need to be complex or fully developed which I would find impossible since I find it really hard to work out emotions even in myself! It's what I'm doing my PhD on atm, lol!

I'm presently reading a book called "Orwell's Cough", and when I read about the lives of famous writers it makes me shudder. Some of them were miserable human beings, others were tortured with physical ailments. In all their cases I can see that writing was therapeutic to them.