Hello, all of you reading eyes out there. It's a pleasure to e-connect with you. I humbly thank you for taking the time to let me into your lives with the words that I am now posting...
I know that behind each avatar, each carefully or casually chosen user name, each initial like or post; well... there lies a real human being with a complex of emotions, moods, patterns, thoughts, beliefs... and, more often than not, you are here because you are either in a world of pain, or know exactly what that feels like...
As human beings, we are incredibly adept at building communities... here in my own area on the east coast of Australia, beset by fires, on high alert for weeks on end, almost unable to smell the choking smoke any more, I look around me, and I see the very best qualities of the human race on display...
People, selflessly defending each others' properties and lives... helping each other to pick up the pieces when all is lost... it is at the very edge of the human experience that true grit, determination, and a loving empathy sweep away all of the superficial differences between us...
This is what I see, when I look at mental health forums too...
I see love, compassion, empathy, a deep understanding of what it is to be in life-destroying pain, and words of hope from those who have survived such pain...
Because... know this... my soul, my psyche, my mental self, my very consciousness, has been in deep conflict for decades... I have felt the full brunt of the breathtaking power that bipolar has to supercharge one's emotions and moods, and to destroy the very fundamentals that our lives rely on... reality, even, becomes optional... and limits that mere mortals would not dare to transgress become playthings to a mind caught up in its own godhood...
Such are the perils of bipolar (along with many more)...
And now we come to this forum (and others like it). This is a safe place, where people can reach out to each other in anonymity, offering hugs and help and their own life experiences, in the hopes that just one person somewhere will be able to take a shortcut to wisdom without all of the suffering and pain that got the rest of us here...
The one thing that makes this all possible is so simple it is often forgotten...
Words...
And through writing our words out, either as a stream of consciousness or as carefully structured poetry or story, we are able to share as close as we will ever get to our essence with other people...
This is a profound link... to be able to express and describe our pain, our victories, our failures, our learning, our growth, with other people... well... this is what makes the human race great... it is through community that we thrive, and the strongest of us protect the weakest, so that we can all be great together...
This is my belief, my dream... that writing can save us... by capturing our words, we focus them, we make them real...
Without words, we wouldn't have thoughts... without thoughts, we wouldn't have anything other than animalistic action... words help to define us... the language that we use says so very much about us...
And this is what I would love to express to people about writing as a form of therapy...
If you write it down, you can re-read it... and in re-reading it (maybe years or decades later) you have a signpost, a clear idea of what you were thinking at a particular time... by journaling your life and your thoughts in whatever way works best for you (through poetry, song, diary, graffiti on a wall, blogging, and a myriad of other ways), you are able to get an understanding of how you change over time...
You can see how you have progressed and regressed, how you have leapt and fallen, and how generally over time you are actually getting better at being you... you are growing into yourself... learning more about what makes you tick...
The reason I started this Writing As A Form Of Therapy thread was because writing has saved my life. Not just literally... actually...
Without writing, I would not be here... and these words would have never existed...
If we do not express ourselves, we suppress ourselves...
It's as simple as that... for years, I did not speak the right language of my suffering, and so I effectively remained silent... that silence was nearly the end of me...
Now I see, no matter who tries to silence me or temper my language, that speaking about mental health is vitally important, for it is in silence that we are each separated from the herd and fall...
Writing... my words teach me more about myself than any other person's words ever will...
It is all about learning how to read yourself properly... and then sharing those words with the rest of the world so that they too can come to understand the importance of the words we use and choose, and writing as a form of therapy...
Much love to the community, as always... hugs and happy vibes beaming to everyone...
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