How can writing about your emotional wounds heal the pain?
Writing can be incredibly therapeutic, and I credit writing with being the main reason why I am re-entering the workforce after an assault nearly ended my life a few years ago. I was diagnosed with PTSD, major depression, anxiety and this wonderful little condition called Intermittent Explosive Disorder. IED is common in people who have suffered head trauma, which I did in the early morning hours of July 25, 2004. I engaged the services of a therapist whom I respected enormously. He advised me that the only way I would get past the fear in my life was if I could confront the individual who attacked me. This was not possible, practically or legally, and so I continued to flounder.
Then one day, while I was meditating, I had a vision of a man dressed in black with an uncanny resemblance to the man who had assaulted me. He was standing by the ocean, and used energy from Hell to conjure an enormous tidal wave, which inundated the entire east coast of the United States.
The vision was so intense that I decided to write about it. More than 220 pages later, I had a draft of a book I have titled Antiquity Calais: Standing at Armageddon. The villian in this book was modeled after the man who nearly killed me. You can probably guess that Antiquity Calais is loosely modeled after me. Finally, I had a format where I could practically and legally confront this man.
I cannot begin to express to anyone who reads this how very therapeutic writing can be. Even if you have no plan whatsoever to publish your work, just the process can help you in ways that pills and counselors can't. In my case, I wrote this novel for my son, who is now 9, in part because he is a big fantasy and scifi fan, and in part because I wanted him to have some sense of how this attack had changed my life, without actually having to give him the details of what happened that night.
