Reading And Writing For One's Health

Stumbled by accident upon this first article via a search engine: Reading As Therapy. An excerpt:

Bibliotherapy is a big word to describe the process of using books to help children work through real-life problems. The truth is, most of us already instinctively practice bibliotherapy; we're just not thinking about doing it. But according to the Bibliotherapy Fact Sheet put out by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, bibliotherapy "is a deliberate course of action that requires careful planning." So take a minute to find out what's going on behind-the-scenes (or between the lines): it will provide insight into how to take reading to a whole new level.

The benefits of bibliotherapy are threefold: Identification, Catharsis and Insight. Simply stated, when reading the appropriate book, a child has the opportunity to:

• relate to the main character and his predicament
• become so emotionally connected to the story that his own feelings are revealed
• realize that his problem is solvable or, at the very least, that he is not alone

The goal of bibliotherapy is simple: to help children cope with problems through the exploits of literary characters. And, if that means a child discovers he's not the only skivvy-wearing superhero after all, well, that's fine too. After all, as C.S. Lewis once said, "We read to know we are not alone."

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One of my acquaintances is a pre-school teacher, and bless her, the mantra she repeats the most to her students' parents is, "One of the best things you can do for your children is to read books to them. To read books with them." I think not a day goes by that she doesn't say this to some young mother and father. She never uses the word "bibliotherapy", but I do hope many parents take her advice and read to their kids.

Since searching for "Reading As Therapy" garnered me this article, I decided to type "Writing As Therapy" in the search engine box, just so to see what could be found on the other side of the coin. Here's what I got: "Writing For Therapy Helps Erase Effects Of Trauma". It's an old article, but still relevant, I think. An excerpt:

Six years ago, Vietnam veteran John Mulligan was a homeless "shopping cart soldier" in San Francisco's North Beach, a man wracked with flashbacks and numbed by post-traumatic stress disorder. But his life took a turn during a veteran's writing workshop conducted by noted author Maxine Hong Kingston.

At the first workshop, Mulligan wrote about a horrific scene from the war: his buddies turning their weapons on a water buffalo for fun, sport, and misplaced revenge. The blood, the noise, the sense of loss and waste were all there.

Mulligan, now a 49-year-old novelist, left the workshop so elated he was "whistling and skipping." In the following years, he repeatedly discovered that putting past horrors into words helped clear his mind and lift his spirits. "I had to face my demons," he says. "I was an empty shell walking around the street, and writing made me feel like I had a soul."

Souls may be beyond the reach of science, but many researchers echo Mulligan's conclusion: Writing about stressful events can be powerfully therapeutic for body and mind.

Dozens of studies have found that most people, from grade-schoolers to nursing-home residents, med students to prisoners, feel happier and healthier after writing about deeply traumatic memories, says James Pennebaker, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Texas and leader or co-leader of many of the studies.

Pennebaker's interest in the potential of writing therapy was sparked by conversations with government polygraph operators. A criminal's heart rate and breathing, he learned, is much slower immediately after a confession than before. Since then, he's spent much of his career proving that we can all feel better after confronting the past through writing.

Researchers don't know exactly why writing about painful events can improve health, but the answer probably lies somewhere in the still-mysterious connections between stress and disease, Pennebaker says.

Numerous studies have found that prolonged emotional stress can weaken the immune system, promote heart disease, and worsen the course of arthritis, asthma, and many other diseases. In one particularly startling example, a study published in the December 16, 1998 issue of the "Journal of the National Cancer Institute" found that elderly people who were depressed had nearly double the risk of developing cancer.

Putting traumatic memories into words can help ease turmoil and defuse the danger.

"Writing gives me a reprieve from the darkness of life," says the author, whose first novel, "Shopping Cart Soldiers," was published in 1997.

Pennebaker believes people can try writing therapy on their own, as long as they follow one rule: "If you can't handle it, quit."

In his book "Opening Up," Pennebaker suggests writing about life's current stresses -- not necessarily events from the past -- whenever spirits sag. Without regard to sentence structure or grammar, people should try to describe their traumas and explain their feelings, he says.

Like Mulligan, they will have faced their demons -- beasts that always seem tamer on paper than in the mind.

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