Expressive Writing, Traumas and Health

I just finished reading one tough article titled: Expressive Writing, Emotional Upheavals, and Health by James W. Pennebaker and Cindy K. Chung.

Wow... incredible... I did not understand the material at all during my first reading... totally lost. Was supposed to do a presentation on this as part of my Knowledge Assets course requirements. This paper is published in a Health Psychology journal, but my group was asked to do this... strange ah? But I think the main crux of this paper maybe linked to the course after all. We, humans are also Knowledge Assets, so understanding ourselves could definitely be beneficial.

Anyway, back to the paper. In a nutshell, the paper suggests that writing expressively has certain health benefits.

Some of my notes indicate:

1) Writing forces people to stop and reevaluate their life circumstances.
2) Talking and Writing about emotional experiences are superior to writing about superficial topics.
3) Disclosure of writing of emotional events has broad benefits.
4) Timing of writing is important. Too early may have negative consequences. Sometimes, denial, detachment and distraction is healthy. However, prolonged thinking of the trauma in the following weeks and months would require expressive writing intervention and benefits will occur.

Interesting paper.... this means blogging about your feelings can actually help attain better health.