How does creative writing support mental health?

• Why do people write poetry or songs when they’re having a hard time?

• What does creative writing do for mental health?

I was recently interviewed for “Our Turn to Talk” — a podcast by and for teens about their experiences with mental health. They asked me why poetry seems to help many young people.

My research looks at this topic from many angles, so there are a thousand ways to answer this question! But I’m glad to say we homed in on just a few.

Here are three reasons creative writing can support mental health:

1. getting it out matters.

Psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker found decades ago that people who didn’t talk about the difficult experiences in their lives, including traumatic events, appeared to suffer more than people who did. Something about writing it down — getting it out — matters.

Pennebaker is known for a practice called “expressive writing,” where people write about their most difficult experiences for 15-20 minutes a day for 4-5 days. Since he first developed it, hundreds of expressive-writing studies have been conducted by researchers all over the world, with a wide variety of participants. And they’ve found that this writing practice not only supports mental health (like by reducing stress and depression symptoms), but it also improves immune response, reduces sick days at school or work, leads to improved grades and fewer doctor’s visits, and a lot more.

There are many theories behind why all of this happens, but for now we’ll leave it here: Writing it down helps.

2. we need options.

In Project Uncaged, my trauma-informed creative writing program for incarcerated girls, participants write songs, poems, and stories to express what’s going on in their lives. Our focus on creative writing versus just expressive writing is intentional, because it adds so many benefits. Here are a couple:

First, creative writing means we’re not stuck with straighforward, linear communication. We don’t have to say, “This happened, and then this happened, and then this”—unless we want to. And we don’t have to worry about being super-clear.

Instead, we can just get words and ideas out in whatever way makes sense to our heart or state of mind, even if it wouldn’t make sense in a typical conversation. (Think about how songs or poems often repeat certain words or phrases again and again… Or how one line isn’t always connected to the next.) It can be so helpful for our mental health to be able to express an emotion without having to be precise and logical about it—the way we might have to when talking to a doctor or teacher or work colleague.

Second, creative writing can help us get some distance from a topic, which can make it feel safer to express. We can create characters that go through something similar to our experience… or use metaphors to describe what happened or how it feels… or imagine completely new cities or worlds where our situation takes place.

Of course, not everyone needs or wants distance. Some writers find it helpful to use creativity to get descriptive about exactly what happened. Others make different choices depending on the topic. The point is that there are no right or wrong ways to tell our story. Creativity = options.

3. change is good.

Studies have shown that simply naming an emotion can reduce its intensity, which can help us feel better. And when we take even more time to describe an experience, our perceptions of it shift. We might see it with more clarity or compassion.

In other words, we get change where we might have otherwise felt stuck.

This is why I urge students and clients not to approach creative writing as a way to ruminate or spiral. Instead, see it as a way to move through an experience, or to let it move through you. And then, consider a doable, helpful next step.

Sometimes that next step is sharing what you created. Sometimes it’s throwing it away because you got it out of your system. Sometimes it’s a new list of things you want to create or learn.

What’s important is that, as Rilke said, “no feeling is final.” When we create, we create a bit (or a lot!) of change. And change is a kind of hope.

No feeling is final.

Humans are wired to create and to benefit from expressing ourselves. Many people, including a lot of young folks, feel an instinctive drive to document what they’re going through—and they feel better when they do.

Creative writing has a lot to offer, especially when life gets challenging, or there are too many thoughts to keep track of, or we feel like conversation isn’t right or adequate for what we’re feeling.

Whatever drives you to grab a pen, I hope you see some benefits from getting feelings out, exploring options, and creating change.