Blogging as Therapy?
I read a quote this week from a young adult trying to overcome self-injury (or, cutting, as it is often termed). The woman claimed that the blog she kept as a record of her attempted recoveries – one that, I should mention, also linked to many other blogs dedicated to overcoming self-harm – was her therapy.
At first I thought, oh, that’s nice. Blogs really are so useful for sorting out thoughts.
And then I thought, wait, will that work?
I’ve never been to therapy, although I’m pretty certain there were times in my life that I would have benefited from such a thing. (Read a sample chapter from Anne Jackson’s book Mad Church Disease here – she is a believer in therapy for Christians for the sake of a more objective outside perspective on certain situations, especially ministry issues.) But I couldn’t help thinking that even though blogging can be helpful for certain things, I’m not sure it should qualify as therapy.
The idea of therapy is that you entrust your problems and concerns to another person hopefully qualified to give you tools for overcoming said problems and concerns. Blogging, to me, is more about expressing your own ideas and opinions. Sure, we can help one another in a blog conversation, but it just isn’t the same. Is it? I mean, I have the power to delete your comments, you know that, right?
Maybe therapy should be your therapy. What do you think?
blogging therapy (for those non-geek speakers, that says blogging does not equal therapy)
I’ve done both, and therapy is not nearly as much fun…
Well, that last comment doesn’t make any sense, because it stripped out my “not equal” symbol. Oh well….
LOL to Carol’s comment that blogging is more fun than therapy. I’ve never had professional therapy either, though I’m with you on that one, Lic – there were probably times it would have helped. In which case, I totally agree that blogging is way too much fun to be such. I think any time we write out our thoughts it can be therapeutic to an extent. It helps put things in perspective when they’re written in black and white. But I agree that actual therapy should involve another person much more thoroughly than blogging-and-commenting does.
My husband is a therapist, and people come to him for issues that are WAY more complex than the ones we usually put out there during blogging. I’m not suggesting that he can always help them, but therapy is definitely a horse of another color than blogging. I agree with Serenity that writing out our thoughts can be therapeutic, but I don’t think it can take the place of another, real live person being a sounding board and a help to you.
Excellent post. I think the churches we have been a part of, and perhaps the bigger part of the Christian world, have promoted a negative attitude toward therapy. I’m aware that it CAN be self-indulgent and weird, but certainly doesn’t have to be. We get this mind set that we have to deal with our issues alone, which certainly isn’t Biblical, or that we can’t show weakness, again — not Biblical. Unfortunately the little saying that Christians are the only group that shoots their wounded sometimes applies in this area.
Carol – hilarious! That is just how I felt.
Katie, you make a good distinction between therapy and therapeutic. Blogging can definitely be therapeutic, as in, good for us in some measure, but it certainly should not replace a genuine therapy session when needed. (I’ll clarify, of course, that I’m not talking about weirdo therapy with voodoo or hypnotism or anything like that.)
Molly, I know just what you mean. Ah, the charm of being so arrogant as to think I could never benefit from an outside opinion.
Molly, lately I’ve been thinking the rest of the world is pretty good at “shooting their own” also. (Case in point: People Magazine.) The Jon and Kate fiasco is a perfect example. They can’t have a problem without the media making sure they are fully humiliated and accused in front of the entire world. Now it isn’t just their marriage that is in trouble, but one group is charging them with child exploitation – in the courts! Speaking of therapy, this is a couple that definitely needs more than just a blog!
Ouch, so true Felic. I hate it that magazines pay for the photos and the dirt because they know people feed on it. So slimy, so sad. And I hope that Jon and Kate do get some help. We all need it from time to time, and I’d hate to see them go without it because of the microscope they are under.
just wanted to say thank you so much for reading and for the link!
I have never done therapy but I’ve always sort of wanted to. I’ve seen it work wonders and if our pre-marital counseling with our priest is any indication, it’s kind of nice to have someone just listen to you and give advice.
I had what most people would call a “mental breakdown” in highschool, and didn’t know there was any kind of help at that point in time so sludged through it on my own.
Had another one in college, and thanks to Psychiatry/Psychology majors having to log so many counseling hours, got free help from the Student clinic. As a Christian, it’s important to make sure you have a Christian counselor. Otherwise, they can lead you down some really wrong paths.