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The emotional and therapeutic benefits to poetry & songwriting

We are all creative. People who believe they’re not creative have incorrect assumptions about the nature of creativity.

People are often driven back to substance abuse, not by irresistible cravings, but by emotional swings. Professional counselors and therapists are the tried-and-true method in helping people come to terms with their pasts. But some people may benefit from a more introspective approach to recovery. Therapy through creative writing may just be that solution.

Everyone in a recovery program has made a willful choice to improve their lives. However, most may not be ready to open up to the world about their issues. They may not even be comfortable discussing them with a therapist. Creative writing offers a solution to this problem. It allows people to have a conversation with themselves and process their own stories. Here are the many ways poetry, songwriting, and general creative writing can strengthen recovery:

Published

04/04/2022

Category

Music

Increases emotional awareness

Creative writing allows people to realize thoughts, feelings, and emotions they were unaware they had. The field of creative writing is filled with self-centric maxims like, “Write what you know.” If someone in recovery writes a poem, song, or a short story, chances are high that the subconscious issues that threaten the success of their recovery will end up on the page. This creates an alternating domino effect of self-discovery of hidden feelings followed by significant therapeutic introspection.

I do not know why I am an addict, but I do know at times the world lays heavy on my being; it is confining and dictatorial.I used drugs and alcohol to gain a sense of freedom, take flight, get high, no higher. Poetry frees me with no adverse side effects. The creation of poetry gets me high.

Stephanie Bridges

Most people have no problem accepting the claim that talking about problems can be a great help. This is reflected in the much loved quote, a problem shared is a problem halved. What is less widely appreciated is the idea that writing about things can also be highly therapeutic.

Lee Weber

Allows you to find your own voice

Trauma and mental health issues can render a person voiceless, both literally and figuratively. People will often use substances in order to find a voice even if it’s not their own. Poetry and songwriting can be, and often are, a much healthier approach to finding your voice. You do not have to share your work with someone else to find therapeutic value in writing. You can appreciate your own unique view on life by simply putting what’s held inside down on paper. Poetry and songwriting can help you to strengthen confidence in your natural sober self.

Processes trauma in a unique way

In his guide, Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction, Jeff VanderMeer, describes trauma as “the scar” or “the splinter.” For the writer, trauma is the “initial irritant, a galvanizing and enduring impulse” that combines with the need to communicate and tell stories. This scar could be the “memory of a loss or disappointment, a perceived great wrong that continues to create agitation, irritation, or agony.” Yearning can also be a scar. It could be the “memory of an unrequited desire, or a presence of an as-yet-unfulfilled desire.”

When retreating into the scar a writer will often feel sad, regret, and loneliness. But thankfully it doesn’t end there. Through the writing process, a person will often discover a sense of compression. The seriousness and severity of a person’s trauma is still existent after writing. However, said trauma will often feel smaller and more manageable as they pen it down and get a bird’s eye view.

When you have written that first poem, or the 10th or the 100th and the endorphins start to rush, clear your voice and affirm your sobriety, write it down and make it plain.

Stephanie Bridges

Kaveh Akbar

One individual that excels at applying creative writing therapy to the recovery process is poet, Kaveh Akbar. Since getting sober in 2013, Akbar has published several writings. Of these writings is a poetry collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, that chronicles his experience as a Muslim Iranian-American in recovery.

Akbar recalls his early journey and discovery of writing during recovery: “In early sobriety, you have to replace your fundamental leisure activity of your day, so I had this void to fill, and had all this time to be reading and writing. It was this phenomenon of one obsession sublimating into another one, the former obsession being destructive to myself and those around me, and this new obsession being generative.

Akbar’s renewal of mind is still an ongoing process, however. He shares about his continual battle in his brain that many, if not most, people in recovery can relate to: “There is a huge chunk of my brain that will always pass a liquor store and be like, you know what you could do? That’s a kind of hunger, I have other hungers today that I didn’t have before. I have a hunger for poetry. I have a hunger to talk to people as often as I can about poems and to engage people deeply about poems. To get to be of service to poetry as much as I can in this life.

Kaveh Akbar is just one shining example of how poetry, songwriting, and creative writing therapy can boost recovery exponentially. Why should you write? In the words of Jeff VanderMeer, “we write for all those small and profound moments of sudden knowledge that occur when you are written.” There’s nothing holding you back from becoming another beacon of hope. All you have to do is pick up the pen and be real.

Conclusion

Key takeaways

  • Avoid sugar and stay hydrated
  • Choose slow-release energy foods to help maintain your sugar levels
  • Don’t mistake symptoms of dehydration for that of chemical craving
  • Don’t skip meals and eat healthy proteins and fats
  • Choose fresh foods over processed foods

Challenge

Apply to your life

Keep a refillable water bottle with you wherever you go. Whenever that old craving pops up in your head, take a sip. Retrain your brain to want what it really needs! Also, make sure you’re near a bathroom most of the time. You’ll probably need to pee a lot.

Conclusion

Key takeaways

  • Emotional swings can trigger relapse the same as chemical cravings
  • Creative writing therapy offers a boosted introspection process to recovery
  • Writing increases emotional awareness
  • Creative writing offers a healthier option to “finding your voice”
  • You don’t have to share your work to “feel heard”
  • Writing processes trauma in a unique way
  • “The scar/splinter” is the traumatic catalyst that can inspire many of your writings

Challenge

Apply to your life

Take 30-60 minutes this week to write a poem or song. Don’t worry about it being proper rhythmic form or making it rhyme. Just write what you feel. If you find you like it, you can always learn more poetry skills.

A Recovery Community Center in Chesterton, Indiana.

This location is also the studio and homebase for content creation on Artistic Recovery. The team of professionals at Three20 conceive, draft, and edit many of the articles you find here. These recovery resources are a collaboration between certified recovery coaches, creative writers, fitness trainers, artists, musicians, and chefs. Most importantly, our content is written for people in recovery, by people in recovery.

Ty Walker

Ty is a freelance writer and graphic designer with a huge heart for recovery. Ty spends his free time hiking, biking, and kayaking with his wife, Angie, and his two daughters, Winter

Credit where credit is due

Portions of this article were originally sourced from americanaddictioncenters.org, truhealingcenters.com, and addictionblog.org.and Ember.

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You don’t have to share your work with someone else to find therapeutic value in writing. You can appreciate your own unique view on life by putting what’s held inside down on paper. Poetry and songwriting can help strengthen confidence in your natural sober self.

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