blogging is good for you!

.....or perhaps I should hedge my bets and say that "blogging can be good for you?" *explanatory footnote 1

Over the last couple of months I have been pretty much welded to the sofa - unfit for work and too tired and uncomfortable for much else (that is the nature of RA).
But sitting with a laptop on my lap, with Radio 4 dribbling into my ears, and sometimes methodically, sometimes light-heartedly and occasionally furiously setting down my thoughts in concrete, and publishable form, has dampened my anxiety and held depression at bay. It's partly the concentration, partly the activity, but mostly it is the opportunity for expression that has made all the difference.

I had all but given up blogging earlier this year. But, at the suggestion of the mind-bloggling team I started again. When we first had the idea for what became the mind-bloggling project, the MAGMH trustees didn't want to imply any therapeutic benefits to potential funders - not least because they would be hard to evidence. Instead we emphasised the potential for challenging the stigma attached to mental distress/illness.
However there really are healing benefits attached to writing in this way (as there are for all creative activities). My previous post about religious belief lead to several hours of fascinating activity - researching, thinking and writing - including an hour and a half listening to Richard Dawkins, while I did a little light dusting.

Thanks 'mindblogglers' I'm in your debt...


Explanatory Footnote for Clarification -
1 - There is a body of direct anecdotal evidence, and some empirical evidence from similar and related fields of artistic endeavour and creative activity, that the act of keeping of an occasional, but frequently updated, informal, internet-based journal (a so-called web-log, or blog) has both tangible/measureable, and less tangible, but none-the-less valuable, therapeutic benefits, resulting in positive outcomes (both transitory and more permanent; short, medium and possibly long-term), for those experiencing - i) undiagnosed, sub-clinical/sub-pathological, mental distress, and, ii) those patients with a diagnosis representing more seriously disordered thinking and behaviors (acute, chronic or palindromic), as a beneficial, synergistic adjunct to, and not replacing, psychotherapeutic interventions and therapies (be they cognitive, psychodynamic, behavioral) and/or pharmacological treatments and/or neurologic remedies. (snigger)