How to Write About Your Trauma Without Re-Traumatising Yourself
I’m not the first to write on this topic and I definitely won’t be the last. Though it comes in many forms, trauma is a pretty universal experience. As is the anxiety writers feel when writing about their own. Any doubt I had about that was blown away when 90+ people dialled in for my Medium Day session. It shared the title of this piece.I was feeling the imposter syndrome in the run up to the session. A new writer with only five Medium articles to my name, I braced myself for no one to show up. But it turns out people wanted to hear what I had to say. Even better, many were willing to share their own experiences too. In fact, my half hour session ran on for 50 minutes and evolved into a beautiful space of mutual support.Inspired by this, I’ve included the advice shared by other writers in this piece rather than simply writing up my talk. Read on or watch the recording on YouTube for some valuable insights from the Medium community.Every healing journey is different so writing about trauma isn’t for everyone. There are many good reasons to do it though, if you want to. Amongst the community of writers who joined me on Medium Day, there were three common motivations behind our writing:Writing helps us to take ownership of our stories and regain the sense of control robbed from us by trauma. It’s a way of processing and making sense of what we’ve experienced. Sharing such writing publicly seems to add to the power of that process, helping us to let go of misplaced shame.
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