It happens increasingly often these days. I see, and read, an article where someone astutely writes about their problems. Be it depression, never feeling as though they fit in, illnesses, loneliness, relationship struggles… the list can be made long.
As someone who have had his fair share of things to deal with (none of which are the subject of this post), I appreciate seeing these posts. The one thing you always think, regardless of whatever problem you are battling, is that you are odd, non-normal and alone in facing it. You’re wrong.
This is why I appreciate these insightful and in many ways exposing posts. It takes courage to write about personal matters in public. Yet, for every person, every article we see about it, we grow stronger. We realize that we are not alone. We realize that other people too battle the same things we do. We feel a sense of belonging.
It’s a fine act between writing about problems and letting them define you. I’m a strong believer in not creating a perfect public persona because that’s just fake. Yet, psychologically we like public personae to be more positive than what would be called “negative”.
Like so many others, I advocate writing healthily about problems and struggles in our lives. Through doing so we gain support from others around us, we relieve the heaviness we carry with us, and perhaps more importantly, we silently help others who find themselves in the same situation.
Isn’t that worth a few words?