Journaling and arthritis!

Here’s a talk about journalling and chronic pain, particularly Rheumatoid Arthritis: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001k0wg (Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley - Write It Out - BBC Sounds)

 

Well, now - I like Michael Moseley (I feel like I've come across him before) and this is an easy 14-minute listen with a lot of great information corroborating the power of expressive writing to relieve emotional distress and related pain and other symptoms.

I feel that I should point out, however, that he does not discuss Rheumatoid Arthritis or any of the autoimmune conditions - and in fact "arthritis" is really only mentioned in the same sentence as asthma, very briefly, and without any details - simply reporting that there have been studies showing the positive effect of expressive writing on the symptoms of those two conditions, implying that the same effect can apply to many other conditions.

That being said, I am, have been, and continue to be an enormous fan of the healing power of expressive writing, and this podcast has an excellent rundown of proper studies showing its effectiveness, and a wonderful interview with James Pennebaker who first studied the power of writing in the 1980s.

Writing is one of the main techniques that led to my initial recovery in 2011, allowing me to get my life back, and it's where I go when I fail to be mindful and find myself with symptoms again. My RA is well under control, as I firmly believe that it should be, and when I get a flare now, I incorporate mindfulness and writing and the flare goes away overnight. Thus even a "real" measurable and treatable physiological condition can be improved and managed with mindful techniques such as writing. (Of course, as I've written about a number of times, I also believe that my RA was brought on by unmanaged and mindless stress in 2020, but that's another story).