Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain

By James W. Pennebaker and Joshua M. Smyth

Book Overview

Expressing painful emotions is hard--yet it can actually improve our mental and physical health. This lucid, compassionate book has introduced tens of thousands of readers to expressive writing, a simple yet powerful self-help technique grounded in scientific research. Leading experts James W. Pennebaker and Joshua M. Smyth describe how taking just a few minutes to write about deeply felt personal experiences or problems may help you:

*Heal old emotional wounds
*Feel a greater sense of well-being
*Decrease stress
*Improve relationships
*Boost your immune system

Vivid stories and examples yield compelling insights into secrets, self-disclosure, and the hidden price of silence. The third edition incorporates findings from hundreds of recent studies and includes practical exercises to help you try expressive writing for yourself. It features extensive new information on specific health benefits, as well as when the approach may not be helpful.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1462524923
• ISBN13: 9781462524921
• Release Date: July 2016
• Publisher: Guilford Publications
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A book that can truly help you help yourself

Many people believe that it is easier to hold in their feelings, but nothing could be further from the truth. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, stressed that emotional factors could be a contributing cause in disease as well as a factor in recovery. In more recent times, research psychologist James Pennebaker and others have found a mountain of evidence that demonstrates that disclosing our pain when we're suffering through a major upheaval can greatly improve our physical and mental health. Conversely, holding it in can lead to recurrent health problems as serious as colds, flu, high blood pressure, ulcers, and even cancer. So this self-help book which explains how opening up and confiding in others actually improves your physical health as well as your mental well-being. This can happen in a support group or through journaling. If you are not already in a support group, you will want to join one after you read this fascinating account of the author's life work. If groups aren't for you, then you may be inspired to start journaling. --Robert A. Naseef, Ph.D., author of Special Children, Challenged Parents and co-editor Voices from the Spectrum. Special Children, Challenged Parents: The Struggles and Rewards of Raising a Child With a Disability

Readable, fun detective story

If you are a scientist you may enjoy the story of how James Pennebaker pieced together his theories as much as you enjoy the theories themselves. Once he validated the worth of writing about emotional events that you had not previously talked about, he explored many other variations of disclosure. Two big surprises I found: 1) we need to write about happy things, too, and 2) by writing about an emotion, you diminish its passion -- as in love letters.

Opening Up

This book is wonderful and easy reading for the just average person. It is filled with information about the inner healing we experience when we journal our most inner thoughts. Thank you for sharing this information.

Scientific validation for the benefits of journaling

Pennebaker's studies of people who wrote about their deepest traumas and hurts demonstrate that expressing feelings is helpful and healing. People who participated in the studies showed improved immune function as measured by doctor visits compared to controls groups who didn't journal or who journaled about daily events and omitted their feelings.If you've kept a journal and written about what troubles you, you know how much this unloading can improve your mood. It's nice to have someone listen to you, or to have the compassionate attention of a paid therapist who can help you see your patterns. But it's also comforting to know that science has shown that journaling can be a way for you to be your own therapist. In this book, the author shares stories of people and their writing. This is a good book to point to if anyone thinks journaling is just narcissistic scribbling. ~~Joan Mazza, psychotherapist and author of DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE; DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF; WHO'S CRAZY ANYWAY? and 3 books in The Guided Journal Series with Writer's Digest Books/Walking Stick Press.

Open Up "Opening Up"!

Expression of one's deepest thoughts and feelings has long been a staple of psychotherapy. Yet until Dr. James Pennebaker of the University of Texas published the results of his decades-long research program, little was known by the general public about the specific effects of self-disclosure. Dr. Pennebaker shows how writing down your thoughts and feelings (or dictating them into a tape recorder) can improve your physical as well as your mental health. In other words, it is not always necessary to confide in another person to obtain at least some of the benefits of self-expression. However, as the author makes clear, not all forms of self-disclosure are beneficial, and he gives specific guidance on what to do and what to avoid.