Blogging as Therapy

Is Blogging Indeed Seen As Therapy? - Some Voices from the Net 

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My Shrink Says ... Blog! | Newsweek Periscope | Newsweek.com | Therapy

My Shrink Says ... Blog!
By Jessica Bennett | NEWSWEEK | Jun 30, 2008 Issue

Why do people write confessional blogs? It's a creative outlet. It's a forum to vent. It's an exercise in exhibitionism. To mental-health experts, though, it's more than that: a blog is medicine. Psychiatrists are starting to tout the therapeutic power of blogging, and many have begun incorporating it into patient treatment. A forthcoming study in the journal CyberPsychology & Behavior even suggests that bloggers might be happier than nonbloggers.

Mental-health experts say blogs are a step up from plain old diaries, chiefly because of the built-in audience. As kids, we learn that if we air our problems, we get help. We associate communication with consolation, particularly when the going gets tough. Blogging fulfills that primal need for sympathy. "Writing is an effort of the brain to communicate for comfort," says Harvard neurologist Alice Flaherty. "Diaries are a form of that communication, but removed. Blogging gets you closer to that sympathetic audience, and that's what makes it therapeutic." According to psychologist John Suler, the anonymity of blogging provides another therapeutic boost: it's high intimacy with low vulnerability. But blogger beware. "Revealing too much," says Suler, "can cause shame or guilt." So blog to your heart's content, but leave some things to the imagination.

© 2008

Dr. Deb: Blogging Seen As Good Therapy

Dr. Deb - Psychological Perspectives
Sunday, September 25, 2005

"A new study finds that blogs are more likely to deal with personal matters than politics or current events, and nearly 50% of bloggers ..."

Well, I got stuck on Dr. Deb's totally interesting blog for a while... Now I know the colour of my brain... I did not find new results on Blogging As Therapy. This is the post which includes the mentioned Gif and further reading.

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Blogging For One

Here is the Article she talks about
SEPTEMBER 21, 2005 by www.emarketer.com, no name

" According to an AOL survey conducted by Digital Marketing Services Inc., many bloggers write about "anything and everything." But while blogs often include comments on news topics, they are more likely to be about friends, family and other personal interests."

More graphs about why people blog and read blogs.

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Cyber-Catharsis: Bloggers Use Web Sites as Therapy

By Yuki Noguchi - Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 12, 2005; Page A01

"The Internet is now teeming with some 15 million blogs. Although the medium first drew mainstream attention with commentary on high-profile events such as the presidential election, many now use it to chronicle intensely personal experiences, venting confessions in front of millions of strangers who can write back...."

Very complex article I am going to quote more often, I think.

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Blogging as therapy: Will cyberspace obliterate the consulting room?

BY CLIFF BOSTOCK, Published 08.16.06,
Atlanta Creative Loafing Weekly Newspaper

About actually using blogging as group therapy.

"By focusing on play with identity instead of the narrative past that is the obsession of psychotherapy, clients have the potential to realize they can imagine themselves into different states of being despite their histories. I observe, too, that as a site of mutual, almost ritualized play, cyberspace accords freedom of expression that even the most congenial consulting room does not."

This quote mirrors a basic subject of not only blogging, but all 'virtual life in cyberspace'