Writing can be very therapeutic

I was an only child and so I didn't always have people to talk to unless I was with a friend or called a friend on the phone. So, by 2nd or 3rd grade I started writing things and because both my father and my grandfather were good storytellers (because that is what people did a lot before radio and TV and the Internet and phones) I found myself to be a good storyteller too. I could recount things that happened over time almost as well as my father and grandfather did and as I approached adulthood I found I could sort of equal their expertise in telling (or recounting) actual experiences (or embellishing them as they liked to do as well for entertainment factors).

So, I found writing very healing. For example, I would write about something that bothered me a lot like when my cousin was killed of a broken neck at age 16 in a car crash when he was driving. he was the only one that died but when they crashed into the house in the old Dodge (likely a 49 big Dodge) he turned his head to ask if everyone was okay. They were. But, his neck was broken and when he turned his head he died right then.

I remember feeling very alone and vulnerable because I was in Glendale and this happened in Seattle where I was from but we moved from there when I was 4 years old. So, writing about something really upsetting and then finding it later somehow I found healing or like talking to a friend or cousin about something or something like that. It's sort of like you are only the person writing that when you write it. Later, you are someone else having different experiences. So, it's like your old self that wrote whatever you write is talking to the new you in the future. And this I found very healing in many many different ways.

Sometimes you can heal your parents or friends by reading some things to them as well that you write.

So, even if you never publish what you write anywhere it can be healing to you or those around you. But, you also have to protect what you write from others that might take a dim view of whatever you write too. Some things you almost have to write them and burn them if people are against you in your home or where you live so they cannot find what you write.

It's important to be honest with yourself because often no one else will be in your life at different times. Or you will be around people who are lying to themselves so they cannot help but lie to you too which is the worst experience usually to be around people obviously sincere but lying to themselves because of psychological trauma like PTSD from various causes during their lives.

Whenever possible you sort of need to find a healthy way to separate yourselves from people too messed up for you to live around. My parents were okay because they were religious and never smoke or drank alcohol. So, mostly my life was okay in the 1950s growing up.