Ten years ago, I suffered a breakdown and checked myself into a mental hospital. I never saw a rubber room, and I didn’t stay the night. I was a day patient.

In the therapy I received in the hospital, and afterward with a few therapists, I was repeatedly told, over and over like a broken record, that I should write about my traumatic experiences as a form of therapy, and it would help me recover and heal.

I started writing then, and through all of these years of writing, I found the opposite to be true. Revisiting the trauma through writing retraumatizes me and makes my PTSD worse.

Recently I researched the question and found article after article and study after study stating that writing helps heal trauma. Finally, I found one article that supported my position that writing about trauma can make things worse. It was published in Psychology Today, a reliable source compared to some I found in my online search supporting the writing does help position.

When Not Talking About Past Trauma Is Wise | Psychology Today

In this article, the author, Carrie Barron, M.D., states that talking about trauma can make things worse in some cases, and it is better for some to not talk or write about it at all.

Why is it that therapists never give the option of not talking? The answer seems obvious. If patients selected not talking, therapists would lose their business.

I have a large writing project that I have spent the last five years working on completing. Some of my past trauma is featured in this 400-page work. I need to finish this book, and when I have, I will need to rethink writing for me and determine if it is beneficial. I have already considered that this will be my first and last big work, and if I continue to write more, I will concentrate on short stories.