Why Writing About Trauma Made Me Healthier (And Why I Don't Feel Connected to It Anymore)
I recently came across research that completely validated everything I've experienced and everything I teach.
Psychologist James Pennebaker discovered something wild: writing about trauma for just 20 minutes a day can make you physically healthier.
Not just emotionally better. Physically healthier.
Let me explain.
The Research That Changed Everything
Here's what Pennebaker did:
He took 50 healthy college students and randomly assigned them to write for 20 minutes a day, 4 days in a row.
Half wrote about the most traumatic events in their lives.
The other half wrote about mundane topics like their plans for the day.
And here's what happened:
The students who wrote about their trauma:
Went to the doctor less often
Had stronger immune systems (blood tests showed their white blood cells were better at fighting off illness)
Reported being happier three months after the study ended
Just four days of writing. Twenty minutes a day.
And it made them physically healthier and emotionally happier.
That's wild, right?
Why Writing About Trauma Works
So why does this happen?
The research explains it like this:
Writing about the most troubling parts of our pasts can be painful in the short term. That makes sense, of course it hurts to revisit trauma.
But confronting our trauma and telling the story of what happened brings us closure. It allows us to find meaning in our pain. And that causes us to be happier and healthier in the long term.
So yes, it's hard in the moment. Yes, it's uncomfortable.
But the long-term benefits both mental and physical are real.
When Writing Works Best
The research also reveals something important about when this works best:
Writing about trauma helps most when people have been bottling up their feelings and not sharing them with others.
So if you've been holding your story inside for years if you've never really talked about what happened to you writing about it can be especially powerful.
The research also says people respond best when they feel like they have control over how they relive their painful episodes.
And that's key.
You need to feel in control of the process. You need to feel safe. You can't just dive into your trauma with no structure, no boundaries, no support.
My Personal Experience: I Don't Feel Connected to My Trauma Anymore
Let me tell you about my own experience with this because it mirrors what the research found.
I spent 10 years writing my memoir, I Was Once The Girl In The Red House.
For most of those years, I was stuck. I would write a little, get overwhelmed, and stop. Come back months later, try again, get overwhelmed again.
But when I finally finished the book, when I actually wrote through the whole story, start to finish, something shifted.
And here's what's wild:
Now that the book is done and published, I don't feel emotionally connected to that trauma anymore.
I can talk about it. I can read passages from my book. I can answer questions about my childhood.
And I don't feel that heavy, overwhelming emotional weight that I used to feel.
It's like… I wrote it, I processed it, and now it's just a story.
It's something that happened to me, but it's not who I am anymore.
The trauma doesn't control me. It doesn't define me. It doesn't trigger me the way it used to.
Writing Gave Me Closure
I think that's exactly what the research is talking about when it says writing brings us closure.
For years, my trauma was this big, scary, unprocessed thing. It lived in my body. It lived in my nightmares. It lived in my anxiety and my hypervigilance and my inability to trust people.
But when I wrote it all down, when I told the whole story from beginning to end, I finally got closure.
I confronted it. I looked at it directly. I put it into words. I organized it into a narrative.
And in doing that, I took away its power over me.
It's not this scary, chaotic thing anymore. It's a story. A story I survived. A story I learned from. A story that's over.
Finding Meaning in the Pain
The research also talks about finding meaning in our pain. And that's exactly what happened for me.
When I was living through the trauma, it didn't make sense. It felt random and cruel and unfair. I couldn't see any purpose in it.
But when I wrote my book, I had to find the meaning. I had to answer the question: Why am I telling this story? What's the point?
And that forced me to look at my trauma differently.
Not just as something that was done to me, but as something I survived. Something I grew from. Something that shaped me into the person I am today.
I don't think the trauma was "worth it." I'm not going to say I'm grateful for what my mother did to me.
But I can say that I'm proud of who I became in spite of it.
And that's the meaning I found. That's the closure that came from writing.
The Physical Health Benefits
Here's something else from the research that I find fascinating:
The students who wrote about trauma went to the doctor less often. They had stronger immune systems.
Writing about trauma didn't just make them feel better emotionally; it made them physically healthier.
And honestly? I've experienced that too.
Before I wrote my book, I was sick all the time. I had constant stress-related illnesses. Migraines. Digestive issues. I was exhausted all the time.
But after I finished my book? A lot of that went away.
I'm not saying writing cured everything. But I genuinely believe that carrying all that unprocessed trauma was making me physically sick. And releasing it, processing it, writing it freed up energy in my body that had been tied up in holding that pain.
You Need Structure and Safety
But remember what the research said: people respond best when they feel like they have control over how they relive their painful episodes.
You can't just force yourself to write about trauma with no support, no structure, no boundaries. That can actually be retraumatizing.
You need to feel safe. You need to feel in control. You need to know that you can stop when you need to, that you can take breaks, that you're not going to drown in the pain.
Final Thoughts
Your story has power. Your trauma doesn't have to control you forever.
Writing can set you free.
Listen to the full episode: Beyond the Red House Podcast
