On Saturday 7^th February, we attended an excellent and very moving book talk and reading by the author of Let’s Talk About Love (and pain). This was a very honest conversation with an extremely talented and fearless writer which really got us thinking about the effectiveness of writing as therapy.

Author, KLove, has written two books of poetry – Let’s Talk About Love (and pain) and Let’s Talk About Love (and pain 2). These are two books inspired by the author’s childhood challenges, battles with eating disorders and the difficulties of managing complex relationships. KLove describes not having an outlet to express her feelings and being quite insular and introverted meaning that she bottled every emotion and feeling up. Then she discovered writing. KLove described writing as her therapy, an excellent opportunity to explore her feelings without judgement and to personally address her past, present and future in a way that worked for her. Mainstream counselling proved to be unhelpful, but writing seemed to be the liberating, healing therapy that she needed.

This really got us thinking about writing as a way to heal our community. From our experience the African Caribbean community shies away from mainstream therapy which usually involves talk therapy and for more serious conditions drug treatment. We know that there are many people who are going through very difficult life challenges on their own.  Our culture has conditioned us to almost ignore our problems and just soldier on, be tough and keep going. This means many people go through life with unresolved issues and  not dealing with these issues is a problem that can have serious consequences on our mental health.

It’s important for the healing process to address the events that affect our emotions and not ignore them. This is particularly important when we encounter death, serious illnesses, heartbreak, abuse, job loss, etc. Dealing constructively with each problem we face strengthens us, heals us and teaches us. It releases us from the negativity and speeds up the healing process.  Using writing to delve into some of the emotions we are experiencing can be an effective form of therapy helping us analyse a situation and come to terms with it.

Dr Adrian Furnham a professor of psychology at University College London has said the following about writing as therapy:

“Over the past few decades the therapeutic power of writing has been discovered.  The task can require serious, introspection: an attempt to make sense of the past. To examine it from various angles rather than simply try to shift blame onto others. This is much more than simply trying to write pretty sentences. It is about singling out experiences, events and people that contributed to one’s life. Seeing cause and effect, understanding psychological processes can significantly increase self-understanding. Suddenly things become apparent: patterns observed, explanations obvious. Writing is also often redemptive. And it helps because nearly always it involves some commitment to change. Clearly writing does not work for all. But it’s amazingly cheap and effective”

The Mental Health Foundation has found that in the UK  black and minority groups are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health condition; are more likely to experience a poor outcome following mainstream treatment; and sadly are more likely to disengage from mainstream mental health services, leading to social exclusion and a deterioration in their mental health.  With this in mind we need to find therapies that are effective for our community and writing therapy may be a good option that allows us to deal with our emotions before they deteriorate.

An article, Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing  written by Karen Baikie and Kay Wilhelm states that:

“Writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health.  In the expressive writing paradigm, participants are asked to write about such events for 15–20 minutes on 3–5 occasions. Those who do so generally have significantly better physical and psychological outcomes compared with those who write about neutral topics.”

The authors describe some of the theories as to why writing as therapy is effective: it is a  process of emotional catharsis or venting of negative emotions; it allows people to acknowledge emotions that they are actively suppressing. Suppressing emotions requires effort and acknowledging these emotions reduces the physiological work of suppressing emotions and gradually lowers the overall stress of the body; writing allows a coherent narrative of an event to be developed. This means that over time people can logically process an event by organising and structuring the memory, how they feel about it and learn how to manage their feelings; and repeated exposure to the negative emotional experience, through writing, may slowly cause those negative emotions to diminish.

Writing can be a powerful form of therapy and is worth exploring if you need an outlet for the emotions that you may be experiencing either from the day-to-day challenges of life or more serious traumatic experiences.  Try it and please do let us know what you think.

And, to find out more about KLove’s books you can visit Amazon

 

We’ve just finished reading ‘Eyo’ by Abidemi Sanusi, a Nigerian author we had the pleasure of meeting at the African Literary Evening.

Eyo is an excellent, but heart-breaking book that highlights, very vividly, the issue of child trafficking and sex slavery.

The book tells the story of 10-year old Eyo who is born into abject poverty in Nigeria where she lives with her parents and two siblings in the slums on the swampy marshes of the Lagos Lagoon.

Eyo is trafficked to the UK with her uncle to escape life in the slums with promises of receiving an education and bettering her life. Unfortunately, this is not to be as she finds herself trapped with a cruel family as a domestic servant and then sold into sexual slavery.

Because of the subject matter, this book is hard to read but at the same time you just can’t put it down. The story unfolds in a very interesting and captivating way and gives a disturbing insight into this horrible industry.

What struck me about this book was that it really demonstrates the consequence of not addressing the inequalities that exist in the world. At the root of this issue of child trafficking and sex slavery seems to be poverty.

Poverty means that families desperate to break free of the poverty cycle become vulnerable and easily tricked and exploited by those in the industry and become trapped in a world that can be impossible to escape from.

Another thing that struck me from the book was inaction. There were several points in the book where people noticed that something wasn’t quite right with Eyo and could have intervened and saved her but fear of offending or jeopardising their own peaceful life crippled them, leaving poor Eyo to endure the horrors for much longer than she should have done.

Another painful issue in the book was that some of the abuse Eyo suffered was at the hands of family members as well as women who themselves have children.

Even though this book was fiction it tells of the reality that many young people face and something desperately needs to be done about it. At the end of the book we are encouraged to take action and support organisations like Stop the Traffik and Africans Unite Against Child Abuse. Please do visit the websites of these organisations to find out more about what can be done to help.

This was an excellent book that raises awareness of an important issue and was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

“….outstanding commentary on the conditions that make life in home countries unbearable, the casual cruelties meted out on strangers as they travel, and the indifference that sustains it all’ – Judging panel on Eyo, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2010

This book is definitely worth reading and can be purchased on Amazon

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Last week, I had an interesting conversation with my fellow commuter, who looked terribly drained and in need of a break.

I thought her look of exhaustion was simply due to the oh-so- lovely London commute which drains everyone – packed trains, no seats, standing up for an hour, delays…it would drain even the sturdiest of people.

As our conversation developed it turned out that my fellow commuter had not had a proper break from work for three years. I was shocked. No wonder why she looked so exhausted! My jaw dropped in disbelief as I tried to diplomatically work out if she was exaggerating or not.

As her story unfolded I could see how she found herself in this predicament. Over the past three years she’d taken a long weekend here and the odd day off there, but had not taken a proper holiday. The days she did take off from work were spent not relaxing and enjoying the fruits of her labour but taking care of what she described as “life admin” – taking the kids to various activities, looking after an unwell member of the family, buying a house etc. etc.

Sadly, the demands of being a professional woman, mother and wife means there was no time for her to sit back, relax and take a break. I was truly amazed at her resilience; this is what we call the modern day superwoman -the woman many of us aspire to be because she has everything. But, when I looked at her there was a hint of sadness in every word and a lot of frustration.

As we parted company I was troubled. Is this what life has become for many of us? Yes, it has. Research has shown that my fellow commuter is not alone. A survey conducted by the Travel Supermarket in 2012 found that 25% of people in the UK do not take their full annual leave entitlement. Furthermore, the UK has the third highest working time in the EU with 11% of employees working more than 48 hours a week.

In this 24 hour, fast paced world that we now live in we are constantly on the go and never switch off. We move from meeting to meeting, stressful situation to stressful situation, project to project and work admin to life admin without pausing to take a break to recharge our battery and this constant state of agitation is not good for our physical and mental health.

In a study conducted by the European Working Conditions Observatory, sixty-nine percent of employees who work more than 48 hours a week stated that they felt tense and 55% said they felt worried or stressed by work. If we combine this with the pressures that may exist at home there will be a significant number of people who are under an enormous and constant amount of pressure with no outlet to relieve it.

We need to remember that stress is not just a feeling but a biological response that is supposed to help us cope with immediate danger. This response includes the release of hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) and an increase in blood pressure and pulse rate. When people are constantly under pressure these stress-induced biological changes can have a negative affect on their health and may increase their risk of, or worsen, a number of health conditions such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, depression and asthma.

It is important that we minimise the amount of pressure we are under to make sure we aren’t forever running on adrenaline and jeopardising our health. We need to make a concerted effort to have some “me” time. If it’s not practical to have a one or two week break from work then there are a number of techniques that can be utilised to combat the stress that comes with a busy life style; running, walking, other forms of exercise, yoga and Thai Chi are great ways to deal with stress.

Ultimately, it all boils down to balance. Employers and employees need to work together to get the work/life balance right and when we are at home we have to get the life-admin/relaxation balance right too.

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If you’d like more information on managing stress please visit the Stress Management Association’s website.

And, let us know what you think. Are you running on adrenaline? When was the last time you had a proper break? Talk to us in the comments section below.