Removing the Gorillas from My Back and Enjoying My Life Again

Creative Writing Mixed with Cognitive Therapy is a Winning Solution to Depression and Living a More Fulfilling Life

Since before Shakespeare was in love, writing has been held to be therapeutic to the soul. — Janis Joplin, Southern Illinois University

Communicating with a gorilla to get it off my back. Photo in Matthew Bamberg

Editorial Note: This story includes life lessons that might be sensitive to some readers.

I’m in a session with my therapist. He asked me what I’d written this week. In the previous session, I had told him about the giant gorilla on my back from the second worst period of my life — high school.

A year later, as I continue to write about my experiences, each of which I’ve worked on processing with a therapist, I’ve found not only one giant gorilla has jumped off but all of his siblings, too. Over twenty of them in all.

Writing is good for you. Very good for you. “The results of meta-analyses showed that narrative writing significantly reduced depression compared to those in neutral writing or treatment as a usual condition in both post-intervention and follow-up” (Porras-Segovia, e…