Handwritten Hope: Finding Strength by Supporting Others (Vamika)
Our world seems to be dominated by social media and instant messages, which makes the simple act of writing a letter appear old-fashioned. However, it holds a timeless magic, especially when the letter is written to support an individual struggling with their mental health. Putting pen to paper offers comfort that is not only therapeutic to the recipient but can also help the writer. Here’s how writing letters to people with depression can have a positive effect on your own mental health.
Getting Started
A few years ago, I was struggling with my own mental health, and I never had an outlet where I could express my feelings. This forced me to keep my emotions bottled up, which further harmed my mental health. During this time, I came across Letters Against Depression (LAD) online when I was simply searching for remote volunteering opportunities. The organization piqued my interest, and I decided to join.
After I joined, I was able to read the stories of other individuals struggling with mental health issues, and I had the ability to write them a letter. I found someone who was close to my own age and who I shared some experiences with and decided to write them a letter. At first, I didn’t exactly know how to respond to them, but after rereading their story and simply thinking about it, the words started to flow out.
Building Empathy
When you have struggled with depression or other mental illnesses, it makes it easier to connect to the individual who you are writing to. Those shared experiences allow you to truly empathize with them and write a letter that they genuinely need.
As someone struggling with mental health, you know what other people want to hear and what they don’t want to hear. There were many times where people would say something insensitive, which they thought would help me, but instead made me feel worse. Since I knew what I would have wanted to hear, I used those words in my letters to further help the individuals I was writing to. This allowed me to build stronger connections and have a sincere impact on my letter recipients.
The Therapeutic Power
Being able to express my thoughts and feelings on paper as advice to another individual was a therapeutic outlet for me. I was able to gain clarity and relief about my own mental health through what I was writing for others. I would often reread the letters I would write and find a sense of comfort in my own writing. It made me realize that internally, I did know how to deal with my thoughts and feelings, since I was able to readily give advice to others.
There is also solid evidence supporting the benefits of compassionate letter writing. A recent study by Matos et al. (2022) provided results stating that the individuals who wrote letters experienced significant reductions in shame and self-criticism, along with decreases in general anxiety. Additionally, these improvements were not only noticeable immediately after the intervention but were sustained during a follow-up period, highlighting the lasting therapeutic power of letter writing.
Writing letters to others also leads to an increased self-awareness and a deeper understanding of your own mental health. When you are struggling with mental illness, it’s easy to get tangled up in your emotions and ideas; however, letter writing provides you with a healthy outlet where expressing your feelings and giving advice helps you relieve your own stress.
Making Letter Writing a Habit
Consistency is important to achieve the full benefits of letter writing. Establishing a routine with letter writing allows you to not miss out on its positive therapeutic impact and integrate it into your daily lifestyle. It is extremely important to take some time out of your schedule to set it aside for mental health, and writing letters to others is a perfect way to spend this time. This way you are making someone else’s day as well as improving your own mental health.
Incorporating letter writing into a busy schedule may seem challenging, but it is entirely achievable. When I was writing my letters, I was a student, so I would write letters on the weekends or nights when I had some free time. All you have to do is find a small slot of time, like before you go to bed or early in the morning before the hustle and bustle of the day begins.
Once you start writing the letter, the words tend to spill out, and you almost always end up writing faster and more than you expected. This is why letter writing actually won’t eat up too much of your time. Using this small slot of time to write a letter will improve your mental health, and you will be left feeling very positive knowing that you were able to help another individual.
Signing Off
In conclusion, despite the prevalence of instant communication, the art of letter writing remains a timeless form of helping individuals struggling with mental illness. The act of putting pen to paper not only provides comfort to others but offers therapeutic value to the writer themselves. Letter writing clearly cultivates positive impacts on the writers’ well-being.
Whether you are struggling with your own mental health or simply interested, I hope this post has inspired you to consider letter writing as an expressive outlet and source of comfort. Embrace the therapeutic effects of handwritten correspondence on recipients as well as yourself and foster connections in our increasingly digital world.
If you are looking to write letters of hope and support to those who need someone there for them, reach out to us here at Letters Against Depression if you haven’t already. If you are feeling down and need support, you can request to receive letters here.