Healing through Writing

I read an interesting study today that got at one reason why people may blog. Cited in a fabulous nonfiction book called Anticancer: a new way of life by David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, a study by Dr. Keith Petrie and colleagues from the University of Auckland in New Zealand showed that that "the simple fact of writing down the most difficult events of one's life over four consecutive days increases the capacity of the immune system to make antibodies in reaction to a hepatitis vaccine" (Servan-Schreiber 159).

Of course, the wasn't about hepatitis and neither is this entry- but it is about the idea that writing about one's stresses or life events can increase the efficiency of the immune system. Getting stresses out can help. I hadn't written in a diary for decades before I began this blog, and I had never blogged. But this new journey into the world of publishing was stressful for me, and I began to think that blogging might help relieve some of that stress. I am sure this is one reason and benefit for a number of bloggers out there- particularly JA Konrath's Venting blog! :) (see this link in My Blogs List)