Guest Author - Angela England

Writing Through the Darkness: Easing Your Depression With Paper and Pen was published in June 2008 by Celestial Arts Press. ISBN: 1-587610319-0

After struggling through her own bipolar depression, Elizabeth Maynard Schaefer used journaling to help discover a way to cope. Her book, 'Writing Through the Darkness', is the fruition of both her personal journey, and her years of helping others in journaling support groups. With brilliant honesty, and personal examples from many of her students, Schaefer takes the reader through a journey of self-discovery and empowerment.

The first part of the book, The Writing-Depression Connection, explores some of the research and correlation between writing and depression. She cites, among many others, a study by UCLA that shows expressing feelings in words, helps decrease the severity of emotional depression symptoms. Something many journal keepers have known intuitively for years.

Schaefer gives only three "rules" for writing; those being to write continuously, to write for yourself, and only write about what you're ready to deal with. She goes on to define and describe many of the specific aspects of depression, both situational depression and mood disorders like bipolar or major depression.

Part two of 'Writing Through the Darkness' is where Elizabeth Schaefer takes us into the nitty gritty of journaling and writing. I found this section of the book very interesting as a journal keeper, even though I've never personally struggled with depression. Titled How to Write Through the Darkness, this section gives details about specific writing techniques.

The first technique discussed is freewriting, the practice of allowing the hand to move freely across the paper and simply write whatever comes to mind, with no self-editing or pre-planning. Next, Schaefer discusses poetry and shares both sample poems, and exercises to help get you started. The other techniques discussed in the book are memoir writing, story telling, and ways to share your writing.

Part three of 'Writing Through the Darkness' gives many tips and guidelines for readers who want to start writing groups of their own. Schaefer touches on some of the considerations you'll need to take when working with those suffering from depression, and ideas for group organization.

Even though I've never suffered from major depression, I found the quotes personal writing examples, and journaling exercises to be very powerful. 'Writing Through the Darkness' can help any journal keeper take their personal writing beyond just a simple list of daily activities.

"When I've written for awhile I always feel like something inside me has been released....It's amazing how words flow from my subconcious and reveal thoughts and ideas I had no idea existed." ~ Carla