I used to say “I can only write when I’m depressed”…but then I realized that writing can go into a very pure and true part of communication, uncovering deep feelings…the kind we don’t air in public. Also — writing with an audience in mind (like blog-writing) is a sort of entertainment. And “entertaining” or “engaging” writing involves some sort of conflict (Really, could you bear to watch a screenplay that involves two happy people with NO problems? Or a novel where everyone is just happy and eats 3 square meals a day and “nothing” happens?).

So perhaps it’s just the nature of blogging that unearths the writing of dramas, sadness, conflicts, etc…all the “uncomfortable” stuff that we don’t mention in our verbal pitter patter out there.

According to Dr David Sheffield at Staffordshire University, Rangers fans are more likely to suffer symptoms of stress, including headaches, anxiety, sleeplessness and feeling generally under the weather, than Celtic fans. Sunday Herald

There might be a lot more behind this research, but I haven’t found anything online except press reports. Which is interesting: counting and comparing distress among two groups both of which are common in society is easy enough, and obviously has huge press appeal. That paragraph about the diarists has rld. Although the interpretations of the data are rather weak, based on the press reports:

But [the researcher] acknowledges that her experiment could not demonstrate which came first – the diary writing or the health problems.

Dr Duncan also points out that this study contradicts all previous studies. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong, it just means a lot of other research shows the opposite.

Is there a more approrpriate term to use than “personal”, for blogs that draw a lot of material from one’s personal life?

Also, I tried to be careful to suggest that even if one is a diarist, that doesn’t mean he or she is troubled. (Well, at least not initially, if that research is to be believed.)

Look on the bright side Elin, maybe the link to your blog from this post could gain you additional readers… any press is good press, right? ;-)

Perhaps this discussion is pointing to another way that personal blogs — even those that are very personal and revealing — are signficantly different than diaries: because they’re public, writers can stylize and fictionalize them, which who knows, may offer some interesting therapeutic effects, and further avoid the alleged deleterious ones?

I hope you don’t mind, but since my blog is mentioned here, I must immediately point out that my blog doesn’t really open up my private personal life: I don’t exactly spell out my secrets, no matter how tempting it can be at times. (Ask Jill if you must, I spell them out to her sometimes:-)

I write about humorous events or interesting observations, not so much about my innermost feelings, although my posts come alive because I care about the subject in one way or the other. Under no circumstance do I consider myself a “diarist” – there is nothing diary like about my blog: It is a place for a collection of fragmented, flavorful stories, based on my experiences. Mr. Teen is based on a real character and so is the rat chaser with a tail and four orange quick feet, but the stories are somewhat fictionalized and when they are not, it is only due to the fact that truth is stranger than fiction: I therefore do not have to alter them to keep a reader’s attention. BloggerdyDoc is NOT a day-to-day publication. I mean, look at the time gaps between my socalled “productivity”! Gasp. I suck as a diarist. It’s quite horrific. (Hope that is ok, by the way.) Blogging to me is time consuming because unlike a diarist, I actually rework and rewrite my post (prior to posting, of course).

I agree that blogging for some might have a therapeutic effect. But in my own case, not so many non-spammers comment on my blog at all. Now I worry that the world must think I am slightly troubled after being named in this post (shame on you Andrew:-) – and because I have so few steady commenters on my blog, surely I am missing out on the therapeutic effect.

I quite prefer that my claim to fame will involve something more tasty – like being a creative, interesting writer, not the keeper of a deleterious blog. Outch!

I remember reading somewhere that statistically speaking, talk therapy itself is also considered to be a wash, but I can’t remember who said it or if it was a reliable / believable source.

Soon students will start suing us for making them write… “But they KNEW it was bad for us and didn’t tell us!”