Songwriting as Therapy

[Shadowlight]

I process a great deal of my realities and imaginings in song and comedy. Are there others here who do the same?

I'm in the process of recording some of them to share in future. Of course this would blow any anonymity/privacy I might think I have...lol

[I like vanilla]

Songwriting and comedy seem like excellent ways of processing 'realities and imaginings'.

My talents lie in a different direction so I tend to write poems and make collages, with occasional drawings/sketches/paintings to help me to process what is going on in my life. So far, I have not shared these with anyone except my therapist. To me, it's very personal and would be too much like sharing my journal (admittedly I journal less than I do the other activities). I have one friend that I might show some of my poetry but have not yet worked up the courage. I do firmly believe that choosing what and if to share and choosing the people to share with is an extrenely personal decision that each of us must, and gets to, make for ourselves.

[abcdefghijohnnyz]

Hi fellow song-writer!

Yes, I find writing and making music to be one of the best ways to process trauma.

[Eyessoblue]

Yes have been writing poetry since I could hold a pencil! My psychiatrist said poetry and writing is very common for people who are suffering with trauma it's a way of releasing expression and feelings, I find writing much easier then speaking about how I feel, I regularly used to write and do simple pictures when I was last in therapy.

[woodsgnome]

These journeys can not only find relief in creativity, but are living testaments to parts of us that were never entirely snuffed out by whatever abuses we endured over time.

In my own life, I fell into a path involving lots of improv (unscripted) theatrical scenarios, one of which was my forte with frequent spontaneous comedic edges built in. Funny, we were discussing this in therapy just yesterday--how I knew (but audiences didn't) the enormous pain that lay behind my creations. But even if that pain remained my inner secret, it was such a joy to have audiences respond with enthusiasm to how I wove stories together for them; it acted as a balm for my inside hurts to touch people that way (on the other hand people-fears still dominate my other social interactions; offstage I was an affable but remote hermit sort, a very scared one at that  ).

I felt the same in a more limited way as a musician (performer, not song-writer); nonetheless those three elements--acting, comedy, and music--in many ways saved me from completely unraveling, many times over.

[OwnSide]

I started writing songs a few months ago and it helps me process feelings in ways I could not otherwise. Where spoken (or written) word obliges me to consider: is this accurate, am I exaggerating, am I missing something, does this make sense, have I articulated this well enough? -- music demands no such things. I can work in metaphor, hyperbole, zoom in on a single moment like it's all that exists. Sometimes the lines write themselves and I shudder reading them back because it's like awakening something. It's both liberating and validating.

I hope to reach a point of being able to share some of them. I've enjoyed reading others' creative expressions on the forum and like the idea of helping somebody else with mine.