Blogging may be a mild form of self-therapy in which we make ourselves happier or at least blow off steam in a way that improves our mental heath. That was my takeaway from a summary, written by the Poynter Institute’s Barb Iverson, of an article in Scientific American (behind a registration wall). In her summary piece Iverson lifts the following from the SciAm article by Jennifer Wapner:

Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery.

I certainly feel better after I blog. For me it is a form of mental exercise, like situps or pushups.

But if blogging is how I exhale my mental CO2, so to speak, how does this affect the other party to this action, the blog reader? Do they carry the weight that the blog writer has unloaded? Is the reader the co-dependent of the self-delusional writer?

Whatever psychological mischief is afoot passiveness is the wrong response to this or any blog.  Make a comment. It lets out a little of that bad mojo you may have acquired. Otherwise negative vibes may fill your head until one wrong thought causes the spark that blows your mind!

 

 

Poynter commentator Barb Iverson has excerpted an