Ways to Manage Your Mental Health as a Writer

Like any kind of health, mental health is vital. But while someone can look 100% physically healthy, the mind inside can be crumbling from anxiety, depression, chemical imbalance, mood disorder, trauma…or any combination of these, of course.

While there are many ways we can address the mental health issues we and our loved ones face, I want to focus here on some specific ways writers can do this.

For starters, everything I discuss here is actually not unique to writers. Pretty much anyone could do this! I just think writers are uniquely equipped to follow these practices and reap the benefits. Second, this is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list. Yes, you should go to therapy or try medication or spend time playing with your dog. Not every strategy will work for every person.

But I’m a big believer in being strengths-focused in any approach you try. So here are some mental health practices I’ve picked up over the past few years which I believe are especially helpful if you’re a writer.

WRITE DOWN THE POSITIVES FROM TODAY

It’s an unfortunate reality the anxiety-ridden brain will tend to drift to the negative and then plop down in it for a nice, long mud bath of despair and misery. While we can’t totally ignore the negative and should take action to learn from and correct our mistakes, a great way to start is by ending the day listing out anything good which happened during the day.

And I mean ANYTHING.

Laughed at a joke on a TV show? Write it down.

Saw a cute dog sticking its head out the window while stuck in traffic? Write it down.

Ate your favorite comfort food? Write it down.

Got a project turned in? Write it down.

Whether your list ends up being one positive or one thousand, the point of this is to tell your brain, “Hey brain, something good happened to me today. And here it is.” This little dopamine hit of positivity trains the brain to start looking for more positives the next day and thus, your list goes. The negatives don’t totally disappear, but they are no longer take up as much space in your mind because you’ve filled your mind with positives.

WRITE A NEW NARRATIVE

This one is a bit more esoteric but can be really fun if you allow it. All of us can only see life as we experience it. We can’t magically look through someone else’s point of view. But if you’re a fiction writer, you have taught yourself how to do this! You’ve taught yourself to see the world through your character’s eyes.

Now you just need to do this with yourself.

For example, I used to take it very personally when someone would cut me off in traffic. I’d feel a mix of emotions—anger they did it, fear they would do it again and cause an accident, even guilty thoughts of, “Was I not driving right? Did I do something wrong to make them want to get in front of me as fast as possible?”

I had to shift to write a narrative which didn’t involve me. I started saying, “I wish they hadn’t cut me off, but maybe they are a single dad running late to pick up their kid from soccer practice because their boss made them stay late.”

When dealing with anxiety and depression, it’s easy to assume the worst in others or to assume everyone is judging you or trying to harm you. Often, these are false narratives. Leverage your creative writing skills to write a new narrative. Whether its true or not isn’t important. It frees you from your limited perspective and allows you to release the guilt, stress, and worry you feel over a situation. Who knows…it might even give you a new story idea.

WRITE DOWN WHO YOU CAN HELP

In my own struggles with anxiety, I often find part of the problem is I think way too much about myself instead of others. While self-care is important, so is others-care. Taking care of other people frees you from thinking about yourself all the time, but it also provides you with some ammunition next time you feel worthless.

What I mean is you can say, “But I’m not worthless. Remember the time I helped John move? Or the time I brought my coworker a coffee when she was having a hard day? I provide value to others.”

Don’t get me wrong—random acts of kindness are great. But when you’re struggling with anxiety, random acts of kindness are the last thing on your mind. Instead, embrace planned acts of kindness.

Write out a list of people you care about or who are around you and then write something kind you can do for them over the next week.

• If it’s your significant other, maybe you take care of one of their chores or let them pick the movie you go see.

• If it’s a coworker, maybe you invite them to go to lunch or ask them how you can help with a project.

• If it’s a neighbor, maybe you ask if there’s something you can grab them from the store next time you’re running an errand.

Start noticing those around you and how you can help them. It’s incredible how this can change the way you think about yourself while also making someone else’s day better. Again, anyone can do this, but the creativity involved is especially suited for writers.

WRITE IT AND RELEASE IT

It’s easy to hold onto negative feelings for longer than we should. A few years ago, my wife taught me this method of emotional processing where you write out your worries. While I won’t go into the entire process, the part of it which helped me the most was the end—where I would rip out the page and physically discard it.

As silly as it sounds, the action of physically releasing my worries on a piece of paper helped me also mentally release them. Had any problems been solved yet? No. But it gave me a way to exert power over my worries by writing them and releasing them.

I know the skeptics will scoff and say it didn’t accomplish anything, but I’m here to say, “I said the same thing when my wife suggested it, but then it worked for me!”

There is something cathartic in the practice. By writing out the worries, they seemed less scary. Some of them I even laughed at because I could see how ridiculous they actually were. It gave my brain the chance to shift from fear to logic. Ripping them up and throwing them way brought me an “Eff you” kind of satisfaction, allowing me to move on and not descend into a full-on panic attack.

Again, there are lots of ways to manage anxiety. For self-care, I also like to go for a run when I’m feeling overwhelmed or go see a movie by myself. These are not the only ways to manage your mental health, but they are particularly satisfying as a writer.

If you found this helpful at all, consider giving The 30-Day Anxiety Journal a try. It’s written to help guide you from negative thinking to positive thinking over the course of a month, using some of the same concepts above—and more.