thenonbinaryspacegem:

I was thinking about the arguments for and against writing ~problematic~ content for coping and all I can think about was

about 2 months ago I bought a horror anthology. One of the stories was filled with the most horrifying disgusting triggering content imaginable. Literally every possible disgusting thing occurred in the story. It was nonstop nightmare fuel, it genuinely made me want to vomit it just felt so disgusting to read. And i didnt know what to think as i kept reading this horrifying gross content. Why would someone write this? 

And then I got to the authors note at the end. The author was a marginalized woman. She had been traumatized in her past. And when she wrote the story she outright said she had been filled with such ANGER that day. So much rage she couldn’t hold in, and she let it out into the story. By filling the black pages with all her rage and anger and trauma. And when she was done? Her rage was gone. She felt better. She had released all her rage in the form of words, and then placed it into the world for others to see. 

And then i think, how is that wrong? How is it wrong for her to have released her anger this way? when so many people release it on themselves, on others, or just hold it in. How is it wrong for her to have written it out. Some might argue ‘well she shouldn’t have let it be published then! just kept it to herself!’ but… someone might need the story. The story was horrifying, grotesque, but for someone who has been through a similar situation the writer did, they might have read it and gone ‘oh, i recognize this anger’. They might have used reading this story as a way to release their anger and pain the way the writer used writing it to. 

Writing can be cathartic. Reading can be cathartic. I didn’t understand and couldn’t connect to her rage and pain. That story did not help me personally feel cathartic, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless. Because it helped her. and because it can help someone else. I can’t see why some people might write certain content, but someone else who has been in similar situations can. 

And so whenever i see the ‘writing problematic content to cope is wrong!’ ‘it cant actually help you!’ arguments all i can think is ‘maybe for you it doesn’t help. but for someone else, it helps greatly to read and write that content, to release their pain or to work through it in that medium. It may not be for you, but it is for them.’