Opening Up vs. Inhibitions.
The desire to talk about upsetting experiences is a natural human response. Actively inhibiting thoughts, feelings or behaviors requires mental and physical effort. Continually suppressing what we think and feel can accumulate as stress in the body and may contribute to a variety of other health issues.
By contrast, opening up and expressing painful experiences in words reduces inhibition and enables us to make sense and understand them. Sharing distress can bring comfort, validation, reassurance, and support from others.
Analogy: Bottled-up emotions are like pus in a sore: what is trapped beneath the surface doesn’t disappear simply because it isn’t exposed. It needs to be brought out, examined, and dealt with before healing can begin.
Expressive Writing is the process of using written words to explore thoughts, emotions, reactions, perceptions and meaning associated with difficult or traumatic experiences.
Expressive writing takes many forms, including memoirs, journaling, poetry, letters, etc.
If opening up to another person feels impossible, writing can be a safe place to tell your story—even if no one else ever sees it. Articulating our memories—both verbally and in writing has had therapeutic benefits for many.
Holding In vs. Opening Up. Most therapists agree that opening up about an upsetting experience is psychologically beneficial. Research experiments have shown that expressing rather than suppressing thoughts and emotions may have both physical and psychological health benefits.
Dr. James Pennebaker, PhD., a professor at the University of Texas in Austin, was a pioneer of research on expressive writing. In 1986, he conducted the earliest known study of the healing effects of language. By measuring physical responses and tracking health records, his scientific investigation of self-disclosure demonstrated that physical and psychological health were connected to emotional disclosure.
In a psychology class experiment, about 200 college students were asked to write for 15 minutes on four consecutive days in a quiet setting. Students were divided into groups who wrote about:
1. Current life events
2. Details of a traumatic experience
3. Details of a traumatic experience, along with their deepest thoughts, feelings, and its impact on their lives
The third group showed the greatest benefit, including a substantial reduction (50%) in subsequent visits to doctors and the student health center. This same conclusion was developed in further experiments using blood drawn from the volunteers as related to their immune functions in laboratory settings. Follow-up research over the years has continued to find that expressive writing can improve aspects of psychological and physical well-being.
Dr. Pennebaker’s expressive-writing protocol—writing about one’s deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding a difficult experience for a limited period over several days— has become widely used in therapeutic writing.
Read more about the health experiments and benefits in Dr. Pennebaker’s book: Opening Up by Writing It Down: How expressive writing improves health and eases emotional pain.
Why Does Writing Help? Human beings have a basic need both for completion and for understanding. Unresolved experiences and unanswered questions can create anxiety, tension, stress and other physical disorders.
Analogy: The release of pent up feelings discharges tension similar to removing a lid from a pot of boiling water slows down the boiling.
When confusing, scattered, painful thoughts, memories and emotions are organized and expressed in words, it helps to make sense of what happened; to recognize cause and effect, and often to reinterpret the experience from a different angle. It can change how we think and feel about both the event and ourselves; help us move toward resolution, put it behind us, and has health benefits.
An analogy: Writing a memoir may be compared to reading a favorite childhood book many years later…the mature reader may see things from an entirely different perspective.
Naming the Emotion: A key,powerful aspect of expressive writing is NAMING what we feel.
Writing forces vague emotional experiences into specific language that we can examine and understand logically.
It’s VERY important to name it—rather than simply describe the feeling. The healing medicine is the name. Instead of “I am feeling bad,” name the precise feeling.
What exactly am I feeling?
Examples: I felt Anger. Disappointed. Guilt. Grief. Betrayed. Fear. Shame.
Reflection and emotion (feelings) are associated with different brain regions. Naming a feeling switches the brain from emotions (amygdala) to reflection (prefrontal cortex), which in turn reduces the intensity of the feeling. Naming moves your emotional reaction to reflection. Precise language provides something that can be examined and understood logically. Name it to tame it.
For more information, consult the numerous podcasts and books about your named feelings. See list below.
Summary. Over several decades, research on translating thoughts and emotions into language has shown improvements in emotional well-being and physical health. Bottled-up suppressed emotions can contribute to stress and distress. Expressed emotions can create perspective, relief and release.
Opening up about a difficult or upsetting event/trauma—whether speaking or writing a memoir—can transform an overwhelming collection of thoughts, memories, and emotions
into something we can examine and understand. It brings closure.
The two survivors of Child Sexual Abuse said that writing their memoir was one of the hardest—but also the most helpful—things they had done for themselves. Words can pave a path out of trauma.
Consider writing your memoir, an account of your life, or a particular traumatic event in your life, regardless of whether you keep it private or share with a therapist, in a group or in writing. It’s not about grammar, structure or producing polished paragraphs. It’s about the process of self-discovery and healing through words. Doing so may result in peace and health benefits.
There are several websites where many former 2x2s have shared their life stories publicly. You might consider placing your memoir on one of these sites. Therapeutic writing (telling one’s story, especially a traumatic one) is beneficial.
For many survivors, breaking the silence and telling someone or writing about a traumatic experience they have kept hidden can be a giant step toward healing, physically and psychologically.
Cherie Kropp
October 4, 2026
Memoirs are posted online at:
2×2 Book Shoppe:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/816209968013651
Expressions: (contact admin@ex2x2.info)
Why We Left: https://ex2x2.info/why-we-left/
Sexual Abuse: https://ex2x2.info/csa/
Bridging the Gap: (contact@bridgingthegaponcsa.com)
https://bridgingthegaponcsa.com/awareness/personal-accounts/
Connected & Concerned Friends (CCF): Making Sense of Things by Reagan Deming
Expressive/Therapeutic Writing/Memoirs:
Opening Up by Writing It Down: How expressive writing improves health and eases emotional pain by James W. Pennebaker
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk
Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Catherine M. Pittman
The Next Conversation by Jefferson Fisher
See also: Jefferson Fisher’s Facebook page and email newsletter