Table 1.
Writing Supports Mental Health and Reduces Stigma
| Writing benefit | Article types | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Express gratitude | Narrative | When we record patient and personal stories and how they affect us, it helps us to process our work. Many journals publish narratives, and they are a healthy way to deal with the issues that our profession is facing today. They can also be used to express gratitude.3 Gratitude journaling is associated with reductions in depressive symptoms and anxiety scores.4 Narratives can be published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, Family Medicine, Annals of Family Medicine, and many others. |
| Practice reflection | All writing products | We reflect on our work in our free time. Scientific manuscripts all have a place for reflection; in the introduction (where we state how the study/paper/manuscript will help) and in the discussion (where we place the work presented in the context of things that are already published).5 Because reflection can be a free time activity, putting it on paper is the natural next step. Reflection helps faculty become better teachers and doctors and teachers,6 and being good at a profession supports employee wellness.7 |
| Write without a deadline | Perspectives, opinion pieces, special articles, letters to the editors | A key consideration in writing for wellness is to write without a timeline whenever possible. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a project manager and that you don’t have some loosely organized schedule. It means that there isn’t the stress of deadlines, especially those that are rigid and converge with other responsibilities. We have found that our loose timelines promote wellness in that the stress of deadlines is de-emphasized. Many years ago, we saw colleagues react poorly to rejections from journals. One colleague was so embarrassed that they did not further seek publication in another journal. This experience, with others, prompted us to write “Submit it Again! Lessons Learned from Rejected Manuscripts,”8 published 8 years after the original idea. |