The Write Situation: How Writing Letters Helped Me Heal

Key points

Writing a letter that cannot or will not be sent can still heal.

Sometimes when you are writing a letter to others, it really is a letter to yourself.

Writing a letter to someone might not help you understand them, but it will help you understand you.

I can write my heart out when words won't do it. Source: Caroline Leavitt

It started young for me. I didn’t really have anyone to talk with. My father was a sulky, silent brute and I couldn’t risk getting yelled at or hit by speaking up. My mother preferred not to hear about turmoil and always told me to think happy thoughts, even as my older sister urged me to image the worst so that whatever did happen to me wouldn’t be as bad as I imagined.

So of course, in my teens, I turned to my friends, and when it got too sad or too