Contemporary storytelling: can writing about negative experiences regarding chronic disease be a way of therapy?

• Authors: Małgorzata Osowiecka , Monika Błajet-Grabowska
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Chronic disease is often connected with huge dose of uncertainty. Some sick people suffer from isolation from family and lack of other intimate relationships. Patients struggling with chronic disease seek variety forms of support. One form of coping with a chronic illness is writing about emotions. The main contribution of this article is to present selected forms of coping with chronic disease through expressive writing. Writing a blog is an increasingly popular way of describing patient’s experiences of cancer. It allows patients to express negative emotions such sadness, guilt and loneliness without speaking aloud. We analyzed hundreds of blogs written by women with cancer on most popular websites in Poland in 2016 year. Very important for patients with chronic disease is how they talk about illness and how they treat it. The growing importance of blogging, as well as the increasing availability of various forms of blogging motivate people to try blogging as a way of coping with cancer. It is becoming increasingly a real treatment for cancer patients.

Keywords

EN

Chronic disease; blog; cancer; coping with; expressive writing

• Publisher: Scientific Publishing House „DARWIN”
• Journal: World Scientific News
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 89
• Pages: 120-125

Contributors

author

Małgorzata Osowiecka

• Faculty in Sopot, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warszawa, Poland

author

Monika Błajet-Grabowska

• Faculty in Sopot, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warszawa, Poland

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• Document Type: article