As we’ve mentioned before writing is wonderful therapy, and for those suffering, it’s a great way to cope with internal strife. However, we don’t know how effective it is when one is embellishing the truth. Today’s post comes to us from Christina in which she discusses the horror of young relationships, and how writing as therapy may have been more helpful had she been completely honest with herself.

Writing Therapy: Dear Diary, Lies Lies Lies

Some folks lie to their therapists. I used to lie to my diaries.

I know. Who lies to their diary? It all started when I’d write about some boy I didn’t love. Even though all my relationships, save for the one with my husband, turned sour, I never admitted it to my journal. My thinking was, what if we work things out and I end up marrying this dude? My children can’t read that I once hated their father and cringed at the way he chewed, right?  So I’d spout off all about what a great time we had at the movies, and leave out the bits about how we never laughed at the same parts because we had totally different senses of humor, and come to think of it, this guy has no sense of humor, like, at all, and I’m only with him because he’s more popular than me and it may boost my popularity rankings.

Instead I wrote, “Went to see I Know What You Did Last Summer with J. SO scary! Oh my gosh I love my life. I am so happy.”

I’m like that James Frey guy who wrote A Million Little Pieces and duped poor Oprah. Except I’m just duping my future children, or whoever finds my old journals in a garbage dump.

I spoke earlier this week about writing as therapy and talked about how great writing has been for dealing with my loony family. You might be wondering where I get off talking about writing therapy if I’m actually a writing therapy liar. Rest assured, I only fibbed when it came to the boyfriends. Plus, all those lies make me a better writer, right? So if you’re like me and lie to your hypothetical future children about how much you adore the way their possible father chews tobacco and doesn’t open doors for you, turn those lies into a great work of fiction, that Kbuuk will be happy to publish for you.