How Writing Saved My Life!

I loved reading as a kid, even before I could read.

My mum used to read to me every night, ranging from Roald Dahl to Fairy novels.

It was one night that my mum was reading to me when I randomly said I want to write stories.

She looked at me and asked me 'you mean you want to be an author?'.

At that age I didn't know what Author meant, and I asked her if that was someone who wrote stories.

She then explained to me that its the professional title of a story writer.

That was when I smiled and said yeah, I want to be that.

Ever since I have dreamed of writing stories.

And when I finally learnt how to write it was the first thing I started doing that I was serious about.

I even remember when my parents bought me my first computer, the old monitor type, the big chunky thing that took up my whole desk and I had to plug in the mouse and keyboard.

I have been writing stories ever since.

I still am, I have written multiple stories, such as Haunted in the Night, which is a mystery/horror and I am currently working on a new one called Mystery of Moon Lake.

It took me a while to find my genre, it wasn't until I wrote Haunted in the Night that I found what genre I loved the most.

A fair few years back I wrote and published a novel called Suicidal Angels but that was more goth/horror.

I have since found I prefer to write mystery/horror.

Now when I went to school I was bullied and beaten up something terrible.

Literally pushed to the ground and kicked in the stomach every single day.

My mother tried to get me out of it by home schooling me but sadly the damage had been done.

And then when I hit high school I got sent back.

Now that wasn't physical abuse at first, but it was the worst.

Because I begun considering suicide.

I don't normally like to talk about it, but its relevant to what I'm writing about in this post.

When the abuse did turn physical thankfully my mother once again pulled me out of school.

However by now I was suffering seriously from depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Writing saved me from those thoughts of suicide.

Whenever my depression or anxiety would flare up I would write.

I was writing every day, for hours, and mostly all night.

It became my coping mechanism.

It was what got me through what I had been through, my way of venting all my feelings and thoughts, my way of making sense of everything.

And now that I am older I have thankfully been learning more about my mental disorders.

I have actually recently been diagnosed with Autism as well, since then I have actually started an online diploma in Counselling and Psychology.

I have been learning a lot of coping mechanisms and counselling tricks that have been helping me with my mental health.

And now because of it I'm writing more because I love it, not because I need it to cope.

Of course it still helps me to cope but its more for the love of writing now.

Especially because I know what genre I love and enjoy to write the most.

Its less angry, depressive and more creative and story inclined.

My point here is writing does actually help with mental health.

If it wasn't for writing I probably wouldn't be where I am today.

And I'm sure its the same for a lot of other writers.

In my opinion Writing is the best thing the human species ever created.

I still love reading today as well, but its changed from fairies to vampires, novels like The Morganville Vampire Series, and Vampire Academy.

But my personal favourite is Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and The Brothers Grimm.

It was the best day of my life when I bought those books.

When I did my Certificate in Creative Writing I actually used a quote from Berenice from Edgar Allan Poe in one of my assignments.

I also recently bought the complete stories of Hercule Poirot, I loved the mystery movie Murder on the Orient Express so I thought I would buy the book.

I love getting immersed into novels like this, I just lose myself to the worlds created by other writers.

And writing stories that other people can lose themselves into and go into a whole other world is just amazing.

I actually had a woman that read my novel Haunted in the Night tell me that it gave her the heebie jeebies and she actually had to get her husband to walk with her to the toilet because she was so creeped out to go by herself, she thought the monster was going to come for her.

She soon stopped reading it at night and only during the day.

If that isn't the best book review ever I don't know what it.

When your mystery/horror novel is so spooky that it can't be read at night.

So even to this day I thank writing for everything it has given me.

Writing saved my life.