Joanne Smith was taking extra codeine for chronic pain until she tried daily expressive writing for a week instead. Her handwriting was messy, but the journaling made the pain more bearable without eliminating it. She now believes writing could help people manage pain and reduce medication dependence.
And I was like, what have I got to lose? I either go to the cupboard and grab a, grab a couple more codeine tablets to get me through the rest of the day, or why not? What have I got to lose? So I made the decision that I was going to have a go at doing this. And in the beginning, I did it for about a week. I did it every day for a week. I don't have a clue what I wrote down. You couldn't read it because it wasn't legible. But I scribbled all sorts of things, and what I found was miraculous because I found that it did diminish, like, the sensations that I was experiencing felt more bearable. They didn't disappear, but they felt more bearable, and I was like, oh wow, maybe there is something in this. This is pretty special.
